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Cretan Resistance
The Cretan resistance (, ) was a resistance movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek resistance, it lasted from 20 May 1941, when the German ''Wehrmacht'' invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the spring of 1945 when they surrendered to the British. For the first time during World War II, attacking German forces faced in Crete a substantial resistance from the local population. In the Battle of Crete, Cretan civilians picked off paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes, or even bare hands. As a result, many casualties were inflicted upon the invading German paratroopers during the battle. For their resistance to the Germans, the Cretan people paid a heavy toll in the form of reprisals. Development The Cretan resistance movement was formed very soon after the Battle of Crete, with an initial planning meeting on 31 May 1941. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-779-0003-22, Griechenland, Schild über Zerstörung Von Kandanos
The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (, lit. "Federal Archive") are the national archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media ( Claudia Roth since 2021) under the German Chancellery, and before 1998, to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. On 6 December 2008, the Archives donated 100,000 photos to the public, by making them accessible via Wikimedia Commons. History The federal archive for institutions and authorities in Germany, the first precursor to the present-day Federal Archives, was established in Potsdam, Brandenburg in 1919, a later date than in other European countries. This national archive documented German government dating from the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867. It also included material from the older German Confederation and the Imperial Chamber Court. The oldest documents in this collection dated back to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandy Rendel
Alexander Meadows Rendel (1910–1991) was a British diplomat and solicitor who also served as a Special Operations Executive agent in Crete during World War II, rising to the rank of major.Rendel, Alexander M. ''Appointment in Crete: the story of a British agent'', Allan Wingate, London 1953 Rendel was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in May 1940. In early 1943, he met Colonel Thomas Dunbabin, a former fellow student at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Cairo. Dunbabin recruited Rendel to the SOE. Rendel arrived in Crete in September 1943, after being appointed in charge of Lasithi, the eastern most region. He was known to Cretans as ''Alexis'' (). After the war, Rendel worked as a diplomatic correspondent for ''The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helias Doundoulakis
Helias Doundoulakis (July 12, 1923 – February 29, 2016) was a Greek American civil engineer who patented the suspension system for the at-the-time largest radio telescope in the world (the Arecibo telescope). During WWII he served in the United States Army and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a spy. Early years Helias Doundoulakis was born in Canton, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Demetrios and Evanthia (née Psaroudakis) Doundoulakis. When he was two years old, his family emigrated to Crete, Greece to care for his blind grandmother in Archanes. By 1941, Greece had fallen to the Axis powers save for Crete. On May 20, 1941, German paratroopers, invaded Crete while Helias was in high school. World War II The Battle of Crete lasted ten days, during which Helias' brother George Doundoulakis worked as an interpreter for the joint Greek/British military headquarters. After the battle was lost, the Doundoulakis brothers joined the Cretan resistance. "Monty" Woodhouse, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archanes
Archanes (, Godart & Olivier abbreviation: ARKH) is a former municipality in the Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Archanes-Asterousia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of . Population 5,064 (2021). It is also the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan civilization, Minoan human settlement, settlement in central Crete. The discovery of ancient roads leading from Archanes to Juktas, Anemospilia, Xeri Kara and Vathypetro indicate that Archanes was an important hub in the region during Minoan times. Archaeological evidence indicates that Acharna, ancient Archanes spread out over the same area as the modern town of Archanes. Archaeology In 1912, Xanthoudides noted the importance of Archanes, but Sir Arthur Evans was the first to characterize the site as palatial, declaring that Acharna, Archanes was likely a Summer Palace for the Knossos kings. Spyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Doundoulakis
George James Doundoulakis (October 18, 1921 – March 17, 2007) was a Greek American physicist and soldier who worked under British Intelligence during World War II with SOE agent Patrick Leigh Fermor, and then served with the OSS in Thessaly, Greece. He is known by his twenty-six US Patents in the fields of radar, electronics, and narrowband television. Doundoulakis is best remembered for the idea of suspending the antenna feed of the Arecibo radio telescope by cables and towers, eventually patented by his brother Helias Doundoulakis. A decorated veteran of World War II, Doundoulakis formed an underground resistance organization in Crete under the Special Operations Executive. He escaped to Egypt and joined the U.S. Army and Office of Strategic Services – the OSS. He was sent back to Greece, where he outfitted and unified a leftist rebel army, and was awarded the Legion of Merit from the United States Army and the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom from Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heraklion
Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a municipal population of 179,302 (2021) and 211,370 in its wider metropolitan area, according to the 2011 census. The greater area of Heraklion has been continuously inhabited since at least 7000 BCE, making it one of the oldest inhabited regions in Europe. It is also home to the ancient Knossos Palace, a major center of the Minoan civilization dating back to approximately 2000-1350 BCE, often considered Europe's oldest city. The palace is one of the most significant archaeological sites in Greece, second only to the Parthenon in terms of visitor numbers. Heraklion was Europe's fastest growing tourism destination for 2017, according to Euromonitor, with an 11.2% growth in international arrivals. According to the ranking, Herakl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. SOE personnel operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis powers, except where demarcation lines were agreed upon with Britain's principal Allies of World War II, Allies, the United States and the Soviet Union. SOE made use of neutral territory on occasion, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis. The organisation directly employed or controlled more than 13,000 people, of whom 3,200 were women. Both men and women served as agents in Axis-occupied countries. The organisation was dissolved in 1946. A memorial to those who served in SOE was unveiled in 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Mother, and in 2009 on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Montague Woodhouse
Christopher Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington, (11 May 1917 – 13 February 2001), known as C. M. Woodhouse, was a British army SOE officer, MI6 intelligence officer and Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford from 1959 to 1966 and again from 1970 to 1974. He was also a visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1956 to 1964. Terrington was an expert on Greek affairs after he first got involved with the resistance forces in Greece against the Germans during the Second World War, and then having served in the British Embassy. Early life and military service Montague Woodhouse was the son of Horace Woodhouse, 3rd Baron Terrington, and Valerie Phillips, and was educated at Winchester College, and then at New College, Oxford, where he took a double first in Classics. After completing his education, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1939 and served for the duration of the Second World War, being commissioned as an officer in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Pendlebury
John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (12 October 1904 – 22 May 1941) was a British archaeologist who worked for British intelligence during World War II. He was captured and Summary execution, summarily executed by German troops during the Battle of Crete. Early life John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert Stringfellow Pendlebury, a London surgeon, and Lilian Dorothea ( Devitt), a daughter of Devitt baronets, Sir Thomas Lane Devitt, 1st Baronet, part owner of Devitt and Moore, a shipping company.. At the age of about two, he lost an eye while in the care of a friend of his parents. Conflicting reports of the accident were given. He used a glass eye, which, it has been said by people who knew him, was generally mistaken for a real one.. Throughout his life, he remained determined to out-perform persons with two eyes. As a child, he was taken to see Wallis Budge at the British Museum. During the conversation, he apparently resolved to become an Egyptol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominion
A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colonial self-governance increased (and, in some cases, decreased) unevenly over the late 19th century through the 1930s. Vestiges of empire lasted in some dominions well into the late 20th century. With the evolution of the British Empire following the 1945 conclusion of the Second World War into the modern Commonwealth of Nations (after which the former Dominions were often referred to as the ''Old Commonwealth''), finalised in 1949, the dominions became independent states, either as republics in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth republics or Commonwealth realms. In 1925, the government of the United Kingdom created the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Dominions Office from the Colonial Office, although for the next five yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Albumen
Operation Albumen was the name of British Commando raids in June 1942 on German airfields in the Axis-occupied Greek island of Crete, to prevent them from being used in support of the Axis forces in the Western Desert Campaign in the Second World War. The operations were carried out with similar raids against Axis airfields at Benghazi, Derna and Barce in Libya and were among the first planned sabotage acts in occupied Europe. Background During the late spring of 1942, the airfields of Crete gained increased importance by becoming the main transit base for the ''Luftwaffe'' to fly supplies to the Axis forces in Egypt in their advance on the Nile Delta. ''Luftwaffe'' aircraft based on Crete flew photo-reconnaissance, bombing and convoy sorties covering the south-east Mediterranean. To disrupt these operations, the British command in Cairo sent three groups from the Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and one from the Special Air Service (SAS) to Crete to sabotage the airfields of Hera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damasta Sabotage
The Damasta sabotage () was an attack by Cretan Cretan resistance, resistance fighters led by British Special Operations Executive officer W. Stanley Moss, Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC against Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, German occupation forces in World War II. The attack occurred on 8 August 1944 near the village of Damasta, Crete, Damasta () and was aimed at preventing the Germans assaulting the village of Anogeia.Beevor, Antony. ''Crete: The Battle and the Resistance'', John Murray Ltd, 2005, pp.315-6. Psychoundakis, George. ''The Cretan Runner:His Story of the German Occupation'', John Murray Ltd, 1955. The Folio Society, 2009 p178 Background As part of a coordinated attack with the Special Boat Service, Billy Moss, the second-in-command of the Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe, Kreipe kidnap team, was despatched back to Crete in early July by Brigadier Barker-Benfield, the new commander of Force 133 in Cairo to provide guides for the S.B.S. and to raise a sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
