The kidnap gang pose before the action (Courtesy of Estate of William Stanley Moss)
Paddy Leigh Fermor and ‘Billy’ Moss (Courtesy of estate of William Stanley Moss)
As we remember this small event in that catastrophic global war, you may like to take the opportunity to watch the movie, 11th Day, which documents the key events in the struggle of the Cretan people and their allies against the German occupiers, from the invasion to the German retreat, including interviews with Paddy, and many of the characters made famous by the kidnap of General Kreipe.
Watch the full movie here before it is pulled from You Tube!
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Thank you for posting this film, I’m looking forward to watching it later. This is the first time I’ve come across it – when I first saw the post I thought I would be watching I’ll Met By Moonlight again!
Thank you for posting this link; some of the interview material is certainly valuable. But I think we have to deplore the promiscuous mixing of authentic archival material with staged scenes; most of the latter were of course obvious, but some were more ambiguous, and might have been taken for authentic by some viewers. Why should this be a problem? Well, first of all because it breaches a well-established journalistic and historical principle, one which in these days of dark propaganda and fake news should be adhered to religiously. Even more relevant to the material in question is the fact that staged clips of events purportedly taking place in the context of WWII, when incorporated in an otherwise documentary context, risk poisoning the source in a potentially dangerous way. A consideration of holocaust deniers and their routine dismissal of authenticated factual evidence is sadly not as far-fetched as it may at first seem.
That’s pretty scathing stuff John and would viewers really be so gullible as to think this stuff was real? It is very badly done; I don’t think so!! This film is now quite a few years old and well before the age of “fake” news. I don’t think that there is any intention to deceive. I think the reenactments are there to entertain and add a little colour to something that could otherwise have been ordinary and dull. I for one never “believe’ in these enactments; I can see the glaring errors, but it gives further shape to the story. It is for each of us to make up our minds.
No, I agree that very few viewers would be taken in, and certainly nobody following this blog. But the point I was making was a bit more subtle: not that viewers might be taken in, but that the use of staged scenes, not flagged as such, in the context of a documentary, could be used by ill-wishers as proof that certain Nazi atrocities never took place. Of course you or I, or the vast majority of people, would shrug the whole thing off as beneath contempt; and yet, note how the most insane conspiracy theories seem to grow and flourish on the strength of “evidence” along the lines of “You know that documentary about the invasion of Crete? Those scenes of torture – they were faked!”. In general, it’s a good principle to either avoid mixing the genres, or else flag the staged material prominently, rather as reputable TV stations will identify relevant but different images and clips as “stock footage” or the like.
I see. Good points.