Back معركة كريت Arabic Krit əməliyyatı Azerbaijani کریت عملیاتی AZB Битка за Крит Bulgarian Emgann Kreta Breton Batalla de Creta Catalan Invaze na Krétu Czech Slaget om Kreta Danish Unternehmen Merkur German Μάχη της Κρήτης Greek
| Battle of Crete | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of Greece and the Mediterranean theatre | |||||||||
 German Fallschirmjäger landing on Crete, May 1941 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United Kingdom Greece New Zealand Australia |
 Germany Italy | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Robert Laycock Bernard C. Freyberg |
 Kurt Student Walter Koch Francesco Mimbelli | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
United Kingdom: 18,047[1][a] Greece: 10,258[1] – 11,451[2] New Zealand: 7,702[1] Australia: 6,540[1] Total: 42,547[1] |
Germany: 22,000 paratroopers and mountain troops[3] 280 bombers 150 dive bombers 180 fighters 500 transports 80 troop gliders Italy: 2,700 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
British Commonwealth[4] 3,579+ killed and missing 1,918 wounded 12,254 captured Greece[5] 544+ killed and missing 5,225 captured Material: Royal Navy:[6][b] 12 fleet and 7 auxiliary ships sunk, 22 damaged Royal Air Force: 21 aircraft shot down 12 aircraft destroyed on ground Total: ~23,000 total casualties[7] 4,000 to 6,000 killed[8] (4,000 ground troops, 2,000 sailors) | |||||||||
| Over 500 Greek civilians executed by Axis soldiers. | |||||||||
The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (German: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete. Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island.[11] After only 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. More than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance. The defence of Crete evolved into a costly naval engagement; by the end of the campaign the Royal Navy's eastern Mediterranean strength had been reduced to only two battleships and three cruisers.[12]
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 decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine,[13][14] and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population.[15] 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 further large airborne operations, preferring instead to employ paratroopers as ground troops.[16] In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form airborne-assault and airfield-defence regiments.
- ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference
Davin, p.480was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "(Greek) page 10, retrieved on 27.5.2010: 474 officers and 10,977 soldiers" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
- ^ "Air War for Yugoslavia Greece and Crete 1940–41" p. 402
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Davin, p p.147was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Αγώνες και νεκροί του Ελληνικου Στρατού κατά το Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο 1940–1945 [Struggles and Dead of the Greek Army during the Second World War 1940–1945] (in Greek). Athens: Γενικό Επιτελειο Στρατού, Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού [General Staff of the Army, Army History Directorate]. 1990. pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b See Casualties Section
- ^ "How British Bungling Lost the Battle for Crete in WWII". www.thenationalherald.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ a b "The Historical Combat Effectiveness of Lighter-Weight Armored Forces" (PDF). The Dupuy Institute. 2001. p. 84. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
shores403was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "The Battle for Crete". www.nzhistory.net.nz. Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ Pack 1973, p. 91.
- ^ Paul Collier (6 June 2014). The Second World War (4): The Mediterranean 1940–1945. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4728-0990-2. Archived from the original on 28 September 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
The first convincing demonstration of this potential in operational conditions came in May 1941, when the entire plan for the German airborne capture of Crete was decrypted two weeks before the invasion took place.
- ^ Beevor 1992, p. [page needed]
- ^ Maloney, Shane (July 2006). "Bogin, Hopit". The Monthly. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
- ^ Beevor 1991, pp. 229–230