Merkur company

Merkur company

Part of: Second World War

The German air landing on Crete

date	May 20 to June 1, 1941
place	Crete
output	German victory
consequences	Occupation of Crete by Germans and Italians

Parties to the conflict
German Empire Italy	United Kingdom Australia New Zealand Greece
Commander
Kurt student	Bernard Freyberg
Troop strength
22,040 soldiers plus fighter and bomber support	42,640 soldiers including militants and paramilitaries
losses
1,915 killed 1,759 missing 2,004 wounded	3,500 killed and wounded 17,500 prisoners

The company Mercury was a battle in the Second World War , the German paratroopers , supported by mountain troops , to conquer the island of Crete conducted, and one of the first major airborne operations in history. Shortly after the capture of Greece in the Balkan campaign in 1941 , the German Wehrmacht conquered Crete, which was defended by Commonwealth and Greek troops, and then occupied the western part of the island until the end of the war in 1945.

prehistory

Crete was of strategic interest from a British point of view as possession of the island was important for the defense of Egypt and Malta because of its geographical location . Therefore, the occupation of Crete was already in the logistical preparations, as on 28 October 1940, the fascist Kingdom of Italy Greece an ultimatum attack and the Greek government of London asked for help. As early as November 1st, advance detachments from Alexandria landed in Crete. In the months that followed, some British infantry units and anti-aircraft units followed , but the defensive positions were not significantly expanded. Athens withdrew the bulk of the Greek units stationed on Crete in November 1940 to the Epirus Front on the mainland. At the beginning of 1941 there were only about 1,000 Greek soldiers on the island. By February 1941, three landing sites for the units of the Royal Air Force were set up in Maleme , Rethymno and Heraklion .

In mid-April 1941, after the German intervention, the defeat of the Greek army supported by the British-Australian-New Zealand expeditionary forces under General Henry Maitland Wilson became apparent. When about 250 German transport aircraft were relocated to Plovdiv in Bulgaria and paratroopers did not leave Greece after their deployment in Corinth , the British leadership counted on a German airborne company. London decided to withdraw its troops from mainland Greece. On the instructions of the British Prime Minister Churchill , part of the British expeditionary force was transported to Crete to reinforce the defense there. However, the bulk of the British troops were sent to Egypt. Despite the reservations expressed by the British commanders-in-chief in the Middle East and North Africa about insufficient military capacities, Churchill saw the opportunity to inflict considerable losses on the German attackers or, at best, to hold the island. He also expected his decision to defend or hold Crete to have favorable political effects on Turkey and the entire Middle East.

When the Greek armed forces on the mainland found themselves in a hopeless position in relation to the German 12th Army , the (new) Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis shot himself . The Greek King George II formed a new government under Emmanouil Tsouderos , who wanted to continue the resistance from Crete. She left mainland Greece on April 23, 1941 and established the seat of an independent Greek government in Chania .

From the German point of view, the British bases on Crete - and also on Malta - offered the British the opportunity to effectively hinder shipping and the supplies of the Axis powers for the Africa campaign . From Crete it was also possible for the British to advance into the Aegean Sea . In addition, Hitler feared that air strikes could be launched from Crete on the Romanian oil fields around Ploieşti , which were of vital importance for the planned and imminent attack on the Soviet Union .

The German naval war command also pushed for a conquest of Crete because they assumed that the driving back of the British from the eastern Mediterranean would be decisive for the further warfare against Great Britain. Just like the high command of the Air Force , they expected to be able to paralyze the supply of British supplies through the Suez Canal from Crete . The first strategic considerations were made at the end of October 1940 by the head of the Wehrmacht Command Staff (WFSt) Alfred Jodl . According to them, a military action by the Italians against northern Greece and the port of Piraeus would certainly lead to the British taking possession of the island of Crete.

On April 15, 1941, the commander of Luftflotte 4 , General der Flieger Alexander Löhr , Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring presented a concrete plan for the conquest of Crete by airborne troops. In the advanced " Führer Headquarters Spring Storm " on April 21, 1941 , Kurt Student , accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Hans Jeschonnek, convinced the reluctant Hitler of the strategic necessities of taking possession of Crete. The latter then ordered the Merkur operation with airborne troops, paratrooper units and the support of the 5th Mountain Division to be carried out in mid-May 1941 by means of “Instructions for Warfare No. 28” .

Military situation and planning before the attack

German plan of attack

Alexander Löhr and Wolfram von Richthofen (1942)

Goering commissioned Luftflotte 4 to plan and carry out the operation. Löhr became the XI. Fliegerkorps under Kurt Student with its airborne and paratrooper units subordinated. The fighter and bomber squadrons of the VIII. Fliegerkorps under Wolfram von Richthofen were to take over their protection and after the achievement of air sovereignty actively support the fighting ground troops. In addition, the 12th Army in Greece should parts of the 5th Mountain Division to reinforce the XI. Deploy Air Corps and build reserves from other parts of the 6th Mountain Division . Because the German naval command in the Mediterranean area had no significant ship formations available, Italy was asked for support.

