''The 11th Day: Crete 1941'' is a 2005 documentary film featuring eyewitness accounts from survivors of the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. 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 Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) 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 greates ...

, along with George Doundoulakis, and

Cretan Resistance The Cretan resistance ( el, Κρητική Αντίσταση) 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 ...

hero George Tzitzikas. The film also includes historical commentary and analysis by Chase Brandon of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and Professor Andre Gerolymatos of

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

Plot

On May 20, 1941, thousands of elite German paratroopers, the

Fallschirmjäger The ''Fallschirmjäger'' () were the paratrooper branch of the German Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first German paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. Throughout World War II, the commander ...

, assaulted the island of Crete. It was the beginning of one of the largest paratrooper assaults in modern history, ultimately involving 22,040 German soldiers. It was also the first time German troops faced a unified resistance from a civilian populace. The Battle of Crete would become the largest German airborne operation of World War II, known as "Operation Mercury," (german: link=no, Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, also ''Unternehmen Merkur'', el, 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 France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and occupied Paris for eight days before an armistice was signed. What the Germans had not anticipated was the unrelenting opposition from the men, women, and children of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

, who would fight alongside British and

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

forces, ultimately embroiling

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in one of its most costly campaigns of the war. Collaborating with a handful of British

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

commandos like

William Stanley Moss Ivan William Stanley Moss MC (15 June 1921 – 9 August 1965), 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 t ...

(both featured in the film) and

John Pendlebury John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (12 October 1904 – 22 May 1941) was a British archaeologist who worked for British intelligence during World War II. He was captured and summarily executed by German troops during the Battle of Crete. ...

, the Cretan resistance would prove to become the most dauntingly potent civilian resistance movement Nazi Germany would encounter throughout the war. 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

, 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. 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

officers

and Billy Stanley Moss, it was undoubtedly the most ambitious, if not the only successful, kidnapping of a German general throughout the war. 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

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, writer-producer Michael Epperson 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. In 1944, their aunt Eleftheria Xirouhakis was captured, tortured, and executed, and her brothers Kyriako, Manoli, and Dimitri were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Moved by the story,

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

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,

agents, as well as historical analysis by Andre Gerolymatos of Simon Fraser University and Chase Brandon of the U.S.

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. Principal photography began in late 2001 in Crete, with additional footage shot in Northern California.

Release

The film premiered on September 28, 2005 in Chicago, beginning a tour of theaters throughout the United States and Canada.Reid, D. “For Sacramento brothers, making ‘The 11th Day: Crete 1941’ was personal.” ''The Sacramento Bee'', 9 December 2005, p.27-28. 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

* * Reid, D. “For Sacramento brothers, making ‘The 11th Day: Crete 1941’ was personal.” ''The Sacramento Bee'', 9 December 2005, p.27-28. * Kass, J. “Movie gives life to little told tale of WWII heroism.” ''The Chicago Tribune'', 25 September 2005. * Knight, C. “Heroes fight like Greeks” ''National Post'', Toronto Edition, 29 October 2005 * Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994

References

External links

Official website

Beevor, A. 1994. ''Crete: The Battle and the Resistance''

The Benaki Museum's acquisition of Leigh Fermor's home in Kardamyli, Mani, Greece

Kiriakopoulos, G. 1995. ''The Nazi Occupation of Crete 1941-1945''
*
Michael Epperson, California State University SacramentoChicago TribuneSacramento Bee
{{DEFAULTSORT:11th Day, The: Crete 1941 2005 films American documentary films Documentary films about World War II Crete in World War II Cretan Resistance Films set in Crete Films shot in Greece Films shot in Crete Battle of Crete Documentary films about Greece Works about Greece in World War II 2000s American films