This book was not written with the official pen of history. It was written with the rough pencil of the fighter and the ordinary citizen who lived as eyewitnesses of the renowned Battle of Crete, the only airborne invasion in world history.

Thanks to those obscure and prominent Greeks, Allies as well as Germans, thanks to their authentic testimonies, the battle, survival, resistance, and liberation become a living, everyday epic that conveys to the reader the innermost pulse of any fighter who found themselves inadvertently caught in the whirlwind of a titanic clash.

Here, numbers do not speak; the heart does. For eleven days, the Minoan land became a volcano of destruction, but also a volcano that rekindled the free Cretan spirit.

Authentic letters, diaries, poems, photographs, sketches, and documents from the era candidly present, without pretense, the atmosphere of the fateful battle that, along with the epic of '40 in mainland Greece, significantly contributed to the Allied victory in World War II.

This book, which tangibly shows the catastrophic consequences and futility of war, has as its ultimate aim to emit the light of peace. The countless olive groves that stretch from one end to the other of the Cretan land symbolize and revive the drama of peace that always smolders in the souls of people.