The conquest of Crete stands as a lasting tribute to the professionalism, courage and tenacity of Germany's airborne forces. But victory was bought at a heavy price, and when the battle was over a shocked Führer, who was not usually unduly worried by losses, forbade any more large-scale airborne operations.

Following the successful conclusion of the campaign in the West, Hitler turned his attention to the East: the invasion and conquest of the Soviet Union. Before he could so, though, he needed to secure his southern flank. Hungary and Romania were German satellites, and by using severe diplomatic pressure Hitler was able to bring Yugoslavia into the Axis alliance. However, the deployment of 57,000 British troops to Greece encouraged an anti-German coup in Yugoslavia in late March 1941, and thus the Führer was forced into a Balkan campaign. For the airborne forces it would mean their biggest and most celebrated operation. But beforehand they would carry out a smaller operation that was a complete success.

The Germans invaded Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April 1941, and immediately the Blitzkrieg began to sweep all before it. In Greece, by mid-April, the German Army was advancing in three columns: one from Larissa, one through Thebes towards Elensia and Athens, and the third from Larissa and Arta towards Lepanto. Greek resistance had all but collapsed and the British under General Maitland Wilson were withdrawing through the Corinthian Isthmus towards the Peloponnesus. The Corinthian Isthmus is cut by a canal whose sides are deep and steep. It was decided to capture the Corinthian pass to establish a bridgehead to assist the crossing of German ground troops and cut off the British retreat.

The Fallschirmjäger units assigned to the mission were two battalions of the 2nd Parachute Regiment, reinforced by one parachute engineer platoon, artillery and one parachute medical company. On 25 April, more than 400 Ju 52s and numerous gliders were transferred from the Plovdiv area in Bulgaria to the airfield at Larissa. The drop was scheduled for 07:00 hours on 26 April.

The aircraft flew over the Pindus Mountains and dropped to an altitude of 45.7m (150ft) over the Gulf of Corinth, which was covered in a haze that masked their approach. The pilots pulled up to a height of 122m (400ft), reduced speed and released their loads above the objectives. The first to land were the gliders, which touched down on both sides of the isthmus. The parachute troops jumped at the same time, landed north of the canal, seized the bridge and captured a large number of British troops in the process.

The aim of seizing the bridge intact had been achieved, but then a stray anti-aircraft shell detonated the demolition charges on the structure after German engineers had cut the detonating cord. The bridge blew up, killing several paratroopers in the process. However, on the same day engineers constructed a temporary span adjacent to the one that had been destroyed to allow traffic between the mainland and the Peloponnesus to flow unhindered. If the drop had been made earlier, large numbers of the British Expeditionary Force (which had completed its evacuation by 27 April) would have been trapped.

Objective - Crete

After the fall of Greece all eyes turned to Crete. For both sides the island was of importance: for the British to maintain naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean from the base at Suda, while for the Germans Crete would provide an ideal forward base for offensive air and naval operations in the Mediterranean. It would be able to support Axis ground offensives in Egypt, and its capture would deny Allied aircraft potential bases for striking at Germany's Ploesti oil fields in Romania.

General Student, commander of XI Flieger (Air) Corps, had advocated using the whole of Germany's airborne forces to take Crete and Cyprus. Oberstleutnant Freiherr von der Heydte, who fought on Crete, relates the story: "This suggestion was submitted to Göring by the Commander-in-Chief of Luftflotte IV [General Alexander Löhr] - under whose command was General Student - on 15 April, and Göring ordered General Student to report to him on 20 April. On 21 April Hitler saw Student, and on 25 April Directive 28 ordered the immediate preparation of Operation Merkur - the surprise attack on Crete."

All units to take part in the operation were assembled within two weeks. However, because of logistical problems the date of the attack was put back to 20 May. For the attack Student deployed 500 Ju 52 aircraft and 80 DFS 230 gliders to airlift the attacking forces from the airfields in Greece. The assault force consisted of the Luftlande-Sturmregiment (Airlanding Assault Regiment) under Generalmajor Meindl, 7th Flieger Division (Generalleutnant Süssmann) and the 5th Mountain Division (Generalmajor Ringel). The latter replaced the 22nd Airlanding Division, which could not be transferred in time from Romania, and was in any case guarding the Ploesti oil fields.

Crete itself is 256km (160 miles) long and between 12.8-56km (8-35 miles) wide. The interior of the island is barren and covered by eroded mountains. Water is scarce and roads are few. The only usable port on the south coast is at Sfakia. The main towns on the island are in the north: Maleme, Canea, Retimo and Heraklion. For the Royal Navy, the only adequate port was in Suda Bay, also in the north.

