The 11th Day (2005)

It's a film that Chase Brandon, a 30 year veteran operative of the CIA, has proclaimed "one of the greatest untold stories of World War II." "An extraordinary film," says U.S. Congressman Michael Bilirakis, who was so moved by the story that he hosted a special preview screening for fellow members of Congress in Washington D.C. It has been acquired for exhibition by America's national World War II museum, The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, and the film has been shown on a worldwide tour of limited engagements in theaters across America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and yet its subject is one most Americans have never heard of. "The 11th Day" chronicles the story of the men, women, and children of the Cretan civilian resistance movement and their relentless battle against German occupation forces from 1941-1945-a battle which inspired Churchill to proclaim, "Until now, we knew that Greeks were fighting like heroes; from now on we shall say that the heroes fight like Greeks." Their stories are told first hand, and on-location, through interviews with the fighters themselves. Some were just child recruits at the time, boys and girls; others were seasoned veterans, and still others were the Allied soldiers and British intelligence operatives who fought alongside them. Together, they would inflict upon Germany its first major defeat of the war, decimating half of Hitler's 8,000 invading elite airborne assault troops in just a matter of days. Later, a mere handful of Cretan fighters would kidnap the commander in chief of German forces on Crete-the famous abduction of General Kreipe, masterminded and led by British Special Operations officer Patrick Leigh Fermor. It was the only successful kidnapping of a German general throughout the war.