Editing History of Crete (section)

===Civil War===
In the aftermath of the [[Dekemvriana]] in Athens, Cretan leftists were targeted by the right wing paramilitary organization National Organization of Rethymno (EOR), which engaged in attacks in the villages of Koxare and Melampes, as well as Rethymno in January 1945. Those attacks did not escalate into a full scale insurgency as they did in the Greek mainland and the Cretan [[ELAS]] did not surrender its weapons after the [[Treaty of Varkiza]]. The Cretan branch of the [[Greek Communist Party]] (KKE) was well aware that the island was unsuitable for a long scale insurgency due to its isolation from the mainland and the popularity of [[Venizelism]] and conservative politics among its population. The presence of numerous bandits, escaped convicts and armed deserters in the countryside further complicated the situation. An uneasy truce was maintained until 1947, with a series of arrests of notable communists in Chania and Heraklion. This was followed with the mass arming of right leaning villagers and creation of the first Cretan {{Interlanguage link|Rural Security Units{{!}}MAY|el|3=Μονάδες Ασφαλείας Υπαίθρου}} units which were led by Bandouvas in Heraklion and "Kapetan" Gyparis in Chania. Encouraged by orders from the central organization in Athens, KKE launched an insurgency in Crete; marking the beginning of the [[Greek Civil War]] on the island. In eastern Crete the [[Democratic Army of Greece]] (DSE) struggled to establish its presence in [[Dikti]] and [[Psilorites]], after continuously clashing with local bandits, armed peasants and army units. The summer season severely limited the number of available water sources for the rebels, further limiting the space available for their maneuvers. On 1 July 1947, the surviving 55 fighters of DSE were ambushed south of Psilorites during an attempt to relocate to [[Mount Kedros]]. Commander Giannis Podias was killed and decapitated, the few surviving members of the unit managed to join the rest of DSE in [[Lefka Ori]].<ref>Margaritis, pp. 441–447.</ref>

The Lefka Ori region in the west offered more favorable conditions for DSE's insurgency. In the summer of 1947 DSE raided the [[Maleme Airport]], looting its warehouses and abducting 100 aircraftmen of the Royal [[Hellenic Air Force]], 12 of whom joined the rebels. On 4 July 1947, DSE struck a former German motor depot at Chrysopigi on the outskirts of Chania. DSE abducted the depot's guards, looted the warehouse and set it aflame; resulting in a big explosion that led to the mobilization of government troops across the island. Following the destruction of the DSE units in the east, Cretan DSE numbered around 300 fighters. Crop failure during 1947 had created food shortages in Crete which were much more severe among the rebels who lacked access to the cities. The communists resorted to [[Cattle raiding|cattle rustling]] and confiscated 70,000 [[Oka (mass)|okades]] of potatoes from the village of [[Lakkoi]]. This solved supply shortages only temporarily and the communists struggled to enforce discipline on their recruits or dislodge the mountain bandits residing in the areas under their nominal control. In the autumn of 1947, the Greek government offered generous amnesty terms to Cretan DSE fighters and mountain bandits, many of whom opted to abandon armed struggle or even defect to the nationalists. On 4 July 1948, government troops launched a large scale offensive on [[Samariá Gorge]]. Many DSE soldiers were killed in the fighting while the survivors broke into small armed bands. In October 1948, the secretary of the Cretan KKE Giorgos Tsitilos was killed in an ambush. By the following month only 34 DSE fighters remained active in Lefka Ori. The insurgency in Crete gradually withered away, with the last two hold outs surrendering in 1974, 25 years after the conclusion of the war in mainland Greece.<ref>Margaritis, pp. 447–452.</ref>