Operation plan
The concept of the 11th Corps operation involved the simultaneous landing of airborne assault forces and the landing of gliders at several points on the island. The Germans did not have enough aircraft to land all the troops at once, so it was decided to attack in three waves.
The first wave (7 am on May 20, 1941, parachute and glider landing) included the "West" group. Major General O. Meindel with a separate airborne assault regiment was to take Maleme airfield and the approaches to it. This airfield was the main landing point for the German troops. The 3rd Parachute Regiment of Colonel Heydrich was to occupy the Souda Bay and the city of Hania (Kanya), where the English headquarters and the residence of the Greek king were.
In the second wave (13:00 on May 20) - a parachute landing, groups "Center" and "Vostok" entered. The 1st Parachute Regiment of Colonel B. Brower (later the troops were to be led by the commander of the mountain rifle division, General Ringel) was to take the city of Heraklion and its airfield. Colonel Sturm's 2nd Airborne Regiment was in charge of Rethymnon airfield.
It was planned that after the capture of all targets from 16:00 on May 21, the third wave would begin - the landing from transport aircraft and ships of the 5th Mountain Rifle Division and heavy weapons, all the necessary supplies. Italy also supported the sea landing: about 3 thousand soldiers, 60 ships. From the air, the landing was supported by the 8th Air Corps of General von Richthofen - more than 700 aircraft, as well as 62 aircraft of the Italian Air Force. German-Italian aviation was supposed to act against the garrison of the island and paralyze the powerful British naval group. The operation also involved German submarines and part of the Italian Navy (5 destroyers and 25 small ships).
For the British, cover from the sea was carried out by the forces of the British Mediterranean Fleet of Admiral Cunningham - 5 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 12 cruisers and about 30 destroyers, deployed west and north of Crete. True, the British fleet, based in Souda Bay, suffered greatly from enemy air raids. And the only British aircraft carrier, even during the battle for Greece, lost most of its carrier-based aircraft and could not support the Crete garrison from the air.
The start of the invasion
Early in the morning, German aircraft launched a massive strike on the British positions at the landing sites. However, most of the camouflaged positions survived, and the British air defenses did not return fire, so as not to reveal their location. In addition, gliders and junkers with paratroopers arrived only half an hour after the departure of the bombers and attack aircraft. The Germans did not take into account the weather, it was hot and the first batch of aircraft raised a cloud of dust. The rest of the planes had to wait. The first planes to take off circled in the sky, waiting for the rest. As a result, it was not possible to land on the move immediately after the bombing. There was a pause, which negatively affected the landing.
When at 7 o'clock. 25 minutes the forward detachment of Captain Altman (2nd company of the 1st battalion of the airborne assault regiment) began landing. The paratroopers were met with heavy fire. Gliders turned into a sieve, fell apart in the air, crashed against rocks, fell into the sea, desperately maneuvering, landed on roads, any suitable sites. But the landing German paratroopers fiercely attacked the enemy. Struck by the audacity of the attack, the allies were initially taken aback. But they quickly woke up and rained mortar and machine-gun fire on the Germans. The capture of the airfield on the move failed, the New Zealanders threw the Germans back in hand-to-hand combat. Altman managed to capture only the bridge and part of the positions west of the airfield. At the same time, out of 108 fighters, only 28 remained.
The problem was also that the German paratroopers were dropped without carbines and machine guns. Personal, heavy weapons and ammunition were dropped in separate containers. And they still had to get to. The paratroopers had submachine guns (about one in four had pistols and hand grenades). As a result, many paratroopers died trying to get to their containers. German paratroopers went on the attack with pistols, hand grenades and sapper blades, the allies shot them with rifles and machine guns, like in a shooting range.
The battalion following the vanguard also ran into heavy fire. Many died in the air, the battalion commander Major Koch and many soldiers were wounded at the beginning of the battle. The 1st company, which landed on the enemy battery, captured it, but suffered heavy losses - out of 90 soldiers, only 30 remained. The 4th company and the headquarters of the 1st battalion hit the positions of the New Zealand battalion and they were almost completely destroyed. The 3rd company was able to reach the air defense battery south of the airfield and defeated it. This minimized the loss of German aircraft during the release of the main forces. In addition, with the help of anti-aircraft guns, they were able to take up defenses and threw back the reinforcements hurrying to help the garrison of the airfield.
