Customer Reviews

Crete

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a splendidly-written account of the British Campaign in Greece and Crete in 1941, and to a lesser extent, of the resistance to the Germans during the occupation. The account of the defence against the German airborne invasion is masterly, and though many units are involved, the writer has the knack of keeping them distinct in the reader's mind such that there is no difficulty in following the actions at four separate but simultaneous landing points. Stories of heroism and of initiative, and also sadly of failure of will, abound on all sides. The aspect of the knife-edge that separated success and failure is very well conveyed. Bernard Freyberg emerges as a tragic figure, a man of magnificent personal courage and a Homeric hero of an earlier war, and in the same general theatre, but sadly out of his depth in the Cretan operation. One is reminded poignantly of the merciless revelation of John Bell Hood's weakness as a commander during his invasion of Tennessee in late 1864. The only fault I found with the Resistance part of the book was that it was too short, and I would have enjoyed a more extended account of individual actions. Inspired by this, I am now keen to locate "The Cretan Runner", so favourably mentioned by the author. Given the prominent role played in the Resistance story by Patrick Leigh-Fermor, those who enjoy this book will be entranced by his two books detailing a foot journey he made as a youth from Hook of Holland to Istanbul in 1934. In Crete, he and small band of heroes, British, Commonwealth and Greek, faced terrifying consequences for any failure when they faced a ruthless and merciless foe. This book underlines how high was the price paid for freedom in the 1940's, and how dreadful were the consequences of disarmament and pacifism in the democracies in the two previous decades - a lesson we forget at our peril.

This book is typical Beevor. If you have read "Stalingrad" or "Berlin", you'll be familiar with the author's style. It's very engaging, blending the operational aspects with human interest, allowing the reader to get a better perspective of the war.
The book is divided into three parts. The smallest part is Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece by German and Italian forces and the subsequent evacuation of Allied force to Crete. The second part is the largest, consuming 55 pct of the book and covers the invasion of Crete by the Germans and the evacuation of the Allies back to Egypt. The key engagements were at Maleme, Souda, Prison Valley, Rethymnon and Keraklion. Secondary sites are Kastelli, Galatos, Platanias and Canea. The final part is the organized resistance movement on the island after the Allied defeat.

The author begins his book by describing briefly the Balkan environment and the reasons for Hitler's invasion of Yugoslavia, Greece and finally Crete. It took less than four weeks in April to capture Greece and force the Allies off the mainland, leaving behind all of their heavy equipment. The preparations for the Crete invasion comes next. The faulty intell and poor planning and over confidence of Student play prominent roles in the difficulties the Germans experience in the campaign.
Beevor lists some of the accomplishment the XI Flieger Corps of the first two years of the war that sparked over confidence in Student.
Germans weren't the only ones making mistakes. Freyberg, a retiree who was called back when the war started, was the CO of the Allied forces on Crete, and made some mistakes of troop disposition based on faulty intell and poor judgment.

The invasion started on May 20th and for the first couple days the Allies inflicted heavy casualties on the paratroopers, giving Freyberg and Hargest a false sense of approaching victory and further bad judgment. On the 22nd Allied disasters on land and sea completely turned the advantage to the Germans and it started to unravel for the Allies and by the end of the month a full blown evacuation was nearing completion. Mr Beevor gives excellent coverage of the daily events making up this invasion.
The last part of the story which seems pretty complete, covers the organized resistance movement on the island and the ruthlessness that evolved on both sides. He also describes the fortification of the island by the Germans in anticipation of the eventual invasion by the Allies.

I liked this book very much for it gives a good accounting of the operational aspects of this campaign as well as providing many individual and small unit first hand accounts of the soldiers in the trenches. In the resistance phase a number of civilians are discussed quite well. It also gives a good accounting of the communications and planning between Freyberg, Hargest and Puttick but poor communication between the isolated garrisons on the front line. It also covers how Ultra was used. Mr Beevor was critical of the command performance on both sides but was particularly critical of Freyberg and Hargest whose sporadic poor judgment cost the lives of many soldiers.

The author provides 20 photos and 7 maps which were helpful. There is also an Appendix, and an extensive Bibliography and Notes sections as well as an Index. For anybody looking to read about the Crete Campaign, this book is ideal and is recommended for its concise and engaging manner.

This is the only book I've read to focus on the Battle of Crete. It was interesting and informative. For the historian, there is a lot of detail, such as disposition of units, resistance leaders' names and locations of operations, etc. For the casual reader, this detail does not bog the reader down, generally, and events are presented clearly. A certain amount of knowledge of the course of WWII is assumed, but I doubt someone unfamiliar with the course of the war would be interesting in this book anyways.

As mentioned in another review, it is a little dry at times, but this is not a large flaw. The main problem is the focus on the British and Commenwealth troops. Presumably they kept better records, but surely a few more anecdotes could have been presented regarding the plight of the common Cretan resistance fighter.

