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#REDIRECT [[W. Stanley Moss]] |
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{{About|the British soldier and author|the American poet|Stanley Moss}} |
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{{Use British English|date=August 2012}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2012}} |
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{{R from move}} |
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{{Infobox writer |
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| name = W. Stanley Moss |
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| birth_name = Ivan William Stanley Moss |
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| image = W. Stanley Moss crop.jpg |
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| imagesize = 250 |
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| caption = Moss in [[Crete]] (1944) |
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| nickname = Billy |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|6|15|df=y}} |
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| birth_place = [[Yokohama]], Japan |
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|8|9|1921|6|15|df=y}} |
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| death_place = [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], Jamaica |
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| occupation = Soldier, writer and traveller |
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| nationality = British |
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| notableworks = {{ubl|''[[Ill Met by Moonlight]]''|''[[A War of Shadows]]''}} |
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| spouse = [[Sophie Moss|Zofia Tarnowska]] |
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| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes |
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| branch = [[British Army]]|branch_label=Branch |
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| serviceyears = 1940–1946|serviceyears_label=Years |
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| rank = [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]] |
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| unit = {{ubl|[[Coldstream Guards]]|[[Special Operations Executive]]}} |
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| battles = [[World War II]]|battles_label=Wars |
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| awards = [[Military Cross]]}} |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Ivan William Stanley Moss''' [[Military Cross|MC]] (15 June 1921 – 9 August 1965), also known as '''W. Stanley Moss''' and '''Billy Moss''', was a British army officer in World War II,<ref>{{cite book|author= Moss, W. Stanley |chapter=Afterword: Billy Moss: Soldier, Writer, Traveller-A Brief Life |title=A War of Shadows |date= 2014 |publisher=Bene Factum Publishing|oclc=881179901 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= Davis, Wes |title=The Ariadne Objective |date= 2014 |publisher= Random House|url=http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/the-ariadne-objective/9780593072806 |oclc=819641568 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= Ogden, Alan|chapter=Terrific Fun – The Life of Billy Moss |title=Coldstream Gazette|date= 2018 |publisher=The Journal of The Coldstream Guards Association}}</ref>and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with the [[Coldstream Guards]] and the [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) and is best known for the [[Kidnap of General Kreipe]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Secret War Exhibition, Imperial War Museum, London,|url= http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london}}</ref> He was a best-selling author in the 1950s, based both on his novels and books about his wartime service. His SOE years are featured in ''[[Ill Met by Moonlight|Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe]]'',<ref name="orionbooks.co.uk">{{cite web|title= Moss, W. Stanley. ''Ill Met by Moonlight'', 2014, Orion|url=https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781780226231}}</ref> (also adapted as a British film released under the main title) and ''[[A War of Shadows]]''.<ref name="Shadows">{{cite book|author= Ogden, Alan |title=A War of Shadows |date= 2014 |publisher=Bene Factum Publishing|oclc=881179901}}</ref> Moss travelled around the world and went to [[Antarctica]] to meet the [[Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition]]. |
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A biography, ''Billy Moss: Soldier, Writer, Traveller - A Brief Life'' by Alan Ogden, was published in 2014 as an Afterword to ''[[A War of Shadows]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title= Ogden, Alan. ''Billy Moss: Soldier, Writer, Traveller - A Brief Life'', Afterword, A War of Shadows, 2014, Bene Factum Publishing|url= http://new.bene-factum.co.uk/product/war-of-shadows/|url-status= dead|archiveurl= https://archive.is/20140806104941/http://new.bene-factum.co.uk/product/war-of-shadows/|archivedate= 6 August 2014|df= dmy-all}}</ref> An abbreviated text was published in the Coldstream Gazette 2018<ref>{{cite web|title= Ogden, Alan. ''Terrific Fun – The Short Life of Billy Moss: Soldier, Writer and Traveller'', Coldstream Gazette, 2018 |