German transport aircraft Junkers U.52 towing DFS 230 gliders during the first day of Operation Mercury
Thus, such heavy fire was rained on the German paratroopers that many German soldiers were killed or wounded even before landing on the island. Many gliders crashed before landing. Others landed, but were immediately shot before the landing. Due to intelligence errors, paratroopers were often planted over the main enemy lines of defense and the Germans were simply shot from all barrels. And the remnants were finished off on the ground. In some places the landing was almost completely destroyed. It was a massacre.
So, paratroopers of the 3rd battalion landed northeast of Maleme right at the position of the 5th New Zealand brigade. The German battalion was practically destroyed. The 4th battalion with the regiment's headquarters successfully landed to the west, having lost few people and was able to gain a foothold on one side of the airfield. True, the commander of the detachment, Meindel, was seriously wounded. He was replaced by the commander of the 2nd battalion, Major Stenzler. His battalion entered the battle east of Spilia and suffered heavy casualties. Some of the paratroopers were killed by the Cretan militias. A reinforced platoon of Lieutenant Kissamos landed among the Greek troops. Of the 72 soldiers, only 13 surrendered paratroopers survived, who were saved from reprisals by New Zealand officers. The stubborn battle lasted all day. The positions at the airfield changed hands. The Germans were gradually able to unite the remaining forces, grouping around the 3rd company and gaining a foothold in the northern part of the airfield.
Similarly, events developed in the landing zone of the 3rd regiment, dropped east of Maleme. Even before the landing, the entire divisional headquarters and the commander of the 7th Air Division, General Suessman, who was supposed to lead the operation on the spot, were killed. The 3rd battalion, thrown out by the first, was killed, it got into the positions of the New Zealanders: many were knocked out in the air, those who landed were killed or captured. By mistake, the pilots dropped several units over the mountains. The soldiers received fractures and were out of order. One company was blown out to sea by the wind and drowned; The 13th mortar company was dropped over the reservoir and also drowned in full force. Only the 9th company landed safely and, after a fierce battle, took up a perimeter defense. The disembarkation lasted all day. The surviving German paratroopers were scattered and tried to unite, to break through to the containers with weapons.
German parachutists carry containers with equipment
German paratroopers in battle in Crete
Second wave. At first, the German command had no data on the catastrophic situation of the landing, deciding that the landing was going on successfully. Of the 500 planes that launched the 1st wave of invasion, only a few did not return. The crews of German aircraft returning to the mainland to take on the second wave of soldiers did not see what was happening on the island and thought that things were going well. Therefore, the headquarters of Leure and Student gave the go-ahead for the transfer of the second wave. But things went even worse than in the morning. The planned change of bomber and transport squadrons failed again. Clouds of dust and problems with refueling slowed down the movement of aircraft. The planes left in small groups and at long intervals. It was not possible to create a dense wave, the German troops landed without air support, in small detachments and with a large dispersion. And now an even more "hot meeting" awaited them. All more or less suitable sites were blocked and shot.
The 2nd Airborne Regiment arrived in Rethymno with a great delay - at 16 o'clock. 15 minutes. Only two companies managed to disembark after an air raid, the third was demolished 7 km from the target. The landing of the main forces was delayed and they suffered heavy losses. The 19th Australian Brigade quickly recovered and met the enemy with dense fire. However, the soldiers of the 2nd battalion were able to capture one of the commanding heights and tried to break through to the airfield. They were met with such heavy fire from other heights and the armored vehicles available here that the Germans rolled back. Making sure that they could not take the airfield on the move, the paratroopers began to dig in and wait for reinforcements. Gathering the soldiers scattered around the area at night, the paratroopers repeated the attack, but again came under heavy fire and retreated back, taking up defenses. The paratroopers suffered heavy losses, by the evening about 400 people had died, and the commander of the detachment, Colonel Shturm, was captured.
