As Germany and Italy conquered Yugoslavia and invaded mainland Greece, the intrigues, mutual strife and plundering of spoils within the German and Italian groups became more intense. As Mussolini said:
"Hitler, the villain, robbed all the fat and left us only a small pile of bones..."
Hitler and Mussolini occupied the Greek mainland by force, but the war was still raging in the Aegean Sea and Crete.
Both sides not only mobilized a large number of land forces, but also dispatched a modern air force and navy. On the island of Crete, a three-dimensional battle of sea, land and air was carried out, performing the most heroic and tense scene in the history of the Greek campaign.
As early as the end of March 1941, it was obvious to the Allies that Mussolini's fleet was about to launch a large-scale dispatch to the Aegean Sea. The British Admiral Cunningham decided to temporarily avoid his transport fleet.
In the evening of March 27, he took the "Worspetra" and sailed out of Alexandria with the "Valiant" and "Barham", the aircraft carrier "Formidable" and nine destroyers. 28
At dawn on the same day, a plane taking off from the aircraft carrier Formidable reported that four Italian cruisers and six destroyers were heading southeast.
In Mussolini's fleet, there were three cruisers equipped with eight-inch cannons, while all British cruisers were equipped with six-inch cannons. However, after half an hour of indecisive battle,
The Italian ship retreated, and the British cruiser pursued it.
Two hours later, an Italian battleship "Vittorio Veneto" was discovered; a group of fighter jets taking off from the "Formidable" aircraft carrier attacked the Italian battleship; after being damaged, the ship did not dare to fight.
Immediately retreat to the northwest.
In the evening, the British ship launched a third attack, hitting the Italian heavy cruiser "Pola". The ship was seen withdrawing from the battle order and parked. At night, Admiral Cunningham decided to let the destroyer attack and was willing to use the main force.
The fleet carried out dangerous night battles in order to destroy the wounded Italian battleships and cruisers before they could come within the cover of aircraft taking off from their home coast bases. While sailing in the dark, he launched a surprise attack on two Italian cruisers,
These are the "Fiume" and the "Zara" rushing to the rescue of the "Pola". They are both equipped with eight-inch cannons.
At close range, the "Fiume" was immediately overwhelmed by the broadside salvo fire of the 15-inch cannons of the "Worspetra" and the "Valiant" ships, and was sunk. The "Zara" was sunk by the British
The siege of three battleships was immediately destroyed in a raging fire.
After this battle, Mussolini no longer dared to easily challenge Britain's sea control in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Before this naval battle, allied armies had successively arrived in Greece for support. According to the order of boarding, the dispatched troops to Greece included the British 1st Armored Division, the New Zealand Brigade and the 6th Australian Division. These troops were all used
The weapons of other troops in the Middle East were fully equipped. Next to move to Greece was the Polish Brigade and the 7th Australian Division. The troops began operations on March 5. The plan was to hold the position from the mouth of the Aliachmon River through Foria and
Edessa reaches the Aliakmon Line on the Yugoslav border.
The Allies would fight in coordination with the Greek troops deployed on this front. At that time, most of the Greek troops, about 15 divisions, were in Albania and were in a confrontation with Berat and Vlore which they had not been able to conquer. They repulsed
Mussolini launched an offensive on March 9. The remaining Greek troops, totaling three divisions and border guards, were in Macedonia, and General Papgos refused to withdraw them. Therefore, as soon as the Germans attacked, they fought
It was defeated in four days.
The 19th Greek Motorized Division that followed was also annihilated or dispersed.
The British Air Force stationed in Greece had only seven squadrons of 80 combat aircraft in March, and operations were greatly affected due to a lack of landing sites and poor signal communication. Although a small number of reinforcement aircraft were sent in April, the Royal Air Force
Still far outnumbered by the enemy. Two of the squadrons fought on the Alba front; the remaining five squadrons, supported by two squadrons of Wellington bombers brought in from Egypt for night combat, had to deal with all other attacks.
