45-505: Dunbabin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Thomas Dunbabin (1911–1955), Australian classicist scholar and archaeologist of Tasmanian origin. William Dunbabin (1894–1975), Australian politician. Jean Dunbabin , honorary fellow of St Anne's College, University of Oxford. See also [ edit ] Dunbabin Point , small peninsula which lies near Daltons beach, in
90-467: A corporal , campaign badges, side arms and a traffic policeman's stick. Athanasakis set up an observation post on a height overlooking the German headquarters, signalling whenever Kreipe left the building. Four more resistance members, Efstratios Saviolakis, Dimitrios Tzatzadakis, Nikolaos Komis and Antonios Zoidakis, were recruited as guides. Shortly before the abduction was to take place, the team received
135-585: A band of resistance men led by Michael Xylouris and the SOE officers attached to them. The breakdown of their wireless station meant that all communication had to be conducted by runners, hindering the evacuation. The next day, the team was informed that the Cretans had murdered Kreipe's driver as he was too stunned to walk at the necessary pace for the rebels to avoid capture. The team continued its ascent on Ida, where they stayed with another Cretan resistance group. As
180-644: A contributor to Walkabout . He attended Sydney Church of England Grammar School where he won the Cooper Prize and was a school prefect. He shared the Burke Prize for highest general proficiency in his school in 1926 and in that year achieved first class honours in English, Latin and Greek. He studied at the University of Sydney and then moved to Corpus Christi College, Oxford . There, he won
225-511: A general uprising and an Allied invasion had prompted Bräuer to strengthen Chania's garrison and continue the security sweeps. Kreipe's aide-de-camp and guards were arrested on suspicion of complicity. The arrival of a runner enabled the abduction team to request that a boat be sent to Saktouria on 2 May. The runner unexpectedly did not return the following day and the party was informed that Saktouria and other hotbeds of resistance had been destroyed by German troops. Moss and Leigh Fermor set off to
270-490: 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. Leigh Fermor replied with an ambiguously written note and the ELAS commander did not carry out his threat. The operation was postponed for several days as the general did not leave his residence. On the night of 26/27 April 1944, Leigh Fermor and Moss received
315-439: A note claiming that British special forces had conducted the operation without any local support and scattered incriminating evidence. The team then ascended to Anogeia, where they rested for a few hours. 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. They soon departed for Mount Ida , where they were met by
360-517: A recent SOE recruit and Major Patrick Leigh Fermor , an officer of SOE Cairo's Cretan Desk; hatched a plan for the abduction of General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller , then commander of the 22nd Air Landing Division . 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 SOE planned to kidnap him while keeping
405-522: A senior German officer as early as November 1942, when a SOE agent on Crete, Xan Fielding , proposed seizing the island's chief military governor at the time, Alexander Andrae . When Andrae was posted away, his successor Bruno Bräuer was targeted for capture. None of these plans were carried out. Carta's successful escape to Egypt rekindled the idea of abducting the chief military commander of Crete. In 1943, Captain William Stanley Moss ,
450-481: A signal that the general had got into his car. Changing into the German uniforms, they followed Saviolakis to Point A. Leigh Fermor and Moss hid in a ditch on the east side of the road. Further to the west Zoidakis, the Papaleonidas brothers, Tyrakis and Komis lay in wait. At 9:30 pm, Tzatzadakis flashed his torch three times signalling that Kreipe's car was approaching unescorted. Leigh Fermor and Moss blocked
495-525: A son and a daughter. During World War II , he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel as a SOE Field Commander behind enemy lines in occupied Crete . He was, from 1942, the senior British liaison officer with the resistance and it was during this period he earned his DSO . He used the Greek codename Yanni and was also known to locals as Tom . His role was made more difficult by the rivalry between various Greek resistance groups. Those he worked with on
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#1732786671074540-448: A standstill; the location was subsequently named Point A. The owner of a small cottage outside Skalani ( el ), some twenty minutes travel time from the abduction point, agreed to collaborate, turning the building into an observation point. Owing to the heavy traffic on the main road, the operation had to be undertaken at night. Akoumianakis supplied the team with two Feldgendarmerie summer uniforms, complete with rank insignia for
585-427: A steep mountain track leading to Anogeia . 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. Leigh Fermor drove to the hamlet of Heliana where he abandoned the car. To prevent reprisals against the area's population, he left
630-461: A symbolic propaganda victory rather than a strategic one. The relatively harmless Kreipe was replaced by Müller who ordered mass reprisals against the civilian population of the island, known as the Holocaust of Kedros . The abduction operation entered popular imagination through the biographical works of several of its participants, most notably Moss's book Ill Met by Moonlight . Greece entered
675-496: A unit of the Special Boat Service (SBS) led by George Jellicoe was to land at Limni beach on 9 May, to assist with the evacuation. Moss and Leigh Fermor rendezvoused with the rest of the abduction team at the hamlet of Karines and advanced to Fotinou and then Vilandredo. 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
720-583: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Thomas Dunbabin Thomas James Dunbabin DSO (12 April 1911 – 31 March 1955), was an Australian classicist scholar and archaeologist of Tasmanian origin, as well as a renowned WWII soldier in Crete. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 12 April 1911. His father was Thomas Dunbabin (1883–1973), a distinguished journalist and
