Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe
Kidnap of Major General Kreipe | |
---|---|
Part of SOE operations and the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre | |
![]() The abduction team | |
Type | Kidnapping |
Location | Crete, Greece 35°15′51″N 25°10′55″E / 35.26429°N 25.18202°E |
Planned by | Special Operations Executive |
Commanded by | Patrick Leigh Fermor |
Target | Heinrich Kreipe |
Date | 4 February – 14 May 1944 |
Casualties | Kreipe's driver |
The kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe was a Second World War operation executed jointly by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Cretan resistance. The operation was launched on 4 February 1944, when SOE officer Patrick Leigh Fermor landed in Crete with the intention of abducting notorious war criminal and commander of 22nd Air Landing Division, Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller. By the time of the arrival of the rest of the abduction team, led by William Stanley Moss, two months later, Müller had been succeeded by Heinrich Kreipe, who was chosen as the new target.
On the night of 26 April, Kreipe's car was ambushed while en route from his residence to his divisional H.Q. Kreipe was tied and forced into the back seat while Leigh Fermor and Moss impersonated him and his driver respectively. Kreipe's notorious impatience at roadblocks enabled the car to successfully pass numerous checkpoints before being abandoned at the hamlet of Heliana. The abductors continued on foot, continuing to evade thousands of Axis soldiers sent to stop them, with the help of guides from the local resistance. On 14 May, the team was picked up by a British motorboat from the Rodakino beach and safely transported to British-held Egypt.
The success of the operation was put into question several months after its conclusion. The outcome came to be seen as a symbolic propaganda victory rather than a strategic one. The relatively harmless Kreipe was replaced by Müller who ordered a series of large-scale reprisals against the civilian population of the island known as the Holocaust of Kedros. The operation entered popular imagination through the biographical works of several of its participants, most notably Moss's book Ill Met by Moonlight.
Background
Greece entered the Second World War on the side of the Allies following an Italian invasion from Albania on 28 October 1940. The following year, on 6 April, Nazi Germany launched an invasion of its own from Bulgaria known as Operation Marita; Athens was occupied on 28 April and the resistance on the Greek mainland had ceased by the 30th.[1] King George II and his government had left the Greek mainland for Crete five days earlier.[2] The island was in turn attacked by a Nazi airborne invasion on 20 May 1941.[3] The Germans prevailed after seven days of fighting, forcing an Allied withdrawal to Egypt.[4]
With the conclusion of Operation Marita, Greece was subjected to a Triple Occupation by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria.[5] Fortress Crete, as it was now called, was shared between Germany and Italy. The Germans occupied the western three prefectures of the island with their headquarters in Chania, whilst the Italians occupied the easternmost prefecture of Lasithi.[6] It did not take long for the Cretan resistance to spring up. They assisted Allied soldiers stranded on the island in evading capture and helped them escape to the British controlled Middle East. The escapees helped establish contact between the Special Operations Executive's (SOE) Cairo branch and Cretan resistance organisations. Supplied with wireless sets and augmented by SOE stay behind operatives, they began co-ordinating their actions with the Allied command.[7] Following the surrender of Italy to the Allies in September 1943, Angelico Carta, the commander of the Italian 51st Infantry Division, decided to side with the Allies. Evading German patrols and observation planes he embarked on a SOE motor torpedo boat at Soutsouro reaching Mersa Matruh the next afternoon, on 23 September 1943.[8][9]
British officers had considered the idea of capturing a senior German officer as early as November 1942, when a SOE agent on Crete, Xan Fielding, proposed seizing the island's chief military governor at the time, Alexander Andrae. When Andrae was posted away, his successor Bruno Bräuer was targeted for capture. None of these plans were carried out.[10] Carta's successful escape to Egypt rekindled the idea of abducting the chief military commander of Crete. In 1943, Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain William Stanley Moss hatched a plan in Cairo for the abduction of General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, then commander of the 22nd Air Landing Division. Müller had gained a reputation for brutality and was despised by the Cretan people, being responsible for mass executions, torture, the razing of villages and conscripting civilians into labour units. The SOE planned to kidnap him while keeping the use of violence at a minimum and transport him to Egypt, thus giving a morale boost to the Cretans.[11]
Operation
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/W._Stanley_Moss%27s_drawing_of_Kreipe_Abduction_Point.jpg/220px-W._Stanley_Moss%27s_drawing_of_Kreipe_Abduction_Point.jpg)