Combat needs. Facing them is a German and Italian air force with more than 800 combat aircraft.
In the early morning of April 6, Hitler and Mussolini jointly attacked Greece and Yugoslavia, and at the same time launched a fierce air attack on the port of Piraeus. A transport fleet of the British dispatched troops was unloading goods at the port. The British troops anchored at the port dock
The ship "Fraser Clan" was carrying 200 tons of explosives. The ship exploded and almost completely destroyed the port. This air attack alone caused the loss of 11 British and Greek ships, totaling 43,000 tons!
From then on, the Allies continued to maintain military supplies from the sea under increasingly large-scale air raids, but did not take effective countermeasures to the enemy's air raids. The key to the maritime issue was to control Mussolini's attack on Rhodes Island.
Air Force base, but at that time the Allies could not mobilize sufficient troops to carry out this task.
Fortunately, the recent Battle of Cape Matapan has taught the Italian fleet a lesson so that they will not dare to act rashly during the year. During this period, if Mussolini's navy actively participates in the battle, the British Navy will not be able to perform tasks in Greece at all.
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On April 17, the surrender of Yugoslavia dashed the hopes of the Greeks. All the joint actions urged by Churchill failed, and the situation at that time was extremely dangerous. The following days were decisive.
Corisis, who became prime minister following the death of Metaxas, felt that he was unable to save his country from danger. Like Count Teleki, the Hungarian governor, he was determined to redeem himself with death and committed suicide on the 18th. In this way,
The situation became even more chaotic.
The retreat to Thermopylae was a very difficult military operation because German and Italian troops had blockaded the Tambo Valley, the Olympus Pass and other locations, and all Allied forces had to pass through the narrow bottleneck of Larissa.
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In order to ensure the completion of this task, the 5th New Zealand Brigade and the Australian Brigade stayed here for three days. They fought tenaciously and made heavy sacrifices, finally ensuring the completion of the retreat task.
On April 24, the Greek government surrendered under the pressure of overwhelming German and Italian offensives. Now the British army faced another maritime retreat that they had encountered in 1940.
Under normal circumstances, an organized evacuation of more than 50,000 people from Greece seems simply impossible. However, after Vice Admiral Pridham Wippel and Rear Admiral Bailey Groman worked together with the Army Headquarters
Under the command of the British Navy, the British Navy successfully completed this arduous task.
In the Battle of Dunkirk, air superiority was generally in the hands of the British; but in Greece, it was the Germans who completely and absolutely controlled the sky.
Therefore, they could conduct almost continuous attacks on ports and retreating armies. Troops could apparently only board ships at night, and during the day troops near the beaches had to avoid detection by enemy aircraft. Churchill said this was the Norwegian Nam
A repeat of the scene in Sos, but on a scale 10 times larger. The evacuation continued for five consecutive nights, and a total of 50,662 people were safely rescued, including RAF personnel and thousands of Cypriots, Palestinians, Greeks and Yugoslavs.
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This number is equivalent to approximately 80% of the number of troops originally sent to Greece. These achievements should be fully attributed to the British and other
The courageous spirit and superb skills of the merchant navy sailors of his allies. They faced the enemy's fierce artillery fire, bravely and tenaciously, without flinching. From April 21 to the end of the retreat, they were killed in the enemy's air attacks.
There were 26 ships. 21 of them were Greek ships and included five medical rescue ships. The rest were British and Dutch ships. The British Air Force cooperated with a naval air force dispatched from Crete in an attempt to ease the retreat.
Difficult, but due to the overwhelming advantage of enemy aircraft, nothing could be done.
Despite this, the very small number of air force squadrons that had been sent to Greece since October had an outstanding record. They destroyed 231 enemy aircraft. Although they also lost 209 aircraft, they fought tenaciously.
In April, the three weeks of fighting they fought under the huge disparity in strength between the two sides was the most difficult period of their five-month hard battle against the Italian army, in which they had almost exhausted their own forces.
There is vitality.
