From the raids of the Long-Range Desert Group to the expeditions of Merril’s Marauders,
the Second World War played host to some of the most audacious special forces operations
to have ever been carried out. But one operation trumps them all. In this video, we tell the
story of how two British officers kidnapped a German general from inside his own fortress.
The fortress we’re talking about is the Island of Crete, located about halfway between
the Greek mainland and Egypt. The island had been in Axis hands since May 1941, when elite
German mountain and parachute troops, supported by some Italians, emerged victorious from
the brutal Battle of Crete.
As soon as the Allies were gone, the Germans started turning Crete into a fortress. Bunkers
and pillboxes were installed along the island’s southern shore in preparation for the expected
invasion from Egypt. Below the surface, Crete’s natural caves were used to store munitions
and as bomb shelters during air raids. In 1943, Crete was home to a German garrison
of 75,000 soldiers, including a Luftwaffe airbase. Even the local Cretans were roped
in, with forced labourers building barracks for the soldiers and prison camps for Allied
POWs.
The Cretans REALLY weren’t happy about having to contribute to the German war effort. A
hardy people famed for their dogged resistance to the Ottomans decades earlier, the civilians
of Crete hated being pushed around and did all they could to slow the invaders down.
The fortress we’re talking about is the Island of Crete, located about halfway between
the Greek mainland and Egypt. The island had been in Axis hands since May 1941, when elite
German mountain and parachute troops, supported by some Italians, emerged victorious from
the brutal Battle of Crete.
As soon as the Allies were gone, the Germans started turning Crete into a fortress. Bunkers
and pillboxes were installed along the island’s southern shore in preparation for the expected
invasion from Egypt. Below the surface, Crete’s natural caves were used to store munitions
and as bomb shelters during air raids. In 1943, Crete was home to a German garrison
of 75,000 soldiers, including a Luftwaffe airbase. Even the local Cretans were roped
in, with forced labourers building barracks for the soldiers and prison camps for Allied
POWs.
The Cretans REALLY weren’t happy about having to contribute to the German war effort. A
hardy people famed for their dogged resistance to the Ottomans decades earlier, the civilians
of Crete hated being pushed around and did all they could to slow the invaders down..
Moss and Fermor fit right in among the eclectic mix of officers at SOE, partly due to their
own zany backstories.
Described as “a dangerous mix of sophistication and recklessness,” Leigh Fermor was a chap
that just couldn't be put off by anything. He spent a few years before the war walking
from Holland to Istanbul, then travelled extensively around Greece, Macedonia, and Romania. He
picked up the local language and culture wherever he went, becoming a master of blending in.
Like Leigh Fermor, Moss was a polyglot, and he had also crossed a good deal of Europe
on foot. When the war began, he was living in a log cabin on the Latvian coast. Probably
having an inkling as to how well the Baltic states would fare squeezed between Nazi Germany
and Soviet Russia, Moss managed to get himself to Norway, where he casually jumped on a yacht
and sailed to England.
Both men saw their share of combat during the early years of the war, and both volunteered
for service with SOE in 1943. They were assigned to Task Force 133 — a special unit that
helped coordinate resistance groups and generally cause the Axis as much trouble as possible.
Over a few drinks one night at the Royal Hunting and Fishing Club in Cairo, Leigh Fermor and
Moss hatched a daring plan. They were going to kidnap a general.
One of the units guarding Crete was the German 22nd Air Landing Division, and its commander
was infamous. His name was General Müller, but for his harsh reprisals against the local
people, he was better known as the “Butcher of Crete”. The plan was to kidnap Müller
and transport him to Egypt, thus boosting Cretan morale and flipping off the Germans
all in one go.
The head honcho at SOE Cairo thought their plan was nuts but signed off on it anyway.
He couldn’t let two of his best chaps go it alone, so he ordered Cretan resistance
fighters Georgios Tyrakis and Emmanouil Paterakis to join them. After some training in Palestine,
the team was ready to go by January 1944.
Like all good Spec-Ops, the lads were going to parachute in at night, but things didn’t
go to plan. Their first flight to Crete, on February 5th, was turned around due to bad
weather, but not before the intrepid Leigh Fermor jumped out the plane. He landed safely
and was picked up by the Cretan resistance, who hid him in a cave. The rest of the team
tried to parachute in seven more times, but bad weather continually aborted the mission.
Realising their plane was probably jinxed, the crew landed on Crete from a small boat
under the cover of night. They met up with Leigh Fermor at the cave on April 4th, two
months after he parachuted in.
Whilst the others were delayed by the weather, Leigh Fermor had been busy. Using his vast
knowledge of Cretan language and customs, he successfully disguised himself as a shepherd,
built an intelligence network, and kept tabs on German movements. When Moss and the crew
turned up, he had some bad news. General Müller had been moved elsewhere and replaced by General
Kreipe, who wasn’t nearly as evil. But the Brits had come for a general, and they’d
be damned if they went home without one. General Kreipe would have to do.
Teaming up with the surprisingly well-equipped Cretan resistance, Leigh Fermor and Moss travelled
to the village of Knossos — which overlooked the general’s residence. The initial plan
was to assault the house and take Kreipe by surprise, but some recon showed it was far
too well defended. Plan B involved carjacking Kreipe while he went to his regularly scheduled
divisional meeting. The route required the general’s car to navigate a poor-quality
section of road before a T-junction — which would slow it to a walking pace for a few
minutes. The German military police, called the Feldgendarmerie, had frequent inspection
points along the road, giving the infiltrators a perfect cover to approach the car.
