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Massacre of Cretan civilians at Kondomari, Crete, 1941. The Battle of Crete was not the first occasion during the Second World War where the German troops encountered widespread resistance from a civilian population, as similar events took place during the invasion of Poland ; nevertheless it initially surprised and later outraged them. As most ...
In July 1941, Horst Trebes was awarded the Knight's Cross for his leadership during the assault against Crete. Three years later (1944), he was killed in action in Normandy. [5] After the surrender of Germany, Kurt Student was captured by the British. In May 1947, he came before a military tribunal to answer charges of mistreatment and murder ...
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 ...
Allied positions and German drop zones. In late May 1941, Crete was the theatre of Operation Mercury, the first large-scale airborne invasion in military history. The German offensive had three primary targets on the island, namely the Maleme airfield and the port of Souda, the Pigi airstrip east of Rethymno, and the Heraklion airfield. [4]
The museum's aim is to collect, preserve and exhibit relics from the period 1941–1945 in an appropriate manner, as well as to document and disseminate information on the people's struggle during the Battle of Crete and the subsequent German-Italian occupation. [1]
General Kurt Student dubbed Crete "the graveyard of the German paratroopers" and its fall "a disastrous victory". [5] Immediately after the fall of Crete, Gen. Student ordered a wave of reprisals against the local population (Kondomari, Alikianos, Kandanos, etc.). The reprisals were carried out rapidly, omitting formalities and by the same ...
The Italians were repulsed without the aid of the expeditionary force. A German invasion in April 1941 overran mainland Greece and the expeditionary force was withdrawn. By the end of the month, 57,000 Allied troops were evacuated by the Royal Navy. Some were sent to Crete to bolster its garrison, although most had lost their heavy equipment. [5]
The Souda Bay War Cemetery is a military cemetery administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Souda Bay, Crete, Greece.It contains 19 burials from World War I and 731 World War II burials where the body was identified along with another 776 burials of bodies which are unable to be identified (Battle of Crete).