The 11th Day: Crete 1941
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 are British SOE operative and famous travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, along with George Doundoulakis, and Cretan Resistance hero George Tzitzika. The non-veterans giving historical commentary include Chase Brandon of the CIA and Professor Andre Gerolymatos of Simon Fraser University.
| The 11th Day: Crete 1941 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Christos Epperson |
| Produced by | Christos Epperson Michael Epperson |
| Written by | Michael Epperson |
| Cinematography | Ian Ashenbremer |
| Edited by | Jordan Dertinger |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
On May 20, 1941, an invasion begun with elite German paratroopers, the Fallschirmjäger, invading the island.[2] It was to be the beginning of one of the largest paratrooper assaults in modern history, ultimately involving 22,040 German soldiers.[3] It was also to be 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 7 weeks they had defeated France and occupied Paris for eight days before an armistice was signed.[5][6] What the Germans had not accounted for was the opposition from men, women, and children of Crete, who would fight alongside British and Dominion forces.[7]
The Cretan resistance, alongside British and British Commonwealth soldiers who had been evacuated to Crete from mainland Greece, handed Nazi Germany one of their most costly campaigns of the war. Collaborating with a handful of British Special Operations Executive commandos like John Pendlebury, they put a resistance like no other encountered by Nazi Germany.[8] Although the Battle of Crete ended after ten days with the withdrawal of British forces from the island, it would, nonetheless, go down in history as a Pyrrhic victory for the Germans — as the "11th Day" would belong to the Cretans.
Release
In 2005, The 11th Day toured theaters throughout the United States and Canada. 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
- Tomadakis, Nikolaos V. (1958). "†Αγαθάγγελος Ξηρουχάκης (1872-1958). Βιογραφικόν και βιβλιογραφικόν σημείωμα". Kritika Chronika (in Greek). 11. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
References
- https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16179822/chicago-tribune/
- Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
- Beevor, Antony (1992). Crete : the battle and the resistance. London: Penguin. p. 348. ISBN 0-14-016787-0.
- Maloney, Shane (July 2006). "Bogin, Hopit". The Monthly.
- Jackson, Julian (2003). The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-192-80550-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Hooton, E. R. (1994). Phoenix Triumphant: The Rise and Rise of the Luftwaffe. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1-86019-964-X.
- Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 9, 'A fine opportunity for killing,' pgs. 116-118, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994
- Beevor, A: Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, Ch. 6, 'A second Scapa,' pgs. 69-71, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1994