The 11th Day: Crete 1941

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The 11th Day: Crete 1941
The11thDay Poster.jpg
Directed byChristos Epperson
Written byMichael Epperson
Produced byChristos Epperson
Michael Epperson
CinematographyIan Ashenbremer
Edited byJordan Dertinger
Release date
  • September 2005 (2005-09)(Chicago) [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish and Greek

The 11th Day: Crete 1941 is a 2005 documentary film featuring eyewitness accounts from survivors of the Battle of Crete during World War II. The film was created by producer-director Christos Epperson and writer-producer Michael Epperson, and funded by Alex Spanos. Among the eyewitnesses interviewed are British SOE operative and famous travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, along with George Doundoulakis, and Cretan Resistance hero George Tzitzikas. The film also includes historical commentary and analysis by Chase Brandon of the CIA and Professor Andre Gerolymatos of Simon Fraser University.

Contents

Plot

On May 20, 1941, thousands of elite German paratroopers, the Fallschirmjäger, assaulted the island of Crete. [2] It was the beginning of one of the largest paratrooper assaults in modern history, ultimately involving 22,040 German soldiers. [3] It was also the first time German troops faced a unified resistance from a civilian populace. [4] The Battle of Crete would become the largest German airborne operation of World War II, known as "Operation Mercury," (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, also Unternehmen Merkur, Greek : Μάχη της Κρήτης).

The Germans had expected to control the island within a few days; after all, in less than seven weeks they had defeated France and occupied Paris for eight days before an armistice was signed. [5] [6] What the Germans had not anticipated was the unrelenting opposition from the men, women, and children of Crete, who would fight alongside British and Dominion forces, [7] ultimately embroiling Nazi Germany in one of its most costly campaigns of the war. Collaborating with a handful of British Special Operations Executive commandos like Patrick Leigh Fermor, William Stanley Moss (both featured in the film) and John Pendlebury, the Cretan resistance would prove to become the most dauntingly potent civilian resistance movement Nazi Germany would encounter throughout the war. [8] Although the Battle of Crete ended after ten days with the withdrawal of British forces from the island, history would record it as a Pyrrhic victory for the Germans, as the years-long resistance that began on the "11th Day" would belong to the Cretans.

Historically significant operations documented in the film

With the help of a handful of British agents of the Special Operations Executive, as well as supply drops from the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the Cretan civilian resistance engaged in many significant sabotage operations, among these the destruction of the Kastelli Airfield. George Doundoulakis, along with Kimon Zografakis and two English commandos, was able to destroy the airfield, which included German airplanes and hundreds of barrels of aviation fuel. [9] [10] Among the most historically significant of these operations was the abduction and rendition of the German commander of Crete, General Heinrich Kreipe. Masterminded and led by British Special Operations Executive officers Patrick Leigh Fermor and Billy Stanley Moss, it was undoubtedly the most ambitious, if not the only successful, kidnapping of a German general throughout the war. [11] Both Leigh Fermor and Moss became legend after the war in the British book and film, Ill Met by Moonlight, for their abduction of German general Kreipe and their rendition of the general from Crete to Egypt. Notably, "The 11th Day: Crete 1941" includes rare, exclusive interview segments with Patrick Leigh Fermor himself, wherein he recounts this historic operation in great detail.

Production

Pre-production for the project began in 2000, when producer-director Christos Epperson and his brother, philosopher Michael Epperson, [12] the film's writer and co-producer, began to document the history of their great aunts and uncles—three brothers and their two sisters—who fought with the Cretan resistance in Chania. [13] In 1944, their aunt Eleftheria Xirouhakis was captured, tortured, and executed, and her brothers Kyriako, Manoli, and Dimitri were sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, and were later transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp, then the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and finally back to the Mauthausen camp where they remained until their liberation by the U.S. Army on May 5, 1945. [14] Moved by the story, Los Angeles Chargers owner Alex Spanos provided major funding for the project, allowing it to expand to include the stories of numerous other Cretan resistance veterans, British soldiers, Special Operations Executive agents, as well as historical analysis by Andre Gerolymatos of Simon Fraser University and Chase Brandon of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Principal photography began in late 2001 in Crete, with additional footage shot in Northern California. [15]

Release

The film premiered on September 28, 2005 in Chicago, [16] beginning a tour of theaters throughout the United States and Canada. [17] [18] In November 2006, the film was released on DVD with Greek and English-language tracks. A photo gallery of over 500 images is also included. The film is available in libraries as well as through commercial online retailers. On the official film website, the producers have made available their collection of research material. Included are over 2000+ photos, of which many are rare and unpublished. It is the perhaps one of the largest online archive of World War II photos and documents in the world.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Leigh Fermor</span> British author and soldier (1915–2011)

Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greatest living travel writer, on the basis of books such as A Time of Gifts (1977). A BBC journalist once termed him "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene".

