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Cretan resistance

A German soldier in front of a sign erected after the razing of Kandanos. The sign reads: "Kandanos was destroyed in retaliation for the bestial ambush murder of a paratrooper platoon and a half-platoon of military engineers by armed men and women."
Massacre of civilians in Kondomari by German paratroopers in 1941.

The Cretan resistance (Greek: Κρητική Αντίσταση, Kritiki Antistasi) 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.[1] 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.

  1. ^ Kokonas, Nikos (2004). Cretan Resistance 1941–1945. Athens: Mystis. ISBN 9789930494950.

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