Kidnap in Crete
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley January 6, 2015
Author Rick Stroud
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ISBN: 978-1-4088-5175-3
Publisher: Bloomsbury
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Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com
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This reads like an Alistair McLean novel, with the significance difference being that the story is real, it happened, the men and women in this slice of history died fighting for a cause, a belief and their honour, on the small island of Crete in 1944, during one of the bloodiest, brutal invasions and occupations by the German forces in the entirety of World War 2.
When the German Army made the decision to invade Crete, it was a strategic point in the Mediterranean for the British Armed Forces; they did so in the belief it was going to be a walkover. There would be little resistance to their plans to land the largest airborne force on the island.
Trouble was they sadly underestimated the Cretans, their love of a good fight and the fact the British were already on the island and had anticipated this may happen.
The invasion came at a high cost for the Germans, British and the Cretans, with the retaliation by the Germans brutal and unforgiving in its savagery.
In order to try and rid the Crete of the invading force a daring plot was hatched by British SOE involving the partisan resistance forces; that of kidnapping the new German General, Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe, coming to take command of the island.
The kidnapping took place with considerable risk and success: the retaliation was swift and brutal.
The British considered the mission a success and the debriefing of the General, once safely landed in London, providing considerable information to the allied forces on the state of the German war machine coming into what was to become the final drawn out months of the war.
This is a fascinating story in its own right, let alone a part of recent history of which little is known other than that of a generalised component of World War 2.
In researching this theatre of war the material has come from first-hand accounts of the men who were members of the guerrilla fighters of Crete, the British SOE files and SOE Agent Patrick Leigh Fermor’s papers and diary.
The account is as fascinating as it is detailed as it presents a unique look at an aspect of war that is seldom shared. The detail on the various aspects of life on Crete, the resistance and philosophy behind the formation of the Guerrilla fighters, the men in charge and the end results for many of the people involved as they were either executed due to war crimes, or left the island to patch together their lives is incredible.
The heroes of the terrible, savage, bloody days of the German invasion were the locals, the men and women who stood up to, challenged and paid the price for freedom, the love of their Island and the right to live their lives.
A wonderful collection of photographs adds another dimension to the abduction of a Nazi general on the Island of Crete., so very long ago, but not all that far distant that it should be forgotten.