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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.
The Battle of Crete began on 20 May 1941 with a large-scale airborne invasion planned to capture the island's strategic locations. Kandanos is located on the road from Chania on the north coast to Paleochora in the south, which was a candidate landing point for potential Allied reinforcements from North Africa.
The Battle of Crete began on 20 May 1941 with a large-scale airborne invasion aimed to capture the island's strategic locations. As was proven in practice, one of the most important locations was the Maleme airstrip and its surrounding region.
Part of the larger Greek resistance, it lasted from 20 May 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the spring of 1945 when they surrendered to the British. For the first time during World War II, attacking German forces faced in Crete a substantial resistance from the local population.
On May 20, 1941, thousands of elite German paratroopers, the Fallschirmjäger, assaulted the island of Crete. [2] It was the beginning of one of the largest paratrooper assaults in modern history, ultimately involving 22,040 German soldiers. [3] It was also the first time German troops faced a unified resistance from a civilian populace. [4]
German paratroopers land in Crete. On 25 April 1941, King George II and his government left the Greek mainland for Crete, which was attacked by Nazi forces on 20 May 1941. [168] The Germans employed parachute forces in a massive airborne invasion and attacked the three main airfields of the island in Maleme, Rethymno and Heraklion.
The invasion of Crete in May 1941 was the first major airborne assault in history. Despite their victory, the elite German paratroopers suffered such heavy losses that Adolf Hitler forbade further airborne operations of such large scale for the rest of the war. The memorial was erected at the end of a stone staircase leading to the top of a ...
Action of 8 May 1941: The German commerce raider Pinguin was sunk by the British heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall in the Indian Ocean off the Seychelles. British and Transjordanian forces began the Assault on Rutbah Fort. The Sanski Most Revolt was suppressed on its third day. The Nottingham Blitz took place overnight. German submarine U-569 was ...