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.
v
t
e
Battle of the Mediterranean
1940
Vado
Malta
Club Run¹
Espero ¹²
Mers-el-Kébir
Calabria¹²
Cape Spada
Hurry ¹
Cape Passero¹
MB8 ¹
Taranto
Otranto²
White ¹
Cape Spartivento¹
1941
Excess ¹
Convoy AN 14¹
Genoa
Abstention
Souda Bay
Matapan
Tarigo ²
Crete ²
Substance ¹
Grand Harbour
Halberd ¹
Duisburg ²
Bon²
1st Sirte¹²
Alexandria
1942
2nd Sirte¹
Calendar ¹
Bowery ¹
Albumen
Harpoon ¹
Vigorous ¹
Pedestal ¹
Agreement
Torch
Stoneage ¹
Toulon
Portcullis ¹
Skerki²
Olterra¹
Algiers¹
1943
Zuwarah
Cigno ²
Campobasso ²
Pantelleria
Sicily
Gela
Scylla ²
Messina convoy²
Bastia
Strait of Bonifacio
Dodecanese
Rhodes
Leros
Kos
Cape Bougaroun¹
1944
Ist
Santorini
Symi
Port Cros
La Ciotat
1945
Ligurian Sea ¹
Allied convoys
Malta convoys
U-boat Campaign
¹ — Involved an Allied convoy or delivery mission
² — Involved an Axis convoy or delivery mission
v
t
e
Balkans campaign
Greco-Italian War
Yugoslavia
Greece
Crete
v
t
e
Greek campaign
Greco-Italian War
Pindus
Elaia–Kalamas
Morava–Ivan (Korytsa)
Saranda
Himara
Klisura Pass
Trebeshina
Hill 731
German Invasion
Metaxas Line
Pisoderi Pass
Vevi
Ptolemaida
Kleisoura Pass
Siatista Pass
Lake Kastoria
Servia
Olympus
Tempe Gorge
Athens
Thermopylae
Corinth Canal
Crete
Maleme
Rethymno
Heraklion
42nd Street
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.
^ abcdeCite error: The named reference Davin, p.480 was 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.147 was 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.
^Cite error: The named reference Naval H was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abSee 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.
^ ab"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 shores403 was 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, Antony (1992). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-016787-0.
^Maloney, Shane (July 2006). "Bogin, Hopit". The Monthly. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
The BattleofCrete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (German: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major...
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Crete (/kriːt/ KREET; Greek: Κρήτη, Modern: Kríti [ˈkriti], Ancient: Krḗtē [krɛ̌ːtεː]) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th...
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any future invasion attempts: "Crete was the grave of the German parachutists." After the battleofCrete in the summer of 1941, the Royal Navy regained...
cemeteries on Greek territory, one at Maleme on Crete containing 4,468 dead (mainly from the BattleofCrete), and another at Dionyssos-Rapendoza, containing...
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in retaliation for the participation of Cretans in the BattleofCrete which had ended with the surrender of the island two days earlier. The massacre...
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convicted of war crimes for the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war by his men in Crete. Student was also responsible for a wave of reprisal massacres...
attacking German forces faced in Crete a substantial resistance from the local population. In the BattleofCrete, Cretan civilians picked off paratroopers...
the BattleofCrete, Climax in Crete (1946), is still cited by military historians and his 1948 A Survey of the Freshwater Biology of Corfu and of Certain...
invasion of Greece and the subsequent BattleofCrete. From 20 to 30 May, he was heavily involved in the fighting on Crete, performing a number of actions...
0559°E / 35.4819; 24.0559 The Battleof 42nd Street (27 May 1941) was fought during World War II on the Greek island ofCrete. On 20 May, Nazi Germany launched...
summarily executed by German troops during the BattleofCrete. John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert Stringfellow Pendlebury, a London...