Meet Captain Billy Moss MC (left), and Major Paddy Fermor DSO (right). Two batshit crazy SOE officers, who dressed up as Germans, snuck onto Crete, kidnapped a general, and escaped by riding mules to the sea because, why not?

Meet Captain Billy Moss MC (left), and Major Paddy Fermor DSO (right). Two batshit crazy SOE officers, who dressed up as Germans, snuck onto Crete, kidnapped a general, and escaped by riding mules to the sea because, why not?

Billy at the outbreak of war had been  travelling around Latvia. Around the same time, Paddy was a well-read but destitute author who decided to walk from Holland to Istanbul. Yes, walk.

 Along the way, he stopped to fight with Macedonian royalists during the 1935 republican coup attempt, and met a Greek noblewoman who became his lover.

September 1939 saw both men immediately head back to the motherland.

Billy snuck his way up to Sweden, and bumming his way into a ship back to the UK. Paddy immediately set for home, leaving behind the love of his life.

Billy enlisted in the Coldstream Guards, and would see significant action as an infantry officer during the North Africa campaign prior to joining the SOE. Paddy joined the Irish Guards, and was quickly commissioned directly into the SOE due to his proficiency in the Greek language. 

Both men would see extensive action together conducting guerrilla and sabotage operations in Albania and Crete.

Between missions, they lodged with other SOE operatives in Cairo, Egypt at the rented property of Countess Zosfia Tarnowska, an elegant Polish aristocrat and exile.

In early 1944, both men were tasked with capturing the "Butcher of Crete", General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller and giving the people of Crete a morale boost.

Paddy parachuted in Crete in Feburary, and conducted the initial reconaissance of the island. 

He learned that General Müller had been replaced with General Heinrich Kripe, a lesser known officer fresh from the Eastern Front. The show still had to go on.

 After several weather and logistical issues, Billy parachuted onto the island in April and linked up with Paddy's established Crete resistance network. 

They faced further issues, when local communist guerillas became aware of the British SOE's presence on their island.

Despite sharing a common enemy, they threatened to reveal their identities to German authorities. The two men had to act fast, mobilizing a small strike force of 4 partisans and monitoring General Kripe's movement for days. 

The two men were able to intercept General Kripe's vehicle, and politely ask for identification papers while dressed as German NCOs. The General saluted the two "Germans", and fumbled for his papers. As he reached into his pocket, 

They knocked out his driver with a baton, hog tied General Kripe at gunpoint, and stole his hat The strike force of Greek fighters rushed into the back of the staff car and kept the two captured Germans secured.

They drove through a whooping 22 roadblocks without raising any suspicions, with Paddy now impersonating General Kripe by wearing his distinctive General Staff hat.

He even received a few salutes in the process. Before long, the entire garrison of 30,000 Germans on Crete were alerted of the kidnapping. 

With the Germans hot on their tail, they whisked the General around the island for almost a month later, awaiting their extraction. 

On 14 May, the two men and one Soviet defector outran force of 200 Germans with the General tied onto the back of a mule. They finally linked up with Special Boat Service soldiers and sailed for Egypt with their HVT.

Billy and Countess Zosfia's first meeting back in 1943 had been love at first sight. They had a few drinks, one thing led to another, and (according to other SOE operatives present), the night ended with a couch set on fire and being thrown out of a second story window.

He would later conduct many more raids into Crete, including one that accounted for 45 Axis troops killed and 10 captured with a significantly smaller force. 

Amazingly, his force suffered no losses. They married immediately after the war, and had three children.

 Bill continued to travel the world, exploring Antarctica, and sailing the Pacific until his death in 1965.

Paddy married Joan Monsell, a beautiful English aristocrat who had met him while she served as a cryptographer during the war.

They split their time between Gloucestershire and Greece until her death in 2009. Paddy was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, and expressed that he'd rather "die in England". He passed away on 10 June 2011, exactly one day after arriving. 

As a testament to his unbelievable fortitude as a man, he smoked a final cigarette and joined friends at the dining table unassisted on his final night alive.

Both men were prominently featured in the 1957 film "Ill met by moonlight", which was based off of Moss' book.