Chapter 2
On 25 October 1940 the German General Franz Halder suggested: ‘Mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean was dependent on the capture of Crete, and that this could best be achieved by an air landing’.
Three days later, in a meeting with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler had told Mussolini that he coulduld make available a whole division of airborne troops and another division of paratroopers should the need arise to take Crete.
The commander of the German XI Air Corps, General Kurt Student, was desperate to prove the value of his new parachute troops in a large and ambitious operation. He had a visionary strategy for the eastern Mediterranean; his men would land and seize Crete. They would then take Cyprus. The ultimate goal would be a paratrooper assault landing on the Suez Canal, to coincide with a major ground offensive launched by Rommel in North Africa. As far as Student was concerned, Crete offered enormous opportunities; it would be difficult for the Allies to launch an effective counter-attack if key points along the north coast were seized.
Ultimately, Hitler was convinced and in the Fhrer Directive Number 28, dated 25 April 1941, wrote:
The occupation of the island of Crete (Operation Merkur is tto be prepared in order to have a base for conducting the air war against England in the eastern Mediterranean. The transport movements must not lead to any delay in the strategic concentration for Barbarossa [the German invasion of Russia].
We have seen how the paratroopers left their bases in Germany and Austria and made their way through Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and down to the Aegean coast. For many of them the trip seemed rather like a holiday and only when they reached Greece could they see any sign of conflict. Along the roadsides were burned-out vehicles and freshly dug graves. The troops began to concentrate at airfields at Dadion, Eleusis, Megara, Corinth, Tanagra and Topolia.
On 15 May regimental and battalion commanders met with Student at the Hotel Grande Bretagne on Syntagma Square in Athens. Technically this was a Luftwaffe operation. Close support for the landings came in the shape of the VIII Air Corps, which had around 570 aircraft. Transport planes were being concentrated at the airfields, the most important of which were over 500 Junkers 52s. Operation Merkur (Mercury) was originally scheduled for 17 May, but due to the delay in receiving 5,000 tons of aviation fuel it was pushed back to 20 May.
Student outlined the key elements of the operation. His storm regiment of four battalions would land around the airfield at Maleme on the west of the island. The 3rd Regiment would drop near Hania. Our man Plieschen would be part of the drop that would land 50 km further east, along with the 2nd Regiment, with the job of seizing the airfield near Rethymno. The 1st Regiment was tasked with seizing the airfield at Heraklion 65 km further east. Troops in gliders would land first then paratroopers. Once the airfields had been taken the 5th Mountain Division and other units would be brought in by transport aircraft. Simultaneously, probably on day two of the operation, upwards of seventy small vessels would bring in additional reinforcements and anti-aircraft units. There would also be an opportunity to reinforce with tanks and motor transport.
The Germans had estimated that the garrison on Crete was no more than 5,000 strong. The Germans expected no opposition at Rethymno and believed that Heraklion was only lightly held. They also believed that the bulk of the Commonwealth forces had not in fact been evacuated from the Greek mainland to Crete, but straight to Egypt. Additionally, the Germans believed there were no Greek troops on the island. To their horror they would discover that they were wrong on every single count.
Whilst the Germans intelligence reports were at best misleading, the commander of Allied troops on Crete had a far better picture of the Germans intentions. Major General Bernard Freyberg VC had reached Crete on 29 April 1941. He fully expected to only be there for a matter of days and that ultimately his task would be to reassemble all l of the New Zealand troops in Egypt. His whistle-stop inspection of the islands defences and available troops left him with a heavy heart and this was compounded when it was confirmed that he would command Creforce. Freyberg was in fact the seventh commander on the island since November 1940. He had one major advantage; he was privy to the cracked intercepts that had been made in German military signals. As the days toward the launching of Operation Mercury passed it became more and more clear what the Germans were intending.
The Germans had one major advantage – total and undisputed air superiority. Mercilessly they bombarded known British positions on the island and each time there was an expectation that the air attacks were just a prelude to a major parachute landing. Nothing, however, occurred until 20 May. What the Germans did not know was that instead of 5,000, or even a pessimistic 11,000, there were in fact 48,000 British, Commonwealth and Allied troops on Crete. Addmittedly, many of the men were in depleted battalions; others lacked transport and even weapons, but the Germans were about to drop into a cauldron of destruction and death. The balance of the islands fate would hang on such a threadbare line that it could snap at any time.