Risk assessment

The original Luftwaffe plan proposed airborne landings in the western part of the island between the airfield at Maleme and Canea (the location of various bridges, roads and antiaircraft positions), followed by an eastward thrust. It meant German airborne forces could concentrate within a small area and achieve local air and ground superiority relatively quickly. The main disadvantage was that it might lead to extensive mountain fighting, and the enemy would remain in possession of the Heraklion and Retimo airfields to the east. The plan of XI Flieger Corps advocated simultaneous parachute drops at seven points, including Maleme, Canea, Retimo and Heraklion. This plan had the advantage of capturing all strategic points on the island at once. A subsequent mopping-up operation would clear the rest of the island. However, the operation was risky because the units dropped would be dispersed over a wide area, making them vulnerable to counterattacks. The plan involved Student's so-called "oil spot tactics", whereby a number of small airheads would be created in the area to be attacked, at first without any point of main effort. These airheads would be continually reinforced until they finally linked up. A post-war German assessment of airborne operations described how they nearly failed on Crete: "At one time, the whole operation was within a hair's breadth of disaster because the airheads, which were too weak and too far apart, were being whittled down."

The Kriegsmarine's (German Navy's) Admiral Schüster was responsible for landing reinforcements of troops and heavy equipment by sea, but had no German naval units under his command for his task. His transport vessels were small caiques that had been captured during the Greek campaign and were assembled in the port of Piraeus.

The final plan

The attack plan finally adopted by Göring was a compromise solution: 10,000 troops were to be dropped by parachute, 750 transported by glider, 5000 airlanded in aircraft and 7000 brought in by sea. The first wave had two objectives. First, men of the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th Battalions of the Luftlande-Sturmregiment would land at Maleme airfield in gliders and by parachute. Second, the 3rd Parachute Regiment would drop near Canea, the capital of Crete, and take it, and also seize the port of Suda.

The second wave would come in some eight hours later on two other objectives: Fallschirmjäger of the 2nd Parachute Regiment would drop on Retimo and its airfield, and the 1st Parachute Regiment would drop on Heraklion and its airfield.

On the second day, follow-on troops of the 5th Mountain Division would be airlifted to the three airfields (Maleme, Retimo and Heraklion) which had been, hopefully, taken by the first wave. Admiral Schüster's convoys would off-load men and supplies at Heraklion, Suda Bay and other minor ports that had been captured. Throughout the operation the fighters and bombers of VIII Flieger Corps would maintain German air superiority overhead.

The state of the garrison

On the eve of the invasion of Crete, the island garrison consisted of around 27,500 British and Commonwealth troops and 14,000 Greeks, all under the command of Major-General Bernard Freyberg, the commanding general of the 2nd New Zealand Division. The original garrison - 5000 men - was fully equipped, but the troops that had been evacuated from Greece were tired, disorganised and only lightly equipped. The Cretans offered their assistance to the Allies, even though they had suffered from air raids and many of their young men had been taken prisoner during the Greek campaign. The only armour available to the defenders consisted of eight medium and 16 light tanks, plus a few light personnel carriers. Allied artillery consisted of captured Italian guns, 10 3.7in howitzers and some antiaircraft batteries.

Despite the defenders' deficiencies, it was obvious to the British High Command that a full-scale invasion of Crete would take place, and so General Freyberg disposed his forces accordingly: to guard against airborne landings on the three airfields at Maleme, Retimo and Heraklion, and seaborne landings in Suda Bay and on adjacent beaches. His main force was assigned to the defence of the vital Maleme airfield. His air cover was woeful, though: 36 aircraft, of which less than half were operational (German preparatory bombing raids damaged the airfields, and the aircraft were withdrawn from the island the day before the invasion began).

The British naval presence in the area was much stronger. The fleet was split into two forces: one consisting of two cruisers and four destroyers, which was detailed to intercept any seaborne invader north of the island; and the other made up of two battleships and eight destroyers, which was to screen the island against a possible intervention by the Italian fleet northwest of Crete. Decoding of German Enigma traffic meant the British were aware of German plans to invade Crete, but they believed an airborne invasion could not succeed without the landing of heavy weapons, troops and supplies by sea. If the Royal Navy could intercept these reinforcements, therefore, the battle would be won.

Preceded by large-scale dive-bombing attacks, the invasion began on 20 May 1941. At Maleme, elements of the Sturmregiment's 1st Battalion landed their DFS 230 gliders west and south of the airfield at 07:15 hours. The 3rd Battalion became badly dispersed and dropped into the middle of New Zealand defenders, where they were destroyed in a matter of minutes. The 4th Battalion dropped without too much difficulty just west of Tavronitis, while the 2nd Battalion dropped as planned into the area east of the Spilia and encountered no opposition. A reinforcement platoon that dropped farther west near Kastelli was annihilated by Greek troops and armed civilians. 

Generalmajor Meindl had parachuted in with his regimental staff in the 4th Battalion's sector at 07:15 hours, but he was seriously wounded when he was shot through the chest and so command of the regiment was passed on to Major Stentzler, commander of the 2nd Battalion.

