Chapter 1 (On the run)
Ill Met By Moonlight, by W. Stanley Moss. London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1950.
The best version of Billy Moss’s epic is the limited 2010 edition published in Philadelphia by Paul Dry Books, because it contains a brief afterword by Paddy with his first print comments on the abduction.
Abducting a Generaclass="underline" The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete, by Patrick Leigh Fermor. London: John Murray, 2014.
I only had access to the prepublication manuscript with embedded comments by Chris White. Since then, the book has been published with an excellent foreword by military historian and Resistance expert Roderick Bailey.
The Abduction of General Kreipe, by George Harokopos. Heraklion, Crete: V. Kouvidis–V. Manouros, 1973.
George Harokopos was one of the Cretan Resistance fighters who joined Paddy in spiriting General Kreipe toward the coast after descending the southern flank of Mt. Ida.
Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure, by Artemis Cooper. London: John Murray, 2012.
Artemis’s account of Paddy’s life is a remarkable mixture of both painstakingly accurate detail and personal affection.
Chapter 2 (Occupied Crete)
The Fortress Crete, 1941–1944, by George Harokopos. Athens: B. Giannikos & Co., 1971.
Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–1944, by Mark Mazower. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.
Mazower’s study of archived German military orders offer a unique look at the Occupation from the perspective of the occupiers, especially the command that German soldiers were to view any Greek resistance as the work of “subhuman criminals who refused to recognize the legitimate authority in their country.”
Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, by Antony Beevor. London: John Murray, 1991.
On the Run: Anzac Escape and Evasion in Enemy-occupied Crete, by Seán Damer and Ian Frazer. New Zealand: Penguin Group (NZ), 2006.
Dare to be Free: One of greatest true stories of World War II, by W. B. “Sandy” Thomas. London: Allen Wingate, 1951.
Chapter 3 (Art of the hero)
Justice at Nuremberg, by Robert E. Conot. New York: HarperCollins, 1983.
The Nuremberg Trial, by Ann Tusa and John Tusa. New York: Scribner, 1984.
The Cretan Runner, by George Psychoundakis. Translated by Patrick Leigh Fermor. London: John Murray, 1955.
Escape to Live, by Wing Commander Edward Howell, OBE, DFC. London: Grosvenor Books, 1947.
Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths, by Mary Lefkowitz. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
The World of Odysseus, by M. I. Finley. New York: Viking Press, 1954.
Chapter 4 (Churchill’s scheme)
Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, by Jon Meacham. New York: Random House, 2003.
Churchilclass="underline" A Life, by Martin Gilbert. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1991.
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchilclass="underline" Visions of Glory, 1874–1932, by William Manchester. New York: Bantam Doubleday, 1983.
Inferno: The World at War, 1939–1945, by Max Hastings. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Adolf Hitler, by John Toland. New York: Anchor Books, 1976.
Undercover: The Men and Women of the S.O.E., by Patrick Howarth. London: Arrow Books, 1980.
SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–46, by M. R. D. Foot. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984.
A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence, by John E. Mack. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
Chapter 5 (Norina Bentzel and the mystery of the hero)
Apart from news reports of the attack and subsequent trial, I conducted personal interviews with Norina Bentzel, as well as with responding officers and Norina’s school colleagues.
Chapters 6–9 (Invasion and resistance)
Hide and Seek: The Story of a Wartime Agent, by Xan Fielding. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1954.
Ten Days to Destiny: The Battle for Crete, 1941, by G. C. Kiriakopoulos. New York: Avon Books, 1985.
Greece and Crete, 1941, by Christopher Buckley. Athens: Efstathiadis Group S.A., 1977.
Hunters from the Sky: The German Parachute Corps 1940–1945, by Charles Whiting. New York: Stein and Day, 1974.
Greek Women in Resistance: Journals, Oral Histories, by Eleni Fourtoni. New Haven: Thelphini Press, 1978.
Fourtoni’s collection of first-person accounts by Greek women who fought in the Resistance is a rare glimpse into the lives of some of the most courageous and determined opponents the German army ever faced.
Crete, 1941: Eyewitnesses, by Costas N. Hadjipateras and Maria S. Fafalios (with a foreword by the British special agent, C. M. Wood-house). Athens: Efstathiadis Group S.A., 1989.
Chapters 10–12 (Wobble power)
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations During the Second World War, by Roderick Bailey. London: Ebury Press, 2008.
S.O.E. Assignment: The Story of the Special Operations Executive by Its Second-in-Command, by Donald Hamilton-Hill. London: William Kimbler and Co. Ltd, 1973.
Secret War Heroes: Men of the Special Operations Executive, by Marcus Binney. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006.
How to Be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual. Toronto: Dundurn Group, 2001.
This is the actual training syllabus and method guidelines developed by Fairbairn and Sykes and other instructors for use by wartime SOE agents.
“The Art of Guerrilla Warfare,” a twenty-three-page training booklet by Colin Gubbins, architect of Churchill’s special operations directive.
Shooting to Live with the One-Hand Gun, by W. E. Fairbairn and E. A. Sykes. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press reprint, 2008.
Get Tough! How to Win in Hand-to-Hand Fighting, as Taught to the British Commandos, and the U.S. Armed Forces, by W. E. Fairbairn. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1974.
The Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate, by Rex Applegate and Chuck Melson. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1998.
Wing Chun Kung Fu: Traditional Chinese Kung Fu for Self-Defense and Health, by Grandmaster Ip Chun, with Michael Tse. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998.
Chapter 13–17 (Xan Fielding and John Pendlebury)
Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–1944, by Mark Mazower. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.
Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years, by Norman Page. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998.
Page digs into the strange, tragic saga of Xan’s first and perhaps most important mentor: Francis Turville-Petre, “Der Fronny.”
The Stronghold: An Account of Four Seasons in the White Mountains of Crete, by Xan Fielding. London: Secker & Warburg, 1953.
Xan returned to Crete after the war to hike its breadth and width. The result is a deep, sometimes tart, reflection on himself, the island, and the war.
Something Ventured: The Autobiography of C. M. Woodhouse. London: Granada Publishing Ltd. 1982.
Monty went on to distinguish himself as a member of Parliament and secretary under two prime ministers. His perspective on the clandestine work on Crete is even more stark than Xan’s and Paddy’s; as a diplomat, he was less impressed by his own derring-do and more concerned about lasting consequences.