During WWII British Special Operations Executive (SOE) officers W. Stanley Moss and Patrick Leigh Fermor (later a well-known travel writer) kidnapped German General Heinrich Kreipe on Crete with the help of Cretan Partisans. Moss tells the story from beginning to end with the help of his diary entries made at the time.

Against the odds, General Kreipe was an amiable traveling companion during the three weeks it took the group to evade German search teams and get off the island. He was mostly concerned about his loss of a medal during the kidnap and then his loss of pay and promotion.

Moss gives a detailed account of the trek across Crete to the team’s eventual exfiltration point and of all the help they received along the way from the Cretans. It’s a good, solid war story. ( )

Well written memoir by a member of the group. ( )

Classic, and surprisingly witty, account of a special operation that resulted in the capture by British special forces of the German commander in Crete. Reprint of an earlier edition, with some additional material providing further context. ( )

Stirring and jaunty memoir of a famous wartime adventure carried out by British agents in German-occupied Crete. Most memorable is the insouciance and cameraderie of the youthful agents, and the colourful characters and resourcefulness of the Cretans that assist and support them as they move on foot or mule between caves and goatfold hideouts up in the stony mountains. That all their exploits and interactions in the resistance to the harsh occupying forces were purposeful and bore huge risks is downplayed, matching the tenor of this operation itself, the kidnapping of the German commander, designed not to harm but to embarrass the enemy. Moss’s spirited description, taken directly from the day-by-day notes he scribbled down during the operation itself was in progress, is augmented by prologues and notes, giving context, and in Leigh Fermor’s case, the panache of his usual rich and referential prose. ( )

An interesting insight of World War II from a participant's first hand esperience.