Löhr's plan was to first conquer the capital Chania and Maleme , where the largest airfield in Crete was located, with airborne and parachute troops and then to advance eastwards. Student, on the other hand, wanted to attack all important points on the island from the air at the same time and then land army units on the captured airfields that were supposed to occupy the rest of the island. Richthofen's flying associations were not strong enough to secure a large number of drop-off locations. Therefore, the final plan was to attack only four points from the air at different times. In the first approach in the morning hours of the attack, the area of ​​Chania and Maleme was to be attacked as in Löhr's plan, and Rethymno and Heraklion on the second approach in the afternoon .

In view of the superiority of the Royal Navy at sea, the German leadership decided to transport most of the soldiers by air, especially since the maritime "Admiral Südost" Karlgeorg Schuster only had two squadrons with a total of around 60 motor sailers . The Italian Regia Marina took over the protection of this improvised fleet from Greece via the island of Milos to Crete. After the beachheads and landing sites had been secured by airborne troops, further troops and war material were to be brought to Crete by ship.

The originally planned time for the attack was finally set for May 20th due to bottlenecks in the supply of aviation fuel . In the first days of May, units of the VIII. Air Corps began with reconnaissance flights and subsequent attacks on convoys and ships of the Royal Navy.

From the second week of May, British shipping traffic on the north side of Crete, where the main ports were, was practically blocked. Of the around 27,000 tons of important supplies for Crete that were embarked at the beginning of May, only about 3,000 tons could be landed, while the rest had to turn back.

Kurt Student (1941), Commanding General of the XI. Air Corps

On the German side, a rapid attack by mountain and paratroopers was planned. These were well trained and due to their exclusively light equipment had only a low absolute firepower, but due to their high mobility and motivation as well as their pronounced corps and fighting spirit, they had a high operational value.

The Wehrmacht had 15,000 paratroopers from the 7th Flieger Division , who were to be supported by air transports after the conquest of an airfield by around 14,000 mountain troops from the 5th Mountain Division and 700 motorcyclists from the 5th Panzer Division . Further reinforcements should then also be landed at sea. In addition, there was support from 46 fighters and 16 fighters from the Italians from the Dodecanese .

Major General Rudolf Konrad was responsible for the transfer of these forces to Crete , who had ten combat groups for special use (e.g. V.) with 550 Ju 52 transport aircraft and 60 cargo gliders . The 8th Air Corps, which was planned to provide security and support, had 280 bombers, 150 dive bombers , 180 fighters and 40 reconnaissance planes available. At sea, the Kriegsmarine was involved with two steamer squadrons and two motor sailer squadrons. The security was carried out by the Italian Navy (sea captain Peccori-Giraldi) with two destroyers and twelve torpedo boats , several submarines , speedboats and minesweepers .

The German military intelligence service Abwehr underestimated the actual number of enemy soldiers on Crete and estimated that a maximum of 15,000 British soldiers and only a few Greek troops were stationed there. The people of Crete are well-disposed towards the Germans. Many Cretans are anti-monarchical and have rejected the old Greek government. The reconnaissance of the 12th Army assumed more troops, but also underestimated the actual numbers.

After the successful conclusion of the Merkur company, the Wehrmacht leadership considered another use of the airborne troops during the Russian campaign in preparation . For this purpose, the 7th Flieger Division was to be divided into the three Army Groups North, Middle and South and deployed selectively during the advance if necessary.

Arming the German soldiers

A 3.7 cm PaK 36 was dropped over Crete as part of Operation Merkur

The paratroopers only carried pistols and hand grenades on the soldiers when they jumped . Machine guns , carbines and machine pistols were dropped in drop containers on cargo parachutes. This should protect the paratrooper from injuries on landing. The parachutes of the weapon containers were marked in color. Only after Crete were experiments with jumping into a combat zone with a gun on the man. Around 25 percent of the troops were equipped with MP40 submachine guns, and an MG34 machine gun was provided for every eighth to twelfth soldier .

Due to its design, the grenade launcher proved to be functional from the start. The 7.5 cm mountain guns 36, which can be dismantled and whose design has always been optimized for low weight, were predestined. These and the 3.7 cm PaK 36 were also deployed with parachutes. In Crete, the Germans used the Leicht-Geschütz 40 (LG40) for the first time, a new anti-tank weapon that was lighter than the previous weapons. After the parachute drop, the heavy weapons could only be made maneuverable with sidecar wheels after landing in the air or with prey vehicles. Heavy weapons such as field cannons or even howitzers were not available to the airborne "light infantry units" or only as prey weapons.

