Crete 1941: Germany’s lightning airborne assault (Campaign) Paperback – February 5, 2005

Osprey's Campaign #147, Crete 1941 by Peter D. Antill, summarizes the first division-size airborne operation in the Second World War. Operation "Mercury" - the German airborne attack on Crete - succeeded in defeating the Allied garrison and capturing the island, but at the cost of crippling losses. The German attack on Crete is also interesting for study because British access to German plans via Ultra code-breaking gave the Allies advance-warning of the attack. The author does a creditable job laying out these issues in the volume and his campaign narrative is sound, which should provide a decent introduction to this campaign for readers new to this campaign. However, with readers with more background on the Second World War or the Crete campaign, this volume appears as a synthesis product of other secondary sources and doesn't offer much new material, except for the detailed and colorful maps.

The author provides a rather lengthy introduction in which he appears to misrepresent German strategy in 1941. According to the author, Hitler decided to opt for a peripheral strategy" after the invasion of Britain was cancelled in September 1941, with "the aim of bringing Britain to the negotiating table." While Hitler did hope for a negotiated settlement with Britain, the planning documentation available today clearly shows that he was focused on destroying the USSR before embarking on "peripheral missions." Furthermore, Hitler's strategic planning was heavily based on gaining access to vital economic resources; the oil and minerals that Germany needed were in the USSR, not in the Mediterranean area. Antill's section on opposing commanders is fairly comprehensive, but the two best opening sections are opposing forces and opposing plans. Antill makes the crucial point that, "German intelligence badly underestimated the Allied strength on the island," presuming that there were only 10,000 Commonwealth troops instead of the actual 32,000. This failure of German intelligence analysis led to a flawed airborne plan, with the paratroops scattered too thinly to seize their objectives. In fact, it's not clear to me that General Student even identified a main effort in the initial plan; Maleme airfield only became the main effort once all the other attacks failed to seize their objectives. Antill does not mention that the staff of the German 7FJ Division was fairly junior and inexperienced, conducting a novel operation of unprecedented scale, which probably also contributed to the heavy losses.

The author's order of battle is decent, but he leaves out units like the 5th Company/31st Panzer that were shipped to Crete (he only mentions the 5th Panzer Division without identifying sub-units). The maps in the volume are excellent. The six 2-D maps are: the Balkans Campaign, April 1941; Crete; Souda Bay and Prison Valley; Rethymnon; Heraklion; and the German advance, 27-31 May. The 3-D maps are: Maleme, 20-22 May; the German advance on Platanias, 23 May; and the German advance on Galatos, 24-26 May. The three color battle scenes are: the Genz Glider detachment landing southwest of Canea, 20 May; the 2nd Battalion, 1st FJ landing west of Heraklion airfield, 20 May; and the Australian counterattack against the 1/141st Mountain Regiment, 27 May. The author probably should have provided a 2-D map detailing the air-sea actions around Crete, including all the RN warships sunk. As for the photographs in this volume, they are rather mundane, with far too many photos of ANZAC troops in transit camps or being evacuated.

The author's campaign narrative itself is crisp and clean, and he does a good job pointing out both the German mistakes (dropping single battalions, trying to seize too many objectives simultaneously) and the Allied mistakes (focused more on coast defense, failure to disable airfields, slowness to recognize German main effort and organize counterattack). The author also does an excellent job coordinating his narrative with the maps, enabling the reader to easily follow the flow of combat. He also adds interesting items, like the Germans surprising the Allies by introducing recoilless guns. The Battle of Crete essentially came down to the fight for Maleme airfield, and while Antill does a decent job outlining the course of fighting there, I'm not sure he strips away much of the uncertainty as to how and why the British defenders - who outnumbered the paratroopers - failed to hold the airfield. Antill runs down the standard reasons given - poor communications, fog of war, wounded leaders - but I'm not sure that this rote recitation really answers why the battle was won or lost.

I was also hoping that the author would incorporate some fresh research, particularly about German casualties, but he seems content to stick with the standard (and not very informative) numbers seen in other secondary sources. In sum, Peter Antill's Crete 1941 is a decent first effort, but lacks the original research or incisive analysis needed to make this more than a synthesis product.

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"Crete 1941" is one the Osprey Publishing's Campaign series. As such, it's profusely illustrated with good photographs, 3D computer generated maps, and paintings. The maps are outstanding, showing how terrain shaped the battle. The units are captioned to show the battle's flow and clearly describe the German plan, and the Commonwealth defenses. However, the narration is entirely conventional, with very little of the latest research on this near-disaster apparent. The best section is probably the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing forces; as good as in any more in-depth work. Ultimately I would suggest Anthony Beevor's excellent "Crete The Battle and The Resistance" for the battle's analysis, and this book for supporting illustrations.

great detail, well written with excellent supporting pictures and diagrams. If you're interested in military history, this is a good book to read.

Good book regarding this iconic campaign which, in a certain way, introduced new possibilities to modern warfare. Never before the invasion of Crete was attempted such a large scale airborne operation.

The author introduces with competence the background to the operation Merkur, namely the Balkans campaign and the allied retreat to Crete after being pushed back by axis forces in Greece. With a quick overview on the leaders of both factions and respective units, comparative strengths and weaknesses, Antill advances for a day to day description of this quick but extremely bloody campaign.

The issue which is immediately obvious is the serious lack of proper intelligence on both factions. The Germans had seriously underestimated Allied forces in Crete (which outnumbered considerably the German invasion force) and the Allied had severe leadership issues (with contradictory commands) and failed to access and predict German attack spots and overall strategy.

Even so, both the allied New Zealanders, Australians and British troops as well as their foes, the Fallschirmjäeger and the Gebirs mountain troops, fought with rarely seen bravery, leading to a new evacuation under fire where the Royal Navy was essential.

There are some imprecisions and omissions, but overall it’s a truly fine introduction to this campaign.

With very good 2D Maps (Balkan Campaign, 6-30 April 1941; Map of Crete; Souda bay/Prison valley, 20-22 May; Rethymnon, 20-21 May; Heraklion, 20-26 May; The German advance and Allied retreat Hania to Sphakion, 27-31 May) and 3D Maps (Maleme, 20-22 May showing the initial German landings and attempts to secure the airfield, the confused allied response and the attempts to counter attack; German advance on Platanias, 23 May; German advance on Galatos, 24-26 May) which clearly and sequentially show the development of the events and good color plates by Howard Gerrard (Genz glider detachment landing southwest of Canea, Morning 20 May 1941; 2nd Batallion, 1st Fallschirmjäger regiment landing west of Heraklion airfield, afternoon 20 May; Australian counterattack against 1st Bn, 141st Gebirsjäger Regiment, morning 27 May), this title is useful to understand this fast and mobile campaign.