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|url= https://patrickleighfermor.org/2019/05/26/terrific-fun-the-short-life-of-billy-moss-soldier-writer-and-traveller-by-alan-ogden/}}</ref>. |
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==Early life and education== |
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Ivan William Stanley Moss, (called Bill or Billy) was born in [[Yokohama]], [[Japan]]. His mother, Natalie Galitch (born in Nikolayevsk Usuriski), was a [[White emigre|White Russian émigrée]], and his father, William Stanley Moss, an English businessman and steel merchant in Japan. They married on 22 September 1916. The family survived the [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake]]. Moss attended [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]] in England (1934–39). |
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His uncle, Sir George Sinclair Moss (1882-1959), a British diplomat in China, also served the [[Special Operations Executive]] as adviser on Chinese affairs during the Second World War.<ref name = ogden/> |
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==Soldier== |
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In the autumn of 1939, Moss, aged 18, had just left Charterhouse and was living in a log cabin on the [[Latvia]]n coast. By the outbreak of war, he reached [[Stockholm]], and succeeded in crossing the North Sea to England in a yacht. After full training at [[Caterham]], he was commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] into the [[Coldstream Guards]] in July 1941. He served on [[Queen's Guard|King's Guard]] at the [[Court of St. James's]] punctuated by bouts of [[Winston Churchill|Churchillian]] duty at [[Chequers]]. |
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Posted to reinforce the 3rd Battalion the Coldstream, after the losses at [[Tobruk]], Moss fought between October 1942 and July 1943 with [[Viscount Montgomery of Alamein|Montgomery's]] [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]] chasing [[Erwin Rommel|Rommel]] across North Africa after [[Second Battle of El Alamein|Alamein]] and finished up the campaign in [[Chianti]] and [[Pantellaria]]. He returned to Cairo, where he volunteered to join Force 133 of the [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) on 24 September 1943.<ref>[[Moncreiffe of that Ilk|Moncreiffe, Sir Iain]], ''Ill Met by Moonlight'', Prologue</ref><ref name=cooper>Cooper, Artemis, ''Cairo in the War 1939-1945'', Hamish Hamilton 1989</ref> |
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===Tara, Cairo=== |
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{{main|Tara, Cairo}} |
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In 1943 in Cairo, Moss moved into a spacious villa, with a great ballroom with parquet floors, which four or five people might share. Moss chose to live in the villa rather than the SOE hostel, "Hangover Hall". He moved in alone at first, then bought his Alsatian puppy, Pixie; [[Xan Fielding]], who had served in Crete, joined him. Next was [[Sophie Moss|Countess Zofia (Sophie) Tarnowska]], forced to leave Poland in 1939 by the German invasion, followed by [[Arnold Breene]] of SOE HQ. Finally [[Patrick Leigh Fermor]], an SOE officer who had spent the previous nine months in Crete, joined the household.<ref name=diary>Moss, W. Stanley, ''Diary'', 1944</ref> |
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The villa's new inhabitants called it [[Tara, Cairo|Tara]], after the legendary [[Hill of Tara|home]] of the High Kings of Ireland.<ref name=cooper/> |
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Sophie Tarnowska and two other women had been asked to share the house with the SOE agents, but only she went through with it, after the men pleaded with her not to let them down. Estranged from her husband, she moved in with her few possessions (a bathing costume, an evening gown, a uniform and two pet mongooses). She protected her reputation while living in the all-male household by the invention of an entirely fictitious chaperone, "Madame Khayatt", who suffered from "distressingly poor health"<ref name=cooper/> and was always indisposed when visitors asked after her. The group were later joined by SOE agents [[Neil McLean (politician)|Billy McLean]], [[David Smiley]] returning from Albania,<ref name=diary/> and [[Rowland Winn, 4th Baron St Oswald|Rowland Winn]] (later Lord St. Oswald), also active in Albania.<ref name=cooper/> |
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Tara became the centre of high-spirited entertaining of diplomats, officers, writers, lecturers, war correspondents and Coptic and Levantine party-goers. The residents adopted nicknames: "Princess Dneiper-Petrovsk" (Countess Sophie Tarnowska), "Sir Eustace Rapier" (Lt-Col. Neil (Billy) McLean), "the Marquis of Whipstock" (Col David Smiley LVO OBE MC), "the Hon, Rupert Sabretache" (Rowland Winn MC), "Lord Hughe Devildrive" (Major Xan Fielding DSO), "Lord Pintpot" (Arnold Breene), "Lord Rakehell" (Lt-Col Patrick Leigh-Fermor DSO) and "Mr Jack Jargon"<ref>[[Lord Byron]], ''Don Juan, Canto The Thirteenth, LXXXVIII'', "There was Jack Jargon, the gigantic guardsman"</ref>(Capt W. Stanley Moss MC).<ref name=cooper/> By the winter of 1944, the Tara household had to leave their battered villa and move into a flat.<ref name=cooper/> Their landlord secured their eviction on the grounds that the villa had not been let to "Princess Dneiper-Petrovsk" ''et al.'', as stated on the villa's name plate. |