British and Greek defense preparations

On April 30, Major General Bernard Freyberg , who had commanded the New Zealand Division of the British Expeditionary Force on mainland Greece, was transferred to Crete by Commander-in-Chief Middle East Archibald Wavell . At the same time, the defense preparations, which bore the code name "Scorcher", began. At that time there were 14,000 British soldiers of the original island crew and another 25,000 men from Commonwealth units who had been evacuated from the mainland on the island. There were also around 9,000 Greeks, including the remains of several associations that had been broken up on the mainland and 2,500 Cretan gendarmes.

Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Freyberg VC. (1944)

The Greek soldiers were poorly equipped as all newer and heavy weapons had been brought to the mainland at the beginning of the Balkan War . Most of the rifles were of German or Austrian origin, especially Mannlicher-Schönauer mountain carbines in caliber 6.5 × 54 (M.-Sch.) And Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 ( confiscated under the Versailles Treaty ). About 1000 Greeks were still armed with antiquated grass guns . There were also outdated machine guns of various makes and calibers. There was also a shortage of ammunition - the British had no ammunition in their stocks for many Greek weapons.

Due to the evacuation, the British units on the island were mixed up and had to be rearranged. The Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet , Admiral Andrew Cunningham , succeeded, despite the attacks by German flight formations on his ships, in withdrawing around 7,000 soldiers who were not suitable for combat, bringing around 2,000 combat troops to the island and the worst gaps in equipment and close armament.

There was a lack of heavy weapons, only 85 artillery pieces could be mobilized from captured Italian stocks. The British Army was able to use 50 anti-aircraft guns and 24 searchlights for air defense . In terms of armored vehicles, the defenders had only 16 obsolete Cruiser Mk-I , nine Matilda-II and 16 light Mk-VI tanks. For the tanks, however, there was mainly armor-piercing ammunition available, the use of which against infantry makes little sense. There were also hardly any spare parts for the tanks and the terrain made their use difficult. Some tanks were installed in fortified positions. The mobile use of armored forces, which is indicated during paratrooper landings, was thereby additionally impeded.

At the beginning of May, the Royal Air Force consisted of 36 machines on Crete, only half of which were operational. These planes were moved to Egypt the day before the German attack in order to avoid destruction and to keep them for other missions. Immediately before the transfer, the British flew attacks against the German ports. The Germans in turn concluded from this that the British had recognized the preparations for Operation Mercury .

The Royal Navy continued to control the seas around Crete, but the Axis powers had sovereignty.

Allied defense plan

Forewarned by ultra- information, Freyberg assumed a combined air-sea attack and placed the bulk of his troops on the north coast in the area of ​​Maleme – Chania – Souda Bay with the task of holding the capital, airfield and port. There were

• in Maleme the New Zealand 2nd Division, 11,500 men, including 3,500 Greeks
• in Chania / Souda various British and Australian units, 17,400 men, 930 of them Greeks
• in Rethymno the Australian 19th Brigade, 4800 men, 3200 of them Greeks
• in Heraklion the British 14th Brigade, of which 2,700 were Greeks

Admiral Cunningham announced to General Wavell the following defensive intentions of his ship formations south of Crete:

• Force C under Rear Admiral Glennie on the light cruiser Dido with the destroyers Kandahar and Juno as well as Kingston and Coventry were supposed to shield Heraklion and Sitia.
• Force D under Rear Admiral King on the light cruiser Naiad with Phoebe and two destroyers was supposed to prevent any landing west of Rethymno.
• Force B with the cruisers HMS Gloucester and Fiji was supposed to destroy German units northwest of Crete or support unit D.
• Force A under Vice Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell on the old battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth with HMS Barham and five destroyers was supposed to shield the other formations.
• Reserve forces that remained in Alexandria: the First World War battleships Warspite and Valiant , the new aircraft carrier Formidable , the cruisers Orion and Ajax, and available destroyers
• Submarine Rorqual was supposed to operate around Limnos.
• a speedboat flotilla was stationed in Souda Bay.
• Minefields were the Abdiel placed between Kephalonia and Levkas to the connection by the passage of Corinth interrupting
• Aerial reconnaissance was planned, but too weak
• The command of the operations at sea was the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, but the individual units were supposed to operate independently.

Since the British were able to read the German encryption machine Enigma , they were informed about the attack plans in almost every detail. Almost all radio messages between the Air Force High Command and the military staffs involved in preparation and planning in Greece were intercepted so that the Allies could initiate targeted defensive measures and General Freyberg then had the defense of the airfields reinforced. The poor training of parts and the poor equipment of all his troops made effective defense difficult.

Freyberg therefore planned to damage the airfields in such a way that they would be unusable. This was forbidden by Wavell. Wavell assumed that knowledge of the attack plan alone would be enough to repel the attack, and that the destruction of the airfields would only have prevented the island from being quickly equipped with its own aircraft. To this day, this decision is controversial; it is considered one of the reasons for the German victory. However, some of the German transport pilots deliberately accepted crash landings on beaches and fields. Some historians believe that the loss of a considerable number of aircraft was secondary or was factored in to the German leadership. The only priority was the success of the attack; that would have been successful without conquering airfields.