In late 1943, Leigh Fermor and Moss formed a squad with two Cretan resistance members, Georgios Tyrakis and Emmanouil Paterakis, who were to accompany them in their mission. After undergoing training in Palestine and facing numerous delays the team flew to the headquarters of the British 8th Army[12] in Bari on 4 January 1944.[13] On 4 February, they boarded a bomber destined for Crete's Katharo plateau at the Brindisi airport. Leigh Fermor was the only one airdropped, due to a sudden weather change that caused the area to be obscured by clouds. Leigh Fermor was greeted by Cretan resistance members and SOE Captain Sandy Rendel, while the rest of the squad returned to Cairo.[9] While hiding in a cave above the village of Tapais in the Lasithi mountains, Leigh Fermor reestablished old contacts learning that Müller had been replaced by Major General Heinrich Kreipe on 1 March.[14] The rest of the team attempted to parachute into Crete seven more times without success; after two months, on 4 April, they arrived by motor launch at Tsoutsoura.[15] Upon hearing about Müller's departure they agreed to continue with their plan.[11]
The team moved to a cave system in the mountains above Kastamonitsa village, the hideout of a local resistance group.[16] There the SOE team was augmented by a number of Cretans: Antonios and Grigorios Papaleonidas, Michail Akoumianakis and Grigorios Chnarakis. Akoumianakis' house was conveniently located across the road from Kreipe's residence, the Villa Ariadne, in the village of Knossos.[17] Leigh Fermor disguised himself as a Cretan shepherd for his trip to Knossos. After traveling by bus with Akoumianakis, he reconnoitered the vicinity of the villa. Enclosed by a triple wire barrier (one of which was rumoured to be electrified) and guarded by a sizeable garrison, it was deemed too dangerous for a direct assault. It was decided to seize Kreipe during one of his frequent trips from his residence to his divisional H.Q. in Ano Archanes, some 5 miles (8.0 km) away. Surveying the route, they discovered a T-junction where the road from Archanes joined the main road to Heraklion, forcing cars to slow down to almost a standstill; the location was subsequently named Point A. The owner of a small cottage outside Skalani (el), some twenty minutes travel time from the abduction point, agreed to collaborate, turning the building into an observation point.[18] Owing to the heavy traffic on the main road, the operation had to be undertaken during nighttime.[19]
Akoumianakis supplied the team with two Feldgendarmerie summer uniforms, complete with rank insignia for a corporal, campaign badges, side arms and a traffic policeman's stick.[20] Resistance member Elias Athanasakis set up an observation post on a height overlooking the German H.Q., signalling whenever Kreipe left the building. Four more resistance members, Efstratios Saviolakis, Dimitrios Tzatzadakis, Nikolaos Komis and Antonios Zoidakis, were recruited as guides. Shortly before the abduction was to take place, the team received a letter from a local commander of the pro-communist Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), who threatened to betray them to the authorities if they did not vacate the area. Leigh Fermor replied with an ambiguously written note and the ELAS commander did not carry out his threat. The operation was postponed for several days as the general did not leave his residence.[21]
On the night of 26 April 1944, Leigh Fermor and Moss received a signal that the general had got into his car. Changing into the German uniforms, they followed Saviolakis to Point A. Leigh Fermor and Moss hid in a ditch on the east side of the road. Further to the west Zoidakis, the Papaleonidas brothers, Tyrakis and Komis lay in wait. At 9:30 p.m., Tzatzadakis flashed his torch three times signalling that Kreipe's car was approaching unescorted. Leigh Fermor and Moss blocked the road, and as the car came closer Moss waved his policeman's stick and shouted "Halt!". When the car came to a halt, Leigh Fermor requested that identity papers be shown. As Kreipe reached for his pocket, Leigh Fermor jacked the door open, while simultaneously pressing his automatic weapon against Kreipe's chest. The rest of the team sprung up and surrounded the car. A brief struggle ensued, which ended when Paterakis tied Kreipe and Moss struck the driver on the head with his cosh, knocking him unconscious. Moss took up the driver's seat and Leigh Fermor impersonated the general, with Kreipe, Saviolakis, Tyrakis and Paterakis in the backseat, driving off to Heraklion. The rest cleared the spot of signs of struggle and also headed to Heraklion with the driver.[22]
The car passed through 22 checkpoints in Heraklion, coming into the road to Rethymno and stopping outside a steep mountain track leading to Anogeia.[18] Kreipe's penchant for being impatient at roadblocks and acting rudely to the people manning them had made him unpopular among his subordinates, contributing to the success of his own kidnapping as the car sped through the check points without stopping.[23] Leigh Fermor drove to the hamlet of Heliana where he abandoned the car. To prevent reprisals, he left a note claiming that British special forces had conducted the operation without any local support, and scattered incriminating evidence. The team then ascended to Anogeia, where they rested for a few hours. Late in the afternoon of 27 April, a German reconnaissance plane dropped leaflets unto the village threatening reprisals if the general was not returned within three days. They soon departed for Mount Ida, where they were met by a band of resistance men led by Michael Xylouris and the SOE officers attached to them. The breakdown of their wireless station meant that all communication had to be conducted by runners, hindering the evacuation. The next day, the team was informed that the Cretans had resorted to killing Kreipe's driver as he was too stunned to walk at the necessary pace for the rebels to avoid capture. The team continued its ascent on Ida, where they stayed with another Cretan resistance group.[24]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Kreipe_Propaganda_Leaflet.jpg/220px-Kreipe_Propaganda_Leaflet.jpg)