765-566: The Second World War on the side of the Allies following an Italian invasion from Albania on 28 October 1940. The following year, on 6 April, Nazi Germany launched an invasion of its own from Bulgaria known as Operation Marita ; Athens was occupied on 28 April and the resistance on the Greek mainland had ceased by the 30th. King George II and his government had left the Greek mainland for Crete five days earlier. The island
810-679: The 7th century. This resulted in his book, The Western Greeks; The History of Sicily and South Italy from the Foundation of the Greek Colonies to 480 B.C. (1948). Dunbabin died from pancreatic cancer on 31 March 1955, twelve days before his 44th birthday. He was survived by his wife and two children, as well as, among other relatives, his father. Kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe Crete ( Cretan resistance ) World War II in Albania The kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe
855-636: The Allied command. Following the surrender of Italy to the Allies in September 1943, Angelico Carta , the commander of the Italian 51st Infantry Division , decided to side with the Allies. Evading German patrols and observation planes he embarked on a SOE motor torpedo boat at Soutsouro reaching Mersa Matruh the next afternoon, on 23 September 1943. British officers had considered the idea of capturing
900-487: The Amari valley in search of a wireless station. On 5 May, they reached the village of Pantanassa where they were able to send and receive written messages once again. A day later dispatch runner George Psychoundakis brought SOE officer Dick Barnes and a wireless set to the village. In the meantime, the rest of the party evaded a German patrol by moving to Patsos, just two hours away from Pantanassa. It then became known that
945-713: The Haigh prize and was eventually appointed Reader in Classical Archaeology and Fellow of All Souls College , specializing in the Greek colonization in Italy. He was the assistant director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens in 1936 when he became engaged to Adelaide Doreen Delacour, the daughter of the Bishop of Knaresborough . They married the following year and they went on to have two children,
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#1732786671074990-540: The Kreipe abduction team and their role in the Damasta sabotage. The British historian Alan Ogden saw the order of the day to destroy Anogeia as specific and retrospective, confirming British fears of mass reprisals. The British military historian Antony Beevor and the German historian Gottfried Schramm saw the wave of German reprisals that followed the operation as unconnected to Kreipe's abduction. Beevor and Schramm saw
1035-566: The benefit of raising the morale of the Cretan resistance was significantly outweighed by the high risk of German reprisals . Nevertheless, in September 1943, Barker-Benfield approved the plan and the operation was set in motion. 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 and facing numerous delays
1080-425: The capture of a high ranking German officer was sufficient to raise the morale of both the Cretans and SOE's Greek section. The rest of the team attempted to parachute into Crete seven more times without success; after two months, on 4 April, they arrived by motor launch at Tsoutsoura. The team moved to a cave system in the mountains above Kastamonitsa village, the hideout of a local resistance group. The SOE team
1125-522: The car to pass numerous checkpoints before being abandoned at the hamlet of Heliana. The abductors continued on foot, continuing to evade thousands of Axis soldiers sent to stop them, with the help of guides from the local resistance. On 14 May, the team was picked up by a British motorboat from the Rodakino beach and transported to British-held Egypt. The success of the operation was put into question several months afterwards. The outcome came to be seen as
1170-490: The driver on the head with his cosh , knocking him unconscious. 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. The rest cleared the spot of signs of struggle and also headed to Heraklion with the driver. The car passed through 22 checkpoints in Heraklion, coming into the road to Rethymno and stopping outside
1215-461: The island and raised that of the local resistance, as the BBC and Royal Air Force praised the operation's success through radio broadcasts and leaflet drops respectively. The wisdom of the abduction came into question as Kreipe was characterised as anti–Nazi by his interrogator. Despite his position he possessed very little information of value to British Intelligence and by the time of his capture Crete
1260-521: The island included Patrick Leigh Fermor , John Pendlebury , Manolis Paterakis , Sandy Rendel , and Dennis Ciclitira . One of the operations carried out was the capture of General Heinrich Kreipe in April 1944. His obituary in the Times notes his finest achievement was using his influence to keep peace between various partisan groups and is credited with saving the island from the turmoil experienced on
1305-870: The island with their headquarters in Chania , whilst the Italians occupied the easternmost prefecture of Lasithi . It did not take long for the Cretan resistance to spring up. They assisted Allied soldiers stranded on the island in evading capture and helped them escape to the British controlled Middle East. The escapees helped establish contact between the Special Operations Executive 's (SOE) Cairo branch and Cretan resistance organisations. Supplied with wireless sets and augmented by SOE stay behind operatives, they began co-ordinating their actions with
1350-612: The mainland during the Greek Civil War . A transcription of Dunbabin’s own account of his time on Crete was prepared by his nephew and published (in Greek and English) in 2015 by the Society of Cretan Historical Studies , Heraklion. He returned to Oxford after the war where in 1945 he became a Reader in classical archaeology under Sir John Beazley . In 1952 as a Leverhulme Research Follow he travelled widely to examine artefacts indicating oriental influence on Greek culture of
