Freyberg was, as you noted in another video, the guy that tried to take Monte Cassino...ironically, held by German paratroopers. The evacuation of Crete may well have been the hardest fight the Royal Navy went through in WWII. By the time it was concluded, the Rotal Navy lost four cruisers and six destroyers. It was far and away the costliest naval battle for the RN in WWII. It would make quite a video in its own right.
Remember the Germans also massively deployed Paratroopers during the Invasion of The Netherlands. This ended up to being a close to big failure when trying to Capture The Hague, and Airfields. The failure of losing so many Planes during the Attack on Crete, also resulted in not being able deploy enough planes for the Stalingrad Air-supply . After Crete, Hitler was fed up with massive Paratrooper Airdrops. Greetings!
so true. but if you remove the word Massively in comparison to Crete. I would argue that the Known tactics of the german paratroopers in the netherlands. being a precise insertion of troops in key positions, was a reinforcing point at Crete thinking and planning. that the paratroopers were less in number that was the case and that the main invasion force was to come by sea. say 20/80 as was the case in the netherlands as opposed to 50/50 in crete. it was a new war.
From a German perspective, the British bases on Crete - and also on Malta - gave the British the opportunity to effectively hinder shipping and the supply of the Axis powers for the African campaign. From Crete, advances by the British into the Aegean were also possible. Hitler also feared that from Crete air strikes on the Romanian oil fields around Ploiesti could be carried out, which were of importance for the planned and imminent attack on the Soviet Union. The German naval warfare leaders also pushed for a conquest of Crete because they assumed that the British pushing back from the eastern Mediterranean would be decisive for the further warfare against Great Britain. Just like the Air Force High Command, she expected to be able to cripple British supplies through the Suez Canal from Crete. The first strategic considerations for this were made at the end of October 1940 by the chief of the Wehrmacht leadership staff (WFSt) Alfred Jodl. According to these, military action by the Italians against northern Greece and the port of Piraeus would certainly result in the British taking possession of Crete
Imagine being in command of defending an island, only to told by your intelligence that a German attack was on the way to prepare defences, and that you cannot tell *ANY* of your fellow comrades serving alongside you... that must be extremely stressful lol Great video I never learned much about the East Mediterranean in WW2 so this was an especially good one :)
What an excuse. You don't need to tell your staff ANY details about an invasion to prepare for one. You just tell them, let's position ourselves and continue training. That's why they were on the island, it wasn't a vacation. Seriously?
D Personal Of course you can still make a defence, never denied that, If you cannot see the reason as to why being solely responsible for defending an island of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and your fellow comrades in army with all their fate in your hands & your hands only to be extremely stressful then I cannot help your two braincells comprehend 😂
@@FriedrichBarb Thank you for displaying how insulting and abusive you are, which does nothing to address my point that he really didn't need to tell his subordinates to make a good defense stands.
@@dpersonal4187 apart from the personal pressure that Freyburg would have been under. but to address your point. If your subordinate commanders have an overall picture or even an idea that there was an attack coming. would that not affect their behaviour? for example if the subordinate commander at Maline? had knowledge of how critical the holding of the airfield would be. give this was a new type of war. would they have withdrawn? would have the counterattack been time give that those commanders under stood the urgency and possible accepted casualties inflicted by the luftwaffe to get to there starting line ontime? While the soviet army did not share battle plans down the line for fear of them being captured. There are plenty of examples of german plans being capture by all the allies. But the soviet troops could not withdraw without specific commands from HQ. that is not the case in the british army where individual officers are expected to use there intuitive. Lastly. even down to individual solders. Imagine you are digging a fighting position to defend an airfield! you would have you field of fire facing away form the airfield. there was no information for them to dig defencive positions against paratroopers who would be landing in front , behind and amongst your positions thus requiring a 360 deg field of fire. i think i have muted your point!
Dankie/ Merci House of History 4 this video. I have listen now to your video and to other video's on the same topic. Your video have much more information. Sehr danke.
Great video brother! This battle is not talked about in the west and it should be. It is the epitome of a “fishbowl” battle. So much carnage concentrated in such a small place. As someone of Cretan blood I appreciate your effort!
