Customer Reviews

Perilous Commitments: Britain's Involvement in Greece and Crete 1940-41

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Here is America relatively little is known about the battles the British fought in Greece. We know that for some strange reason Churchill took away some of the divisions that were needed to fight Rommel and sent them to Greece. After the defeat in Greece they went to Crete where they got hit pretty hard by the Germans and were forced to leave there as well. But why did Churchill make such an appearantly stupid decision? There is a feeling that this was just another example of his ill-founded thoughts about that area being the 'soft underbelly of Europe.'

As this book points out, the story is far more complex than that. In the early stages of the war Britain sent diplomats around the circumferance of Germany and entered into treaties and other agreements in an attempt to stop German expansion. One of these was to guarantee Greek independance. I like the title of the book 'Perilous Commitments.' These comitments were indeed perilous.

Needless to say this didn't stop either Hitler or Mussolini. Mussolini wanted fame, glory, territory, and military victories. He sent forces into Greece for an easy victory. It didn't work out that way. The Greeks defeated the Italians, and then the Germans came in.

The British forces were kicked out of Greece, consolidated on Crete and fought a particularly and vicious battle before being withdrawn back to Egypt.

This book has the most detailed story of the reasons for the battles and the details of the battle. It fills in a little known area of the titantic struggle that was World War II.