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A bit of (educated) guesswork, on my part but (in the days before the internal combustion engine was commonplace) ....
A lot of island resorts are built around "fishing villages" which were traditionally inhabited during the months when the sea was calmest. The fishing families (menfolk) moved down to the beach for the season and used basic homes (a bed room and outside kitchen).
The alternative is the Stalis/Stalida model - farming families move down onto the plain to take care of the crops, in season.
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Think this is about right; in Plak in the early 90's we spent a lot of time in the bar/restaurant above the Forum (with the oval bar everyone sat round and chatted) and an older man (who knew a lot more about Crete's involvement than we then had a clue about!) was asking them about the war; one of the barmen talked about his grandad's involvement, I can remember him saying something to the effect that 'no-one actually lived here then, you understand it was just a fishing village, not where families lived - everyone had land and their olive trees further up the gorge'.
There still was (he said) locally a great distrust/dislike of anyone German - and certainly this was quite clearly demonstrated by the behaviour of quite a young girl at the Alianthos re car hire one day, when she insisted speaking English to a poor German bloke although she clearly understood what he was saying/asking her in his native tongue. And she did what the Brits used to do everywhere ie when he didn't understand she just spoke louder and with such a condescending inflection - although it was quite funny (cos he was getting very cross) - I did actually feel quite sorry for the chap!
Oh, and I forgot to say, the pics on all the adverts for Preveli beach in the early 1990's showed more or less that view and as long as you could get there reasonably early (first boat LOL) you could still go nude on the beach then, on the far right (looking from the sea). It was a relief to go there and not be sandblasted ! (August)