While Leigh Fermor and Moss were lying low in their hideout, the resistance got the ball
rolling. They tracked all of Kreipe’s movements and learned his schedule. One steely-eyed
fighter called Akoumianakis managed to ‘*acquire’* two full Feldgendarmerie uniforms: complete
with sidearms, campaign badges, and a traffic directing stick. The Brits were too polite
to ask where he'd got them.
Everything was ready to go for the night of April 26th. Leigh Fermor and Moss were standing
in the road in their ‘acquired’ uniforms, and a squad of resistance fighters were hiding
in the trees, ready to open up with their rifles if anything went wrong. As the car
approached, Moss waved his stick and Leigh Fermor shouted “Halt” in perfect German.
The car stopped, and he went to the window to ask for Kreipe’s papers. None the wiser,
Kreipe looked down to fetch them. When he looked up, Leigh Fermor had a gun pointed
right at him. Kreipe’s driver noticed something was wrong, but before he could act, Moss swooped
in and knocked him unconscious with his stick. After tying the Germans up and throwing them
in the back, Moss jumped into the driver’s seat and Leigh Fermor impersonated Kreipe.
Three fighters also jumped in the car as backup. Hitting the gas, Moss drove through 22 German
roadblocks on the route to the town of Rethymno. Kreipe was famous among his men for being
extremely impatient at roadblocks and refusing to stop. When the real Feldgendarms saw his
car coming on the night of his kidnapping, they were more than happy to let him straight
through.
Whilst the others were delayed by the weather, Leigh Fermor had been busy. Using his vast
knowledge of Cretan language and customs, he successfully disguised himself as a shepherd,
built an intelligence network, and kept tabs on German movements. When Moss and the crew
turned up, he had some bad news. General Müller had been moved elsewhere and replaced by General
Kreipe, who wasn’t nearly as evil. But the Brits had come for a general, and they’d
be damned if they went home without one. General Kreipe would have to do.
Teaming up with the surprisingly well-equipped Cretan resistance, Leigh Fermor and Moss travelled
to the village of Knossos — which overlooked the general’s residence. The initial plan
was to assault the house and take Kreipe by surprise, but some recon showed it was far
too well defended. Plan B involved carjacking Kreipe while he went to his regularly scheduled
divisional meeting. The route required the general’s car to navigate a poor-quality
section of road before a T-junction — which would slow it to a walking pace for a few
minutes. The German military police, called the Feldgendarmerie, had frequent inspection
points along the road, giving the infiltrators a perfect cover to approach the car.
While Leigh Fermor and Moss were lying low in their hideout, the resistance got the ball
rolling. They tracked all of Kreipe’s movements and learned his schedule. One steely-eyed
fighter called Akoumianakis managed to ‘*acquire’* two full Feldgendarmerie uniforms: complete
with sidearms, campaign badges, and a traffic directing stick. The Brits were too polite
to ask where he'd got them.
Everything was ready to go for the night of April 26th. Leigh Fermor and Moss were standing
in the road in their ‘acquired’ uniforms, and a squad of resistance fighters were hiding
in the trees, ready to open up with their rifles if anything went wrong. As the car
approached, Moss waved his stick and Leigh Fermor shouted “Halt” in perfect German.
The car stopped, and he went to the window to ask for Kreipe’s papers. None the wiser,
Kreipe looked down to fetch them. When he looked up, Leigh Fermor had a gun pointed
right at him. Kreipe’s driver noticed something was wrong, but before he could act, Moss swooped
in and knocked him unconscious with his stick. After tying the Germans up and throwing them
in the back, Moss jumped into the driver’s seat and Leigh Fermor impersonated Kreipe.
Three fighters also jumped in the car as backup. Hitting the gas, Moss drove through 22 German
roadblocks on the route to the town of Rethymno. Kreipe was famous among his men for being
extremely impatient at roadblocks and refusing to stop. When the real Feldgendarms saw his
car coming on the night of his kidnapping, they were more than happy to let him straight
through.
To say the Germans were unhappy their general went missing would be a severe understatement,
and they sent no less than *30,000* troops to get him back. With the Germans on their
heels, Leigh Fermor, Moss, Kreipe, and their Cretan guides climbed over Mount Ida and,
on May 2nd, reached the town of Agia Paraskevi in the Amari Valley on the other side. They
desperately needed to get a radio message to SOE headquarters to organise their extraction,
but the Germans were on a rampage — destroying any villages with connections to the resistance.
The kidnappers and their entourage of Cretan fighters managed to stay a step ahead of the
Germans by hopping from village to village right across the Amari valley. Eventually,
they managed to locate an SOE radio, succeeding in contacting headquarters on May 5th. On
May 14th, after passing through another six villages and avoiding a 200-strong German
column, the original four-man team, plus General Kreipe and three POWs captured by the Cretans,
boarded a Special Boat Service transport. By May 15th, they were back in Egypt.
During the 19-day escape, the team had managed to avoid 30,000 German soldiers and literally
out-mountained the elite German mountain troops. The kidnapping was a success, and Kreipe was
sent to a POW camp in Canada.
"For [their] outstanding display of courage and audacity," Leigh Fermor and Moss were
given a Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross, respectively. But things weren’t
so shiny for the Cretans who helped them out. The Germans punished the villagers for supporting
the kidnappers by burning houses down and massacring civilians. Moss couldn’t live
with this and was back in Crete within two months fighting a guerilla war against the
German invaders.
THAT was the daring story of General Kreipe’s kidnapping by two SOE officers right out of
his own fortress. But what do YOU think? Why do YOU think General Kreipe had such poor
security? Do YOU think it was a mistake to invade Crete right from the start? Do YOU
think the mission would have gone differently if they’d gone after Muller as they’d
planned? Let us know in the comments!
Also, Moss wrote a great book about the operation called *Ill Met by Moonlight*. It’s worth
checking out!