The invasion of Crete should be a fertile ground for all those "What if ...." alternate history authors. If the British had held the island, its long-range bombers (developed later in the war) would have had a base from where they could strike the Ploesti oil fields, and possible greatly affected the outcome of the war. Alternatively, a resounding German victory may have brought on an airborne invasion of England. As it turned out, the Germans won a victory, but destroyed their paratroops in the process. These issues add an interesting side-story to the drama, and Beevor introduces these ideas to put the battle in context. Oddly enough, he generally dismisses the idea that Crete's fate had a significant effect on the overall outcome of the war, but he has planted the seeds of doubt in my mind, at least.

All in all, it's an interesting book, well focussed on the battle and resistance on the isle of Crete.

The great Anthony Beevor does it again with his detailed account of the seldom examined battle of Crete. Although it reads like a somewhat dry history book, the narrative tends to flow fairly well.

Beevor gives context to the story by discussing the strategic importance of the battle and giving a decent overview of the battles in the Balkans and Greece, as well as some idea of events in north Africa and elsewhere in the Mediterranean theater. From the broad strategic scope he "zooms in" to focus on several key sectors on the island itself as the battle unfolds: Maleme, Suda Bay, and Rethymno. He also adds a personal flavor to it by following the exploits of several individual officers and soldiers. Also, he provides an objective analysis of some critical tactical decisions which cost the British the battle.

To sum it all up, this book is a valuable addition to the library of anyone who fancies himself a student of WW2. No historian's perspective on the war would be complete without understanding what happened at Crete and why. Beevor's book offers a fine opportunity to get familiar with the subject on a reasonably detailed level.

The book covers the conquest of Crete by the Germans, and the subsequent four years of resistance by Cretan civilians and British officers.

I didn't know anything about the island or the battle before, but had enjoyed "Stalingrad" and "Berlin" by the same author. This book was written before both of those, and while the events are dramatic, it ends up being less accessible and gripping than either.

Particularly for non-British, non-military readers - which is probably most of us - the flow of the narrative is not as clear as it could be. At times it feels more like reading an encyclopedia than a story because of the huge number of people and places mentioned. Particularly in the first third of the book, I found myself having too many characters thrown at me, most of which turned out to be inconsequential to the eventual denouement. Here is an example fragment from the second chapter:

"David Hunt, the archaeology don attached to the Welch Regiment in Alexandria, had arrived in Athens in November 1940, accompanied by Geoffrey Household, now in a new role of field security officer. They joined the RAF intelligence staff headed by Wing Commander Viscount Forbes, who had been Air Attache in the Bucharest Legation at the time of Household's fruitless wait for George Young's sappers."

Having said that, I am glad that someone wrote this book, as those were clearly tragic, heroic and historic times for all concerned. There were a great number of stories to be told, which would easily provide fodder for several action movies. (Try "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" with Nicholas Cage for a story set at the same time and on a different Greek island.) Admittedly, the rotation of British and German officers involved meant that the main protagnists changed several times.

Other reviewers have criticised the author's focus on the British perspective, and I agree that it would have been a stronger book with a more evenhanded approach. He does this in "Stalingrad", and the sequel, "Berlin - The Downfall". I recommend both those books highly. I recommend "Crete" to fans of Antony Beevor, visitors to Greece, and those with an interest in World War 2.

A fascinating battle that pit the German paratrooper division against elite British units and Crete militias resutling in the destruction of the German paratroop division. This was a division that had been used in the battle for France and the low countries, commanded by Karl Student, but it was so destroyed on Crete, losing 2000 or more out of its 8000 men killed and many more wounded.

This was a poetic battle, a shakespearen drama of Greek proportions starring Victoria Cross winners from the Great War, the British nazy, Maori warriors. A brilliant work, done by one of the only great military writers of our time.
I purchased this book in Iraklion, Crete and decided to read it over a fortnight while I journeyed around Crete. it lived up to itself. A very well written account the book begins with the fall of Greece and the British decision to intervene to help on the mainland and the final retreat back to Crete. Even though British troops had been on Crete for months nothing was done, or almost nothing, to defend the island. The New Zealand General in charge had access to the Ultra intercepts about German intentions but he did not put them to use for fear it would 'let the Germans know' that he knew about their secret codes. Thus the British were ill prepared and ill warned when the paratroops started falling out of the sky in May of 1941. For ten days the British fought and died alongside their Greek and Australian and New Zealand allies. Eventually they fled to the south when it was apparent the Germans had not only won Malame airfield but were on the verge of taking Chania.

The British fled but many remained to organize the resistance. With the Crete Division having surrendered on the mainland there were not a great number of local Crete men of youthful age but the Cretans distinguished themselves by killing more men than the 30,000 British troops could.