The situation was even worse for the 1st regiment. He was thrown off with an even greater delay, at 17 o'clock. 30 minutes. when the bombers had already left, and the British were ready for battle. In addition, part of the regiment had already been dropped on Maleme, the Heraklion airfield was covered by reinforced air defense, and the paratroopers had to jump from great heights. This increased losses. Those who landed came under heavy fire, including artillery and dug-in tanks. This led to a complete rout. Two companies were killed almost entirely (5 people survived), the rest of the units were scattered, and only the onset of night saved them from complete annihilation. Assessing the situation, Colonel Brower abandoned the suicidal assault and focused on collecting survivors and finding containers with weapons. The Germans seized a former prison in the village of Agya and created a defense center on the road to Chania.
Thus, the position of the German landing was disastrous. Many commanders were killed, seriously wounded or captured. Of the 10 thousand paratroopers who landed, only about 6 thousand people remained in the ranks. Not a single goal was achieved. They held their positions with difficulty. The Germans almost used up their ammunition, there were few heavy weapons. Wounded, tired paratroopers were preparing for the last battle. There was no communication (the radios were broken during the landing), the pilots could not give a clear picture of the battle. As a result, the German command in Athens did not know that the landing was almost defeated. The allies had complete superiority in forces and de facto could destroy the existing German forces. However, General Freiberg made a mistake. He saved forces, believing that ahead of the landing of the main enemy forces, which were waiting from the sea in the area of Chania and the Gulf of Souda. The allies missed the chance to win, not throwing all their reserves to eliminate the enemy in the Maleme area.
The situation was corrected not only by the inaction of the allies, but also by the quality of the training of German officers. Even in the face of the deaths of many top commanders, the remaining officers independently created knots of resistance and literally bored into the many times superior forces of the enemy, imposing a battle on him and fettering his initiative. German parachutists fought bravely, hoping that their comrades were more fortunate and were waiting for reinforcements. At night, they did not slow down, looked for their own, attacked the enemy, and obtained weapons. The British, on the other hand, lost their time and got confused in the situation. They also had problems: no one knew about the situation as a whole, there was not enough communications, there was no transport for the transfer of troops, no armored vehicles for organizing counterstrikes, the superiority of the Germans in the air, the lack of support for their aviation affected. Freiberg was saving his forces, he was waiting for the main forces of the enemy. Many allied soldiers had poor training: they fought half-heartedly, they were afraid to attack, they did not stand in defense until the end. Thus, the allies let go of the initiative and did not use their large numerical advantage; they lacked combat experience, pressure and courage. In such a situation, the German paratroopers held out with their last strength, and held out until the arrival of reinforcements.
The second wave of German paratroopers is landing in the area of the city of Rethymno
Landing of German paratroopers and containers with weapons and ammunition
Continuation of the battle
General Student sent his messenger, Captain Claye, to Crete on a special plane. Jumping off at night with a parachute, he was able to correctly assess the situation and report to the headquarters. Realizing the threat of failure, the commander of the operation rejected proposals to curtail the operation, and ordered on May 21st all available forces be sent to storm Maleme airport. The third echelon of the invasion, the mountain rangers, was going to be transported there. At night, all available transport aircraft in southeastern Europe were mobilized and transferred to Greece.
At dawn, the battle resumed. With the support of aviation, the German paratroopers captured part of the Maleme airfield. It was not possible to capture all the runways. Planes with ammunition landed directly on the beaches, suffering accidents. Only one landed successfully; he took out the wounded, including Meindel. The German command threw the last reserves into battle. At 14 o'clock. two amphibious anti-tank companies were landed. At 15 o'clock. 550 fighters of the second wave of the invasion under the command of Colonel Ramke entered the battle, they could not land on May 20 due to aircraft breakdowns. As a result, the Germans were able to take the airfield.