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===Abduction of General Kreipe, Crete=== |
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{{main|Kidnap of General Kreipe}} |
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[[File:Kreipe Abduction Team.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Georgios Tyrakis, Moss, Leigh Fermor, Emmanouil Paterakis, Antonios Papaleonidas.]] |
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[[File:W. Stanley Moss's drawing of Kreipe Abduction Point.jpg|thumb|275px|right|W. Stanley Moss's drawing of Kreipe Abduction Point]] |
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[[File:William Stanley Moss's Cosh used in the Abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe, 1944.jpg|thumb|right|275px| William Stanley Moss's Cosh used in the Abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe, 1944 - Held by Imperial War Museums]] |
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Moss is best remembered for the capture of General [[Heinrich Kreipe]]<ref name="orionbooks.co.uk"/> on Crete and abduction of him to Egypt, in April and May 1944.<ref>Byford-Jones, W. , ''The Greek Trilogy'', Hutchinson 1945</ref><ref name=Ogden>Ogden, Alan, ''Sons of Odysseus, SOE Heroes in Greece'', Bene Factum Publishing Ltd, London, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-903071-44-1}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=16 July 2010|publisher=Serving History|title=Heinrich Kreipe: Abduction By Greek And British Agents|url=http://www.servinghistory.com/topics/Heinrich_Kreipe::sub::Abduction_By_Greek_And_British_Agents}}</ref> Leigh Fermor, with Moss as his second-in-command, led a team of Cretan [[Andartes]], part of the Greek resistance.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, Obituaries, ''The Telegraph'' 10 June 2011|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/8568395/Sir-Patrick-Leigh-Fermor.html| location=London | work=The Telegraph | date=10 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title= ''The Daily Telegraph Review'', 29 September 2012, pp. 20-21|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9571547/Patrick-Leigh-Fermor-exclusive-extract-from-the-new-biography.html| location=London | work=The Telegraph | accessdate= 1 October 2012}}</ref> |
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Moss and Leigh Fermor thought of the Kreipe abduction one evening in the ''Club Royale de Chasse et de Pêche'' (Royal Hunting and Fishing Club) and planned it during the winter of 1943.<ref name=cooper/> On the last evening before Moss and Leigh Fermor set off, Smiley presented Moss with the ''[[Oxford Book of English Verse]]'' - his companion from Albania - for good luck.<ref name=cooper/> McLean gave him a complete Shakespeare dedicated, "To Bill, with best of luck for Guernsey, Bill". |
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Promoted to the rank of Captain, at age 22 Moss set off with Leigh Fermor, age 29, to [[Crete]] in 1944. Leigh Fermor landed by parachute. Moss, unable to jump due to cloud cover, followed several weeks later, landing on 4 April 1944 by boat on the south coast where he joined Leigh Fermor, [[Andartes]] and other support (using the cover name of 'Dimitrios'). Walking north, they passed through [[Skinias]], [[Kastamonitsa]] and [[Haraso]]. Just south of [[Skalani]], they prepared for the abduction. Throughout the operation, as they travelled across Crete, they were hidden and supported by the [[Cretan resistance|Resistance]] and the local population. |
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Moss and Leigh Fermor, disguised as German soldiers, stopped the General's car. With the help of their team, the driver was knocked out by Moss with his cosh<ref>Macintyre, Ben, ''The Times'', 11 June 2011, pp. 18-19</ref><ref>Moss's cosh held by Imperial War Museum London, Catalogue ref WEA 4182</ref> and the General and car seized. With Leigh Fermor impersonating the General, and Moss his driver, and with the General bundled in the back, secured by their Cretan team, Moss drove the General's car for an hour and a half through 22 controlled road blocks in [[Heraklion]]. Leigh Fermor took the car on, as Moss walked with the general south into the mountains to [[Anogeia]] and up towards [[Psiloritis]]. Reunited, the entire abduction team took the general on over the summit of Psiloritis before descending, aiming for the coast. Driven west by German forces cutting off escape to the south, they travelled to [[Gerakari, Rethymno|Gerakari]] and on to [[Patsos]]. From here, they walked on through [[Fotinos]] and [[Vilandredo]] before striking south, finally to escape by ship on 13 May 1944. |
