Battle of Crete
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. 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.
| Battle of Crete | |||||||||
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| Part of the Battle of Greece and the Mediterranean theatre | |||||||||
German Fallschirmjäger landing on Crete, May 1941 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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New Zealand Greece United Kingdom Australia |
Germany Italy | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Bernard C. Freyberg |
Kurt Student Walter Koch Francesco Mimbelli | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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United Kingdom: 18,047[a] Greece: 10,258 – 11,451 New Zealand: 7,702 Australia: 6,540 Total: 42,547 |
Germany: 22,000 paratroopers and mountain troops 280 bombers 150 dive bombers 180 fighters 500 transports 80 troop gliders Italy: 2,700 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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British Commonwealth 3,579+ killed and missing 1,918 wounded 12,254 captured Greece 544+ killed and missing 5,225 captured Material: Royal Navy:[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 4,000 to 6,000 killed (4,000 ground troops, 2,000 sailors) |
Luftwaffe: 1,032 killed 1,632 wounded 2,097 missing (including aircrew losses) 5th Mountain Division: 321 killed 488 wounded 324 missing Material: Luftwaffe: 284 aircraft lost, 125 damaged[c] Italy: 1 destroyer damaged 1 torpedo boat damaged Total: 5,894 casualties | ||||||||
| Over 500 Greek civilians executed by Axis soldiers. | |||||||||
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, 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 further 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.