I love your videos, very concise and informative. I heard a story that my father told me who was in the British home guard during the war. Apparently the sergeant who was assigned to train them in firing practice had been taken off the front line and assigned training duty as he'd been in Crete and went a bit mad, took a dozen captured german paratroopers, put them up against a wall and shot them. I guess they decided to take him away from frontline duty after that but wasn't prosecuted.
there are quite a few accounts of that. the paratroopers. even after surrendering would attack there guards. had been observed shooting british and australian POWs
Apparently, the German general Kurt Student had his pistol on his desk in the Grand Bretagne hotel in Syntagma square in Athens, used as an HQ at the time, considering killing him self, when he learned about Maleme falling to his paratroopers.
You forgot to mention that a large number of the British forces were evacuated from Greece and they were ill equipted. My father in law was on crete and they were in the dark.
It takes a lot to go an Enemy or potential Enemy Country. Alone, self reliant, no Safe House, as you are there to establish one in the first place.. I was trained during the Cold War. I was trained to speak Deautch fluently with little or no accent and Speak some Russian and French. Establishing Rat Lines to Old Bliety, for British Consulates and other British Interests. I even trained to be a hairdresser and established a Clientel. Exciting Times! From a British War Veteran
The Germans were quite concerned that Allied bombers stationed on Crete cold be used as a base to bomb Romanian oil fields, The Axis' main natural source of oil. Hence, Crete had to be taken.
A very good video of a mostly forgotten theater. Thanks for telling the story. I am consistently amazed by the sheer incompetence of British Army generals and high command. It was only through the courage and tenacity of British soldiers and field grade commanders that they were able to hold on. Made doubly worse by the fact that the Poles and Brits had broken Enigma and knew exactly what the Germans were planning, the collection of Lords and Sirs in command still managed to lose battle after battle, wasting soldiers lives. More concerned about maintaining a proper image, setting a good table for dinner, and having a well stocked drinks cabinet. The fundamental flaw of placing men in command based on their family connections and how many initials followed their names rather than ability. Crete should never have been lost, it should have been a slaughter of German troops.
The number of Allied troops on the island may have been around 40,000, but the number of actual combat soldiers would have been significantly smaller than that. On the other hand, many Cretan civilians participated in the battle, and apparently quite effectively at that. Another thing worth mentioning is that the Germans had complete control of the sky, a very important factor in modern warfare. They didn't use a large number of aircraft, but those that were employed faced opposition only from AA artillery and small arms.
@NicholasFerrante Good post not quite true. the luffwafers involvement has not been overstated. ifact it's hardly mentioned. though you are correct in that the preparatory bombardment was ineffectual, but then the germans didn't want to show their hand so there was no real effort. where the luftwaffe did have a major effect was in delaying the troop movements for the counterattack of Maleme airfield. Nor did the RN eliminating the seaborne invasion. the germans did get tanks onto crete in the 22th and troops onto the beaches close to Maleme airfield as well as the large italian landings.
Quite correct, only 18000 troops were in good order, namely the australians who put up a good defence and retained suda bay. this was the expected main invasion point of the german invasion so the best troops were placed there!! the Green New Zealand troops who had arrived in Egypt and then to greece. and were last off greece leaving the bulk of there equipment were sent to Maleme airfield which was expected to be a side show. the greek and local troops were in poor shape and poorly equipped, lacking even ammo. fought nasty mainly using captured german ordnance. one of Freyberg's first orders was to get the unformed british troops off the island of which i think about 20 000 were evacuated. before the invasion
@Julian Palmer Just because a junior officer does a decent job in WW1, doesn't mean they'll progress successfully to become a senior officer in WW2 (Frieberg was one such General,....Blamey another)
Oh such a Naive comment. incomplete intelligence, overruling orders from alexandera, no heavy equipment. lack of arms and ammo. and only 17000 fit to fight out of 40000 troops on the island. ZERO air cover!!! Freyberg was put in command only 20 days before the invasion, and had only 6-7 days notice of invasion. he was extremely competent in this action and all actions until the end of the war. read your history!!
@@NaturaBreeze No way on any parallel universe can you puts Balmy and Freyburg in the same Pot. Balmy was a self serving political suckup who lied to his own goverment. whos only success was organizing the australian withdrawal from the mediterranean. Having said that he was i ideal candidate to put up against that egotistical muddler Macarthur to defend australian interests. Needs Must. he was never a combat commander like Freyburg. " run like rabbits" the fool.
