The Ariadne Objective: The Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis

282 Pages·2013·3.09 MB·English

by  Davis

Copyright © 2013 by Wes Davis
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published and
unpublished material:
The Estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor: Excerpts and sketch from a February 9, 1944, letter by Patrick Leigh
Fermor to Annette Crean. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor.
The Estate of William Stanley Moss: Excerpts from “W. Stanley Moss, unpublished diary, Documents
13338 Private Papers of Major I W S Moss MC, Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum,”
copyright © the Estate of William Stanley Moss. Excerpt from “W. Stanley Moss, Diary 1939,” copyright
© the Estate of William Stanley Moss. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of William Stanley Moss.
Hodder & Stoughton Limited: Excerpt from A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, copyright © 1977 by
Patrick Leigh Fermor. Reprinted by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Limited.
Imogen Grundon: Excerpt from The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury by Imogen Grundon
(Libri Publications, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Paul Dry Books, Inc., and the Estate of William Stanley Moss: Excerpts from Ill Met by Moonlight by W.
Stanley Moss, copyright © 1950 by W. Stanley Moss. Reprinted by permission of Paul Dry Books, Inc.,
www.PaulDryBooks.com, and the Estate of William Stanley Moss.
Paul Dry Books, Inc.: Hide and Seek by Xan Fielding (Secker & Warburg, 1954). Reprinted by permission
of Paul Dry Books, Inc., www.PaulDryBooks.com.
Robert Rendel: Excerpt from Appointment in Crete: The Story of a British Agent by A. M. Rendel (Allan
Wingate, 1953). Reprinted by permission of Robert Rendel.
Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-307-46013-4
eISBN 978-0-30746015-8
Frontmatter map: David Lindroth, Inc.
Jacket design: Eric White
Jacket photograph: George Baier IV; photograph of men (clockwise from top left): Efstratios
Saviolakis/Stratis, Emmanouil Paterakis/Manoli, Antonios Papaleonidas/Wallace Beery, Georgios
Tyrakis/George, Nikolaos Komis/Nikko, William Stanley Moss, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Grigorios
Chnarakis/Grigori
v3.1
FOR SLIM
I dream’d that Greece might still be free.
—L B
ORD YRON
It seemed … and to me, then, rather shockingly … like a practical joke
played on the Germans in fancy dress.
—A. M. “S ” R
ANDY ENDEL
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Map
A Note on Names
Prologue: Whimsical
P I: D L
ART EPOSITED ON THE IMESTONE
1. Shanks’s Mare
2. Sword Stick
3. Oak Apple Day
4. The Fishpond
5. Spaghetti and Ravioli
P II: I M ’ L
ART N THE INOTAUR S AIR
6. Fleshpots
7. Tara
Photo Insert
8. Moonstruck
9. The Intersection
10. Bricklayer
Epilogue: Ritterlich!
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the Author
To view a full-size version of this image, click HERE.

A Note on Names
that follows I have referred to British officers most often by their
IN THE NARRATIVE
surnames, usually dispensing with the formality of rank in order to maintain the
sense of immediacy with which the story unfolds in the primary documents—
mostly field reports—on which the book draws. For the same reason, the Greek
partisans who bore the brunt of the risk in the dangerous work described here are
referred to by their first names or nicknames, as they generally are in the field
reports. Greek names can be transliterated from the Greek alphabet in a variety
of ways, and I have relied largely on spellings that appear in field reports, in part
for consistency with other historical accounts but also to capture the tone of the
action as it unfolded. These spellings generally reflect the casual pronunciation
used in the field: thus Manoli, for example, rather than the more proper Manolis,
or still more formal Emmanouil. In a few cases, I have preferred code names
where they are particularly descriptive or colorful, as in the case of Mihali
“Micky” Akoumianakis, who is here called “Minoan Mike,” using the code
name derived from his familial association with the Palace of Knossos. Greek
resistance leaders who commanded their own organizations, the kapetans, are
generally referred to by surname or code name—Bandouvas or Bo-Peep—or
both. In actual practice in wartime Crete, names used in the field were fluid and
flexible. Patrick Leigh Fermor was frequently called “Mihali,” the Hellenized
version of his middle name, Michael. But in field reports he is just as often
referred to as “Paddy.” Tom Dunbabin was either “Yanni” or “O Tom”; Harry
Booke was “Mihali” or sometimes “Mihalaki,” to distinguish him from “Mihali”
Leigh Fermor. Names also evolved over time, as is seen in the case of George
Psychoundakis, whose code name shifted from “Changeling” to “Changebug.”
The organization that became known as the Special Operations Executive also
bore different names at various stages of the war. For the sake of consistency I
have used SOE throughout.