The Ariadne Objective
A聽young man from England was hiking in the Balkans one December night聽in 1934聽when he slipped and plunged into the聽freezing waters of the Black Sea. He didn't know the Bulgar word for help, so when he scrambled from the water he聽began shouting 鈥済ood evening, good evening!鈥� He聽spotted a distant light flickering from a聽cave and stumbled, shivering,聽to its mouth.聽
A group of Bulgar聽shepherds and Greek聽sailors welcomed聽him and led聽him near the fire to get dry. They fed him some lentils and fried mackerel, and soon a few bottles of raki聽began circulating. As the night wore on, a Greek sailor聽did a drunken dance around the cave and cried out 鈥�lordos veeron!鈥� It took him a moment to realize that the sailor was toasting Greek and English solidarity by evoking Lord Byron,聽the poet who famously perished while assisting the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey.
The young man was Patty Leigh Fermor, and he also聽had a Byronic聽penchant for poetry and wandering. He'd begun walking across Europe in hobnailed boots one year before when聽he was just 18; he carried a Loeb edition聽of Horace and a tattered copy of the Oxford Book of English Verse. He slept in castles and cowsheds,聽befriending聽both peasants and aristocrats as he tramped across Europe. He eventually reached Constantinople, but he'd already fallen in love with Greece. When the聽Second World War began, his familiarity with Greece drew聽the聽attention of the British War Office. He also had a schoolboy's knowledge of ancient Greek, which made learning modern Greek considerably easier.
Soon he was deployed to German-occupied Crete聽to assist an聽operation led聽by John Pendlebury, a聽Cambridge-trained archaeologist who wore聽an eye patch, often dressed in traditional Cretan聽garb, and always carried a swordstick. One of his men later recalled Pendlebury as a rakish fellow who "could drink everyone under the table and then stride across three mountain ranges without turning a hair."
Pendlebury and Fermor are聽just two of the聽extraordinary characters in Wes聽Davis'聽The Ariadne Objective:聽 The Underground War聽to Rescue Crete From the Nazis. The Cretan聽hill聽men聽who formed the core of the resistance took an immediate liking to Pendlebury and聽Fermor. It's most likely that Pendlebury was shot after being captured by German soldiers, but a romantic legend聽soon began to circulate that he was killed while dashing towards enemy guns armed only with his sword.
The bands of Cretan resistance fighters also included some outsized characters. One man shot his own finger off to punish it for rolling the losing number in a聽dice game. Others were fond of muttering聽fierce aphorisms like 鈥渢he struggle needs blood, my lads,鈥� or 鈥渨ith Christ and the Virgin's help, we'll聽eat them.鈥澛燨ne British soldier described a Cretan guerrilla fighter like this: "he breathes blood and slaughter and garlic in the best Cretan style."
Many of the island's young men were deployed in Albania during the war, so the resistance fighters were often old men聽bearing antique, rusted rifles that聽had been buried in secret caches for decades. Not to be outdone, the Cretan women sometimes appeared brandishing kitchen knives and broomsticks. There were even rumors of a German soldier found crucified聽to a door. British troops and Cretans had to be very careful; any attacks on the Germans would unleash reprisals in which whole villages were burned and聽many civilians killed.
Fermor and the British agents who helped mobilize Cretan resistance often seemed to regard the operations on the island as an elaborate and thoroughly enjoyable game. They dyed聽their hair and eyebrows black to pass as local shepherds, and聽they shouted out vaguely German-sounding commands when marching through villages to fool any Cretans who might betray them to the Germans. Two聽soldiers聽who washed ashore dangerously close to a German outpost聽laughed hysterically for a few minutes before sneaking away into the hills.
They also spent the war consuming an聽altogether astonishing amount of wine, whiskey, and raki. In a typical message to British headquarters in Cairo, Fermor聽requested only the most essential supplies: whiskey, cigarettes, cigars, and books.
Many of the heroes in Davis'聽book聽are so literary that they聽merit a seemingly oxymoronic designation: swashbuckling men of letters. Just days before kidnapping the German general who held command over all of Crete,聽Fermor聽passed the time reading Robert Louis Stevenson and Shakespeare. Billy Moss, another key player in the kidnapping operation, read聽Mallarm茅. Their聽love of words also led them to write profusely about their experiences 鈥� a tremendous advantage for Davis. Drawing on letters, diaries, and聽long reports to headquarters, he reconstructs聽their聽escapades and espionage with incredible, novelistic detail. The story unfolds with the rich characterization and perfectly calibrated suspense of a great novel. It can be hard at聽points to remember the book is actually a work of nonfiction.
The mythic聽setting of the action and聽the classical education聽of many of the protagonists lend聽the story a certain grandeur and resonance. When Fermor聽and Moss succeed in kidnapping the German general, they flee into the high mountains, sleeping in a cave on Mount聽Ida聽where, according to myth, Zeus聽was raised. The general is intercepted on the way to his home near Knossos, the villa聽Ariadne, named聽for the Cretan princess who helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur. And when Fermor聽has had a bit to drink, which is nearly always, he聽feels that "each village must have existed in Minoan times,"聽and muses on Aristotle and Polyphemus, the Cyclops of Homer鈥檚 Odyssey.
As聽Fermor and Moss were fleeing with the captive聽general and a band of Cretan rebels and shepherds, they followed hidden mountain paths used by sheep rustlers. When the sun rose on Mt. Ida one morning,聽Fermor聽heard the general muttering softly to himself. It聽took him a moment to realize that he was speaking Latin, not German. "Do you see how mount Soracte stands out white under deep snow?"聽He was reciting one of the odes聽of Horace. When he stopped speaking,聽Fermor finished the verse and recited the rest of the ode聽in Latin. "Leave off asking what tomorrow will bring and count the days that fortune gives you as profit."
For a brief moment,聽both men seemed to feel as if the war had ceased. As聽Fermor recalled, "we had both drunk at the same fountains long before."
Nick Romeo is a Monitor contributor.