As the team continued their journey from Ida to the Amari Valley, Crete's garrison of over 30,000 men had been placed on alert and Axis troops began to assemble around the mountain range in an attempt to block their escape.[25] After crossing the valley they reached the village of Agia Paraskevi. A report transmitted by the BBC had alerted the Germans that Kreipe had yet to leave the island. Rumours of a general uprising and an Allied invasion had prompted Bräuer to strengthen Chania's garrison and continue the security sweeps. Moreover, Kreipe's aide-de-camp and guards were arrested on suspicion of complicity. The arrival of a runner enabled the team to request that a boat be sent to Saktouria on 2 May.[26] The runner unexpectedly did not return the following day and the party was informed that Saktouria and other hotbeds of resistance had been blown up by German troops. Moss and Leigh Fermor set off to the Amari valley in search of a wireless station. On 5 May, they reached the village of Pantanassa where they were able to send and receive letters once again.[27] A day later George Psychoundakis brought SOE officer Dick Barnes and a wireless set to the village. In the meantime, the rest of the party evaded a German patrol by relocating to Patsos, just two hours away from Pantanassa. It then became known that a George Jellicoe-led unit of the Special Boat Service (SBS) was to land at Limni beach on the 9th, in order to assist with the evacuation.[28]
The two groups reunited at the hamlet of Karines and advanced to Fotinou and then Vilandredo. Once a 200-man German column came to Argygoupoli just an hour's distance from Vilandredo, Dennis Ciclitira and a band of ELAS fighters assisted the team in their cat and mouse game with their pursuers.[25] When the team reached Asi Gonia, a runner told them that a boat will pick them up at Rodakino beach on the night of 14 May.[29] The Rodakiniot guerillas accompanied the team on their final trek. The team, Kreipe, two German prisoners of war and a sick Soviet defector boarded the SBS boats at 10:00 p.m., concluding their mission by landing at Mersa Matruh in Egypt.[30]
Aftermath
Major Leigh Fermor was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and Captain Moss the Military Cross, "For [their] outstanding display of courage and audacity" during the operation. The awards were gazetted on 13 July 1944.[31] The operation dealt a blow to the Axis morale on the island while simultaneously raising that of the local resistance, as the BBC and Royal Air Force praised the operation's success through radio transmission and leaflet drops respectively. However the wisdom behind the abduction came into question as Kreipe was hardly a Nazi zealot. Despite his position he possessed very little information of value to British Intelligence and by the time of his capture Crete had lost the strategic importance it had previously had in the war.[32]
On 8 August 1944, a German punitive expedition sent against the village of Anogeia was ambushed by Moss and Michael Xylouris' band. The Damasta sabotage, as this came to be known, resulted in the death of 30 Germans, 12 of whom were murdered after surrendering.[33] Müller, who had returned to his role of commander of Fortress Crete, was determined to penalise the inhabitants of Anogeia for providing shelter to the Kreipe abduction team and their role in the Damasta sabotage. Destroying a known hotbed of resistance would also facilitate the planned German evacuation from much of the island to the stronghold of Chania. His order of the day to destroy Anogeia was specific and retrospective, confirming British fears of large-scale reprisals.[34] The Holocaust of Kedros was a coordinated operation involving 2,000 Axis soldiers who targeted Anogeia and Damasta. A total of 900 houses were burned, 50 civilians were shot and 3,500 became internally displaced. In the following days the operation expanded to other villages, men were executed, houses were looted and then burned or dynamited regardless of their involvement in resistance activities.[35] Local resistance bands could do nothing but watch, being vastly outnumbered.[36]
Popular culture
These events were portrayed in Moss's 1950 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe.[37] In 1957, the book was turned into the film starring Dirk Bogarde, David Oxley and Marius Goring.[38] Leigh Fermor and Psychoundakis also recounted their experiences in the respective biographical works Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete and The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation.[28]
Footnotes
- ^ Dear & Foot 1995, pp. 102–106.
