Battle of Crete

Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II

German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) landing on Crete, May 1941

Date	20 May – 1 June 1941 (13 days)
Location	Crete, Greece
Result	Axis victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Greece

Australia

New Zealand

Germany

Italy

Commanders and leaders

Bernard C. Freyberg

Kurt Student

Strength

United Kingdom:
15,000
Greece:
11,451
Australia:
7,100
New Zealand:
6,700
Total:
40,000–61,800 (10,000 without fighting capacity)

Germany:
14,000 paratroopers
15,000 mountain troopers (together 29,000 in Greece, but only 22,040 could be transported to the island)
280 bombers
150 dive bombers
180 fighters
500 transports
80 troop gliders
Italy:
2,700

Casualties and losses

4,123 dead
unknown wounded
17,479 captured.

4 cruisers and 6 destroyers sunk.
1 aircraft carrier, 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 1 submarine damaged.

1,915 dead
1,759 missing
2,000 wounded
284 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed or written off and several hundred damaged.
1 Italian destroyer damaged
1 Italian torpedo boat damaged

Over 500 Greek civilians executed by Axis soldiers

4,123 dead
unknown wounded
17,479 captured.

The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης, also Unternehmen Merkur, Operation Mercury) was fought during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany began an airborne invasion of Crete. Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance.

The Battle of Crete was the first occasion where Fallschirmjäger (German paratroops) were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Due to the number of casualties and the belief that airborne forces no longer had the advantage of surprise Adolf Hitler became reluctant to authorise large airborne operations, preferring instead to employ paratroopers as ground troops. In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form airborne-assault and airfield-defence regiments.

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Wikipedia