The Cretan runner
Subtitle: his story of the German occupation
By: George Psychoundakis ; translated from the Greek and with an introduction by Patrick Leigh Fermor, annotated by the translator and Xan Fielding
Series: New York Review Books classics; New York Review Books classics
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
ISBN-13: 9781590179048
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945
Description: "George Psychoundakis was a twenty-one-year-old shepherd from the village of Asi Gonia when the battle of Crete began: "It was in May 1941 that, all of a sudden, high in the sky, we heard the drone of many aeroplanes growing steadily closer." The German parachutists soon outnumbered the British troops who were forced first to retreat, then to evacuate, and Crete fell to the Germans. So began the Cretan resistance and the young shepherd's career as a war-time runner. In this unique account of Resistance life, Psychoundakis records the daily life of his fellow-Cretans, his treacherous journeys on foot from the eastern White Mountains to the western slopes of Mount Ida to transmit messages and transport goods, and his enduring friendships with British officers (like his eventual translator Patrick Leigh Fermor) whose missions he helped to carry out with unflagging courage, energy, and good humor"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.