West Front - Battle of Crete 1941

[Jason Petho]

We started a brand new battle that was created by Ingomar Scheiber that details the German parachute operation for battle of Crete in May 1941. We start off by a series of landings and our attempt to capture the Maleme airfield. We have run into some strong defences but we making some progress in these first few turns. There are a handful of British positions and we have spotted some Greek irregulars meandering in the rear that we have to be cautious about. The battle begins.

https://youtu.be/TIpU1Ls3Aas

[Jason Petho]

The Greek holiday continues! Crete is an impressive place, there are lots of places for the Greeks and British to hide in the hills. They keep attacking though and some of their hits are quite impressive. The Germans are holding the line and have secured some key positions and doing their best to maintain some form of order during all the counter attacks. Due to the losses, we are starting to more effectively use the terrain to our advantage, although sometimes it seems the British have all the luck. On the bright side, we have some more reinforcements we can use to start the assault on Chanai!

https://youtu.be/cdevisc2by0

[Jason Petho]

I'm really enjoying this Crete scenario. I've forgotten how well the British can fight. I'm suffering far too many causalities in these initial stages, but I'm making progress. I have set up a few kill zones which is making life a bit easier. Although, the British have done the same, especially in the new landing area northeast of Chanai! Those blasted Bofors guns are a royal pain in the bottom. We have some timely reinforcements, so I will see what I can do for clearing up behind our landing areas and start slowly pushing out. Things are looking, well, tough.

https://youtu.be/3e_OqwAU3LA

[Jason Petho]

We only managed to do a few turns of this scenario this time, but there is lots of action and fantastic discussion! Thank you Tim and Alistair for keeping the conversation flowing. It was a nice trip down memory lane indeed. Much to our surprise, during turn 17 we ended up experiencing night. That will help our horrific artillery casualties, but will make advancing a little more challenging and we have to make sure our lines are very well formed before we start pushing out towards Chania. All the positive vibes for our paras, right?

https://youtu.be/VYlrXE3yMeo