Course of operation

The German landing forces were structured as follows:

Group West (first wave) under Major General Meindl with target Maleme:

• Regimental Staff (Major Braun)
• 1st Battalion Staff / Airborne Assault Regiment (Major Koch)
• Shock Troop Bridge (First Lieutenant Schächter and Trebes )
• 3rd / Airborne Storm Regiment (Oberleutnant von Plessen)
• 4th / Airborne Assault Regiment (Captain Sarazin)
• II / Airborne Storm Regiment (Major Stenzler)
• III./ Airborne Storm Regiment (Major Scherber)
• IV./ Airborne Storm Regiment ( Captain Gericke )
• 3./Fallschirm-Fla-MG- Battalion (Oberleutnant Theuerling)
• 1st / Parachute artillery department (Captain Schramm)
• 1. Zug, Parachute Medical Department (Senior Physician Dr. Dietzel)

Middle group (second wave) under Lieutenant General Süssmann with the targets of attack Chania, Rethymno, the village of Souda and the Soudabucht:

• Division headquarters 7th Flieger-Division (Lieutenant General Süssmann)
• 1st / Airborne Storm Regiment (First Lieutenant Genz)
• 2nd / Airborne Assault Regiment (Captain Altmann)
• Staff / Parachute Jäger Regiment 3 ( Colonel Heidrich )
• I./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 3 ( Captain Freiherr von der Heydte )
• II Parachute Fighter Regiment 3 (Major Derpa)
• III./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 3 ( Major Heilmann )
• 3rd / Parachute MG Battalion (Captain Schmidt)
• Parachute Pioneer Battalion (Major Liebach)
• 1. / Parachute medical department (medical officer Dr. Mallison)

Group East (third wave) under Lieutenant General Ringel with the target city and airport Heraklion:

• Staff / Parachute Jäger Regiment 1 ( Colonel Bräuer )
• I./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 1 (Major Walther)
• II./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 1 (Captain Burckhardt)
• III./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 1 (Major K.-L. Schulz)
• II./Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 2 ( Captain Schirmer )
• 1./Fallschirm-Fla-MG- Battalion (?)
• 2. / Parachute medical department (medical officer Dr. Langemeyer)

First day: May 20th

German mountain fighters in the transport plane

Paratroopers jump over Crete (Ju 52)

A German cargo ship after a crash landing

On Tuesday, May 20, around 7:15 a.m., Merkur began bombing the designated drop zones by the German Air Force. At Maleme, the British air defense was almost immediately out of action. While the bombardment was still in progress, cargo gliders of the I./Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment of Group West (first wave) began to land in real or crash landings to the west of the airfield.

The British troops, surprised by the relentless and daring manner of landing and the combat strength of the landing troops, began to fire the gliders and the soldiers of the airborne assault units who were disembarking with grenade launchers . The New Zealanders prevented the immediate capture of the Maleme airfield in close combat.

The withdrawal of the II., III. and IV Battalions of the first wave succeeded with almost no difficulty, and only seven of the 493 Ju 52 ascended were lost. However, the floating paratroopers were exposed to unexpectedly high barrage fire , which resulted in many injuries or deaths in the air. Even when they arrived safely on the ground, some of them were scattered far from the wind and, only lightly armed, had to fight their way to the weapon cases and then regroup. They were also surprised by the large number of enemy troops and the strong defensive fire, as the reconnaissance had predicted far less resistance.

Due to delays, the planned merging of bomber and transport units proved to be impracticable. On the one hand, some of the transport machines that had returned to their bases had to be laboriously refueled with hand pumps from barrels; on the other hand, a large accumulation of aircraft in the air was not possible due to the enormous amount of dust generated during take-off.

The middle group (second wave) was delayed at 4:15 p.m. near Rethymno and at 5:30 p.m. near Heraklion, after the previous bombing had already taken place a few hours earlier and the damage had been repaired.

The second wave of the German airborne units therefore also suffered severe personnel failures in the defense fire. By the end of the day, the Germans hadn't achieved any of their goals. However, the first problems emerged on the British side. There was a lack of vehicles, mainly properly armed tanks, but above all the means of communication to use at least the existing vehicles against the various provisionally erected German resistance pockets. In addition, German air sovereignty made British defense efforts difficult. This enabled the German paratroopers to maintain their provisional positions.

The planned 200-watt radio transmitters of the German landing forces were partially broken when the gliders hit, and the West and Central Group had no connection to the command post in Athens. So the commanding general of the XI. Fliegerkorps had no knowledge that the attack on the Maleme airfield had initially failed, Wilhelm Süssmann , the commander of the 7th Aviation Division, had not even reached Crete because he had crashed over the island of Aegina , and that some of the landing units only remained had a fraction of their combat strength.

At sunset on the first day, only 6,000 of the 10,000 paratroopers that had originally landed were still able to fight.