@@deanwilliams4365 Another apologist for Freyburg. He may have been a legend in NZ but he and his staff could not have done better to help the Germans take Crete. Talk about snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Here is a QUOTE! : Troops of the German 141st Mountain Regiment blocked a section of the road between Souda and Chania. On the morning of 27 May, the New Zealand 28th (Māori) Battalion, the Australian 2/7th Battalion and the Australian 2/8th Battalion cleared the road by a bayonet charge (the "Battle of 42nd Street").
The British/Allied as in so many battles during the Second World war lost this one due to poor leadership and a not yet realized necessity for the soldiers in the field to have a basic knowledge of the task at hand . This allows them to take command and continue the mission even in the event of a total lack of communication with HQ . It's why NCO's have security clearances and in elite units have clearances above most field grade officers in other units . I know I still have mine 21yrs later as a civilian contractor from time with teams .
Quite correct. how ever the counter argument would be the inability to counterattack in good time due to the luftwaffe and the holding of forces back for the expected seaborne landings and the lack of artillery and tanks etc. ( perpatery work) and the last nail being the germans landing tanks by sea and the Italian naval landings.
Fallschirmjager were not political troops. They were Luftwaffe airborne infantry. Calling them Nazi is fairly insulting to them. The SS at this point of the war were the only actual Nazi troops and even a good chunk of them were there in name only wanting to simply be part of an elite unit(which got less elite as the war drug on).
They kind of were political troops, but not in the way you think. Most of them were sons of the old prussian aristocracy (von Blucher brothers) or reputed dissidents (Max Schmeling) that the Nazi regime considered dangerous but could not outright kill off, so they send them to die > in the german elite paratrooper division.
The Luftwaffe was the most highly politicized of the three branches and the Fallschirmers did contain a disproportionate number of fanatical Nazis if Allied after action reports, POW interrogations and surviving journals and letters are to be believed.
IIRC one of the reasons for invading Crete was to neutralize the potential danger of Allied long range bombers hitting the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti, one of Germany’s main sources of oil. The attack does make sense.
The Germans KEPT bringing in forces by air.....Freyburg UNDERSTOOD, he didn't have the resources. Please be aware the defenders had NO air cover............and artillery? No, you are wrong there, they had mainly captured Italian pieces with limited shells and no sights.
Crete was a TOP priority, it is VERY strategic, the Allies were NOT confident at all, the troops sent to defend Crete had been evacuated for the defeat in Greece, most had only the weapons they left Greece with while many had none. The Anzac forces were NOT well trained but were battle tested but WITHOUT equipment and they had NO air cover and little artillery. They were also in different defensive areas seperated from each other by quite some distances. At Maleme the defenders were mainly a force of 3 battalions of New Zealanders, bout 2,200 men. This guy does not do good research. There were roughly similar numbers of forces on both sides but the Germans could bring force to bear because they could selectively target defenders and therefore provide superior numbers to do this. The tanks MAIN malfunction was that the SHELLS were NOT the right size/........................do YOUR homework!
....not a word about the German atrocities after the battle was ended "After the Battle of Crete was over, a real bloodbath started. The nazis, blinded by their revenge, murdered indiscriminately citizens of the island, including pregnant women and young children, as well as old men and women.Furious at the resistance they met, the Germans shot, burned and bayoneted thousands of civilians, they burned down villages and committed every imaginable sort of atrocity against the population of the island, in order to terrorise them, leaving an indelible mark on the indigenous population. “It is an endless list of tragedy,” said Efi Paschalidou from the Greek army history department (DIS)." www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/nazi-atrocities-in-crete-murdering-civilians-women-and-children/
Although the aftermath isn't necessarily the point of focus of the video (namely portray the battle of Crete and the first en-masse use of Fallschirmjäger), I certainly do mention the years of brutality the Cretans would suffer. I also mention the deportation of the entire island's Jewish population. Very interesting source you posted, though. Thanks for sharing and I'll be sure to read it!
Were there mass atrocities, except the deportation of the Jewish Population (because it’s a matter of time), during the whole time of occupation? Just asking because, when I was there, some old Greek didn’t mention that the Germans were evil - surely not everyone had hate inside. Some of them made positive experiences. I’m German but I think if someone has negative feelings and lived during the time, they will say this. Yeah I know, it’s not representative. Maybe these elders weren’t from the cities/villages where the allies had bases and therefore there were atrocities done by Germans. It’s worst enough that the Jews were deported but sadly many people in German occupied countries had thoughts like „at least it’s not us“ (no that’s not an insult that they all were antisimetic).