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After the war, a member of Kreipe's staff reported that, on hearing the news of the kidnapping, an uneasy silence in the officers' mess in Heraklion was followed by someone saying, "Well gentlemen, I think this calls for champagne all round."<ref name=cooper/> |
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Post-war correspondence explains that Kreipe was disliked by his soldiers because, amongst other things, he objected to the stopping of his own vehicle for checking in compliance with his commands concerning troops' reviewing approved travel orders. This tension between the General and his troops, in part, explains the reluctance of sentries to stop the General's car as Moss drove it through Heraklion.<ref>Beutin, Dr Ludwig, Letter to W. Stanley Moss, 27 September 1950</ref> |
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The episode was immortalised in his best-selling book ''[[Ill Met by Moonlight]]'' (1950).<ref>{{ cite news|title=Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor: Soldier, scholar and celebrated travel writer hailed as the best of his time|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-patrick-leigh-fermor-soldier-scholar-and-celebrated-travel-writer-hailed-as-the-best-of-his-time-2296162.html|work=[[The Independent]]|date=11 June 2011|accessdate=11 June 2011|first=Artemis|last=Cooper}}</ref> It was adapted into a film of the same name, directed and produced by [[Michael Powell]] and released in 1957. It featured [[Dirk Bogarde]] as Patrick Leigh Fermor and [[David Oxley]] as Moss. |
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The abduction is commemorated near [[Archanes]] and at [[Patsos]].<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=17 July 2010|title= Photograph Archanes|url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/13294164}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=17 July 2010|title= Photograph Charakas 2010|url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/35842062}}</ref> |
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===Damasta Sabotage, Crete=== |
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{{main|Damasta sabotage}} |
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Returning to Crete on 6 July 1944,<ref name="Shadows"/> Moss led a resistance group consisting of eight Cretans and six escaped Russian POW soldiers in launching an ambush on German forces, intent on attacking [[Anogeia]], on the main road connecting Rethymno and [[Heraklion]]. He chose an ambush site by a bridge in the ''Damastos'' location, one kilometre west of the village of [[Damasta, Crete|Damasta]]. After the team destroyed various passing vehicles, among which was a lorry carrying military mail to [[Chania]], the German force intending to target Anogeia finally appeared. It consisted of a truck of infantrymen backed up by an armoured car. Moss and his group attacked the troops. He destroyed the armoured car by crawling up behind it and dropping a grenade into the hatch. In total, 40 to 50 German and Axis troops were killed in the clash that followed as well as 1 Russian partisan.<ref>[http://www.patris.gr/articles/91342/43190 Το σαμποτάζ της Δαμάστας 62 χρόνια μετά, Πατρίς onLine, 7 Αυγούστου 2006]</ref> He left Crete on 18 August 1944. The operation, for which a [[Military Cross|bar]] to his [[Military Cross]] was recommended, is described in full in Moss's book ''[[A War of Shadows]]'' and commemorated at Damasta. Moss's exploits in Crete are recorded in the Historical Museum of Crete.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Museum of Crete|url=http://www.historical-museum.gr/en/index.html}}</ref> |
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===Greece=== |
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Moss served in Greece between September and November 1944, being promoted to Major on 24 October. He was sent to join Major Ken Scott in an operation to blow up the railway bridge over the Aliakmon River in order to disrupt German troop movements in and out of Thessaloniki. Heavy rain burst the river banks preventing Moss from a final attempt to blow up a section of the bridge. He continued to undertake sabotage operations to hinder the German withdrawal.<ref name = Ogden/> |
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He returned to Britain for reposting on 30 January 1945 and, resisting regimental duties, reapplied for special operations. On 6 March 1945, he returned to Cairo for 28 days leave where he married. |
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===Siam (Thailand)=== |
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He was then posted to join [[Force 136]] in Siam arriving from Cairo on 25 June 1945 to stay at the Grand Hotel, in Calcutta. Joining Major Ken Scott as [[Operation Jedburgh|Jedburgh team]] leader and Capt John Hibberdine (W/T) for Operation Sungod,<ref>National Archives, Kew. File HS1/58</ref> he flew out of [[Jessore District|Jessore]] on 22 August by [[Douglas C-47 Skytrain|Dakota]] landing by parachute in a drop zone by a river, south of Bandon in the Bandon Nakon Sri Tamaraj area. The team's orders included establishing communication with HQ (W/T station Gaberdine), liaising with the Siamese 6th Independent Division, identifying all POW camps, finding locations for drop zones and seaplane landings and preparing to demolish the tunnel on the railway from Chong Khao and Ron Phibun, east to Tunsong, as also described in his book ''[[A War of Shadows]]''. The Mission arranged the orderly surrender of Japanese forces in their area of operations, before Moss left in November 1945<ref name = ogden>Ogden, Alan, ''Tigers Burning Bright, SOE Heroes in the Far East'', Bene Factum Publishing Ltd, London, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-903071-55-7}}.</ref> |
