By the time of the arrival of the rest of the abduction team, led by William Stanley Moss, two months later, Müller had been succeeded by Heinrich Kreipe, who was chosen as the new target.

The abduction operation entered popular imagination through the biographical works of several of its participants, most notably Moss's book Ill Met by Moonlight.

The escapees helped establish contact between the Special Operations Executive's (SOE) Cairo branch and Cretan resistance organisations.

Evading German patrols and observation planes he embarked on a SOE motor torpedo boat at Tsoutsouro reaching Mersa Matruh the next afternoon, on 23 September 1943.

[11] Müller had gained a reputation for brutality and was despised by the Cretan people, being responsible for mass executions, torture, the razing of villages and conscripting civilians into labour units.

The plan received widespread support in SOE's Cairo branch, with Special Operations Committee senior executive Bickham Sweet-Escott being the only one to oppose it.

[13] In late 1943, Leigh Fermor and Moss formed a squad with two Cretan resistance members, Georgios Tyrakis and Emmanouil Paterakis, who were to accompany them in their mission.

After undergoing training at an SOE camp in Ramat David, Palestine[13] and facing numerous delays the team flew to the headquarters of the British 8th Army[14] in Bari on 4 January 1944.

Leigh Fermor was greeted by Cretan resistance members and SOE Captain Sandy Rendel, while the rest of the squad returned to Cairo.

[8] While hiding in a cave above the village of Tapais in the Lasithi mountains, Leigh Fermor reestablished old contacts, and learned that Müller had been replaced by Major General Heinrich Kreipe on 1 March.

[16] On 30 March, Leigh Fermor informed the Cretan section of SOE Cairo about Müller's replacement, simultaneously signaling his intent to carry out the operation.

Although Leigh Fermor knew little about Kreipe, he insisted that the capture of a high ranking German officer was sufficient to raise the morale of both the Cretans and SOE's Greek section.

[22] Akoumianakis supplied the team with two Feldgendarmerie summer uniforms, complete with rank insignia for a corporal, campaign badges, side arms and a traffic policeman's stick.

Shortly before the abduction was to take place, the team received a letter from a local commander of the pro-communist Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), who threatened to betray them to the authorities if they did not vacate the area.

Moss took up the driver's seat and Leigh Fermor impersonated the general, with Kreipe, Saviolakis, Tyrakis and Paterakis in the backseat, driving off to Heraklion.

[21] Kreipe's penchant for being impatient at roadblocks and acting rudely to the people manning them had made him unpopular among his subordinates, contributing to the success of his kidnapping as the car sped through the check points without stopping.

To prevent reprisals against the area's population, he left a note claiming that British special forces had conducted the operation without any local support and scattered incriminating evidence.

Late in the afternoon of 27 April, a German reconnaissance aircraft dropped leaflets unto the village threatening reprisals if the general was not returned within three days.

[27] As the team continued their journey from Ida to the Amari Valley, Crete's garrison of over 30,000 men had been placed on alert and Axis troops began to assemble around the mountain range in an attempt to block their escape.

Once a 200-man German column came to Argygoupoli just an hour's distance from Vilandredo, Dennis Ciclitira and a band of ELAS fighters assisted the team in avoiding their pursuers.

[32] On 27 April 1944, the day after Kreipe's abduction, Greek ELAS partisans ambushed the German Major General Franz Krech in the Peloponnese, killing him and four members of his escort.

For propaganda reasons, the Allies spread the story that Krech had been executed by the Gestapo as a "dissident"[33] and that he, along with Kreipe, had participated in the anti-Hitler "Free Germany" movement.

[34] Major Leigh Fermor was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Captain Moss the Military Cross, "For [their] outstanding display of courage and audacity" during the operation.

[46] Leigh Fermor and Psychoundakis also recounted their experiences in the respective biographical works Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete and The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation.