urgent appointment. He went back to his hotel, found his radio operator, Apostolos, and together they left the city, heading for his home village of Vaphé where he met Leigh Fermor.
Vandoulas told Leigh Fermor what had happened. As they talked a messenger came from Polentas with a warning from Komnas that the Geheime Feldpolizei chief in Chania had heard that the RAF had recently made a big supply drop in the area and was ordering a large-scale search. Leigh Fermor immediately moved his headquarters. Vandoulas and his radio operator stayed on in the village.
Early on the morning of 1 4 November 1942, Vandoulas and Apostolos were having breakfast and getting ready for the 0 8:00 hours transmission to SOE Cairo when they heard a prolonged whistle: the villagers’ signal that German soldiers were in the area. Vandoulas ran out of the house to be confronted by the sight of a German patrol about fifty metres away, talking to a villager, demanding that he identify Vandoulas’s house. They stopped Vandoulas and asked him the same question, without realising who they were talking to. Vandoulas said that he thought the man they were looking for was the villager they could see running down the road. Vandoulas then bolted and managed to disappear into the hills.
His radio operator was less fortunate. Apostolos was stuffing signal papers into his pockets and heading for the back door where he was arrested by Germans who had now surrounded the building. Meanwhile Vandoulas’s sister Elpida, managed to hide the radio set and other equipment in the attic. Apostolos was marched off for interrogation to Chania. Once the soldiers had gone Elpida took the radio, batteries, signal books and a sub-machine gun to a hiding place in the mountains.
From the moment that Komnas had been introduced to Vandoulas in the cafe in Chania the whole thing had been a plot. Once he knew who Vandoulas was, Komnas had reported this information to the secret police. The messenger sent to Polentas with the warning of the raid was a trick to win the trust of Vandoulas and the others in the resistance. The trick worked, Andreas Polentas, one of the most senior men in the resistance, was arrested and taken to Agyia jail with Apostolos.
At first the prisoners pretended that they did not know each other. They were interrogated for hours and deprived of food. Apostolos’s cover story was that he was a black-marketeer going about his business and that Vaphé was one of his regular business haunts. After a few days Polentas and Apostolos were tortured, stripped and kept in unlit cells. The forms of torture became progressively more savage, but neither man broke. In the end they were shot. Apostolos had been a schoolmaster before the war, Polentas a lawyer.
A ‘National Revolutionary Court Martial of Crete’ was convened in secret to try Komnas, in absentia, for his treachery. One of the witnesses, Gregory Morakis, testified that: ‘When I was first summoned to watch Giorgios Komnas I was not the least sure about his treacherous actions, since up to that time he appeared to be an Anglophile. During the course of time I was able to discover that he was working for the German occupation forces and in more particular for the German counter-espionage unit. He thought I was pro-German and thus unveiled to me his secrets, giving orders and information concerning the discovery of the radio and cooperating with the British Intelligence Service.’ In his testimony Morakis says that he tried to warn Polentas of the danger and had also warned Leigh Fermor, but nobody would believe him. The court found Komnas guilty and, in ‘Verdict No. 1 of the National Revolutionary Court Martial of Crete’ ordered that he be captured and executed, and that if possible he should first be interrogated. The verdict was transmitted to Xan Fielding, who asked that Komnas be delivered to his organisation.
In the event Komnas stayed in Chania under the protection of the Germans. He was
Vandoulas told Leigh Fermor what had happened. As they talked a messenger came from Polentas with a warning from Komnas that the Geheime Feldpolizei chief in Chania had heard that the RAF had recently made a big supply drop in the area and was ordering a large-scale search. Leigh Fermor immediately moved his headquarters. Vandoulas and his radio operator stayed on in the village.
Early on the morning of 1 4 November 1942, Vandoulas and Apostolos were having breakfast and getting ready for the 0 8:00 hours transmission to SOE Cairo when they heard a prolonged whistle: the villagers’ signal that German soldiers were in the area. Vandoulas ran out of the house to be confronted by the sight of a German patrol about fifty metres away, talking to a villager, demanding that he identify Vandoulas’s house. They stopped Vandoulas and asked him the same question, without realising who they were talking to. Vandoulas said that he thought the man they were looking for was the villager they could see running down the road. Vandoulas then bolted and managed to disappear into the hills.
His radio operator was less fortunate. Apostolos was stuffing signal papers into his pockets and heading for the back door where he was arrested by Germans who had now surrounded the building. Meanwhile Vandoulas’s sister Elpida, managed to hide the radio set and other equipment in the attic. Apostolos was marched off for interrogation to Chania. Once the soldiers had gone Elpida took the radio, batteries, signal books and a sub-machine gun to a hiding place in the mountains.
From the moment that Komnas had been introduced to Vandoulas in the cafe in Chania the whole thing had been a plot. Once he knew who Vandoulas was, Komnas had reported this information to the secret police. The messenger sent to Polentas with the warning of the raid was a trick to win the trust of Vandoulas and the others in the resistance. The trick worked, Andreas Polentas, one of the most senior men in the resistance, was arrested and taken to Agyia jail with Apostolos.
At first the prisoners pretended that they did not know each other. They were interrogated for hours and deprived of food. Apostolos’s cover story was that he was a black-marketeer going about his business and that Vaphé was one of his regular business haunts. After a few days Polentas and Apostolos were tortured, stripped and kept in unlit cells. The forms of torture became progressively more savage, but neither man broke. In the end they were shot. Apostolos had been a schoolmaster before the war, Polentas a lawyer.
A ‘National Revolutionary Court Martial of Crete’ was convened in secret to try Komnas, in absentia, for his treachery. One of the witnesses, Gregory Morakis, testified that: ‘When I was first summoned to watch Giorgios Komnas I was not the least sure about his treacherous actions, since up to that time he appeared to be an Anglophile. During the course of time I was able to discover that he was working for the German occupation forces and in more particular for the German counter-espionage unit. He thought I was pro-German and thus unveiled to me his secrets, giving orders and information concerning the discovery of the radio and cooperating with the British Intelligence Service.’ In his testimony Morakis says that he tried to warn Polentas of the danger and had also warned Leigh Fermor, but nobody would believe him. The court found Komnas guilty and, in ‘Verdict No. 1 of the National Revolutionary Court Martial of Crete’ ordered that he be captured and executed, and that if possible he should first be interrogated. The verdict was transmitted to Xan Fielding, who asked that Komnas be delivered to his organisation.
In the event Komnas stayed in Chania under the protection of the Germans. He was
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