A Picture from History: Capture of General Kreipe

The Germans took the island of Crete, and the Cretans were not happy about it.

As Special Operations Executive Paddy Fermor found, the partisans on the island were more than happy to help him with his next mission.

That mission? Kidnapping a German general. 

General Muller, a.k.a. The Butcher of Crete, was the target of choice.

Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law resulted in Paddy missing his opportunity. General Heinrich Kreipe replaced The Butcher. But the Cretans weren’t particularly picky when it came to removing Nazis though.

Kreipe would do fine. 

General Kreipe commandeered a mansion in Knossos. He returned there every evening after leaving his office.

Fortunately, a nearby house the Cretan partisans used to watch the property sat nearby, unknown to Kreipe. 

To further scout out the area, Paddy Fermor dressed as a shepherd as he wandered about the nearby terrain. Other scouts kept tabs on General Kreipe’s routes and regular patterns of life. 

And on April 26, 1944, all that hard work paid off.

As Kreipe was driven home from his office that evening, his car rounded a sharp bend.

Surprisingly, a group of German soldiers and two colonels stood in the way, motioning for the car to stop. 

They asked if it was the General’s car. After receiving an affirmative answer, a baton was swung at the driver, killing him.

A dozen Cretan partisans, some in German uniforms, with Paddy Fermor and Billy Moss disguised as German colonels, captured the General. 

That was the easy part. What was to come next would prove to be much more challenging. 

The plan was to transit Kreipe to the southern tip of the island — there a boat would be used to escort him into British custody. 

The problem? 

Thousands of German soldiers stood in the way. 

But with Kreipe stuffed underneath three heavily armed Cretans in the backseat and with Paddy wearing the General’s hat, the men prepared for the trip of a lifetime. 

After 22 German roadblocks, the men made it to the mountains. 

Unknowingly, Kreipe’s impatience helped the men out. He made it explicitly clear that he detested having his car stopped at checkpoints.

So Paddy and Moss yelled, “This is the General’s car!” as they sped through Nazi checkpoints.

Their ruse worked like a charm.

They eventually abandoned the car and began an 18-day trip through the mountain on foot. The small group of men transferred from one partisan safe house to the next.

All the while, actively hunted by thousands of angry Germans.

Despite this, the band of men reached the coast, hopped in their boat, and delivered the General to the British.

Kreipe spent the rest of World War II in a POW camp in Canada.

If you’d like to read more about the capture of General Kreipe, check out Moss’ memoirs of the Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe.

This is a new style of article for Pew Pew Tactical, if you liked it — let us know in the comments! If you didn’t enjoy it…well phooey. To catch up on previous Pictures from History, click on over to our History Category.