A gliderborne assault by Kampfgruppe (Battle Group) Altmann (the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Sturmregiment) landed to secure vital objectives near Canea, but suffered heavy casualties. Hauptmann Gustav Altmann was captured on Crete on 22 May and was held in captivity throughout the rest of the war. The 3rd Parachute Regiment was dropped to the southwest of Canea, and many men were killed by New Zealanders. In the face of heavy fighting the paras succeeded in securing Agia, and the prison there was used as a headquarters for Oberst Richard Heidrich and his regimental staff, who had dropped to the southwest of the village (at this time Generalleutnant Wilhelm Süssmann, who was to meet up with the staff of the 7th Flieger Division, was killed when his glider crashed on the island of Aegina).

By midday on 20 May, the 3rd Parachute Regiment was unable to reach Canea because of the enemy and was suffering heavy casualties, and the Luftlande-Sturmregiment failed to take Hill 107 (to the south of and overlooking Maleme airfield) and the airfield itself. To compound the crisis, aircraft losses, problems with refuelling the Ju 52s and dust on the Greek airfields affected the timetable of the second wave. This forced the second drop to fly in small groups instead of en masse.

Oberst Alfred Sturm's 2nd Parachute Regiment dropped onto Retimo at 15:00 hours. Widely scattered, the men immediately encountered resistance from the Australian 19th Brigade. Progress was slight. It was a similar story at Heraklion, where the 1st Parachute Regiment met a determined defence and failed to take the airfield. Receiving news about the initial landings, Student decided to try to land the mountain troops at Maleme instead of Heraklion in an effort to save the whole operation.

On 21 May, the Fallschirmjäger were able to take control of the vital Hill 107 due to a mistaken withdrawal by the New Zealanders. This left the way open for the Germans to capture Maleme airfield. German air strikes against New Zealand positions east of the airfield began at 14:30 hours, followed by parachute drops by reserves from the 1st and 2nd Parachute Regiments. These, together with the men already on the ground, managed to overrun the airfield defences. With the airfield still under artillery fire, the first Ju 52 carrying mountain troop reinforcements landed at Maleme at 16:00 hours. Many aircraft collided or were destroyed by enemy artillery fire, but the troops were off-loaded nevertheless.

On 21 May the Royal Navy intercepted the German flotilla transporting troops and supplies. Though many boats managed to escape back to Greece, many others were sent to the bottom of the sea. On a more favourable note for the Germans was a failed British attack on Maleme, which turned out to be the first decisive battle on the island. The commander of the 5th Mountain Division, General Ringel, took command of the units around Maleme and reorganised them. Meanwhile, the paratroopers around Retimo and Heraklion were still fighting to maintain their positions. However, by 23 May the crisis of the campaign had passed, and units of Ringel's force had linked up with the remnants of the 3rd Parachute Regiment near Canea. But the British continued to put up a dogged resistance, especially around the fortified positions of Kastelli and Galatas. Indeed, the battle there lasted for 48 hours and was among the most intense of the whole operation.

On the evening of 25 May, the mountain troops took the British positions at Kastelli and Galatas and two days later the Germans, now receiving reinforcements flown into Maleme, launched an assault against Canea itself. The 1st Battalion of the 3rd Parachute Regiment outflanked the British rearguard positions and entered the town. The same unit took Suda on 28 May, and from that date the battle turned into a chase. The next day Ringel's forces linked up with the parachute units at Retimo and Heraklion, which had been badly mauled in the campaign. British forces were now retreating south to be taken off the island by the Royal Navy, Freyberg having been authorised to evacuate on the 27th.

Mopping up

The Germans now controlled the whole of the north coast, and detachments of the mountain division were pushing forward to prevent the evacuation. The last battle in Crete was fought near the village of Sfakia, where the British rearguards fought to keep the Germans away from the evacuation beachhead. By 1 June the campaign was over and the island was in German hands. The price of victory had been high: one in four of the paratroopers dropped on the island had been killed, with many more wounded.

Von Der Heydte later gave one reason for the losses suffered by the Fallschirmjäger: "the lack of tactical experience of the German paratroopers - particularly of their junior officers - must be mentioned. Courage, enthusiasm and devotion cannot make up for lack of experience and training." Student himself commented that Crete was "the grave of the German Paratroopers". Hitler was shocked at the losses incurred in taking Crete, and a combined German-Italian airborne assault to capture Malta, which was much smaller and more lightly defended, in 1942 was cancelled on his orders: "The affair will go wrong and will cost too many lives." In effect the Fallschirmjäger had been grounded on Hitler's orders - there would be no more large-scale airborne operations in the war. From now on the paratroopers would fight as infantry, first in Africa and then in Europe, but would do so brilliantly.