I believe that repercussions against the civil populace was likely motivated by civilians murdering wounded paratroopers as they lay helpless in their chutes.
@@jamesjack6769 yes. That was the nazi argument for their atrocities. The truth is that their paratroopers corp was decimated in Crete. Most of the damage was done by the Cretans. And no, they didn t kill helpless wounded soldiers. They killed healthy soldiers who had just landed with their paraschutes. Because of the german tactics, the paratroopers were jumping out of the planes unarmed. Their arms and ammunition were thrown with a separate parachute. So, there was some time between the time the paratrooper was landing until the time he was able to find the canister with the weapons of his platoon. Plus, some times the parascute with the weapons was lost. During this period the germans were unarmed. The Cretans were attacking them with knives, shovels, stones and old rifles of 1880s. What would YOU do if an invader was invading your country?
Sorry, I can't believe you placed a mug on top of a book! That is a big no-no in my home. One does not disrespect any published work as such. That is what coasters and napkins are for. Plus you have a perfectly good desk (plastic) cover, that you set your mug upon. Unscribed...
Freyberg was, as you noted in another video, the guy that tried to take Monte Cassino...ironically, held by German paratroopers. The evacuation of Crete may well have been the hardest fight the Royal Navy went through in WWII. By the time it was concluded, the Rotal Navy lost four cruisers and six destroyers. It was far and away the costliest naval battle for the RN in WWII. It would make quite a video in its own right.
You are rapidly becoming one of my favorite history channels and I've recommended you to several of my history buff pals. Keep up the fantastic work!
That's very nice to hear, thank you!
Thanks for presenting yet another compelling video!
Another excellent video Oscar. Congrats and thank you for what you do.
great series, well done!
An excellent overview of this fascinating history. Thank you!
Remember the Germans also massively deployed Paratroopers during the Invasion of The Netherlands.
This ended up to being a close to big failure when trying to Capture The Hague, and Airfields.
The failure of losing so many Planes during the Attack on Crete, also resulted in not being able deploy enough planes for the Stalingrad Air-supply .
After Crete, Hitler was fed up with massive Paratrooper Airdrops.
Greetings!
Good point, thanks for sharing!
so true. but if you remove the word Massively in comparison to Crete. I would argue that the Known tactics of the german paratroopers in the netherlands. being a precise insertion of troops in key positions, was a reinforcing point at Crete thinking and planning. that the paratroopers were less in number that was the case and that the main invasion force was to come by sea. say 20/80 as was the case in the netherlands as opposed to 50/50 in crete. it was a new war.
From a German perspective, the British bases on Crete - and also on Malta - gave the British the opportunity to effectively hinder shipping and the supply of the Axis powers for the African campaign. From Crete, advances by the British into the Aegean were also possible. Hitler also feared that from Crete air strikes on the Romanian oil fields around Ploiesti could be carried out, which were of importance for the planned and imminent attack on the Soviet Union. The German naval warfare leaders also pushed for a conquest of Crete because they assumed that the British pushing back from the eastern Mediterranean would be decisive for the further warfare against Great Britain. Just like the Air Force High Command, she expected to be able to cripple British supplies through the Suez Canal from Crete. The first strategic considerations for this were made at the end of October 1940 by the chief of the Wehrmacht leadership staff (WFSt) Alfred Jodl. According to these, military action by the Italians against northern Greece and the port of Piraeus would certainly result in the British taking possession of Crete
Imagine being in command of defending an island, only to told by your intelligence that a German attack was on the way to prepare defences, and that you cannot tell *ANY* of your fellow comrades serving alongside you... that must be extremely stressful lol
Great video I never learned much about the East Mediterranean in WW2 so this was an especially good one :)
It must have been incredibly nerve wrecking indeed..
What an excuse. You don't need to tell your staff ANY details about an invasion to prepare for one. You just tell them, let's position ourselves and continue training. That's why they were on the island, it wasn't a vacation. Seriously?
