Amazing War Stories with Bruce Crompton

The Hitmen of Heraklion

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Episode notes

On the morning of June 10th, 1942 six armed men in three rubber dinghies filled with explosives, paddled ashore to a small beach near Malia, Crete. Their mission - to destroy as many planes as possible at the Luftwaffe Airbase at Heraklion.

But already, the operation wasn’t going to plan. They had landed in the wrong location and the occupied island was not only crawling with German soldiers but also Nazi spies the allies called Quislings. 

This is the remarkable true story of the SAS’s first seaborne operation. By the end, the six heroes were forced to play a deadly game of cat and mouse as the nazis and traitors, tried to capture the fleeing SAS operatives. Sadly, not all of them would survive.

They were The Hitmen of Heraklion.

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Contributors:

Jason Fox - Ex-SBS and DS on SAS Who Dares Wins

Dr Chris Mann - Director of The War Studies Department, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Andrew Wallis - Curator, Guards Museum, Wellington Barracks, London

Episode Credits-

Written, Researched and Executive Produced by Ed Sayer

Associate Producer Lois Crompton

Editing, Sound design & 3D mastering by Vaudeville Sound Group

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