Operation Mercury (32 page)

King George of Greece, by the end of April 1941, was a king largely without a kingdom. He was evacuated from Athens, together with his immediate entourage, by flying boat. His arrival did not spark any great enthusiasm amongst the pro-republican Cretans. The common sentiment was revulsion at the man who had acquiesced to the Metaxas coup in 1936 and, even now, brought with him the hated Maniadakis, Minister for Security, essentially a fascist thug who was bolstered by a full platoon of his equally thuggish secret police.

As a sop to the islanders' sensibilities, Emmanuel Tsouderas, a native Cretan, politician and financier, was appointed as Prime Minister in the wake of Koryzis' suicide. Most, however, saw him as little better than a turncoat, a poor substitute for the whole of the Cretan 5th Division whose heroism had been rewarded with abandonment. General Papastergiou, the divisional commander was, however, evacuated.

For this betrayal the locals ensured he was duly assassinated the moment he set foot on the streets of Chania. British diplomats regarded this sudden taking off of the despised and discredited general as a healthy sign! Cretan morale was not affected by the loss of the mainland.

As his official residence the King chose the Villa Ariadne, Evans' elegant Edwardian villa by Knossos, built once the present ruler's uncle, Prince George, ceded the freehold of the site in 1900. Pendlebury had been curator from 1930-1934. Here he established his truncated court, joined by Princess Katherine and other members of the Royal Family, (most of whom transferred to Egypt by flying boat prior to the attack). Though ousted from the bulk of his domain King George had ensured that the country's gold reserves travelled with him.

Congenial as Villa Ariadne might be it was too far removed from the hub of civic and diplomatic life in Chania whence the court was presently removed. British observers pointed out that the presence of the brutal Maniadakis was an affront to local, republican sympathies and he, together with his henchmen, was shifted to Egypt where he was able to continue terrorising the pro-Venizelist Greek community.

In a further, doomed attempt to win hearts and minds the King appointed two Cretan officers, Generals Zannakis and Skoulas as Minister of War and commander of local forces respectively. As, however, the Greek troops on the island had all been placed under Freyberg's own hand these sinecures held little currency.

As far as the Allied commander-in-chief was concerned the presence of the King within his enceinte was an embarrassment, yet another millstone of responsibility for which he could perceive little or no point. Freyberg would have preferred the King, his family and hangers on removed to the safety of Cairo but neither Wavell nor indeed Churchill would hear of it. King George was seen, somewhat wishfully, as a talisman, a guarantee of Allied legitimacy and, optimistically, a symbol to his people.

In reality the King was a symbol of oppression, adrift in a sea of republicanism, his tame surrender to Metaxas and the anti-republican measures which ensued had earned him nothing but opprobrium.

The Cretans particularly felt the confiscation of their firearms as a form of ritual emasculation. To the proud
Palikari
the gun was a symbol of independence, identity, liberty, even of manhood; to rob them of their arms was to forfeit any hope of allegiance. When, after the end of the war, in 1946, a plebiscite on the role of monarchy was held, the islanders overwhelmingly voted against. Equally they would have no truck with the communists, preparing to rend their battered country further with bloody civil strife.

In the halcyon interlude prior to 20 May the King spent his days touring his shrunken domain, his large limousine, complete with pennons, a prime target of opportunity for prowling Messerschmitts, adding a Ruritanian note to the drab attire of war. As the bombing intensified the court was moved from the dangerous environs of the beleaguered island capital to the supposedly safer isolation of Perivolia, near Galatos. Here the King was guarded by 12 Platoon, B Company, 18th Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant W.H. Ryan.

The events of the morning of 20 May shattered this meaningless if not unpleasant round. Ryan ushered his charge out of the villa and up into the hills behind as the sky filled with parachutists. None too soon; by the end of the day the area was in German hands, and the party was in full flight toward the central massif of the White Mountains. It is unlikely the invaders had any immediate notion of how valuable a prize had slipped from their clutches but the party faced a gruelling trek over the high snow bound plateau atop the Lefka Ori before the difficult descent to the south coast and evacuation aboard HMS
Decoy
.

On the 21st they struggled for fourteen long hours to gain the summit, the sounds and sights of battle spread over the coastal plain below; the King, Prince Peter, M. Tsouderas, the President of the National Bank and a random rump of the attendant entourage bolstered by 12 Platoon.

Throughout this difficult and potentially dangerous journey, certainly the greatest test of any personality, the King remained a tower of optimism. He chatted and joked with the Australians, not likely to be easily impressed by a title, yet who clearly came to respect and like their charge who shared their hardships, the toil of the barren march, the meagre rations with constant good humour.

Despite the constant, harassing presence of German observation aircraft, the ubiquitous Fiesler Storch, the whole party eventually completed the difficult descent to the south coast without lost and were duly taken off by sea.

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