Meanwhile, the first attempt to land a part of the rangers by sea had failed. The German command planned to transfer part of the mountain rifle division, heavy weapons and equipment by sea on small Greek ships, which were covered by an Italian destroyer. However, British ships intercepted the landing fleet north of Crete and sank most of the ships, killing up to 300 soldiers, weapons and supplies. The remaining motor boats fled. On May 22, the new landing flotilla almost repeated the fate of the previous one. This time, the British were tied up in battle by the Italian Navy, and the German aviation was so active that the British ships were forced to retreat. The first significant air-sea battle took place here, and aviation showed that it was capable of defeating the fleet and forcing it to retreat. The British lost 3 cruisers, 6 destroyers, and many ships were seriously damaged, including two battleships.
British light cruiser "Gloucester" under attack by German bombers. On 22 May, Luftwaffe Junkers Ju.87R dive bombers attacked the cruiser Gloucester and received four direct hits. As a result of a series of devastating explosions, the ship went to the bottom, taking with it 725 crew members.
The British continued shelling the airfield with mortars and anti-aircraft guns from the commanding heights. The Germans fired back from the captured guns. In this hell, transports with mountain rangers began to arrive. Not everyone was lucky, as the shelling continued. Some planes were shot down right in the air, others were already on the ground, and others were lucky. The runway clogged with aircraft wreckage (runway length 600 meters) had to be cleared with captured armored vehicles. Then everything was repeated. In two days, the Germans lost more than 150 vehicles. It was a nightmare, but at a great cost the German paratroopers and gamekeepers made a breach in the enemy's defenses. Step by step, the Germans pressed the enemy, seized new positions. The most stubborn firing points were suppressed with the help of aviation. At 17 o'clock. the village of Maleme was captured. The gate to Crete was occupied, which made it possible to systematically build up the landing forces on the island. The operation was led by the commander of the mountain rangers, General Ringel.
Freiber realized his mistake and ordered the New Zealanders to retake the airport. At night, the Allies nearly recaptured the airfield. They were stopped already at the edge of the airfield. In the morning, German aircraft drove away the enemy. In other sectors, the German paratroopers tied the enemy in battle. In Rethymnon, the remnants of the 2nd paratrooper regiment held out for a day at a occupied height, and then retreated into the ruins of the plant, where they held out, pinning up to 7 thousand enemy soldiers. The 1st Airborne Regiment tried to take Heraklion, but the attack was drowned. Colonel Brower was ordered to stop and pin down the enemy in force. Initially, German aviation was unable to effectively support the paratroopers, and they themselves had to repulse the attacks of 8 thousand British.
On May 22, in Maleme, the paratroopers captured the dominant height 107. On the same day, the Luftwaffe pressed the remnants of enemy artillery in the vicinity of the airfield, the shelling stopped. The air bridge was working in full force: every hour 20 vehicles with soldiers, weapons and ammunition arrived. Return flights took out the wounded. General Student arrived with the headquarters.
On May 23, the British unsuccessfully tried to recapture the airfield, and then began to retreat to the east. In Rethymnon, the paratroopers were able to repel enemy attacks with the support of aviation. In Heraklion, the Germans were able to combine the two groups. On the same day, the British fleet, suffering serious losses from German air strikes, basically left for Alexandria. Admiral Cunningham began at night, to avoid Luftwaffe attacks, to send fast transports with ammunition and food to the island. This allowed the German command to land an amphibious assault of several thousand Italian and German soldiers.
General Lehr ordered Ringel's rangers to seize Souda Bay and disrupt the supply line of the British garrison, as well as release the encircled paratroopers in the region of Rethymnon and Heraklion. On May 24-25, German troops attacked, breaking through the enemy positions from Maleme to Chania. Only with strong aviation support, German troops were able to break through the British defenses and break through to Chania. Part of the Greco-British garrison was demoralized, and a massive desertion of allied soldiers began. In Rethymnon, German paratroopers continued to fight surrounded, drawing back the enemy's forces. On the night of the 26th, the remnants of the detachment (250 soldiers) tried to break through to Heraklion. But having received the order, they stopped and, having received help, continued the battle. In Heraklion, having received reinforcements, the Germans launched a counteroffensive. On May 27, the Germans launched an assault on Heraklion and occupied it without a fight. The British left the city and the airfield and began to evacuate the island.