D Personal Of course you can still make a defence, never denied that, If you cannot see the reason as to why being solely responsible for defending an island of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and your fellow comrades in army with all their fate in your hands & your hands only to be extremely stressful then I cannot help your two braincells comprehend 😂
@@FriedrichBarb Thank you for displaying how insulting and abusive you are, which does nothing to address my point that he really didn't need to tell his subordinates to make a good defense stands.
@@dpersonal4187 apart from the personal pressure that Freyburg would have been under. but to address your point. If your subordinate commanders have an overall picture or even an idea that there was an attack coming. would that not affect their behaviour? for example if the subordinate commander at Maline? had knowledge of how critical the holding of the airfield would be. give this was a new type of war. would they have withdrawn? would have the counterattack been time give that those commanders under stood the urgency and possible accepted casualties inflicted by the luftwaffe to get to there starting line ontime? While the soviet army did not share battle plans down the line for fear of them being captured. There are plenty of examples of german plans being capture by all the allies. But the soviet troops could not withdraw without specific commands from HQ. that is not the case in the british army where individual officers are expected to use there intuitive. Lastly. even down to individual solders. Imagine you are digging a fighting position to defend an airfield! you would have you field of fire facing away form the airfield. there was no information for them to dig defencive positions against paratroopers who would be landing in front , behind and amongst your positions thus requiring a 360 deg field of fire. i think i have muted your point!
Excellent piece of work my friend!!
I knew some one that dropped there. Took almost all their casualties in the air. It was not worth it.
Dankie/ Merci House of History 4 this video. I have listen now to your video and to other video's on the same topic. Your video have much more information. Sehr danke.
You are very welcome!
A very good pronouncing of Herr Generaloberst Kurt A.B. Student. Danke
Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Frieberg should have been sacked for incompetence.
In the first rendition of my script I did write snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, funnily enough 😉
Great video
Great video brother! This battle is not talked about in the west and it should be. It is the epitome of a “fishbowl” battle. So much carnage concentrated in such a small place. As someone of Cretan blood I appreciate your effort!
I love your videos, very concise and informative. I heard a story that my father told me who was in the British home guard during the war. Apparently the sergeant who was assigned to train them in firing practice had been taken off the front line and assigned training duty as he'd been in Crete and went a bit mad, took a dozen captured german paratroopers, put them up against a wall and shot them. I guess they decided to take him away from frontline duty after that but wasn't prosecuted.
there are quite a few accounts of that. the paratroopers. even after surrendering would attack there guards. had been observed shooting british and australian POWs
Apparently, the German general Kurt Student had his pistol on his desk in the Grand Bretagne hotel in Syntagma square in Athens, used as an HQ at the time, considering killing him self, when he learned about Maleme falling to his paratroopers.
Great historical video!
You forgot to mention that a large number of the British forces were evacuated from Greece and they were ill equipted. My father in law was on crete and they were in the dark.
But the Greek civilians took their toll on the nazi paratroopers. There's a cemetery full of those troops on Crete
It takes a lot to go an Enemy or potential Enemy Country. Alone, self reliant, no Safe House, as you are there to establish one in the first place..
I was trained during the Cold War. I was trained to speak Deautch fluently with little or no accent and Speak some Russian and French. Establishing Rat Lines to Old Bliety, for British Consulates and other British Interests. I even trained to be a hairdresser and established a Clientel. Exciting Times!
From a British War Veteran
The Germans were quite concerned that Allied bombers stationed on Crete cold be used as a base to bomb Romanian oil fields, The Axis' main natural source of oil. Hence, Crete had to be taken.
A very good video of a mostly forgotten theater. Thanks for telling the story.
I am consistently amazed by the sheer incompetence of British Army generals and high command. It was only through the courage and tenacity of British soldiers and field grade commanders that they were able to hold on. Made doubly worse by the fact that the Poles and Brits had broken Enigma and knew exactly what the Germans were planning, the collection of Lords and Sirs in command still managed to lose battle after battle, wasting soldiers lives. More concerned about maintaining a proper image, setting a good table for dinner, and having a well stocked drinks cabinet. The fundamental flaw of placing men in command based on their family connections and how many initials followed their names rather than ability.
Crete should never have been lost, it should have been a slaughter of German troops.
The number of Allied troops on the island may have been around 40,000, but the number of actual combat soldiers would have been significantly smaller than that. On the other hand, many Cretan civilians participated in the battle, and apparently quite effectively at that. Another thing worth mentioning is that the Germans had complete control of the sky, a very important factor in modern warfare. They didn't use a large number of aircraft, but those that were employed faced opposition only from AA artillery and small arms.
