How can a war be won without aviation, without motorised forces, without adequate means of transport? Theodore Ilektris, reserve assistant military physician on the Greco-Italian Front, answers this question clearly through his diary.
Self-sacrifice, courage, endurance in hardship, and bravery—and above all love of freedom—arm the hearts and hands of the defenders of the homeland and overturn the calculations and plans of the invaders.
The testimonies of soldiers, anonymous fighters, and their recorded diaries and notes have proven to be valuable historical sources that show how authentic and true history is written.
Written on the Knee is a collection of texts and images that offers a unique testimony of the 1940 war. The central axis of the book is the fascinating and moving diary of the newly married doctor Theodore Ilektris, who was suddenly forced to leave his wife to take part in a bloody war in the rugged mountains of Albania. The Albanian mountains, so vaguely described by historians, come alive through this diary. In almost every entry he refers to his “sweet little wife,” Chrysoula, while at the same time describing the hardships and horrors of war. The reader feels compelled to follow each day, reading page after page without pause.
Various other documents, as well as a foreword by Louis de Bernières, author of the award-winning novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, reveal the heroic resistance of the Greek army against Mussolini’s expansionist aggression.
In the introduction and appendices, all the details are presented that help the reader fully understand the motives of the Allies and the Axis, and the geopolitical consequences of that aspect of the Second World War. A brief historical overview, with key dates, also allows the reader to follow the events described in the diary. Written on the Knee is a book addressed to every Greek. The three hundred Spartans and other heroes of ancient Greece are revived on the frozen Albanian front. The spirit of bravery and self-sacrifice that permeates Greek history is found here as well, in the compelling diary of Doctor Theodore Ilektris.