<i>Ill Met by Moonlight</i> (film) 1957 British film by Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger

Ill Met by Moonlight (1957), released in the USA as Night Ambush, is a film by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and the last movie they made together through their production company "The Archers". The film, which stars Dirk Bogarde and features Marius Goring, David Oxley, and Cyril Cusack, is based on the 1950 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe by W. Stanley Moss, which is an account of events during the author's service on Crete during World War II as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the book features the young agents' capture and evacuation of the German general Heinrich Kreipe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Stanley Moss</span> British army officer, writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller

Ivan William Stanley Moss MC, commonly known as W. Stanley Moss or Billy Moss, was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist, and traveller. He served with the Coldstream Guards and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and is best known for the Kidnap of General Kreipe. He was a best-selling author in the 1950s, based on his novels and books about his wartime service. His SOE years are featured in Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe, and A War of Shadows. Moss travelled around the world, including Antarctica to meet the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Psychoundakis</span>

George Psychoundakis BEM was a member of the Greek Resistance on Crete during the Second World War and after the war an author. Following the German invasion, between 1941 and 1945, he served as the dispatch runner for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) operations on Crete, as part of the Cretan resistance. During the postwar years he was at first mistakenly imprisoned as a deserter. While in prison he wrote his wartime memoirs, which were published as The Cretan Runner. Later he translated key classical Greek texts into the Cretan dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cretan resistance</span> Anti-fascist resistance movement in Greece during World War II

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Kreipe</span> 20th-century German soldier

Karl Heinrich Georg Ferdinand Kreipe was a German career soldier who served in both World War I and World War II. While leading German forces in occupied Crete in April 1944, he was abducted by British SOE officers Patrick Leigh Fermor and William Stanley Moss, with the support of the Cretan resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller</span> German Wehrmacht general (1897–1947)

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He led an infantry regiment in the early stages of the war and by 1943 was commander of the 22nd Air Landing Division. Under his orders, troops of the division committed atrocities against Greek civilians. He was later commander of occupied Crete and his harsh methods of controlling the island saw him nicknamed "The Butcher of Crete." After the war he was convicted and executed by a Greek court for war crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Andrae</span> German general (1888–1979)

Alexander Andrae, whose first name is often mistakenly given as Waldemar, was a German military officer from Kösling, Upper Silesia. Initially pursuing an Army career, he then joined the security police and eventually the Luftwaffe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelico Carta</span> Italian military officer

Angelico (Angelo) Carta was an Italian military officer, best known for his actions during the Axis occupation of Crete in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damasta sabotage</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helias Doundoulakis</span>

Helias Doundoulakis was a Greek American civil engineer who patented the suspension system for the at-the-time largest radio telescope in the world. During WWII he served in the United States Army and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe</span> 1944 British kidnapping of a German general in Crete

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viannos massacres</span> 1943 mass killing of civilians by Nazi German forces on Crete, Axis-occupied Greece

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Dunbabin</span> British archaeologist

Thomas James Dunbabin DSO, was an Australian classicist scholar and archaeologist of Tasmanian origin, as well as a renowned WWII soldier in Crete.

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.

<i>Ill Met by Moonlight</i> Non-fiction book by W. Stanley Moss

Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe is a non-fiction partly-autobiographical book written by W. Stanley Moss, a British soldier, writer and traveller. It describes an operation in Crete during the Second World War to capture German general Heinrich Kreipe. Moss kept a diary during the war years and based his book on it. The 2014 edition includes an introduction by one of Moss's children and an afterword by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Manolis or Emmanouil Paterakis was a member of the Cretan resistance during World War II, who lived in the village of Koustogerako in the then-province of Selino. In English language sources, he also appears as Manoli Paterakis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Razing of Anogeia</span> Razing of Greek village and massacre of civilians by Nazi Germans, 1944

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.

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.

George James Doundoulakis 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Clipped from Chicago Tribune". Chicago Tribune. 23 September 2005. pp. 7A–8.
  2. ↑ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
  3. ↑ Beevor, Antony (1992). Crete : the battle and the resistance. London: Penguin. p. 348. ISBN   0-14-016787-0.
  4. ↑ Maloney, Shane (July 2006). "Bogin, Hopit". The Monthly .
  5. ↑ Jackson, Julian (2003). The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-192-80550-8.
  6. ↑ Hooton, E. R. (1994). Phoenix Triumphant: The Rise and Rise of the Luftwaffe . London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN   1-86019-964-X.
  7. ↑ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 9, 'A fine opportunity for killing,' pgs. 116-118, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
  8. ↑ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 6, 'A second Scapa,' pgs. 69-71, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
  9. ↑ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 24, "The years of change," p. 262, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994.
  10. ↑ William Stanley Moss, Patrick Leigh Fermor (2005). The 11th Day: Crete 1941 (Film). Crete: Archangel Films. Archived from the original on 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
  11. ↑ Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 26, 'The abduction of General Kreipe,' pgs. 303-311, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
  12. ↑ Michael Epperson, Wikidata   Q113808312
  13. ↑ Reid, D. “For Sacramento brothers, making ‘The 11th Day: Crete 1941’ was personal.” The Sacramento Bee, 9 December 2005, p.27-28.
  14. ↑ Tomadakis, Nikolaos V. (1957). "†Αγαθάγγελος Ξηρουχάκης (1872-1958). Βιογραφικόν και βιβλιογραφικόν σημείωμα". Kritika Chronika (in Greek). 11.
  15. ↑ Reid, D. “For Sacramento brothers, making ‘The 11th Day: Crete 1941’ was personal.” The Sacramento Bee, 9 December 2005, p.27-28.
  16. ↑ Kass, J. “Movie gives life to little told tale of WWII heroism.” The Chicago Tribune, 25 September 2005.
  17. ↑ Knight, C. “Heroes fight like Greeks” National Post, Toronto Edition, 29 October 2005
  18. ↑ Reid, D. “For Sacramento brothers, making ‘The 11th Day: Crete 1941’ was personal.” The Sacramento Bee, 9 December 2005, p.27-28.
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