Battle Of Crete

[Killjoy12]

Any books to recommned on this one, as I know nothing about this event.

[Speedysteve]

I recently read Anthony Beavers book on the battle. Think its called "Crete: The Battle and the Resistance" or something along those lines.

Found it protrayed the battle fairly well using detail in enough places such as leaders names, platoon details etc.

I haven't read any others in depth though so not sure how this bears up against others.

Regards,

Steven

[Marc von Martial]

"The Flowers of Rethymnon, Escape from Crete" - a first hand report by Lew Lind
ISBN 960 226 359 8

"The fall of Crete" - Alan Clark
ISBN 0 304 35348 5

I did read both while get sunburned on the beaches of Crete . Both are not to thick, so you can easily read thourhg in about a week. Alan Clark's book is a good introduction in the matter while Lew Lind's describes some of the fighting and how he did hide from the germans to finally getting rescued by submarine, it´s an excellent read, although not covering the big picture or the campaign in detail.

[Golf33]

The main sources I used:

Long, Gavin. Greece, Crete and Syria. Australians in the war of 1939-1945, Series 1 - Army, Vol II. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1953. Some discrepancies with Davin below, who makes more use of German sources.

Davin, D.M. Crete. Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45. Wellington: War History Branch, 1953. Excellent. Uses German sources as well as NZ/Australian.

Kuhn, Volkmar. German Paratroops in World War II (trans. Barker, H.A. and A.J.). London: Ian Allan, 1974 (English edition 1978). Translation is poorly proof-read, e.g. some units get the wrong designation, Panzerbüchse is translated as "rocket launcher" instead of "anti-tank rifle".

Horner, David. The Gunners: A History of Australian Artillery. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1995. Only briefly deals with Crete but excellent details on the Australian gunners' experiences.

Lucas, James. Alpine Elite: German Mountain Troops of World War II. New York: Jane's, 1980. Good, because hardly anything else covers the Gebirgsjäger in any detail at all.

Kaltenegger, Roland. Deutsche Gebirgsjäger im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1977. Not recommended, you can get the same info in a better format elsewhere.

Seibt, Conrad. "The Crete Operation" in Detweiler, Donald (ed). World War II German Military Studies, Vol 13. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Mainly focuses on arrangements for supply. Some very approximate and rather dubious order of battle and TO&E information.

Ringel, Julius. "The Conquest of Crete" (trans. Franke, Max) in Detweiler, Donald (ed). World War II German Military Studies, Vol 13. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Odd because although he commanded the GJ troops primarily, he talks almost exclusively about the paras - who had all landed before he arrived. Some somewhat dubious order of battle and TO&E information.

Einsatz Kreta: Kreigsbericht des XI Fliegerkorps. I found a translated copy in the Australian War Memorial library, very good, although there are some interesting inconsistencies between the accounts of the Rethymnon landings in this source and from the Australian garrison.

Nasse, Jean-Yves. Fallschirmjäger in Crete (trans. from German Schubert, G. and Funken, Dr. H.-W.; trans. from French by McKay, Alan). Paris: Histoire & Collections, 2002. Excellent order of battle information, primarily a collection of highly detailed personal recollections from many survivors on both sides. Full colour with lots of reproduced original documents like paybooks etc. and of course many many photos.

There are also some good websites:

http://home.freeuk.net/johndillon/index.htm
http://www.rickard.karoo.net/battlesmain15.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Eas ... gns-4.html
http://www.gebirgsjaeger.4mg.com/kreta.htm

I've also been exchanging emails with the Bund der Deutschen Fallschirmjäger, an Oberst (Bundeswehr, a.D.) Rhode has been most helpful in getting answers from some of the surviving Green Devils who fought on Crete for me.

Regards
33

[Marc von Martial]

.. has been most helpful in getting answers from some of the surviving Green Devils who fought on Crete for me.

[:D]

[KNac007]

Wow, good stuff.

After reading somethings, I though market garden drop zones were poorly chosen, But this! Dropping in the midle of enemy defences, hilarious!

[Matt Erickson]

hey marc hows the game coming?,whens it due?

[Killjoy12]

Thanks for info eveyone!

[Golf33]

errr I didn't phrase that terribly well, did I?

I should have said "getting answers for me from ...." [:)]

Regards
33

[Golf33]

ORIGINAL: KNac007

Wow, good stuff.

After reading somethings, I though market garden drop zones were poorly chosen, But this! Dropping in the midle of enemy defences, hilarious!

Well, in their 'defence', the German recon was so poor that in the main they didn't realise the extent and location of the defences. Evidently at Maleme the word didn't get through after the first wave, because another two companies dropped on top of 5 NZ Bde in the afternoon of Day 2, suffering much the same fate as III/LLStR the day before.

Regards
33

[Brady]

"Lucas, James. Alpine Elite: German Mountain Troops of World War II. New York: Jane's, 1980. Good, because hardly anything else covers the Gebirgsjäger in any detail at all. "

I own this book and I have read it a couple times very good book.

As to the rest I will try and get a couple of them and add them to my colection, nice list ty for posting it.

I cant wait to get this new aation and play it[:)]

[Jane Doe]

ORIGINAL: KNac007

Wow, good stuff.

After reading somethings, I though market garden drop zones were poorly chosen, But this! Dropping in the midle of enemy defences, hilarious!

yeah, but they won despite all while M-G failed...

[KNac007]

They hadn't to cross any river (major rievr at least) anyway hehe

[Jane Doe]

ORIGINAL: KNac007

They hadn't to cross any river (major rievr at least) anyway hehe

minor point...

i think that a couple hundred km (?) wide sea is wide enough to be considered a major river...[;)]

[KNac007]

LOL, yes, indeed a very big portion of the invading forces from the sea suffered awfull loses due to Royal Navy and their poor transports (BTW that was reinforcing forces , not the main body).

I mean that once inland either by paradrop or by sea invasion they hadn't to cross 2/3 major rivers and several canals and minor rivers, like M-G requiered. Given that rivers are one of the most hard, if not the most, difficult natural defenses to overcome.