Freiberg informed the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, Wavell, that his troops were at the limit of strength and capabilities and could no longer resist. On May 27, Wavell and Churchill gave permission for the withdrawal of troops. Freiberg began to withdraw troops south to Hrra Sfakion, on the southern coast, from where the evacuation began. The British fleet took out about 13 thousand people from here. in four nights. Part of the British and Greek troops were evacuated from Heraklion.
On May 28, the Germans broke the stubborn resistance of the British rearguard east of Chania and occupied the Souda Bay, where seaplanes immediately began to arrive. In Rethymnon, on May 29, the German paratroopers continued the battle with the enemy forces many times superior to them. They were able to break through to the airfield and then ran into the rangers who had landed there. Help arrived at the last moment. The mountain rangers took the city. In the area, an Australian battalion was surrounded and captured, but was not ordered to evacuate. Ringel sent the main forces to the eastern part of the island, to the south, where the main forces of Freiberg were moving, sent minor units.
The British evacuated through the southern part of the island and announced its surrender. The British fleet evacuated 15-16 thousand people, losing several ships. On June 1, the operation was completed, the last centers of Allied resistance were suppressed. The Allies made no attempt to recapture the island, and it remained in German hands until the end of the war.
German paratroopers at the crashed Junkers Ju-52 at Maleme airfield
Outcomes
German troops took Crete, the allies were defeated and fled. The Germans lost more than 6 thousand killed and wounded (according to other sources, about 7-8 thousand people), 271 aircraft, 148 aircraft were damaged (mainly transport workers). Allied losses: about 4 thousand killed, more than 2, 7 thousand wounded and more than 17 thousand prisoners. The British fleet lost (from aviation): 3 cruisers, 6 destroyers, more than 20 auxiliary ships and transports. Also damaged: 1 aircraft carrier, 3 battleships, 6 cruisers and 7 destroyers. In this case, about 2 thousand people died. Allied forces lost 47 aircraft. Many Cretans died while participating in partisan activities.
Militarily, the airborne operation showed the importance of intelligence. German paratroopers suffered heavy losses due to underestimation of the enemy's defense. The Germans were unable to conduct a full-fledged air and artillery training, prepare bridgeheads. There was no surprise effect, as the landing was expected. Weakly armed paratroopers had to storm the relatively well-prepared enemy positions. They were saved by the relative poor training of the enemy, the lack of transport and heavy weapons from the allies. The mistakes of the allied command played their role.
The Germans strategically strengthened their positions in the Balkans. But in order to build on this success and consolidate positions in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, it was necessary to continue the conquests - the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Alexandria and Suez. Crete itself was only a springboard for a further offensive in the Mediterranean. As Churchill noted: "Hitler's hand could have extended further, in the direction of India." However, Hitler turned to the East and the capture of Crete did not affect the course of further hostilities in the region. The British maintained their position in the Mediterranean. The allies, amazed at the effectiveness of the actions of Goering's "green devils", began to accelerate the creation of their airborne troops.
The Fuhrer did the opposite, he was very upset by the high losses of the elite troops of the Third Reich. He awarded Student and Rigel, but said that "the time of parachutists is over." The student offered to take Suez with the next throw, but Hitler refused. All attempts to dissuade him were unsuccessful. The storming of Malta (Operation Hercules) was also rejected, although Italy offered to allocate large forces (airborne and air assault divisions), since the capture of this island was of primary importance for control of the central Mediterranean. The Fuehrer categorically banned major airborne operations. Now Goering's Airborne Forces ceased to be the spearhead of the army, they were used only as "fire brigades", plugging the most dangerous holes at the front.
German paratroopers pass by British soldiers killed in Crete
German paratroopers search captured British soldiers in Crete
German paratroopers escort British prisoners along a city street in Crete
A German truck drives past a column of British prisoners of war