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On 25 January 1946, he joined Operation Python. He was discharged on 21 November 1946. |
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==Wartime honours== |
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* [[Military Cross]] (MC)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7665201|title=Recommendations for honours and awards (Army)—Moss, Ivan William Stanley|work=DocumentsOnline|publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]|format=fee usually required to download pdf of original recommendation|accessdate=19 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= London Gazette: (Supplement), no. 36605, p. 3274, 13 July 1944|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36605/supplements/3274}}</ref> |
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Moss was recommended for and received the Immediate Award of the [[Military Cross]] following the Kreipe abduction. |
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{{quote|23 May 1944 Recommendation for MC. |
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This officer showed exceptional gallantry in taking part, with Major Leigh Fermor, in the organization and execution of the kidnapping of Major-General Kreipe at Arkhanes, Crete on 26 April 1944. It was due to Captain Moss's swiftness in attacking the General's car that the operation was made possible. |
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In the early stages of the kidnapping, Capt. Moss impersonated the chauffeur of the General's car and for an hour and a half drove "the General" through Heraklion and passed 22 controlled road blocks before the car was finally abandoned. Subsequently Capt. Moss assisted in moving the General during a period of 17 days through enemy held territory. |
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For outstanding courage and audacity Capt. Moss is recommended for the Immediate Award of the MC.}} |
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==Marriage and family== |
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[[File:Riverstown-house-cork.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Riverstown House, County Cork]] |
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In Cairo, on 26 April 1945, Moss married [[Sophie Moss|Countess Zofia Tarnowska]], his former housemate.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sophie Moss, Obituaries, ''Daily Telegraph'' 3 December 2009|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/6716412/Sophie-Moss.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=3 December 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Lives Remembered: Sophie Moss, Obituaries, ''The Independent'' 22 February 2010|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lives-remembered-sophie-moss-1906518.html | location=London | date=22 February 2010}}</ref> She was the granddaughter of [[Stanislaw Tarnowski (1837-1917)|Count Stanislaw Tarnowski]] (1837–1917) and a direct descendant of [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great of Russia]]. Their witnesses were Prince Peter of Greece and Major the Hon Peter Pleydell-Bouverie [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|KRRC]]. The reception was held at the house of Princess Emina Toussoun. |
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They had three children: Christine Isabelle Mercedes, named after their mutual friend and former SOE agent [[Krystyna Skarbek]] (Christine Granville),<ref>[[Clare Mulley|Mulley, Clare]], ''The Spy Who Loved'', London:Macmillan, 2012, {{ISBN|0230759513}} p. 307.</ref> Sebastian (who died in infancy) and Gabriella. Initially living in London, they moved to Riverstown House, [[County Cork]] in [[Ireland]]. They later returned to [[London]]. They separated in 1957. |
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==Writer and traveller== |
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Moss achieved success as an author with three novels, as well as his two books based on his wartime adventures. In addition, he travelled to Germany and wrote an investigation of post-war Germany, studying what happened to gold accumulated by the Nazis: ''Gold Is Where You Hide It: What Happened to the Reichsbank Treasure?'' (1956). |
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===Disappearance of Reichsbank and Abwehr reserves=== |
