In April 1944, two British SOE agents and a handful of Cretan resistance fighters did something no one believed was possible — they kidnapped the Nazi commanding general of Crete in broad daylight, drove him through 22 German checkpoints in his own car, and disappeared into the mountains with 30,000 soldiers hunting them.
For 18 days, they moved by night, hid in caves by day, and kept one of Germany's generals as their prisoner while the entire garrison of Crete turned the island upside down looking for him.
What happened between captor and captive in those mountains — a shared verse from a Roman poet at dawn on the slopes of Mount Ida — is one of the most extraordinary moments in the entire history of the war.
This is the story of Operation Kreipe. The mission that proved no rule in warfare is truly unbreakable.
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Sources:
- Leigh Fermor, P. (2014). Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation in Crete. John Murray
- Moss, W.S. (1950). Ill Met by Moonlight
- Beevor, A. (1991). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance. Penguin Books
- National Archives (UK), SOE Records, HS 3/59
#WW2 #WorldWarII #WWII #Crete #OperationKreipe #SOE #GreekResistance #CretanResistance #NaziOccupation #WW2History #MilitaryHistory #WW2Documentary #HistoryDocumentary #WorldWar2 #SpecialOperations
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