When General Student was briefed on the situation in Crete on the night of May 20-21, he ordered all available forces to be concentrated on capturing the airfield near Maleme as a matter of urgency.

Second day: May 21st

Troop transporter Ju 52 flying low over Crete

On the night of May 21, every German transport aircraft available in south-east Europe was withdrawn to Crete to support the transfer flights for the paratroopers, as more than 150 Ju 52 machines had failed during the fighting within a short time. To this end, the Air Force mainly suspended the supply flights that had only recently started in Iran .

Dead paratrooper

Ju 52 after crash landing

Paratroopers climb a hill

On Wednesday, May 21, 1941, Colonel Ramcke jumped from Maleme and took over the command of Group West in place of the wounded Major General Meindl . However, the runway itself was under fire from British grenade launchers , artillery pieces , machine guns and several light and heavy flak , which was set up at the dominant height 107 (today the German war cemetery Maleme). Nevertheless, the first Ju 52 landed on the slopes and the uneven terrain to the west with high losses. Gradually, the Germans managed to expand their position west of the airport and land material and personnel.

After heavy bombing by dive bombers , the gradual conquest of Höhe 107 by German troops succeeded, who then, in a new coordinated manner, attacked the Maleme airfield from the west and took it around 5 p.m. A second wave of German paratroopers took off to support the attack. A night counterattack by the British and allied units penetrated to the edge of the airfield; the attack had to be stopped at daybreak and with the reappearance of the German Air Force.

On the night of May 22nd, a first German convoy (Oberleutnant zur See Albert Oesterlin), consisting of small steamers and motor sailers and with over 2,300 mountain fighters on board, was carried out by the British Force D (Rear Admiral Irvine Glennie) from Piraeus for Crete. posed, which had three cruisers ( Ajax , Dido , Orion ) and four destroyers ( Hasty , Hereward , Janus and Kimberley ). Only the intervention of the Italian torpedo boat Lupo was responsible for the convoy being saved from complete destruction and being able to disintegrate. Nevertheless, around 300 German soldiers died.

A second German convoy with 4,000 mountain troops was discovered at daybreak by four cruisers and three destroyers from Force C (Rear Admiral King). However, the German Air Force appeared; together with the torpedo boat Sagittario , the convoy could be defended, only two sailors were sunk.

Third day: May 22nd

Lieutenant General Freyberg, commanding general of the allied units in Crete

On May 22nd, the German units succeeded in expanding the airfield near Maleme into a usable base of operations. An average of 20 transporters landed every hour bringing supplies. Even more important, however, was the fact that these planes could now rise again to fly in new troops.

Souda Bay: Ships set on fire by air raids

The Luftwaffe continued to fight the British naval units that prevented the transfer of German troops to Crete during the night. Forces C and D and their cover group under Rear Admiral Rawlings with several destroyers and cruisers had to leave the waters north of Crete, partly badly damaged, under the constant air raids. It turned out that the German air superiority had a more decisive influence on the course of the battle than British naval rule . From May 23, the sea route was also open for supplies from the Axis powers to Crete.

The German public was informed late about the military operations that had started on Crete. With the extension of the landing head near Maleme, the final military decision was made in favor of the German troops on May 26th, whereupon the British High Command decided on the night of May 27th to evacuate Crete. On May 27, the capital Chania, and on May 28, the port in Soudabucht fell into German hands. On May 29th, Rethymno capitulated.

Allied evacuation from May 28th to June 1st

Burning British vehicle after an air raid

The British fleet, which had already been hit by air raids, was responsible for evacuating around 22,000 men from Crete. The embarkations were mainly from the open beach at Sfakia . At least 15,000 men of the Empire troops lay hidden in the rocky terrain and waited for their embarkation, while the British rearguard remained in constant combat with the advancing German units. In several nocturnal operations from May 28 to 31, a large part of the troops could be taken on board in order to bring them to safety almost 380 nautical miles to Alexandria under constant air raids .

Wounded British troops disembark after evacuation in Alexandria, Egypt

A concurrent expedition by Admiral Rawlings to rescue the garrison in Heraklion suffered heavy losses and some total loss of space on the way back through the air force. The bombing began at 6 a.m. and lasted until 3 p.m., when the squadron, which had over 4,000 evacuated soldiers, had already approached Alexandria within 100 nautical miles. Many bomb hits had devastating effects, given the overcrowding of the ships, and upon arrival it was found that at least one in five men was dead or wounded. The British wondered to what extent the fleet could be risked to save the troops. However, the army’s fears were raised by Admiral Cunningham with the remark “It takes three years to build a ship, it takes three centuries to build a tradition.” (Eng. It takes three years to build a ship, it takes three centuries , to build a tradition. ) dispersed, and the embarkations continued.

British soldiers captured

The German troops and the Italian troops that had meanwhile landed tried to cut off the path of the retreating Allied troops. Mountaineers and motorcyclists could move much faster in the mountainous terrain, but larger encirclements were made by the bitter resistance of the Allies, in particular by the Layforce , a forerunner of the SAS under the later General Robert Laycock , which covered the retreat of the British troops to Sfakia, as well as prevented by the rocky terrain.

