Kiriakos A British Partisan in Wartime Greece

Book Code:  SA2454

Kiriakos A British Partisan in Wartime Greece

 

 Ernest Chapman was an unknown soldier with the ill-fated British force sent to defend Greece against the Nazi invasion, left stranded when the campaign ended. It was four years before he was able to leave, but by then he was a Greek legend; and he had a new identity as Kiriakos. How it happened is one of the most remarkable feats of endurance of the last war. During those horrific years in the heart of enemy-occupied territory Chapman made four desperate escapes from his captors, hoping to find a way home through Turkey. At large on three of these escapes he was befriended and hidden by Greek peasants and farmers at terrible risks to themselves. He learned to read, write and speak fluent Greek. He passed as a farmer and toiled in the fields under the noses of the German patrols seeking him, all the time striving to find a way out of the country. But treachery and bad luck led three times to recapture and the Gestapo. Undaunted, Chapman made his fourth and last escape. This time he made contact with Greek guerrillas and became one of their most daring fighters in the savage war waged against the German forces from their mountain strongholds. It was more than thirty years before Chapman, from Barnsley, Yorkshire, returned. Surely no one would remember him? But his name spread like wildfire and his native people offered an overwhelming welcome to the legendary Kiriakos.

 

Don Turner

Hardcover with d/w 191pp Robert Hale 1982 1st Ed

 

Fine/VG