After Hitler and Mussolini conquered Greece, Crete became the last foothold of the Greek king and government, as well as an important shelter for troops of all types of arms. Germany and Italy were eyeing this island with eager eyes. For the Allies
In other words, it was an important outpost for Egypt and Malta; for Mussolini and Hitler, Crete was a bone thorn in their throats.
Therefore, the struggle to defend and capture Crete became the focus of the struggle between the two armies in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Churchill had long known that Goering had been working hard to establish and develop a powerful airborne force capable of large-scale landings. This was in line with the wishes of the fanatical Nazi gangsters in Germany. The German Parachute Division was an elite force, and the British were studying
Its role was considered in the defense of the German homeland. However, all such German plans required at least temporary daytime air superiority. Germany did not obtain such air superiority over Britain.
The situation on Crete was different. The enemy enjoyed sufficient and seemingly lasting air superiority in the Balkans and the Aegean Sea, especially the Rhodes fortress controlled by Mussolini, which had a serious impact on the defense of Crete.
Serious threat!
On April 28, British intelligence agencies learned that Germany and Italy were about to attack the island of Crete from the sea and the air. They believed that the enemy's simultaneous attack on the island by air and sea troops was imminent. The fascists in the Balkan countries may gather
to 315 long-range bombers, 60 twin-engine fighters, 240 dive bombers and 270 single-engine fighters for various purposes; the enemy may drop three to four thousand paratroopers or airborne troops during the first attack, and may
There will be two or three assaults daily from Greece and three or four assaults from Rhodes, all covered by fighter planes. There will be heavy bombing before the arrival of air and sea troops, and sea attacks will be carried out.
Churchill immediately telegraphed the above situation to General Wavell, the British Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, asking him to strengthen combat readiness, hold on to the island, and prepare to eliminate a large number of enemy paratroopers; and recommended that the British General Staff Headquarters appoint General Freiberg as the commander of the Crete garrison.
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Bernard Freiberg had known Churchill for many years. During the First World War, he went through hardships as a young volunteer in New Zealand and came to the UK. Churchill, who was the Minister of the Navy at the time, appointed him "Hood"
"A naval lieutenant in the camp.
During the war, he repeatedly achieved great military exploits. Therefore, during the four years of fighting on the front line, he was promoted to brigade commander. At the critical moment when the German army launched the summer offensive in 1918, he was appointed as the commander of all troops holding the frontal gap in Bayel.
The commander of the army, the number of troops was almost an army. The Victoria Cross and the Medal of Merit with two gold threads, as well as 30 scars on his body, marked his outstanding achievements.
The geographical situation of Crete does make defense very difficult. Its only road is on the north coast. Once this road is cut off by the enemy, the Allies cannot mobilize their reserve forces to the threatened strongholds at any time. From the south coast to the north coast,
Only in Sfakia and Timbaki there are some small roads heading north from the southern coast, which are not suitable for motorized transport vehicles. When the relevant military leaders began to feel that a crisis was coming, they tried every means to transport reinforcements to the island.
, supplies and weapons, especially cannon, but it was too late.
During the second week of May, German and Italian air forces, flying from bases in Greece and the Aegean Sea, effectively imposed a daytime blockade of Crete. They attacked all shipping to and from the island, especially those traveling to and from the island.
The north coast, the only one with a port, was particularly tightly blockaded. In the first three weeks of May, 27,000 tons of important weapons were shipped to Crete, and less than 3,000 tons reached the island. The rest of the supplies were not forced
To turn back means to lose money on the way.
The force participating in the defense of Crete was very weak, with a total of only 28,600 troops from all sides.
The German 11th Air Force Corps will participate in the attack on Crete. About 16,000 people will be airdropped and landed, and another 7,000 people will land from the sea. In addition, the 8th Air Force Corps will provide air support. The number of aircraft that can participate in the battle
They are: 280 bombers, 150 dive bombers, 180 fighters, 40 reconnaissance aircraft, 100 gliders, and 530 "Junkers-52" transport aircraft, a total of 1,280 aircraft.