On the night of May 31, General Freyberg was flown out on instructions from the General Staff. The Greek king and the British envoy were evacuated a few days earlier at considerable risk. The embarkation of the troops was stopped on June 1 at around 3 a.m. The Royal Navy managed to bring nearly 17,000 British and Empire troops to Egypt. General Wavell authorized the more than 5,000 soldiers remaining on Crete to surrender. However, around 500 Commonwealth soldiers instead withdrew to the surrounding mountains after the last port of Chora Sfakion was taken by German troops. Parts of the rural population helped them and the Greek soldiers. If they were discovered, they were threatened with draconian punishments by the German occupying forces . Since the heavy weapons were almost completely destroyed or had already been abandoned, the remaining ammunition was distributed to partisans.

Resistance of the population against the German occupation

German , Italian and Bulgarian zones of occupation in Greece and Crete

To strengthen the defense forces on Crete, militias and vigilante groups were set up in the days and weeks before the German attack. Immediately after the landing of the German paratroopers, numerous Cretan civilians joined these associations or supported troops of the Greek army or the gendarmerie in the fight against the attackers. When German troops encountered armed civilians in combat, they viewed them as militants and usually shot them on the spot.

In the further course of the fighting, German soldiers were repeatedly attacked from among the Cretan population. In particular, paratroopers who were wounded and dispersed were mistreated by Cretan civilians and in some cases only protected from attacks by Allied soldiers.

The will of the Cretan population to resist came as a complete surprise to the German leadership, as the population on the Greek mainland had generally remained passive during the German advance. This experience and the finding of German casualties who showed (actual or supposed) mutilation led to numerous spontaneous retaliatory measures on the part of the German troops deployed.

To maintain the morale of the troops weakened by great losses and as a deterrent, General Student issued the following order on May 31, 1941:

“Now is the time to systematically investigate all such cases, retaliate, and hold criminal courts that will also serve as deterrents for the future. I intend to proceed in this direction with the utmost severity.
[…] As retaliatory measures come into question: 1.) Shootings 2.) Contributions 3.) Burning down localities (beforehand securing of all cash, which should completely benefit the relatives) 4.) Extermination of the male population of entire areas. The approval to 3.) u. 4.) I reserve the right. It must be obtained as quickly as possible (with justification in brief).
It is now a matter of carrying out all measures as quickly as possible, leaving aside all formalities and deliberately avoiding special courts. With the whole situation, this is a matter for the troops and not for the ordinary courts. They are out of the question for beasts and murderers. "

Execution of civilians in Kondomari

These measures, ordered by Student, were not permissible reprisals in terms of the then applicable international martial law , but war crimes . Immediately after the end of the fighting in Crete, an unknown number of male civilians were shot dead in Kondomari on June 2, 1941 on the orders of Lieutenant Horst Trebes (23 names are recorded on a memorial stone in the village). Even during the fighting, as their commander Major General Ringel reported on June 4, the 5th Mountain Division was ordered to shoot ten Cretans for every German killed. In addition, farms and villages from which German troops had been shot were burned down and hostages were taken in all places.

Because of popular resistance during the invasion, two special operations were carried out. In cooperation with the Reich Security Main Office , which compiled the wanted lists and the court judgments, people were arrested. At the special enterprise League of Nations , which was led by the 5th Mountain Division, 110 men were sentenced to death and shot, a further 39 civilians in armed resistance or on the run. Because of popular resistance, around 50,000 German soldiers were subsequently stationed on Crete. More than 2000 Cretans were killed in the first few months.

After the defeat of the Allies in the airborne battle of Crete until 1945, a total of 8575 Cretans died as a result of the occupation of the Axis powers .

Military evaluation of the operation

In carrying out this military operation, German air sovereignty proved to be fundamentally superior to British naval rule. Ultimately, it was only thanks to this air superiority that after the third day of the attack, German reinforcements could be transferred by sea to Crete and the British fleet was unable to significantly hinder the landing operation.

The occupation of Crete by the Axis powers secured its south-eastern flank in view of the impending attack on the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the occupation of Crete by German and Italian troops had no strategic effects on the further conduct of the war in this theater of war, even if parts of the island were still controlled by German troop units after the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945. The Wehrmacht units in Crete were not taken prisoner of war until May 12th, as the last German occupation. The tendency of the German leadership to view Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East as secondary theaters of war certainly played a role. The failure to initiate the Hercules enterprise , decided in April 1942 and scheduled for July , the planned occupation of the island of Malta , largely devalued the conquest of Crete and was certainly also due to the bloody experiences of "Mercury". At the same time, this was an indication of the general lack of a general German concept of war. The Allies' fears that the German Reich would seek a decision in the Mediterranean and Africa after the Balkan campaign remained unfounded.

