As the British warship sailed from southern Crete towards Tobruk that night, Lieutenant Colonel Charalampos Seiradakis stood on deck, deep in thought. What awaited him in the Middle East, where he had been sent to help rebuild the Greek army in exile and support the Allies in their fight against the Axis powers? It was May 1943, two years after the bitter Battle of Crete, in which he had fought against German paratroopers and just another chapter in a life marked by war. Seiradakis had first picked up a rifle at the age of eleven during the Cretan uprising against Ottoman rule. His youthful zeal led him to the Balkan Wars in northern Greece and then to the battlefields of Lorraine and Gallipoli during the First World War. Now, in the deserts of North Africa, the seasoned officer once again faced the dangers of a world at war. Charalampos Seiradakis embodies the Greek soldier of the turbulent 20th century: loyal to the liberal vision of Eleftherios Venizelos, forged in decades of struggle and shaped by the wars that defined modern Greece. His story is both compelling and symbolic a vivid chronicle of courage, perseverance and the birth of a nation.
Author
Xirouchakis, Charis
Title
No Battle without him
Details
English text, paperback, 73 bw-illustrations, 9 maps. 268 pages.
