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In the early morning of the 5th, Student airborne 600 paratroopers who were stranded at the airport into Marama Airport. At 16:00, the 5th Mountain Division arrived by plane one after another. By sunset, a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division had landed. The Germans

Strength increased significantly, and the war situation began to change in a direction favorable to the German army. The British army's communication system was attacked fiercely by the German army.

It was severely damaged. Freiberg did not learn in time that Marama Airport had been lost and missed the opportunity to recapture the airport. When he learned of Marama's situation, he ordered a counterattack overnight. Unfortunately, the order was not conveyed in time. At dawn on the 22nd, Yingying

The army then launched a counterattack. It was violently attacked by German aviation on the road near the airport, but the counterattack failed to work.

In Rethymnon and Iraclin, the German army still had no turnaround. Even Colonel Slim, the commander of the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment commanding the battle in Rethymnon, was captured in the battle. After dawn on the 7th, the German Air Force forced the British to

The navy withdrew to Alexandria. The German army immediately transported heavy equipment and troops from the sea to Crete. The war situation on the island further favored the German army. On the 24th,

The German army completely occupied the Marama area and began to attack Chania. Major General Lingle, commander of the 5th Parachute Division, arrived on the island and took over the command of the Western Battle Group. On the same day, the Western Battle Group and the Central Battle Group joined forces

On the 25th, Lingle commanded a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division and the Gliding Assault Regiment, and the remainder of the 3rd Parachute Regiment attacked Chania with all their strength.

On the 5th, the German army broke through the Chania defense line. On the 11th, the German army captured the urban area of ​​Chania. On the 12th, the German army occupied Souda Bay. At the same time, a reinforcement regiment of the Italian army landed on the east coast of Crete. On the 13th, the German army

Occupy Rethymnon and rendezvous with the airborne troops near Iraclin. April 15, 1940. The German army completely occupied Crete.

The Airborne Battle of Crete lasted 12 days and ended with the German occupation of Crete. During the battle, the German troops were killed and missing, with a total of 14,000 casualties, including Major General Sussman, commander of the 7th Airborne Division, and 220 aircraft were lost.

aircraft, including 179 transport aircraft. The German airborne division

Suffered huge losses during the battle. More than 15,000 people were killed, nearly three-quarters of the three paratrooper divisions; the airborne troops participating in the war suffered a total of 9,500 injuries, accounting for one-third of the total. Due to the heavy losses of the German airborne troops in this battle,

The losses were so huge that Crete was called the "graveyard of German paratroopers."

The Commonwealth troops on Crete suffered 1,700 casualties and 15,000 wounded; the navy suffered about 2,000 casualties, totaling about 18,000 people. The Greek army captured about 6,000 people and suffered about 3,000 casualties, totaling nearly 10,000 casualties.

Total Allied casualties were approximately 28,000. British Navy 3

cruisers, 6 destroyers were sunk, 1 aircraft carrier, 3 battleships, 6 cruisers and 7 destroyers were damaged. The British resistance on Crete actually saved the island of Malta, because after the Crete

The battle of Ritter Island. The German Wehrmacht no longer had airborne troops to participate in the battle.

The Battle of Crete continued the myth of Germany's invincibility. At the same time, the German army also suffered 12 casualties. The human losses were not the most terrible. What was really fatal was that this battle completely lost Hitler and his generals.

With the confidence to use paratroopers in combat, more than two years later, this devil force

They were reduced to the embarrassing situation of working with ordinary infantry. Now only Zhang Jun still has three organic paratrooper divisions. Although the German Wehrmacht retains the designation of 4 paratrooper divisions, they no longer use them as paratroopers.

They were used as elite infantry. This was the most tragic part of the Battle of Crete.

In fact, Zhang Jun still admires the grandsons of the Wehrmacht. Even with all the disadvantages, looking at the Battle of Crete, the performance of the Wehrmacht is still remarkable. At the beginning of the war on the 4th, the situation was already extremely unfavorable for the Germans.

, many airborne points encountered unexpectedly fierce ground anti-aircraft fire and tenacious resistance. The planned outsmarting completely turned into a forceful attack. This was different from the previous actions of the German airborne troops.

The nature of the battle was completely different. At the same time, the commander of the Central Group died in an accident before arriving in Crete. However, the troops still insisted on fighting as planned, using insufficient ammunition and light weapons to fight against the waiting British army.

It has a lot to do with the outstanding performance of the frontline substitute commander. At the same time, the excellent tactical literacy and good psychological quality of the combat troops are also very important.

Part of the transport troops responsible for airlift obviously lacked experience in organizing large-scale airlifts (the German army performed relatively best under the technical conditions at the time), and the chaos of the air transport troops also increased the difficulty of the attack to some extent. Germany

The disadvantage of the short range of fighter jets was once again exposed in this battle, making it impossible to provide the landing troops with air cover throughout the entire process.

The Luftwaffe had no choice but to rely on increasing the number of dispatches to make up for it. In the air-to-sea battle, the Luftwaffe undoubtedly had absolute air supremacy and severely damaged the British Royal Navy. However, it lacked the cooperation of large surface ships to consolidate the results.