At the time of the war, the German Wehrmacht only had one paratrooper division, namely the 7th Flieger Division. This division, largely made up of highly motivated volunteers, lost nearly half of its soldiers fighting the British, Australian, New Zealand and Greek defenders. After the loss-making mission on Crete, the division was replenished and used as a "fire brigade" in various missions. The Luftwaffe did not set up new paratrooper units until 1943, without them being used in airborne operations.

Operation "Merkur" was only successfully completed by the German troops with great losses. The reasons for this lay in management errors, existing deficiencies in the floor organization and insufficient preparation time. The main reasons, however, were the total underestimation of the enemy, the assumption that the population would receive the German troops in a friendly manner, and the lack of element of surprise, as the British were informed in almost every detail about the impending attack. In the battle report of the XI. It says among other things:

“The British ground forces in Crete were about three times as strong as expected. The combat areas on the island had been prepared for defense with the greatest care and every effort […] All fortifications were very cleverly camouflaged […] The lack of information about the exact location of the enemy endangered the attack and led to an extraordinary attack high and bloody losses. "

The Western Allies were impressed by the effectiveness of the German paratroopers. Winston Churchill then ordered the establishment of British airborne units. During the course of the war, the Allies made major air landings during the landing in Sicily , the landing in Normandy , the largest airborne company to date during Operation Market Garden (Operation Market), and the largest air landing within a day during Operation Varsity in 1945.

losses

The "Merkur company" demanded considerable losses of human life and material on the German and British sides as well as among the Greek civilian population. The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses in the sea battles off Crete and mainly during the evacuation. So three cruisers ( Gloucester , Fiji and Calcutta ) and six destroyers ( Kelly , Greyhound , Kashmir , Hereward , Imperial and Juno ) were sunk and six cruisers, five destroyers, three battleships and the only aircraft carrier were partially badly damaged. Over 2000 British seafarers were killed.

A total of around 5,000 British and Empire soldiers fell into German captivity, and a few hundred were later helped to escape by commando companies.

The Germans suffered losses of 6,200 soldiers, including 3,714 dead and 2,494 wounded. All 4465 German casualties recovered from the Second World War in Crete were reburied in 1974 in the newly designed German military cemetery in Maleme . 3352 of the fallen in the Maleme military cemetery died in the airborne battle over Crete. The fallen Allies and two German soldiers are buried in the Souda Bay War Cemetery .

The most prominent casualty was boxing legend Max Schmeling , who sustained an injury on May 21st while landing.

Of the 493 Junkers 52 used by the Air Force , 271 were shot down or were so badly damaged that they could no longer be used.

Literary reception

The English writer Evelyn Waugh , who, as a member of the Layforce , was supposed to secure the retreat of the British, processed his experiences in Crete in his novel Officers and Gentlemen (1955).

See also

• History of Crete
• Battle of Cape Matapan
• Crimes committed by the Wehrmacht and the SS in Greece
• Cuff bracelet Crete

literature

• Peter Antill: Crete 1941: Germany's Lightning Airborne Assault . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-84176-844-8 .
• Antony Beevor : Crete. The Battle and the Resistance . John Murray Ltd, 1991. Penguin Books , 1992. Pbk ISBN 0-14-016787-0 , Boulder: Westview Press, 1994. LCCN  93-047914 .
• George C. Kiriakopoulos: The Nazi Occupation of Crete 1941–1945 . Praeger, London 1995, ISBN 0-275-95277-0 .
• George C. Kiriakopoulos: Ten days to destiny. The Battle for Crete 1941 . Franklin Watts Ltd, 1st ed. 1985, ISBN 978-0-531-09785-4 .
• Heinz A. Richter : Operation Mercury. The conquest of the island of Crete in May 1941. Rutzen-Verlag, Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06423-1 .
• Rupert Breitwieser: The battle for Crete . In: Melissa Vetters (Ed.): Kreta-Excursion 2017: Guide to the sites and museums . Part 2. University of Salzburg, Salzburg 2017, p. 293–306 ( digitized [accessed March 14, 2018]).
• Sherman Miles , Airborn Invasion of Creeete, Military Intelligence Division Report MID 370.03 Germany 9-8-1942

