Cretan resistance The Cretan resistance ( Greek : " Κρητική Αντίσταση " ) was a resistance movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Italy by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II . Part of the larger Greek Resistance , it lasted from May 20 , 1941 , when the German " Wehrmacht " invaded the island in the Battle of Crete , until the fall of 1945 when they surrendered to the British . For the first time during World War II , attacking German forces faced in Crete a valiant resistance from the local population . Cretan civilians picked off paratroopers or attacked them with knives , axes , scythes or even bare hands . As a result , great casualties were inflicted upon the invaders , which made Crete the swansong of German paratroopers . Development . The Cretan resistance movement was formed very quickly after the Battle of Crete , with an initial planning meeting on 31 May 1941 . It brought together a number of different groups and leaders and was initially termed the PMK ( Πατριωτικó Μέτωπο Κρήτης – Patriotic Front of Crete ) , but later changed the name to EAM ( Εθνικó Απελευθερωτικó Μέτωπο – National Liberation Front ) like the principal resistance movement on the mainland . The primary objective of the movement on the one hand was to support the Cretan people under occupation by boosting morale , providing information , and distributing of food at a time of great deprivation ( due to confiscations by the Germans and Italians ) , and on the other hand to undertake certain operations against the Germans , including a number of sabotage operations . A notable success was the battle to prevent the destruction of Kastelli airport by the Germans as they were leaving eastern Crete . Three Ierapetra villages – the testimony of Vangelis Grassos . Leading figures in the EAM resistance movement included Yiannis Podias , Miltiades Porfirogenis , Manolis Pitikakis , Nikos Samaritis , Nikos Raiinos , Emmanuel Manousakis , Rousos Koundouros and Mitsos Pappas . Well - known leaders of the EOK movement included Petrakogiorgis and Manolis Bandouvas , who was a prominent figure in EAM from 1941 to 1943 , and joined EOK from 1943 . The Role of the British . Cretans and the Cretan resistance worked closely with the British , firstly when they aided the allied forces firstly in escaping from Crete and secondly when they worked together on acts of sabotage while Crete was a launching pad for German operations in Africa . This involved the British agents who remained on Crete , such as Patrick Leigh Fermor , Tom Dunbabin , Sandy Rendel , John Houseman , Xan Fielding , Dennis Ciclitira , Ralph Stockbridge and W . Stanley Moss . The New Zealander Dudley " Kiwi " Perkins became a legend for his courage , and after he was killed the Cretans kept his grave covered with flowers . The British formed a large number of isolated cells scattered throughout the mountains , with good communications between them . Attached to these cells were Greeks who otherwise tended to have no involvement with the main Cretan resistance movement , but worked very closely with the British agents , such as Leigh Fermor ’ s runner George Psychoundakis and Kimonas Zografakis , who was a member of the British Force 133 and involved in several operations . The British agents were responsible for some famous moments included the abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe led by Leigh Fermor and Moss , the battle of Trahili , the sabotage of Damasta led by Moss and the airfield sabotages of Heraklion and Kastelli . The Cretan resistance movement had the support of the British while Crete had strategic importance for the North Africa campaign . However once that campaign had been successful , British activity in Crete focused on the second plank of its policy in Greece , i . e . to undermine the left - wing resistance movement . The British agent Patrick Leigh Fermor , for example , was instrumental in splitting Cretan resistance by setting up an alternative movement in 1943 , funded and supplied by the British , to which they attracted figures such as Manolis Bandouvas . As on the mainland , the British launched an aggressive campaign of anti - EAM and anti - communist propaganda . Cretan writers such as Manolis Kokolakis have suggested that Bandouvas ’ murder of two German soldiers in EAM territory was on the suggestion of British agents , who may have hoped that the ensuing bloodbath of German reprisals ( the Holocaust of Viannos ) would deal a blow to the left - wing movement . It is , furthermore , the view of Kimonas Zografakis , who took part in the abduction of Kreipe , that the kidnapping of the General was carried out for the same reason . Sanoudakis