The Battle of Trahili (Greek : Μάχη στο Τραχήλι) was fought on 15 August 1943 between Cretan partisans and German occupying forces during World War II. It took place near the village of Vorizia in south-central Crete, when German forces attempted to surround a small group of partisans led by the local chieftain Petrakogiorgis. Most of the partisans managed to escape, despite being heavily outnumbered. [1] [2]
In June 1941, soon after the fall of Crete to the Axis, Georgios Petrakis (Petrakogiorgis) and five men from Vorizia established the first resistance group in the south slopes of Mt. Ida. This group, named "Psiloritis" (Greek : Ψηλορείτης), was active in the regions of Mt. Ida, Messara plain, Mt. Kedros and Amari valley throughout the occupation of Crete. The group engaged in close combat with the occupation forces on several occasions and had close ties with the British SOE. As noted by Beevor, [the Germans had] harboured an especially personal enmity for Petrakogiorgis, more than for any other chieftain. [2]
On 14 August 1943, the eve of the Dormition, most of Petrakogiorgis men were away visiting their families. He and 21 more men were hiding north of the village of Vorizia. They had arranged to receive the Holy Communion from a monk of the nearby Vrontisi Monastery and were preparing to celebrate the Dormition. Unknowingly, however, their whereabouts were betrayed to the Germans.
On the early morning of 15 August 1943, partisan sentries spotted German forces approaching their hideout from three different directions with an estimated total strength of 3500 men. After a brief discussion, the partisans decided to head towards the nearby forest of Rouvas and avoid villages as this might invoke German reprisals. On their way, at an altitude of approx. 1000 meters, they encountered a German force consisting of a few hundred men who were already in control of the pass of Trahili. The partisans sought cover in the rocks and started a fierce battle under the scorching sun which lasted until the early evening. The Germans heavily outnumbered Petrakogiorgis and his men, were much better armed and had artillery support from the town of Tymbaki. Nevertheless, they did not succeed in neutralizing the partisans, who fought bravely and managed to escape after losing 7 of their comrades and having 4 more wounded. In his diary, Petrakogiorgis reports 33 German casualties whereas Beevor mentions 13. [2]
A few days after the battle of Trahili and in reprisal for the assistance of locals to the partisans, the village of Vorizia was destroyed by aerial bombardment. [2]
A marble plaque at Trahili commemorates the battle and the fallen partisans.
The Greek resistance involved armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II. The largest group was the Communist-dominated EAM-ELAS. The Greek Resistance is considered one of the strongest resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe, with partisans, men and women known as andartes and andartisses, controlling much of the countryside prior to the German withdrawal from Greece in late 1944.
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.
Kallikratis is a small village belonging to the municipality of Sfakia, in southwest Crete, Greece.

Friedrich "Fritz" Schubert was a Greek-speaking German NCO Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) of the Nazi Wehrmacht. As head of the Jagdkommando Schubert, a semi-independent paramilitary force he terrorized the civilian population during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II and he committed numerous atrocities in Crete and Macedonia.
The Razing of Kandanos refers to the complete destruction of the village of Kandanos in Western Crete (Greece) and the killing of about 180 of its inhabitants on 3 June 1941 by German occupying forces during World War II.
The Massacre of Kondomari was the execution of male civilians from the village of Kondomari in Crete by an ad hoc firing squad consisting of German paratroopers on 2 June 1941 during World War II. The shooting was the first of a series of reprisals in Crete. It was orchestrated by Generaloberst Kurt Student, in retaliation for the participation of Cretans in the Battle of Crete which had ended with the surrender of the island two days earlier. The massacre was photographed by Franz-Peter Weixler, a German army war propaganda correspondent, whose negatives were discovered 39 years later in the federal German archives by a Greek journalist.
The Damasta sabotage was an attack by Cretan resistance fighters led by British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC against German occupation forces in World War II. The attack occurred on 8 August 1944 near the village of Damasta and was aimed at preventing the Germans assaulting the village of Anogeia.
The kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe was an operation executed jointly by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and local resistance members in Crete in German-occupied Greece during the Second World War. Operation 'BRICKLAYER' was launched on 4 February 1944, when SOE officer Patrick Leigh Fermor landed in Crete with the intention of abducting notorious war criminal and commander of 22nd Air Landing Division, Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller. By the time of the arrival of the rest of the abduction team, led by William Stanley Moss, two months later, Müller had been succeeded by Heinrich Kreipe, who was chosen as the new target.
The Viannos massacres were a mass extermination campaign launched by German forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages located in the areas of east Viannos and west Ierapetra provinces on the Greek island of Crete during World War II. The killings, with a death toll in excess of 500, were carried out on 14–16 September 1943 by Wehrmacht units. They were accompanied by the burning of most villages, looting, and the destruction of harvests.
The Holocaust of Kedros, also known as the Holocaust of Amari, was the mass murder of the civilian residents of nine villages located in the Amari Valley on the Greek island of Crete during its occupation by the Axis powers in World War II. The massacre was a reprisal operation mounted by Nazi German forces.
Ismail Selim Pasha, also known as Ismail Ferik Pasha, was an Ottoman-Egyptian general of Greek origin. He also served as Minister of Military Affairs of Eyalet of Egypt, which was Ottoman Empire's administrative state. Selim Pasha was the brother of the Greek merchant and benefactor Antonios Papadakis.

Georgios Petrakis, better known as Petrakogiorgis, was a Greek businessman, partisan, and politician. He was a leading figure in the Cretan resistance of the years 1941 – 1944 against the Axis occupation forces, well respected for his patriotism, courage, honesty, perspicacity and selflessness.
The Alikianos executions was the mass execution by firing squad of mostly male civilians from Alikianos and nearby villages in Crete, Greece by German paratroopers on 24 May, 2 June, and 1 August 1941 during World War II. The executions were ordered by Generaloberst Kurt Student, commander of the XI Air Corps, in reprisal for the active participation of Cretan civilians in the Battle of Crete.
Stefanos Chalis was a Greek chieftain and a fighter of the Greek War of Independence from Crete. He was the younger brother of fighters of the Revolution, Vassilios and Ioannis, who were also notable chieftains.
The Battle of Fardykambos, also known as the Battle of Bougazi, was fought between the National Liberation Front (EAM-ELAS) of the Greek Resistance against the Italian troops during the Axis Occupation of Greece. The battle was notable for the large-scale and spontaneous participation of the local populace, and of officers from other groups and organizations, including right-wing rivals to ELAS.
The Burnings of Kali Sykia is one of many atrocities perpetrated in Greece by Fritz Schubert and his people during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II. On October 6, 1943, 13 individuals were killed by being burned alive in the mountainous village of Kali Sykia, in Rethymno, Crete.
The Razing of Anogeia or the Holocaust of Anogeia refers to the complete destruction of the village of Anogeia in central Crete (Greece) and the murder of about 25 of its inhabitants on 13 August 1944 by German occupying forces during World War II. This was the third time Anogeia was destroyed, as the Ottomans had destroyed it twice; first in July 1822 and again in November 1867, during the Great Cretan Revolt.
The razing of Vorizia refers to the destruction of the village of Vorizia (Βορίζια) in Crete (Greece) by aerial bombardment and the murder of five of its inhabitants on 27 August 1943 by German occupying forces during World War II.
Kimonas or Kimon Zografakis, frequently referred to by his nom de guerre, Black Man, was a distinguished Greek partisan in the Cretan resistance from 1941 to 1944 against the Axis occupation forces.
The Kallikratis executions refer to the mass execution, by German Army and Greek collaborationist paramilitary forces, of some 30 mostly male civilians of Kallikratis, in southwest Crete, on 8 October 1943. Kallikratis was declared a martyred village in October 2018.