‘This is very satisfactory news’
5th May 1944 Paddy and Giorgos remain in Genna, coordinating messengers. They are joined by Giorgos Harokopos and Giorgos Psychoundakis, who then heads back off to the wireless set run by Dick Barnes...
View ArticleBut when we saw the branding mark, We only stole the ram, Sir
6th May 1944 Paddy and Giorgos remain based in Genna – messengers coming and going as they desperately try to arrange a safe beach to be picked up from. Giorgos Psychoundakis returns with Dick Barnes –...
View Article‘All was going according to plan’
7th May 1944 Messages are beginning to bear fruit….and Paddy realises they will have to travel further westward. They still don’t have a plan on how to depart but they are now getting better links with...
View ArticleWe might have been in a drawing room
8th May 1944 Tha main party stay resting outside Patsos. Billy writes about having a bathe in the tumbling stream nearby. In the evening Paddy and Giorgos arrive from Genna and the group are reunited...
View ArticleOur sun is rising
9th May 1944 After another day resting in Patsos the party head westward – reinforced by George Harokopos and George Pattakos, who supplies a mule for the General to ride on. Paddy writes: ‘Our way...
View ArticleThe General falls from his mule
10th May 1944 After a day resting in Photeinou the party continue to travel westward. They are heading to the Kato Poros gorge outside the village of Vilandredo. Paddy writes: ‘A mishap occurred on...
View ArticleDennis Ciclitira has joined them and has a working radio
May 11th 1944 Things are looking up! Dennis Ciclitira has joined them and has a working radio set up the valley in Asi Gonia. And they hear from Ianni Katsias that the closest beaches – at Rodakino –...
View Article“Wunderbar, Herr General! We’re leaving!”
May 13th 1944 Nearly there…waiting in the rocky fissure outside Alones…. Paddy writes: “Well, Herr Major, how are the plans for our departure progressing?” By now the General had become as solicitous...
View ArticleWaiting for the motor launch to arrive
14th May 1944 The final hours…..they have gathered in the rocks behind Peristeres beach, just below the village of Rodakino…..different andarte bands have joined them from the surrounding villages…and...
View ArticleGeneral Kreipe arrives in Cairo after flying from Mersa Matruh
16th May: On the motor launch’s arrival in Mersa Matruh the General and the rest of the kidnap group were officially welcomed by Brigadier Barker-Benfield and the General spent his first night of...
View ArticleGeneral is now in captivity in Cairo
18th May 1944 The General is now in captivity in Cairo…..and the Daily Mirror has the news.
View ArticleFront page news
19th May 1944 And finally the full story becomes major, even front page, news in Britain. Mirror, Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Express all report the kidnap – often alongside the major battles happening...
View ArticleMorale boosting news item in ‘Union Jack’
20th May 1944 The kidnap is reported in a morale boosting news item in ‘Union Jack’, the newspaper produced for Allied Forces in the Second World War. This is the edition for Allied forces fighting in...
View ArticleGeneral Kreipe arrives in the UK
This is the last post in the series created by the excellent Chris White. He first published this on Facebook in 2020. During the first months of the pandemic, I was copying and pasting and adding his...
View ArticleEscape from Fortress Crete
In one of the most audacious feats of World War II, two British undercover agents and a group of Greek partisans in Nazi-occupied Crete kidnapped General Heinrich Kreipe, the commander of the German...
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