Scribbled with the promise of an imminent Royal Navy pick-up, Leigh Fermor’s fourth report was particularly rushed. In the moments available, he brought Cairo quickly up to date with his work in Heraklion and described an abortive attempt with two Cretans to sabotage enemy shipping in the harbour. The report was written, too, as news was reaching him of brutal enemy reprisals. These were being inflicted on the Cretan population in response to recent lightning attacks by British raiding forces on an airfield at Kastelli and a petrol dump at Peza.
* * *
11 July 1943
I have got about an hour in which to write my whole report, so here goes . . .
MORALE
Hun. Very, very low.
Local. Very high until the sabotage executions took place when it fell to rock bottom; the British came in for much cursing . . .
. . . I went into Babylon by bike, staying with some friends of Cop Manoli over a café, got the toys brought in by donkey, and leased a house near the harbour . . . Later I biked out and contacted the PEZA unit [the British raiding force tasked with attacking the petrol dump], who supplied me with some essential toys for the limpets. I got back next day, rigged the things up in the house, and set out with the Copper and Minoan Mike [Michael Akoumianakes]. We got into the harbour, crawled towards the sea, and were stopped by a lot of broken planes, over, under or through [which] there was no crawling without raising a terrific clatter of tin that set the sentries on the move. Minoan Mike left us at that point. The cop and I spent the rest of the next night trying to find a way through, creeping at snail’s pace behind sentries using what cover we could. But there was no way through from there without killing two of them, which would have made our retreat impossible. We ended up with one three yards off, the other ten . . . both flashing torches. Spent about two hours not daring to move a muscle, and finally, alas, had to withdraw. I’m sorry about this, but we had a damn good try.
We got back to the house, slept till dawn, then back to our friend above the café. The whole town was in a scare next morning, when the results at PEZA and KASTELLI were known. Arrests began at once in the provinces. We got out by car just before they started at Babylon. Shooting started next day. 50 in all that nome, none elsewhere . . .
I hope the service of this [raiding] activity to our general strategy has been high, because here it has caused much havoc to morale, and caused much anti-British feeling . . .
No time for more now, the boat leaves tonight.