Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

KREMER, SIMON• 295

of honor to his captors not to attempt to escape. He also obtained a

similar injunction to stop a film based on the book from being distrib-

uted in Germany, insisting that Moss’s account contained many er-

rors, not the least of which was the omission of the beating he had

received with a rifle-butt on his capture.

Kreipe’s complaint was only partly justified, as the errors in the

movie were of no great significance and largely reflected well on him.

For example, he was given an impressive fluency in English, for ob-

vious dramatic reasons in the film, and was portrayed as having de-

liberately left a trail of his possessions, including his medal, badges,

and cap, as clues to help the German hunt for his captors. The film

version also opened with an entirely fictional scene in which two

GermanFeldgendarmeriemilitary policemen were shot dead while

attempting to examine Leigh Fermor’s papers as he reclined in a den-

tist’s chair, as explanation for the source of the enemy uniforms used

in the abduction.

Apart from demonstrating that SOE was capable of pulling off

quite impressive coups in enemy-occupied territory, the operation

achieved little else, for Kreipe had not participated in any of the

atrocities that so characterized the German occupation. On this occa-

sion SOE went to considerable lengths to inform the German garri-

son, through the medium of leaflets dropped from aircraft, that there

had not been any local participation in the abduction. However, this

did not prevent the Germans from persisting with their policy of re-

prisals, taking 10 Cretan lives for each German soldier lost. Every

house in Anoyia was dynamited and dive-bombed in August 1944,

and the villages of Lokhria, Saktouria, Magarikari, and Kamares

were also razed to the ground in retaliation for British-inspired opera-

tions. Altogether, several thousand Cretans were massacred as a re-

sult of Axis reprisals for Allied raids.

KREMER, SIMON.Working under diplomatic cover at the Soviet
embassy in London in 1940, as secretary to the military attache ́,
Simon Kremer was actually theGRU’srezident, identified in Febru-
ary 1940 by defectorWalter Krivitsky. Kremer put Klaus Fuchs in
contact withUrsula Beurton(codenamedsonia) and appeared in
thevenonatraffic asbarchand lateralexander. Study of the
GRUvenonamessages showed Kremer was supervising the spy