Title	The Flight of The Falcons Greece at War
Author	Andrew Stevens
EAN	978 0958495127 Non-fiction
Publisher	Wanderlust
First Published	2008
Size of book	200mm x 125 mm
Cover	Paperback, gloss varnished, full colour
Text	192pp
Illustrations	Sketches by Renate Stitfall
Binding	Thread sewn
Retail Price	South African Rand R109.95 ( €10 / £9 / $15 )

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Edward Stevens contends with two World Wars in Greece and a harrowing escape to Crete, Egypt and South Africa. Skillfully woven into his true-life narrative, are some of the most turbulent events in Greece’s modern history, from its struggle to independence, to its devastating civil war.

BACK COVER

The back cover picture shows the HMS Gloucester in Cape Town in 1939, www.rapidttp.co.za/museum a light cruiser that became heavily involved in Greek waters with her gallant crew until she was sunk in May 1941. Some of her crew were rescued and detained on the island of Kythira which, in the early 19th century was known as Cerigo and had been captured from the French by Capt. Jahleel Brenton, later Sir Jahleel, and Naval Commissioner at Simon’s Town. The seaside settlement of Brenton, near Knysna takes its name from him and honours his work in establishing Knysna as a port.

TITLE

The endangered Eleanora falcon can be seen on some Mediterranean islands such as Crete and Kythira. They migrate at great height to the south eastern shore of Africa and Madagascar. Edward Stevens and his family followed their dangerous flight.

LONG DESCRIPTION AND STRUCTURE

This book is illustrated with sketches and comprises 5 parts. The first, a brief 7- page historical background, covers the period from Ancient Greece to the Ottoman and Venetian era, prior to the battle of Lepanto in 1571. The last part, the notes to the text, includes items such as the 15th century BC vessel ‘Minoa’, reconstructed by experimental naval architecture (http://www.tuc.gr/marmuseum) and the ‘Sea Mill’ at Cephalonia, with research undertaken by Dr Unger in 1860; Austrian geologists, Victor Maurin & Josef Zötl of Graz School of Technology in 1963 and Melville Bell for National Geographic in 1973 http://www.nationalgeographic.com

The main part is the story of Edward Stevens’ flight from Greece as the German invasion intensifies. He navigates a small fishing caique through stormy and mined waters to Crete relying on his First World War naval training. www.royalnavy.com Once in Egypt they find relative peace and the author turns the pages of history back to the Venetian and Ottoman era. In this third part, many of the more significant events making modern Greek history are related in an easy and understandable way. They include the battle of Lepanto and its importance for Christian survival in Europe; the penultimate crushing blow dealt by the battle of Navarone; the lack of assistance by the ‘Entente’ during the struggle for independence and how Greece deals with this.

Whilst Greeks are killing Ottomans and Ottomans, Greeks, the British take the Ionian islands from the French and set about building their ‘Colony’. The war of independence, fought a few miles away on the mainland, grows in intensity. Here the author introduces Edward’s British and Venetian ancestry at a time when the much loved Sir Charles Napier was the Resident of Cephalonia. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Cephalonia . The then Col. Napier, although willing to accept a Greek offer to lead fighters against the Ottomans, reluctantly declined as he was solely dependent on his British military pay.

Edward’s great-grandfather George, Deputy-Assistant Commissary General, married to Annetta (Annae) Piedescini, is stationed at Cerigo (Kythira), http://www.kythera-family.net/ the Southernmost Ionian island where their first son, George Augustus, is born. He later joins General FCL Chiaranda at Zakynthos. www.zakynthos.gr/english/index.htm it is here at Zakynthos that Edward’s grandfather, Richard Chiaranda Maery is born and later marries Maria Goia Carrer, a Venetian. Richard’s sister, Angioletta, also married a Venetian, Giovanni Coïda. The Carrer and Coïda families had fled from Ottoman conquests of Cyprus and Crete respectively. Concise family trees are included.

Linked to these events, is the story of the Sea Mill on the island of Cephalonia at Argostoli, built by the Stevens family. The phenomenon of the disappearing sea water is of great interest to visitors and geologists and featured in the London Illustrated and National Geographic vol.144 no.1- July 1973 www.nationalgeographic.com/

As Greece approaches independence the growing call for ‘enosis’ 'union' embarrasses the ‘British Protectors’. The success and failure of the Greek monarchs is explained and it is with the installation of the 2nd monarch that the British government bestows magnanimously to Greece, a gift of the Ionian islands. Edward’s father, Alfred who is born in Zakynthos moves to Patras whose patron saint is the martyr, St Andrew. www.patras.gr/en/index.asp Here, Edward and his sister, Nora are born. As the First World War begins, a feud erupts between the king, perceived as germanophil, and parliament. The feud is significant in Greek history and even as Edward is packed off to join the Royal Navy, the French bombard the king’s palace from naval ships, forcing the king to abdicate, before Greece joins the Entente.