1395-531: The rest of the squad returned to Cairo. 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. 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
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1440-444: The road and as the car came closer Moss waved his policeman's stick and shouted "Halt!". When the car stopped, Leigh Fermor requested that identity papers be shown. As Kreipe reached for his pocket, Leigh Fermor jacked the door open, while simultaneously pressing his automatic weapon against Kreipe's chest. The rest of the team sprung up and surrounded the car. A brief struggle ensued, which ended when Paterakis tied Kreipe and Moss struck
1485-502: The south east of Tasmania. [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with the surname Dunbabin . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dunbabin&oldid=871178964 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
1530-566: 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. After crossing the valley they reached the village of Agia Paraskevi. A report transmitted by the BBC had alerted the Germans that Kreipe had yet to leave the island. Rumours of
1575-586: The team flew to the headquarters of the British 8th Army in Bari on 4 January 1944. On 4 February, they boarded a bomber at the Brindisi airport which was to transport them to Crete's Katharo plateau. Leigh Fermor was the only one airdropped, due to a sudden weather change that caused the area to be obscured by clouds. Leigh Fermor was greeted by Cretan resistance members and SOE Captain Sandy Rendel , while
1620-590: The team in avoiding their pursuers. When the team reached Asi Gonia , a runner told them that a boat was going to pick them up at Peristeres beach on the night of 14 May. The Rodakiniot guerillas accompanied the team on their final trek. The team, Kreipe, two German prisoners of war and a sick Soviet prisoner of war boarded HMS Motor Launch ML 842 (commanded by Brian Coleman) on 14 May 1944 from Peristeres Beach, west of Rodakino at 10:00 pm, concluding their mission by landing at Mersa Matruh in Egypt. Major Leigh Fermor
1665-797: The terror campaign as a means to facilitate the planned German evacuation from much of the island to the stronghold of Chania. The Holocaust of Kedros was an operation involving 2,000 Axis soldiers who targeted Anogeia and Damasta . A total of 900 houses were burned, 50 civilians were shot and 3,500 became internally displaced. In the following days the operation expanded to other villages, men were executed, houses were looted and then burned or dynamited regardless of their involvement in resistance activities. Local resistance bands could do nothing but watch, being vastly outnumbered. These events were portrayed in Moss's 1950 semi-autobiographical book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe . In 1957,
1710-481: 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. On the night of 26 April, Kreipe's car was ambushed while en route from his residence to his divisional headquarters. Kreipe was tied and forced into the back seat while Leigh Fermor and Moss impersonated him and his driver respectively. Kreipe's notorious impatience at roadblocks enabled
1755-520: The use of violence at a minimum and transport him to Egypt, thus giving a morale boost to the Cretans. Leigh Fermor submitted the plan to the commander of the SOE in the Middle East Brigadier Karl Vere Barker-Benfield. 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. Sweet-Escott argued that
1800-440: Was a backwater. On 8 August 1944, a German punitive expedition sent against the village of Anogeia was ambushed by Moss and Michael Xylouris' band. The Damasta sabotage , as this came to be known, resulted in the death of thirty Germans, twelve of whom were murdered after surrendering. Müller, who had returned to his role of commander of Fortress Crete, was determined to penalise the inhabitants of Anogeia for providing shelter to
1845-648: Was an operation executed jointly by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and local resistance members in Crete in German-occupied Greece during the Second World War . Operation 'BRICKLAYER' was launched on 4 February 1944, when SOE officer Patrick Leigh Fermor landed in Crete with the intention of abducting notorious war criminal and commander of 22nd Air Landing Division , Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller . By
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1890-596: Was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Captain Moss the Military Cross , "For [their] outstanding display of courage and audacity" during the operation. The awards were gazetted on 13 July 1944. Following his interrogation Kreipe was transferred to Calgary in Canada, where he was interned with other captured German generals until 1947. The operation dealt a blow to Axis morale on
1935-413: Was in turn attacked by a Nazi airborne invasion on 20 May 1941. The Germans prevailed after seven days of fighting, forcing an Allied withdrawal to Egypt . With the conclusion of Operation Marita, Greece was subjected to a Triple Occupation by Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. Crete, now called Fortress Crete , was shared between Germany and Italy. The Germans occupied the western three prefectures of
1980-492: Was joined by Antonios and Grigorios Papaleonidas, Michail Akoumianakis and Grigorios Chnarakis. Akoumianakis' house was located across the road from Kreipe's residence, the Villa Ariadne, in the village of Knossos . Leigh Fermor disguised himself as a Cretan shepherd for his trip to Knossos. After traveling by bus with Akoumianakis, he reconnoitered the vicinity of the villa. Enclosed by a triple wire barrier (one of which
2025-502: Was rumoured to be electrified) and guarded by a sizeable garrison, it was deemed too well-fortified for a direct assault. It was decided to seize Kreipe during one of his frequent trips from his residence to his divisional headquarters in Ano Archanes , some 5 miles (8.0 km) away. Surveying the route, they discovered a T-junction where the road from Archanes joined the main road to Heraklion , forcing cars to slow down to almost
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