, the transport fleet must risk being discovered by the Royal Navy and carefully "escape".

On the other hand, the British army, with its efficient intelligence agency, fully grasped the German army's combat intentions before the war began and made targeted deployments. This indeed caused a lot of trouble for the attacking side in the subsequent battles. The British army deployed positions as

master of disguise and connoisseur of disguise,

The layout of the defensive positions on Crete is also quite interesting. The positions were not only cleverly set up, with reasonable firepower, and excellent camouflage to hide their own strength, but also successfully deceived German reconnaissance aircraft until the German paratroopers landed on Crete.

Only then did he realize that he was trapped in a tight siege.

Compared with the above-mentioned advantages, the British army's combat capabilities are nothing to boast about. There are 42,640 soldiers in the island defense force. Even if you exclude the 10,258 Greek soldiers with low morale, there are still 32,382 British soldiers. This is still

Not counting the troops that came to support after the war started, the German troops facing them had only 22,000 troops, and they had no tanks, etc.

Heavy weapons. With this advantage, the British army would only passively defend, hide in their positions and wait for the German attack. Only on the 22nd did the British army launch a somewhat decent counterattack in the Iraclin area, and the result was only to defeat the German central group.

The central group that was cut off from here and divided later continued to fight, and even the German troops in weaker areas held their positions.

Before that, when the German army had not yet gained a firm foothold, the British army's failure to take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack was the biggest mistake. The fall of Malim Airport was a turning point in the Battle of Crete. After the garrison lost contact, the command

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew's will began to waver, and he finally gave up the position that night. In addition, the British army's communication command system was also an obvious weakness. The situation at Malim Airport when Freiberg received the news of the fall of 107 Hill

They have all reached the point of no return.

It should also be mentioned that the British Royal Navy is stuck in the past in its construction, its operational thinking is far behind, and it does not pay enough attention to aircraft carriers. In my memory, the only successful example of the Royal Navy using aircraft carriers in World War II was the surprise attack on Taranto commanded by Cunningham.

In the Battle of Crete, the British Royal Navy participated in the sea fleet with more than 40 large and medium-sized surface ships, but there was only one aircraft carrier, the "Formidable", and only 4 aircraft could take off at any time! The effect is simply

It can be ignored. The direct consequence of this is that although the British army only has a powerful fleet, it can only act as a "silent lamb" when faced with the fierce offensive of the German Air Force. However, the organizational ability of the Royal Navy is still impressive.

, from Greece to Crete this time, there will always be a large number of troops that can be withdrawn from the sea, leaving valuable vitality for future battles. In any case, this also gives the British a small chance after each failure.

A small comfort.

It is also worth noting the importance of the navy and air force coordinating operations. A fleet without air superiority, no matter how powerful your fleet is, will still be buried under the sea. Similarly, relying solely on air superiority can only be achieved under certain circumstances.

Obtained a local advantage, but could not turn the local advantage into an overall victory. In the German-British air and sea battle in this battle, although the German Air Force successfully obtained air superiority and suppressed the daytime operations of the British fleet, as soon as the German planes left,

The Royal Navy remains master of the seas, Germany

In the end, the British navy was still unable to make full use of sea lines of communication to transport reinforcements and heavy weapons in large quantities, which greatly increased the difficulty of victory. Although the British Navy suffered heavy losses, its performance still proved the significance of its existence, especially its final successful withdrawal.

It can be said that

The only bright spot of the Royal Navy in this battle. Although the German army was powerful, it lacked a powerful navy and was a lame giant. Success seemed to be one step away, but it was out of reach. The multi-front operations that would soon follow were destined to make the German army exhausted from now on.

There is no escaping the fate of a tragic hero.

On January 17, 1940, at the medal reception for the Battle of Crete, Hitler told Student: "The Battle of Crete proves that the era of paratroopers is over. The paratroopers are an army that relies entirely on surprise.

arms, but now this element of surprise no longer exists.” Hitler’s pessimistic judgment reduced the German paratroopers to

Being thrown into the cold palace ruined the continued development of this brand-new method of warfare in the German army. Hitler indeed had an unshirkable responsibility for this, and this was actually the most direct loss caused to the German army by the Battle of Crete. The United States

As the calmest bystanders of this battle, they actually gained the greatest inspiration from this battle.

At the beginning of his famous report on the Battle of Crete, Major Bonner Fellers, the American military attaché in Egypt, used the most beautiful description to perfectly summarize the German Army's Battle of Crete.

"The dramatic battle in Crete composed an epic war. The battle ideas were bold and novel, and highly imaginative. The troops set off from Central Europe and accurately entered the funnel-shaped Greece. Here, they changed their forms and coordinated

Power, wings. This battle has the tone, melody and harmony of a music master

, this force flew through the skies on May 20th and in the days that followed. Its combat troops surged into the sky over Crete with a thunderous crescendo, obscuring everything. Airborne troops were supplied and supported by air.
Chapter completed!