Edward, educated at Dulwich College, London www.dulwich.org.uk represents the first team at rugby and on completion of his studies returns home. He works briefly for the British Embassy and Royal Naval Port Control before being enlisted in the Royal Navy’s mine detection section where he sees active service in the North Sea. On his discharge as a sub-lieutenant, he joins his father, Alfred in his shipping business, Crowe & Stevens with offices in Pireaus, Patras, Cephalonia, Zakynthos, Calamata and Catacolo. They have well-known shipping companies such as Ellerman and Bucknall www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/02082105.html on daily call as well as many lesser known companies. The company is known later, as Morphy, Crowe and Stevens and after the war, as Gellatly Morphy Shipping, and by the late 1980s, as Inchcape Shipping.
 
As the war draws to a close, with Greece actively involved in the latter part, the peace agreement is signed and Edward is discharged and returns home in 1919. He agrees to work for his father and settles down to a normal office routine. However, peace is not to be for Greece and her weary forces are dispatched to the Greek city, Smyrna, in Asia Minor (today’s Izmir) The 'great idea' which Venizelos had frequently discussed with Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister was driven by the success of reoccupied Greek territory; for Greece it was the desire to unify with the Greeks of Asia Minor; for Britain, the replacement of the failing Ottoman Empire with Greece. However, what was thought initially in 1919 to be a relatively swift and painless offensive against the beaten Ottomans, turned out to be a fight for survival, as the new rising leader, a Thessalonian, Mustapha Kemel or Kemel Atatürk, breaks away from the defeated Sultan’s forces, and rallies his dispirited and beaten men in the east. There is no support from the 'Entente' and the 2nd part of the 'dichasmos' or national schism, erupts when King Alexander dies and Venizelos tries to get the late king’s older brother George to succeed him. But George declines and their father, Constantine is reappointed. This reappointment, in effect, seals the fate of Greece as there is no desire to assist a country under the perceived 'germanophil' monarch. The beaten army is forced to retreat with huge loss of life and misery for millions more. The compelling end to this story is the execution of those believed to be responsible for this tragedy, marking yet another important event in modern Greek history.

A happier period in Edward’s life begins after 1922, the end of the Smyrna campaign, when he meets his future wife, Joan, a Londoner. Their first child, Rosanna is born, but soon after, the Second World War breaks out, forcing him to escape from occupied Greece to Egypt, as outlined above.

The fourth part of the book begins with the boarding of the SS ‘Ile de France’ for Durban. In South Africa, Edward and his sister, Nora work for Military Intelligence as both are fluent in Italian as well as other languages. Edward is later commissioned into the Union Defence Force to see to the needs of some of the thousands of Italian prisoners-of-war arriving in the country from North Africa. Many befriend him and remain in contact after the war, when they choose to make South Africa their home. Edward of course, with Italian ancestry, through his Venetian forbears had no axe to grind with the Italians, many of whom were contracted into the army as little more than children and were still to be taught to read and write.

As Greece is liberated and the war draws to a close, Nora, his sister, against Edward’s advice, returns to Athens where she is confronted by the country’s devastating civil war, a war which tears the very heart of Greece apart with Greek killing Greek and displacing thousands of families. Children are kidnapped and taken across the border into Communist-controlled countries, many lost to their parents forever. This war, yet another blight on Greek history, finally ends a few months before Edward dies.

AUTHOR

During the early 1960s whilst serving in the British South Africa Police www.bsap.org and on patrol in the Kezi/Matopos area, south of Bulawayo, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the author visited a farm owned by an Italian farmer. As they talked, memories drifted back. The Italian mentioned that he had been a prisoner-of-war in South Africa in the 1940s. The author responded that his father, Edward, had been an officer in the Union Defence force after escaping from Greece in 1941 and had been sent to Zonderwater, a prisoner-of-war camp under construction, near Pretoria. Well, before he knew the Italian embraced him in true Mediterranean style shouting, "I knew your father, he was a ‘magnifico man’." That day they dined like kings celebrating the past and toasting ‘Eduardo’.

SOME REVIEWS AND COMMENTS

Mr Graham Able MA MA, Master, Dulwich College London, had the following to say:-
19 May 2008
I found the book absolutely fascinating and it placed my own experiences of Greece and Crete into an historic perspective. I am now placing the book in the College library. www.dulwich.org.uk

Sylvia Cook, for Greek-o-File www.greekofile.co.uk
7 July 2008
Subtitled ‘Greece at War’, The Flight of the Falcons relates the history of modern Greece through the eyes of the author’s forbears. Andrew Stevens’ father, Edward, was born in Patras before the outbreak of the Balkan wars. He was a naval officer in World War I and, as director of a Greek shipping company, aided the allies before escaping to South Africa with his family in World War II. Details from his diaries and family history are interspersed with background information on the political, social and military situation in Greece since Edward’s great grandfather, George Stevens, was brought to the Ionian islands (responsible for supplies, taxes and port requirements) with the then British rulers. A fascinating insight to the colonial ex-pats of earlier years and their involvement with wartime Greece.

Maritime Museum of Crete - Chania Vice Admiral H.N.(ret.) Konstantinos Manioudakis and Commander H.N.(ret.) Anastasios Kontos www.tuc.gr/marmuseum
5th August 2008
Congratulations on your interesting edition “The Flight of the Falcons-Greece at War” which includes particularly useful information. Your contribution to the objective recording of history is a reason to be proud of.

AVAILABILITY

Most bookshops in South Africa. Intenationally at Eleftheroudakis Athens www.books.gr and Hellenic Bookservice, London www.hellenicbooks.com