While leading German forces in occupied Crete in April 1944, he was abducted by British SOE officers Patrick Leigh Fermor and William Stanley Moss, with the support of the Cretan resistance.

In the spring of 1944, the Allies hatched a plan to kidnap General Müller, whose harsh repressive measures had earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Crete".

Major Patrick Leigh Fermor led the planned operation, assisted by Captain Bill Stanley Moss, Greek SOE agents and Cretan resistance fighters.

)[7][8] Moss drove the kidnappers and the General for an hour and a half through 22 controlled road-blocks in Heraklion before he left Leigh Fermor to drive on and abandon the car, with material being planted that suggested their escape from the island had been made by submarine.

Hunted by German patrols, the kidnappers crossed the mountains to reach the southern side of the island, where a British Motor Launch (ML 842 commanded by Brian Coleman) was waiting to rendezvous.

[citation needed] In 1950 W. Stanley Moss, one of the leaders of the operation, wrote a bestselling account of the abduction: Ill Met by Moonlight.