On a dark night in April 1944 a German general was returning to his villa on the Nazi occupied island of Crete. Suddenly, two men, dressed as Wehrmacht soldiers, emerged from the darkness and stopped the car. The two men were British officers, and together with Cretan resistance fighters, they bundled the general into the back, and drove through Heraklion and 22 checkpoints. So began one of the most audacious operations of World War Two, orchestrated by Patrick Leigh Fermor, autodidact, writer and war hero.

Artemis Cooper, biographer of Paddy, joins to discuss his early life, the operation, his walk through Europe and his writing. 

Artemis Cooper Links

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure

Cairo in the War: 1939-45

Patrick Leigh Fermor Links

3 Books Collection Set (A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, The Broken Road)

Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete

Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese

Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece

Aspects of History Links

Ollie on X

Get in touch: [email protected]

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