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Between 1952 and 1954, Moss joined up with his friend and former SOE agent, [[Andrzej Kowerski]] – who adopted his cover name, Andrew Kennedy, after the war – to investigate a mystery of the final days of the Third Reich. In April and May 1945, the remaining reserves of the [[Reichsbank]] – gold (730 bars), cash (6 large sacks), and precious stones and metals such as platinum (25 sealed boxes) – were dispatched by [[Walther Funk]] to be buried on the Klausenhof Mountain at [[Einsiedl am Walchensee|Einsiedl]] in Bavaria, where the final German resistance was to be concentrated. Similarly the [[Abwehr]] cash reserves were hidden nearby in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]]. Shortly after the American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared.<ref name=gold>Moss, W. Stanley, ''Gold Is Where You Hide It; What Happened to the Reichsbank Treasure?'', Andre Deutsch 1959</ref> |
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Moss and Kennedy travelled back and forth across Germany and into Switzerland and corresponded with fugitives in Argentina, to research what had happened. They talked to many witnesses before finally establishing what had become of the treasure.<ref name=gold/> What Moss and Kennedy uncovered, and the conclusions they reached on the various people responsible for the disappearances, have not been disputed to this day. The disappearance of Major [[Martin Borg]], the US Military Governor of [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]] at the time, has not been explained.<ref name=gold/> |
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Later, Moss and Kennedy went on to uncover the consequences of [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s order of 28 October 1939, which confirmed the [[Lebensborn]] programme. They researched what had become of the children born as a result of the order.<ref name=gold/> |
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===Antarctica=== |
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[[File:W. Stanley Moss - Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Moss behind Fuchs, Hillary and others, Scott Base, Antarctica, 1958]] |
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He continued to travel extensively first to New Zealand from where, on 14 February 1958, he flew in a [[Douglas C-124 Globemaster II|Globemaster]] aircraft (with one engine cutting out six hours from his destination) to [[Scott Base]] at [[McMurdo Sound]], [[Antarctica]] to report on the arrival of the first Antarctic crossing achieved by the [[Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition]] in 1957-8 led by [[Vivian Fuchs]] and [[Edmund Hillary]]. Months later, he returned to New Zealand in the icebreaker, ''The Glacier''.<ref name="New Zealand Press">New Zealand Press</ref> |
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===Sailing the Pacific=== |
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Taking to sea from New Zealand again, he sailed with Bill Endean, Rex Hill, Warwick Davies (aged 19), John Ewing (aged 19) in Endeans's 47 ft Alden-rigged Malabar ketch, the ''Crusader'',<ref name="New Zealand Press"/> through the islands of the Pacific to [[Tahiti]]. Here the crew split up and Moss joined the crew of the 50-ft motorsailer ''Manawanui'' from [[Tahiti]] to [[Nassau, Bahamas]]. Tig Lowe was skipper, Howard “Bones” Kanter was navigator, and other crew members were two New Zealanders. They stopped at [[Mangareva]], where Moss and Lowe put on a boxing exhibition - much to the delight of the islanders.<ref>{{cite news|title= Latitude 38|url=https://www.latitude38.com/letters/199901.htm| accessdate= 14 October 2018}}</ref> They sailed on to the [[Pitcairn Islands]], [[Easter Island]], the [[Galapagos Islands]] and [[Panama]], eventually landing at Nassau in December 1959. |
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===Jamaica=== |
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Moss moved on to [[Kingston, Jamaica]], where he settled. He died there on 9 August 1965, aged 44. He was buried at the Garrison Church in Kingston on Friday 13 August. Two buglers from the 1st Battalion [[The Jamaica Regiment]] sounded [[Last Post]] and [[Reveille]] over his coffin which was draped in the Union Jack. A simple rock of red and white mottled Jamaican marble was erected over his grave with the inscription ''In loving memory of William Stanley Moss, A Soldier, A Writer, A Traveller''.<ref>{{cite book|author= Ogden, Alan|chapter=Terrific Fun – The Life of Billy Moss |title=Coldstream Gazette|date= 2018 |publisher=The Journal of The Coldstream Guards Association}}</ref> |
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==Works== |
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===Books=== |
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* {{cite book |title=The Hour of Flight |year=1949 |publisher=Harrap |location=London; Toronto | oclc=63014078 }} |
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* {{cite book |title=[[Ill Met by Moonlight]] |year=1950 |publisher=Harrap |location=London | ol=1839417W }} |
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* {{cite book |title=Bats with Baby Faces |year=1951|publisher=Boardman |location=London | ol=1839411W}} |
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* {{cite book |title=[[A War of Shadows]]|year=1952 |publisher=Boardman|location=London | ol=1839416W}} |
