Dr. Theodore Stephanides, who took part in the British and ANZAC retreat from Crete in May 1941, describes one of the rugged Cretans he encountered, the type that would, for the remainder of the occupation of the island, sabotage and resist enemy forces (Climax in Crete, 1946, p. 138-39):

"As we emerged on to the main road, I saw a sight which spoke well for the fighting spirit of the Cretans and their will to resist. It was an old grey-bearded Cretan peasant riding a wiry little pony and carrying across the front of his saddle an old, but beautifully cleaned and oiled Martini-Henry single-shot rifle; two bandoliers full of cartridges crossed his chest. I asked him where he was going and he answered coldly: "I'm going to get one of those German pigs, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do.' I told him, that, if he went down the path I had just come from, he could throw away his old rifle and pick up as many modern rifles as he liked which would be more suitable for the job. He was at once all eagerness and clamoured for further information, because, as he said, he knew several friends of his who were 'longing to get hold of a good rifle and would know how to use it.' When I last saw him, he was hurrying down the path to salvage some of the abandoned rifles."

As Stephanides and others note, the Cretans in 1940s were particularly desperate for firearms as many had previously surrendered their own weapons under orders from the Metaxas regime in the mid-1930s. The Greek dictator at that time feared insurrection on the part of the fiercely independent people of Crete. (The island had been formally made part of the Greek state only in May 1913.) When the Germans landed in May 1941, consequently, Cretans had to rely on antiquated guns; many fought the attackers with spades and pitchforks, or their bare hands.