@NicholasFerrante Good post not quite true. the luffwafers involvement has not been overstated. ifact it's hardly mentioned. though you are correct in that the preparatory bombardment was ineffectual, but then the germans didn't want to show their hand so there was no real effort. where the luftwaffe did have a major effect was in delaying the troop movements for the counterattack of Maleme airfield. Nor did the RN eliminating the seaborne invasion. the germans did get tanks onto crete in the 22th and troops onto the beaches close to Maleme airfield as well as the large italian landings.
Quite correct, only 18000 troops were in good order, namely the australians who put up a good defence and retained suda bay. this was the expected main invasion point of the german invasion so the best troops were placed there!! the Green New Zealand troops who had arrived in Egypt and then to greece. and were last off greece leaving the bulk of there equipment were sent to Maleme airfield which was expected to be a side show. the greek and local troops were in poor shape and poorly equipped, lacking even ammo. fought nasty mainly using captured german ordnance. one of Freyberg's first orders was to get the unformed british troops off the island of which i think about 20 000 were evacuated. before the invasion
@@deanwilliams4365The British fought just as hard as the Aussies stop taking all the glory.
read my post again@@anthonyeaton5153
The list of incompetent British Generals grows... Freyburg should have been, minimally, reprimanded and maximally... Great vid. Ty.
He was from New Zealand
@Julian Palmer Just because a junior officer does a decent job in WW1, doesn't mean they'll progress successfully to become a senior officer in WW2 (Frieberg was one such General,....Blamey another)
Oh such a Naive comment. incomplete intelligence, overruling orders from alexandera, no heavy equipment. lack of arms and ammo. and only 17000 fit to fight out of 40000 troops on the island. ZERO air cover!!! Freyberg was put in command only 20 days before the invasion, and had only 6-7 days notice of invasion. he was extremely competent in this action and all actions until the end of the war. read your history!!
@@NaturaBreeze No way on any parallel universe can you puts Balmy and Freyburg in the same Pot. Balmy was a self serving political suckup who lied to his own goverment. whos only success was organizing the australian withdrawal from the mediterranean. Having said that he was i ideal candidate to put up against that egotistical muddler Macarthur to defend australian interests. Needs Must. he was never a combat commander like Freyburg. " run like rabbits" the fool.
@@deanwilliams4365 Another apologist for Freyburg. He may have been a legend in NZ but he and his staff could not have done better to help the Germans take Crete. Talk about snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Here is a QUOTE! : Troops of the German 141st Mountain Regiment blocked a section of the road between Souda and Chania. On the morning of 27 May, the New Zealand 28th (Māori) Battalion, the Australian 2/7th Battalion and the Australian 2/8th Battalion cleared the road by a bayonet charge (the "Battle of 42nd Street").
like today- 20/5/1941 the german para dropped on crete- my fathers island of birth. great job mate !!!!!
The British/Allied as in so many battles during the Second World war lost this one due to poor leadership and a not yet realized necessity for the soldiers in the field to have a basic knowledge of the task at hand . This allows them to take command and continue the mission even in the event of a total lack of communication with HQ . It's why NCO's have security clearances and in elite units have clearances above most field grade officers in other units . I know I still have mine 21yrs later as a civilian contractor from time with teams .
There were NO fresh troops..good heavens!
The Germans didn't win Crete, the Allies lost it (the moment they retreated from the hill overlooking Maleme)
Quite correct. how ever the counter argument would be the inability to counterattack in good time due to the luftwaffe and the holding of forces back for the expected seaborne landings and the lack of artillery and tanks etc. ( perpatery work) and the last nail being the germans landing tanks by sea and the Italian naval landings.
Fallschirmjager were not political troops. They were Luftwaffe airborne infantry. Calling them Nazi is fairly insulting to them. The SS at this point of the war were the only actual Nazi troops and even a good chunk of them were there in name only wanting to simply be part of an elite unit(which got less elite as the war drug on).
Absolutely. The title hadn't updated yet but it was never meant to have that title. All is good now, thanks for the sharp observation!
They kind of were political troops, but not in the way you think. Most of them were sons of the old prussian aristocracy (von Blucher brothers) or reputed dissidents (Max Schmeling) that the Nazi regime considered dangerous but could not outright kill off, so they send them to die > in the german elite paratrooper division.