argues in his article " Leigh Fermor was a classic agent " that " Patrick Leigh Fermor was neither a great philhellene , nor a new Lord Byron for Greece who fought and loved at the same time . Fundamentally he was a classic agent who served faithfully the interests of Britain and as a cultivated gentleman wrote good travel books . Anything else that the people of Greece attribute to him derives from either ignorance or innocence or anglophilia , ignoring the terrible sufferings he caused our country at that time " . The Cretan population paid a high price for its involvement and support of the resistance . In reprisal , the German occupation forces proceeded to numerous brutal attacks against local civilians . Standing out among the list of atrocities , are the holocausts of Viannos and Kedros in Amari , the destruction of Anogia and Kandanos , and the massacre of Kondomari . In several documented reprisal executions carried out during the occupation , 3 , 471 Cretans lost their lives . Even crueller was the growing sense of betrayal on the part of their presumed allies , the British . The British were reluctant to arm the left - wing resistance movement , even confiscating ammunition intended to go to resistance groups under siege . Perhaps most incredible was the British decision , after the Germans surrendered to the British in May 1945 , that the Germans be permitted to keep their arms and given the task of ‘ keeping order ’ in the city of Hania . As a consequence of the authority given to the Germans Cretans continued to die even after German capitulation . Hagen Fleischer terms this period the joint Anglo - German rule , while Stavros Blontakis speaks of the Anglo - German occupation . According to the Cretan resistance fighter Michalis Kokolakis : “ Crete saw with her own eyes and through her own bloody experience the meaning of British suzerainty . The English overlords prevented her from organising and arming herself for the battle of Crete . At the critical hour of the Battle of Crete they betrayed her and left . As long as Crete was of vital strategic importance for the campaigns in Africa in 1941 - 42 , she saw all her resistance organisations without distinction working together on sabotage missions . And when after 1942 Crete lost her strategic value , she saw the British working to split the resistance movement , issuing anti - EAM propaganda and , with Glücksberg [ the king ] , preparing fascist solutions for our country . “ She saw the British openly collaborating with the Germans when they had concentrated in Hania , and , after their capitulation , giving them the responsibility for keeping order in Hania . “ She saw their recommendations , when the Italians capitulated , not to give their weapons to the Greek people , to the resistance , but to the Germans , even though the Germans were their common enemy . “ She saw the British allies take as spoils of war the 10 , 000 vehicles which the Germans had amassed in Hania and throw them into the sea , even though Crete was lacking in transport . “ She also saw them claim as spoils of war the 5 million litres of oil that the Germans had requisitioned from the people of Crete . And saw the rule of law they imposed after the Treaty of Varkiza [ i . e . the White Terror ] , and the civil war . ” The Aftermath . Because of their collusion with communist forces in trying to detach Macedonia Greece , no members of ELAS / EAM were accepted for the new Greek army . While it was a condition of the Varkiza agreement that collaborators would be brought to justice , in practice it was far more likely for communist sympathizing resistance members to be persecuted , imprisoned or executed . Vangelis Grassos continues : " The Kazantzakis and Grassos families suffered the greatest oppression and had the greatest number of victims of the post - December regime ( see The Dekemvrianá ) . At the demonstration in Yerapetra of 23 / 3 / 1944 [ sic - actually 1945 ] were killed Xenoula Grassos , 19 years old , Efthymia Kazantakis , aged 65 , and Yiannis Grassos , aged 30 . Among the injured were Michalis Grassos and Nikos Dermitzakis , along with many others . " In 1947 the Kazantzakis and Grassos families and Georgia Frantzeskaki were exiled to Krousta . They were imprisoned and tortured in order to force their brother Dimitris Kazantzakis to give himself up after the defeat of the Podias company in Psiloritis . " They burnt the house and business of Vangelis Grassos and took his car and driver ’ s license . This is the way our country rewarded us for what we did for her freedom . " In 2005 , a documentary was released titled " " , which relates events of the Cretan resistance through various eyewitnesses .