Crete’s dark history of occupation has been overwhelmed by the romanticization of SAS, SBS and SOE-organised raids, kidnappings and guerrilla warfare. The brief interlude of her five years of occupation must be put in the context of hundreds of years of living under the Venetians and the Ottomans. Crete only became part of Greece in 1913 where war cost the lives of almost 10% of her population, a third of her national wealth, the destruction of half a million homes. Although Crete was to escape the worst of the Civil War years, she suffered terribly in mass reprisals: executions of the innocent and total destruction of thousands of villages which the Germans retitled “Dead zones”.  

For the Allies, particularly the British, Crete’s strategic importance evolved depending on the wider war in the Mediterranean. After the initial efforts to defend the island had been defeated, evacuation of troops remaining became a key task; when completed the organization of multiple small resistance groups to bend to the military needs of Middle East HQ balanced by Continuous diplomatic needs and Britain’s post-war support for the return of the Monarchy. With. Rommel’s defeat in North Africa, Crete’s role as a forward supply base and an offshore air support came to an end.

It now became Britain’s means of timing down Axis resources by acting as an invasion feint. When this role became obviously redundant and it was clear that Italy not Greece or the Balkans would be the southern pathway to Germany, the mission became one of avoiding reprisals and keeping the Communist ELAS forces in check. Small pockets of German troops remained on Crete into July 1945, months after the official German surrender on Crete had been signed 9 May.