Beevor chronicles the four year brutal German occupation in which many Cretan villages were destroyed including the Amari valley villages and Anogia (where the women wear black to this day and the men wear fatigues in honor of their fallen). Beevor also chronicles the exploits of the resistance such as the abduction of General Kriepe, a major Allied victory for irregular warfare. In the end the Cretans were some of the greatest resistors against Nazism (seeThe Cretan Runner: The Story of the German Occupation). A wonderful and quick read which also tells a great deal about the German plans and German soldiers such as General Student.

Seth J. Frantzman

Seth J. Frantzman

I found this book after reading "Stalingrad" by the same author. It was a real disappointment since Stalingrad was a real page-turner. However the book is a worthwhile read.

One unfortunate aspect of this book is it's British perspective. I realize the Brits were trying to defend Crete, and that they royally screwed up their defense. However Beevor spends countless pages mired in details of which unit was at which town, seemingly straight from military records.

The 'resistance', potentially the most interesting aspect of the occupation of Crete is relegated to the last few pages, and only from the standpoint of the SOE operatives on the island.

I would like to see something from the Greek point of view, spending more time on the nationalist and communist factions, with more anecdotal evidence of raids and Greek-German interactions. This would, of course, make it of slight historical value since most of it would have to come from eye-witness accounts which are sure to be exagerated or innacurate to some extent.

After reading this book, I felt that I understood what happened on Crete from 1941-45 and why, but I also wondered how in the world the British ever thought they were going to win a war if they fought it like they did on Crete. Beevor chronicles the arrogance, frivolousness, ignorance, stupidity, wilfulness, and lack of attention to detail of the British officer class unsparingly. Unfortunately, being of that class himself, he often unconsciously exhibits that same flippant, arrogant English schoolboy attitude in his writing, which is the major flaw of the book.

Beevor does justice to the bravery and endurance of the German paratroopers, the Commonwealth troops, and the Cretan people and Resistance fighters. He is a skillful narrator, and he brings the people to life, all of which compensates somewhat for the flippant tone. He has eliminated that tone from his subsequent books on Stalingrad and Berlin, with great improvement in the power of his writing. Would that he had done so in describing the campaign on Crete, which was every bit as serious as Stalingrad and Berlin, especially to the participants.

I was raised with WWII always in the background of our family's own history and consciousness. My father had lost his first wife and daughters to the Holocaust, but emerged from that personal disaster to win a Silver Star while serving with the US infantry in Germany. Since then, during late childhood -- when my reading of history became established as part of my life's routine -- and on through university, medical school, married life, a career in the Army which includes two deployments to Iraq, my consumption of WWII-related material has become voracious.
Nonetheless, I found myself as recently as 5 years ago, while serving at Ft. Sill OK, still lacking a key and overarching comprehension towards various phases of WWII in Europe. Discovery of Antony Beever's books has vastly served to establish such comprehension. He has made sense of the historical puzzle that WWI presents on a grand scale.
Just as Mr. Beever was able to penetrate the density I'd imbibed over the Spanish Conflict 1936-39 through reads and re-rereads of Hugh Thomas' classical work, so has he been able to clarify themes from the Eastern Front with his books about Vasily Grossman and Stalingrad. Mr. Beever does the same with Crete. His display of factual knowledge is enthralling, his sources are impeccably utilized, and his characterizations of personalities, governmental policies, and campaigns place you directly in the front lines or in the Defense Ministries responsible for troop dispositions. My sole criticism is that he did not put more effort into elucidation of pre-1939 Greece, or greater explanation of the Greek-Italian War, or the dictator Metaxas' impact on Greek society. Nonetheless, Mr. Beeveor's "Crete" fills in an enormous gap which tends to be glossed over by other writers' description of the Mediterranean campaign and events of 1940-42 in that vital theater of operations.

The author's style is fast paced and entertaining without loosing track of a strategic overview or the main operational essentials. He provides a good background to invasion, covering political situation, the Greek campaign and evacuation, the organisation of the defence and preparations for the attack. He covers the fighting adequately giving more emphasis to individual experience rather than operational details and analysis of command decisions.

The author squarely blames Freyberg for the Allied defeat, with some justification. Puttick and Hargest, as senior commanders bungling severely in the most important sector deserve at least as much blame yet he gives them relatively less criticism.

A much stronger emphasis is given to the Allied side; although the book's full of anecdotes and personal experiences of fighting men, virtually none appear from the German side. Perhaps the paucity of primary sources makes this impossible.

The last hundred pages deal with the resistance; inevitably, coverage is sketchy with some personalities accorded detailed examination and other important personalities mentioned only in passing. Nevertheless, it's an interesting narrative and the author covers a lot of ground in the short space available. His summary of the internal Cretian politics and infighting are excellent.

This book does not quite measure up to Beevor's Berlin or Stalingrad but it's a good short history of a complex subject: Crete in the Second World War.