- ^ Koliopoulos 1977, p. 74.
- ^ Plowman 2014, p. 63.
- ^ Plowman 2014, pp. 73–75.
- ^ Stefanidis 1992, pp. 64–95.
- ^ Stroud 2015, pp. 52–54.
- ^ Stroud 2015, pp. 54–57.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 1–3.
- ^ a b Koukounas 2013, p. 115.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. xxiv–xxv.
- ^ a b Kiriakopoulos 1995, pp. 158–159.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 6–9.
- ^ Moss 2014, p. 30.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Koukounas 2013, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Moss 2014, p. 28.
- ^ Kiriakopoulos 1995, p. 159.
- ^ a b Koukounas 2013, p. 118.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 12–15.
- ^ Kiriakopoulos 1995, p. 160.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 22–26.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 26–30.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, p. xxviii.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 38–45.
- ^ a b Koukounas 2013, p. 119.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 46–56.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 58–65.
- ^ a b Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 68–74.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 76–84.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. 85–94.
- ^ "No. 36605". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 July 1944. p. 3274.
- ^ Leigh Fermor 2014, pp. xxv–xxix.
- ^ Koukounas 2013, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Ogden 2012, p. 309.
- ^ Koukounas 2013, p. 154.
- ^ Psychoundakis 1955, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Moss 2014, p. 160.
- ^ "Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
References
- Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D. (1995). The Oxford Companion to the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866225-9. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Kiriakopoulos, G. C. (1995). The Nazi Occupation of Crete, 1941–1945. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-95277-0.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Koliopoulos, Ioannis (1977). "Η στρατιωτική και πολιτική κρίση στην Ελλάδα τον Απρίλιο του 1941" [The Military and Political Crisis in Greece in April 1941] (PDF). Mnimon (in Greek). 6: 53–74. doi:10.12681/mnimon.174. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
{{cite journal}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Koukounas, Demosthenes (2013). Η Ιστορία της Κατοχής [History of the Occupation] (in Greek). Vol. II. Athens: Livani. ISBN 978-960-14-2687-7.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Leigh Fermor, Patrick (2014). Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-1-4447-9658-2.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Moss, William Stanley (2014) [1950]. Ill Met by Moonlight. London: Orion. ISBN 9781780226231.
- Ogden, Alan (2012). Sons of Odysseus, SOE Heroes in Greece. London: Bene Factum. ISBN 978-1-903071-44-1.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Plowman, Jeffrey (2014). War in the Balkans: The Battle for Greece and Crete 1940-1941. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 978-1781592489.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Psychoundakis, George (1955). The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation. London: John Murray. OCLC 753260092.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Stefanidis, Yiannis (1992). "Macedonia in the 1940s". Modern and Contemporary Macedonia. 2 (1). Thessaloniki: Papazissis: 64–103. ISBN 978-960-260-725-1. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
{{cite journal}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Stroud, Rick (2015). Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General. London: Bloomsbury Paperbacks. ISBN 978-1-4088-5179-1.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)
Further reading
- Prescher, Hans (2007). General Kreipe wird entführt: ein Husarenstück auf Kreta 1944 (in German). Verlag Dr. Thomas Balistier. ISBN 978-3-937108-11-7.