The Luftwaffe was the most highly politicized of the three branches and the Fallschirmers did contain a disproportionate number of fanatical Nazis if Allied after action reports, POW interrogations and surviving journals and letters are to be believed.
IIRC one of the reasons for invading Crete was to neutralize the potential danger of Allied long range bombers hitting the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti, one of Germany’s main sources of oil. The attack does make sense.
My wife’s grandfather was captured in Crete
The Germans KEPT bringing in forces by air.....Freyburg UNDERSTOOD, he didn't have the resources. Please be aware the defenders had NO air cover............and artillery? No, you are wrong there, they had mainly captured Italian pieces with limited shells and no sights.
Crete was a TOP priority, it is VERY strategic, the Allies were NOT confident at all, the troops sent to defend Crete had been evacuated for the defeat in Greece, most had only the weapons they left Greece with while many had none. The Anzac forces were NOT well trained but were battle tested but WITHOUT equipment and they had NO air cover and little artillery. They were also in different defensive areas seperated from each other by quite some distances. At Maleme the defenders were mainly a force of 3 battalions of New Zealanders, bout 2,200 men. This guy does not do good research. There were roughly similar numbers of forces on both sides but the Germans could bring force to bear because they could selectively target defenders and therefore provide superior numbers to do this. The tanks MAIN malfunction was that the SHELLS were NOT the right size/........................do YOUR homework!
👍
....not a word about the German atrocities after the battle was ended "After the Battle of Crete was over, a real bloodbath started. The nazis, blinded by their revenge, murdered indiscriminately citizens of the island, including pregnant women and young children, as well as old men and women.Furious at the resistance they met, the Germans shot, burned and bayoneted thousands of civilians, they burned down villages and committed every imaginable sort of atrocity against the population of the island, in order to terrorise them, leaving an indelible mark on the indigenous population.
“It is an endless list of tragedy,” said Efi Paschalidou from the Greek army history department (DIS)." www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/nazi-atrocities-in-crete-murdering-civilians-women-and-children/
Although the aftermath isn't necessarily the point of focus of the video (namely portray the battle of Crete and the first en-masse use of Fallschirmjäger), I certainly do mention the years of brutality the Cretans would suffer. I also mention the deportation of the entire island's Jewish population.
Very interesting source you posted, though. Thanks for sharing and I'll be sure to read it!
Were there mass atrocities, except the deportation of the Jewish Population (because it’s a matter of time), during the whole time of occupation?
Just asking because, when I was there, some old Greek didn’t mention that the Germans were evil - surely not everyone had hate inside. Some of them made positive experiences. I’m German but I think if someone has negative feelings and lived during the time, they will say this. Yeah I know, it’s not representative. Maybe these elders weren’t from the cities/villages where the allies had bases and therefore there were atrocities done by Germans. It’s worst enough that the Jews were deported but sadly many people in German occupied countries had thoughts like „at least it’s not us“ (no that’s not an insult that they all were antisimetic).
I can’t reply too in depth right now but I suggest you start here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Kondomari
I believe that repercussions against the civil populace was likely motivated by civilians murdering wounded paratroopers as they lay helpless in their chutes.
@@jamesjack6769 yes. That was the nazi argument for their atrocities.
The truth is that their paratroopers corp was decimated in Crete.
Most of the damage was done by the Cretans. And no, they didn t kill helpless wounded soldiers.
They killed healthy soldiers who had just landed with their paraschutes.
Because of the german tactics, the paratroopers were jumping out of the planes unarmed. Their arms and ammunition were thrown with a separate parachute. So, there was some time between the time the paratrooper was landing until the time he was able to find the canister with the weapons of his platoon. Plus, some times the parascute with the weapons was lost. During this period the germans were unarmed. The Cretans were attacking them with knives, shovels, stones and old rifles of 1880s.
What would YOU do if an invader was invading your country?
Battle of crete, put a flag of greece
Stand up
Hook up
Shuffle to the door...
Sorry, I can't believe you placed a mug on top of a book! That is a big no-no in my home. One does not disrespect any published work as such. That is what coasters and napkins are for.
Plus you have a perfectly good desk (plastic) cover, that you set your mug upon.
Unscribed...
Saree too much