Kimonas Zografakis
Kimonas or Kimon Zografakis (Greek: Κίμωνας ή Κίμων Ζωγραφάκης, 1918 – 23 November 2004), nicknamed Black man, was a distinguished Greek partisan in the Cretan resistance of the years 1941 – 1944 against the Axis occupation forces.[1]
Early life
Kimonas Zografakis was born and raised in the village of Kastelli Pediados in Crete. His parents were Georgios Zografakis (nicknamed Xirouhis, Greek: Ξηρούχης) and Ekaterini Katzagiannaki who had a family of two daughters and six sons. During the Greco-Italian War (1940–41), Zografakis served at the Albanian front.
During the German occupation
After the surrender of mainland Greece in April 1941, Zografakis returned to Crete. He participated in the Battle of Crete, fighting at Kokkini Chani. After the fall of Crete, he returned to his family at Kastelli. In early 1942, the occupation forces started the expansion of the nearby airfield. Zografakis' father, who was the elected president of the local community, was ordered to organize his fellow villagers into forced labor groups. Unwilling to cooperate, he resigned and moved with his family to the village of Kastamonitsa. At Kastamonitsa, the entire family was involved in the resistance, developing links with EOK. Young Kimon sought an opportunity to reach the Middle East and join the British who were fighting the Axis.
Zografakis got his chance in early June 1942, when he assisted a group of SBS commandos who carried out the first sabotage of Kastelli airfield.[2] After the operation, he followed the commandos to the Middle East where he fought in battles at El Alamein and Mersa Matruh. He later trained as a parachutist and saboteur and joined Force 133. He returned to Crete and in July 1943 took part in the second sabotage against Kastelli airfield under the orders of Anders Lassen.[3] Zografakis escaped again to Egypt. In October 1943, soon after the battle of Kato Simi and the Viannos massacres, the Germans arrested in reprisal many officers of the Greek army. Among them was Kimonas' brother Giannis, who was a second lieutenant in reserve and had been injured at the Albanian front. Giannis Zografakis was court-martialed and sentenced to death with four more officers. They were all executed in Agia prison near Chania.[1]
Kimonas Zografakis secretly returned to Crete and under the command of Sandy Rendel, took part in several clandestine operations mostly in eastern Crete. He was also part of a group or partisans who operated a radio station hidden in the caves of the Dikti range.[1] In February 1944 he met Patrick Leigh Fermor who parachuted to Crete at Katharo plateau and assisted him in the preparation of Gen. Heinrich Kreipe's abduction.[4] In early April 1944, Zografakis sheltered Kreipe's abductors at his family house in Kastamonitsa for over a fortnight. In August 1944 he participated in the successful attack against fuel dumps in Drasi, Mirabello.
Later life
Zografakis was awarded several medals from Greece and Great Britain for his service. In 1955, disagreeing with the British policies in Cyprus, he returned the medals he had been awarded from the British government.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Αφιέρωμα - Κίμωνας Ζωγραφάκης, Πατρίς onLine, 24 Νοεμβρίου 2004; archived here
- ↑ Doundoulakis, H. and Gafni, G. Trained to be an OSS Spy, Xlibris, 2014.
- ↑ Harder, Thomas. Anders Lassens krig, København, Information, 2010
- ↑ Stroud, Rick. Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General, Bloomsbury, 2015
- ↑ Σανουδάκης, Αντώνης. Το αγγλικό προσωπείο και ο "Black Man". Αφήγηση Κίμωνα Ζωγραφάκη, Ταξιδευτής, 2005, ISBN 960-8365-48-1