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans-Otto Mühleisen: Kreta 1941: the company "Merkur", May 20 to June 1, 1941. In: Individual publications on the military history of the Second World War, Volume 3. 1968, p. 102 , accessed on 16. July 2012 . 
2. ↑ War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Ed. Percy E. Schramm , Part I, 1940–1941, pp. 129ff. This would permanently threaten the connection between Italy and Libya. A surprising Italian action against Crete is possible, but further only by making full use of the Italian battle fleet and after gaining success in North Africa (removal of Marsa Matruh) and a weakening of the British Alexandria Squadron by Stukas , mines and submarines to its To prevent intervention against Crete. However, these thoughts were not pursued further because of the offensive of the Italians against Greece that began on October 28, 1940 .
3. ^ Winston Churchill: The Second World War , Scherz Verlag 1948, p. 492.
4. ↑ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War , Düsseldorf 1985, p. 462.
5. ↑ cf. on this: War diary of the OKW , Percy E. Schramm (Ed.) Teilband, p.
6. ^ Leo Niehorster : The Battle for Crete, Order of Battle German 4th Air Fleet 20 May 1941 , accessed on May 9, 2015.
7. ↑ Winston Churchill: The Second World War p. 493.
8. ^ War diary of the OKW Part II, Ed. Percey E. Schramm, Graefe Verlag Munich 1982, p. 395 ff. An entry from May 19 documents that “The British are conducting air raids on German deployment ports and have recognized the preparations for Merkur. The island of Antikythera should be taken away yesterday and Crete tomorrow. "
9. ↑ see en: HMS Formidable (67)
10. ↑ Winston Churchill: The Second World War, p. 494.
11. ↑ Janusz Piekalkiewicz The Second World War , Volume 2, p. 462.
12. ↑ J. Piekalkiewicz: The Second World War , p. 463.
13. ^ G. Forty: Battle of Crete ISBN 0-7110-2758-7 , p. 9.
14. ^ J. Piekalkiewicz, The Second World War , p. 463.
15. ^ The Second World War, published by Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, p. 284.
16. ↑ Winston Churchill: The Second World War , p. 493. According to Churchill's recollections, the German high command seemed indifferent to losses: At least 100 transport machines are said to have broken down in this area.
17. ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, Vol. 2. During World War II: 1940–1945. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 232.
18. ↑ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War , p. 460 ff; cf. also: Standard work The Second World War , published by Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, pp. 190 ff.
19. ^ W. Churchill: The Second World War, p. 495. According to British estimates, the Germans carried out over 600 more or less successful landings on May 22nd and 23rd.
20. ↑ J. Piekalkiewicz: The Second World War , p. 464 ff. The Ju 87 groups of Stuka Squadron 2 "Immelmann" (Lieutenant Colonel Dinort) were used.
21. ↑ Data on this: The Second World War - Ein Lexikon- , Christian Zentner (Ed.), P. 306.
22. ^ W. Churchill: The Second World War, p. 496.
23. ^ W. Churchill: The Second World War, p. 497 ff.
24. ↑ Winston Churchill; The Second World War Volume III, "The Grand Alliance", Chapter XVI Crete: The Battle, p. 265.
25. ^ W. Churchill: The Second World War, p. 498.
26. ↑ ^{a b c d} Karl-Heinz Golla: The German parachute troop, 1936–1941. Its structure and its use in the first military campaigns of the Wehrmacht. Mittler, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8132-0684-X , pp. 353-558.
27. ↑ Gen. Kdo. XI. Fliegerkorps, Der Kom. Gen., May 31, 1941, Federal Archives BA-MA, RH 28-5-4b. Excerpts from Xylander, Marlen from: The German occupation of Crete. Freiburg iB 1989, p. 32.
28. ^ Ringel order of May 23, 1941
29. ↑ Excerpt from Major Julius Ringel's combat report of June 4, 1941: “In the meantime, the Schaette group had come into contact with the enemy while carrying out their assignment with Kastelli, some of whom were fighting in German paratrooper uniforms ... A tough and dogged fight [...] in which even women and children took part. It will be cracked down on! After the atrocities [...] became known, the division ordered the shooting of 10 Cretans for every German soldier killed or wounded, homesteads and villages from which German soldiers were shot at, and hostages to be secured in all places ... “Europe under the swastika, The Occupation Policy of German Fascism 1938–1945, Ed .: Military History Research Office (MGFA), Volume 6, p. 157.
30. ↑ GC Kiriakopoulos, The Nazi Occupation of Crete, 1941-1945 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Minneapolis 1995, ISBN 0-275-95277-0 , p. 29.
31. ↑ Georgios I. Panagiotakis: The epic battle for Crete . Iraklio 2012, ISBN 978-960-87416-7-6 , General information on the Battle of Crete, p. 39 (Greek: Η επικη μαχη τησ Κρητησ .).
32. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : The Fall of the German Wehrmacht , from: May 9, 1945; accessed on: January 6, 2019.
33. ↑ cf. W. Churchill, The Second World War , p. 499. The British Prime Minister also described it as a great stupidity of the German leadership to risk this elite force.
34. ^ Stimpel: The German Parachute Troops 1942–1945.
35. ↑ cf. W. Churchill, The Second World War , p. 499.
36. ^ W. Churchill: The Second World War , p. 499.
37. ↑ File: Air_borne_invasion_of_Crete.pdf

Web links

Commons : Airborne Battle of Crete  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Pictures of the shooting in Kondomari on June 2, 1941 by Franz-Peter Weixler
• Report on the shooting of civilians in Kondomari (PDF; 1.2 MB) by Franz-Peter Weixler