Editing Patrick Leigh Fermor (section)

==Second World War==
[[File:Kreipe Abduction Team.jpg|thumb|Members of the Kreipe abduction team (from l. to r.): Georgios Tyrakis, [[W. Stanley Moss|Moss]], Leigh Fermor, [[Emmanouil Paterakis]], and Antonios Papaleonidas. The two British officers are in German uniform.]]
{{main|Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe}}

As an officer cadet Leigh Fermor trained alongside [[Derek Bond]]<ref>Derek Bond, ''Steady, Old Man! Don't You Know There's a War On?'' (1990), London: Leo Cooper, {{ISBN|0-85052-046-0}}, p. 19.</ref> and [[Iain Moncreiffe]]. He later joined the [[Irish Guards]]. His knowledge of [[Greek language|modern Greek]] gained him a commission in the [[General List]] in August 1940<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34928/supplement/5146 "General List"] ''The London Gazette'' Supplement (20 August 1940), Issue 34928, p. 5146.</ref> and he became a liaison officer in Albania. He fought in [[Crete]] and mainland Greece. During the German occupation, he returned to Crete three times, once by [[parachute]], and was among a small number of [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) officers posted to organise the island's [[Cretan resistance|resistance]] to the occupation. Disguised as a shepherd and nicknamed ''Michalis'' or ''Filedem'', he lived for over two years in the mountains. With [[W. Stanley Moss|Captain Bill Stanley Moss]] as his second in command, Leigh Fermor led the party that in 1944 captured and evacuated the German commander, Major General [[Heinrich Kreipe]].<ref>Patrick Howarth, ''Undercover: The Men and Women of the SOE'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000; {{ISBN|978-1-84212-240-2}}.</ref> There is a memorial commemorating [[Kidnap of General Kreipe|Kreipe's abduction]] near [[Archanes]] in Crete.<ref>Georgios Banasakis, [https://www.panoramio.com/photo/13294164 "Αφιέρωμα στη μνήμη της ομάδας απαγωγής του διοικητή των Γερμανικών Δυνάμεων κατοχής (στρατηγού Κράιπε) 24-04-1944" ("Tribute to the memory of the abduction of the Governor of the German occupation (General Kraipe) 24-04-1944") (photograph)] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190309150412/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13294164 |date=9 March 2019}} (23 September 2008).</ref>

Moss featured the events of the Cretan capture in his book ''[[Ill Met by Moonlight]]''.<ref name="independent.co.uk"/> (The 2014 edition contains an afterword on the context, written by Leigh Fermor in 2001.) It was adapted in a [[Ill Met by Moonlight (film)|film by the same name]], directed/produced by [[Powell and Pressburger|Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger]] and released in 1957 with Leigh Fermor played by [[Dirk Bogarde]].<ref name="telegraph-obit">{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/8568395/Sir-Patrick-Leigh-Fermor.html |title=Patrick Leigh Fermor (obituary) |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |date=10 June 2011}}</ref> Leigh Fermor's own account ''Abducting A General – The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete'' appeared in October 2014.<ref name=plf>Patrick Leigh Fermor, ''Abducting a General'', John Murray, 2014.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29518321 |title=Patrick Leigh Fermor: Crossing Europe and kidnapping a German general |date=10 October 2014 |access-date=10 October 2014 |author=Andy Walker |work=BBC News}}</ref>

During periods of leave, Leigh Fermor spent time at [[Tara, Cairo|Tara]], a villa in [[Cairo]] rented by Moss, where the "rowdy household" of SOE officers was presided over by [[Sophie Moss|Countess Zofia (Sophie) Tarnowska]].<ref name="telegraph-obit"/>