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 (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.
I got a great site bookmarked with lots of info and pictures about the battle of Crete-in English!
Here it is:
http://home.online.no/~vestil/crete/index.htm
Please note that some of the pics are really graphic!
Hey Hosenfield,who’s that in your new avatar?
Ive been to that site in the past.
Mad bad battle that. Once again though the Germans paid for their stupidity.
Their Paras had to take the airfields, however, using the German type of chute meant that no weapons except the pistol could be carried during the drop.
The should have carried out Op MERCURY instead.
Almost all paratroopers is been killed in crete ,very little is survive ,stupid action.
Apparently Hitler himself was so agast by the losses he personally ordered no such similar actions!!!
Their weapons were dropped in separate containers. These were affected differently by the winds and the speed of fall was slower!!! Hence, germans had no weapons for quite a while once they had landed!!!
however, even though german paratrooper losses were heavy, the losses suffered by the UK was much greater.
Unfortunately, its pretty damn hard to replace elite troops with four years’ training…
The german parachute was so bad that 3/4 of the german troops that landed had nothing but stickgrenades and a pistol. they had to find the ammo containers that had their rifles, mgs, and ammo inside!
Thats stupid how americans have places in their parachutes for rifles ,why germans did not do that.
placing a rifle on the german parachute would endanger the jump. The fallashimagers jumped at extremely low altitudes, in fact, lower then any jumps in history.
Ok but thats realy stupid ,on creta fallschirmjagers jump very close to british bunkers mg’s kill almost all paratroopers they not have a rifles ,and they a elite units and they not have a gun only pistol.
which is why half of 2nd battalion, 1st regiment, was completley wiped out with five survivors.
What alti did they jump at ?
The lowest recorded combat jump is the German paratroopers (Fallschirmjager) when then jump into Crete (WWII). The Fallschirmjager jumped from 250 feet.
The parachute design was totally different to that used by the US and UK - instead of the parachute being attached to two shoulder straps, with half of the rigging lines on each, the German parachute had all the rigging lines gathered onto one point between the shoulder blades.
The advantage was that it could open very quickly, hence allow very short drops.
The disadvantages were that opening was violent so the straps had to be very tight (hence the inability to carry any equipment), and the FJ fell not vertically but hanging leaning forwards. The only control they could get was by flailing their arms. And they were expected to do a FORWARDS ROLL on landing :shock:
Yes all battalion is wiped out ,so many mans died without fired bullet.
Hi guys,
In Sept 2000 I was in a visit to Crete.
I looked all over for info about the German Invasion.
What was interesting,that the Cretans are very taught guys.
The terrain in very dific. in summer very hight temp ( a few hundred km from Africa) and in winter a very strong wind.
The Cretan people fought many times at “last stands”.When they belive in their cause they never surrender.All of the mountain people (even today) are armed.Not in order to fight but as a tradition.
I wouldn’t wanted to be in the place of the Germans fighting in those conditions.
If some of you ever visit this beautiful island,he can take the road from Rethimnon to Sfakia.At the top of the mountains,in a small village (there are sighns) there’s a WW2 privat museum.You’ll be suprise to see what this person have colected.
And…yes you’ll be treated with OUZU!!!
Ahh Crete!
What a beatifull place for a vacation and what a hell for an invasion!
Does anyone have any information on the Leros campaign, Im sure by this time the Germans could drop with weapons?
http://leros2002.bravepages.com/leros_war2.html
Also short description: http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID=420
http://www.leros.org/lerostouristhttp/wwiileros1_gr1.htm In Greek - maybe Tsolias could help.
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c4-WH2-1Epi-l-3.html
http://www.airpictorial.com/pages/raisingIronAnnie.html Not quite about the battle but very interesting!
Yeah i must to say british kiccked ass of germans paratroopers in creta.