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* {{cite book |title=Three Plagues |year=1953 |publisher=Boardman|location=London | isbn=}} |
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* {{cite book | year=1956 |title=Gold Is Where You Hide It; What Happened to the Reichsbank Treasure? |location=London |publisher=Andre Deutsch | ol=12084151W |oclc=2828923 }} |
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===Short stories=== |
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* "The Zombie of Alto Parana" ''London Mystery Magazine #6'' (1950) |
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* "I Hate Violence" ''London Mystery Magazine #10'' (1951) |
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* "Body in the Wine" ''London Mystery Magazine'' (1952) |
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* "Carriage for One" ''London Mystery Magazine #15'' (1952) |
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* "The High Toby" ''London Mystery Magazine #16'' (1952) |
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* "The High Toby" (Part III) ''London Mystery Magazine #18'' (1953) |
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===Teleplays=== |
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* ''Assignment Foreign Legion - The Thin Line'' - broadcast on 19 October 1956 in the UK and on 3 December 1957 in the USA<ref>{{cite web|title= Assignment Foreign Legion - The Thin Line|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0516184/}}</ref> |
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===Translations=== |
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* {{cite book |editor=Ordon, Edmund|title=10 Contemporary Polish Stories |url=https://archive.org/details/10contemporarypo00ordo|url-access=registration|year=1958 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |location=Detroit| author=Schulz, Bruno |contribution=My father joins the fire brigade' |translator1=Moss, W. Stanley |translator2= [[Sophie Moss|Moss, Zofia Tarnowska]]|oclc=297276}} |
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==The William Stanley Moss Prizes== |
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The Prizes are awarded annually by the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Crete to students in the Department of Literature and Department of History and Archaeology. The prizes were created to honour the Cretans, in Moss's name, and as an expression of gratitude and debt to the Cretan people. The prizes were founded by his daughter, Gabriella, in 2014, the 70th anniversary of Moss's wartime missions to Crete, and were first awarded in July 2015.<ref>{{cite web|title= Rethymno News|url=http://rethemnosnews.gr/2015/07/%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%AE-%CE%B2%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%89%CE%BD-william-stanley-moss-%CE%B1%CF%80%CF%8C-%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AE/}}</ref> |
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==See also== |
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* [[Sophie Moss]] |
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==References== |
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'''Notes''' |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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'''Further reading''' |
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*Ogden, Alan ''Billy Moss: Soldier, Writer, Traveller - A Brief Life'' (Bene Factum Publishing, 2014, Afterword, ''A War of Shadows'') |
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*Davis, Wes ''The Ariadne Objective'' (2014, Random House) |
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==External links== |
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* {{cite web|title=Ill Met by Moonlight Expeditions|url=http://www.illmetbymoonlight.info/}} |
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* {{cite web|title=Battle of Crete|url=http://www.my-crete-site.co.uk/kidnap.htm|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110121005754/http://www.my-crete-site.co.uk/kidnap.htm|archivedate=21 January 2011|df=dmy-all}} |
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* {{cite web|title=Special Camp 11 - Prisoner Kreipe|url=http://www.specialcamp11.fsnet.co.uk/Generalmajor%20Heinrich%20Kreipe.htm#_edn2}} |
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* {{cite web|title=The Mnimi Foundation - Celebrating Greece's Modern Heroes|url=http://www.mnimi.org/flash.htm}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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{{Greece during World War II}} |
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[[Category:1921 births]] |
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[[Category:1965 deaths]] |
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[[Category:People from Yokohama]] |
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[[Category:Crete in World War II]] |
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[[Category:Cretan Resistance]] |
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Revision as of 17:37, 5 June 2020
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