Difference between revisions of "Battle of Crete"

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[[Image:0_DA-01611_jpg.jpg|thumb|300px|British, Australian and New Zealand troops disembark at [[Suda Bay]].]]
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[[Image:DA-11982.jpg|thumb|300px|German paratroopers drop on Crete]]
 
:"To lose Crete because we had not sufficient bulk of forces there would be a crime." — Winston Churchill, ''The Second World War''.
 
:"To lose Crete because we had not sufficient bulk of forces there would be a crime." — Winston Churchill, ''The Second World War''.
  

Revision as of 17:07, June 1, 2006

British, Australian and New Zealand troops disembark at Suda Bay.
German paratroopers drop on Crete
"To lose Crete because we had not sufficient bulk of forces there would be a crime." — Winston Churchill, The Second World War.

The Battle of Crete (German Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta; Greek Μάχη της Κρήτης) began on the morning of May 20 1941, during World War II, when Germany launched an airborne invasion under the code name Unternehmen Merkur (or Operation Mercury). The operation was successful in terms of taking the island from the Allied forces holding it, but the victory was so costly that the Germans never again launched a major airborne mission.

The battle is especially important to Cretans because of the fierce resistance they put-up against the numerically superior Germans and the terrible toll the invasion and subsequent occupation took on the island's population.

Prelude

Allied forces had occupied the island of Crete when the Italians had invaded Greece on October 28, 1940. Though the Italians were initially repulsed, the subsequent German intervention drove the 57,000 Allied troops from the mainland. The Royal Navy evacuated many of them, some to Crete to bolster its 14,000-man garrison.

Allied forces

By May 1941, the defense consisted of approximately 9,000 Greeks - three battalions of the 5th "Crete" Division of the Hellenic Army which had left behind when the rest of the unit had been transferred to the mainland to oppose the German invasion, the Cretan Gendarmerie (a battalion-sized force), the Heraklion Garrison Battalion, a defense battalion, and remnants of the 12th and 20th Hellenic Army divisions which had escaped to Crete and were organized into "regiments" under British command. The British & Commonwealth contingent consisted of the original British garrison, and another 25,000 Commonwealth troops evacuated from the mainland. The evacuees were the typical mix found in any contested evacuation — there were substantially intact units under their own command, scratch units hurriedly brought together by leaders on the spot, stragglers without leaders from every type of unit possessed by an Army, and deserters. Most of these men lacked heavy equipment.

The key formed units were the New Zealand 2nd Division (less the 6th Brigade and division headquarters, which had been sent on to Egypt), the Australian 19th Brigade Group and the British 14th Brigade. Allied armour resources consisted of 16 obsolescent Cruiser Mk I tanks. There were approximately 85 artillery pieces of various calibres — many of them captured Italian pieces without sights.

On April 30, Major General Bernard Freyberg — a British general commanding the New Zealand forces — was appointed commander of the Allied forces on Crete.

Possession of the island provided the Royal Navy with excellent harbors in the eastern Mediterranean. From Crete, the Ploieşti oilfields in Romania were within range. Also, with Crete in Allied hands, the Axis south eastern position would never be safe, a vital necessity before starting Operation Barbarossa. The Germans responded by starting a constant bombardment of the island, which eventually forced the Royal Air Force to remove its planes to Alexandria, giving the Luftwaffe air superiority over the island. However the island remained a threat, and would have to be taken eventually.

Axis forces

On April 25, Adolf Hitler signed Directive Number 28, ordering the invasion of Crete. The Royal Navy's forces from Alexandria retained control of the waters around Crete, so any amphibious assault would be quickly decided by the nature of an air-versus-ship battle, making it a risky proposition at best. With German air superiority a given, an airborne invasion was decided on.

This was to be the first truly large-scale airborne invasion, although the Germans had used parachute and glider-borne assaults on a much smaller scale in the invasion of France and the Low Countries, and Norway. The intention was to use Fallschirmjäger (Luftwaffe paratroopers) to capture key points of the island, including airfields that could then be used to fly in supplies and reinforcements in the usual way. The XI Fliegerkorps was to coordinate an attack by the 7th Air Division, which would insert its paratroopers by parachute and glider, followed by the 22nd Air Landing Division once the airfields were secure. The assault was initially scheduled for 16 May; it was postponed to 20 May and the 5th Mountain Division replaced the 22nd Division.

Strategy, tactics, weapons & equipment

By this time, Allied commanders had become aware of the invasion through Ultra intercepts. General Freyberg was informed of their battle plan, although in some roundabout terms in order to hide the nature of the data, and started to prepare a defense based near the airfields. However he was seriously hampered by a lack of modern equipment, and was faced with the reality that even the lightly armed paratroopers would be able to manage about the same firepower as his own troops - if not more.

For the Germans were deploying a new weapon on Crete: the LG40 75mm recoiless rifle. At 320 lbs, it weighed only a tenth as much as a standard German 75mm field gun, yet had two-thirds its range. The new gun could fling a 13 pound shell over three miles. Adding to the airborne units' firepower was the fact that one-quarter of the German paratroopers jumped with an MP40 submachine gun, often carried in addition to a powerful bolt-action Mauser K98k. In addition, almost every German squad was equipped with an MG42 light machine gun.

Greek troops were armed with the Mannlicher-Schönauer 6.5mm mountain carbine or with ex-Austrian 8mm Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifles, the latter part of post-World War I reparations. British & Commonwealth troops carried the .303 Lee-Enfield, and used the Bren and Vickers machine guns. The Allies on Crete did not possess any Bren gun carrier tankettes, which would have provided the extra mobility and firepower needed for rapid-response teams to hit paratrooper units before they had a chance to dig-in.

German airborne doctrine was based on parachuting in a small number of forces directly on top of enemy airfields. This force would capture the perimeter and any local anti-aircraft guns, allowing a much larger force to land by glider. Freyberg was aware of this after studying German actions of the past year, and decided to render the airfields unusable for landing. However he was countermanded by the Middle East Command in Alexandria. They felt the invasion was doomed to fail now that they knew about it, and possibly wanted to keep the airfields intact for the RAF's return once the island was secure. This may have been a fatal error.