Damasta sabotage

Crete (Cretan resistance) World War II in Albania The Damasta sabotage (Greek: Το σαμποτάζ της Δαμάστας) was an attack by Cretan resistance fighters led by British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC against German occupation forces in World War II.

[1][2][3][4] As part of a coordinated attack with the Special Boat Service, Billy Moss, the second-in-command of the Kreipe kidnap team, was despatched back to Crete in early July by Brigadier Barker-Benfield, the new commander of Force 133 in Cairo to provide guides for the S.B.S.

[5] On the following day, 8 August, the resistance group commanded by the British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC consisting of eight Cretans from Anogeia organized into EOK (Kefalogiannis, Stavrakakis, Sbokos, Spithouris, Skoulas and Kontokalos)[6] and six escaped Russian prisoners of war, marched to the main road connecting Rethymno and Heraklion.

Moss had previously created a small strike force of escaped Russian POWs working with the andartes, planning to attack enemy transport on the Heraklion-Rethymno road.

[2] He chose an ambush site by a bridge in the Damastos location, one kilometer west of the village of Damasta and mined it with Hawkins grenades, preparing for the German reaction.

After destroying various passing vehicles, among which was a lorry carrying military mail to Chania, the German force on its way to target Anogeia finally appeared.

[2][7] Nevertheless, he was rescued in "extremely brave action" by Kostas Kephaloyannis (Kountokostas) and treated by fellow andartes, as well as Moss and Georgios Tyrakis, managing to survive.

[1][3][4] Anogeia residents had been actively involved in, and given refuge to, the resistance for many years, had killed the Sergeant Commander Olenhauer and the garrison from Yeni-Gave and had also provided shelter to the abductors of General Heinrich Kreipe.

[11] The monument was designed by two architects from Heraklion, Nikos Scoutelis and Flavio Zanon, and built in 1994 with funds given by the families of the village of Damasta.

[citation needed] The monument includes an extract from a poem written by Odysseus Elytis, the Greek poet and winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize for Literature.