A Ju52 takes off from an airfield on mainland Greece, bound for Crete. The commander of the 1,500 troops earmarked to land around Rethymno, Colonel Alfred Sturm, had already distinguished himself at the head of his 2nd Parachute Regiment. It had been his men that had captured the Corinth Canal. Delays seemed to follow delays and the departure of aircraft heading for Maleme and for the Ayia Valley pushed back his schedule. As the Ju52s returned for refuelling and to pick up Sturm’s men, it became abundantly clear to them that there would be a hot reception awaiting them. Many of the Ju52s were bullet ridden; some needed to be patched up before theyey were fully airworthy.
Each of the three motors on the Ju52s had to be refuelled by hand as there were no petrol bowsers. Eager to get going, the paratroopers helped out, stripping off all their combat gear and working in gym clothes in the almost unbearable 40°C heat. Everywhere there was swirling red dust and all attempts to water the runways failed as the water quickly evaporated in the heat. Even as the men began to pack their gear they found the aircraft stiflingly hot.
Sturm’s men had been due to be dropping on Rethymno by 1400 hours, but as we see in this picture the men were still sitting around and waiting and had not even got into the aircraft. Finally, the first wave of aircraft got underway, creating even more dust and holding up subsequent waves. The delays would prove to be crucial, as each pause between a wave gave the defenders times to recover. Sturm knew that he had a tough tasask ahead of him; he had had to reluctantly hand over his 2nd Battalion to Colonel Bruno Bräuer’s 1st Parachute Regiment to reinforce his attack on Heraklion airport.
Sturm retained a reinforced company under his own command and then divided the rest of the regiment into two groups; the first being led by Major Kroh who would land to the east of the airfield. The other group, led by Captain Wiedemann, would land closest to Rethymno itself. Sturm would land in the centre. Attached to each of the groups was a machine gun unit and it is not clear precisely to which company Plieschen was attached. The men only expected weak resistance. It was Sturms opinion that he should be able to link his men quickly and then detach a force to move west to link up with more airborne troops that had landed around Souda Bay, near Hania.
The men of Plieschen’s unit on board a Ju52, bound for Crete. Each of the Ju52s 52s was capable of carrying around twelve men plus their equipment. The men would land only armed with their pistol and grenades. Some may have had machine guns slung around their necks. For the precious seconds that they were dropping from the air they would be incredibly vulnerable to attack from the ground. Of Sturm’s force Major Kroh would have around 550 men reinforced by a machine gun company. His orders were to land to the east of the airfield and capture it. Some 800 men, again with a machine gun company under Wiedemann, were tasked with seizing Rethymno itself. Sturm’s force was around 200 strong.
Facing them below was Lieutenant Colonel Ian Campbell who had two Australian battalions, each with around 600 men. He could also call on ninety Australian gunners, two platoons of machine gunners, 800 Cretan police and 2,300 Greek infantry. The latter often lacked rifles and those that did have firearms had barely ten rounds each. The supply situation for the other units was equally y as poor; there were only around five rounds for each anti-tank rifle and the four available 3-in mortars had just eighty bombs. The medium machine guns had around sixteen belts of ammunition per weapon. Very few of the men had reserves of rifle ammunition and there were very few grenades. The men’s uniforms were in a deplorable state and their boots were full of holes.
A stunning view out of the window of a Ju52, as the aircraft flies along the Cretan coast towards their drop zones. The outcome of the battle around Rethymno depended on who controlled the low foothills. The airfield itself was to the south of the road. It was five miles from Rethymno and about 500 metres from the beach. Around the east of the airfield was a steep plateau, which Campbell had named Hill A. There were two gullies to the west and beyond that a ridge, labelled Hill D. After a second gully was Hill B and finally, about a mile from Rethymno iitself, was Hill C. It would be these areas that would see the bulk of the fighting.
There is a clear sense of apprehension on the faces of these German paratroopers as they make their last preparations as the aircraft comes in towards Rethymno. Below, Campbell’s main priority was the defence of the airfield. He spread his men along the foothills, with the idea that he would be able to sweep the coastal plain with fire whilst his men remained relatively safe in cover. Campbell’s two Australian battalions occupied Hills A and B, with the 4th Greek battalion sandwiched in between. Campbell’s force reserve was the 5th Greek Battalion, in a valley that separated the coastal ridge from the hills. He had a pair of Matilda tanks, which would be used for a counter-attack if the Germans tried to seize the airstrip. Parts of Hills A and B had barbed wire and where possible the men had strengthened their defensive positions. Campbmpbell had a ragtag of artillery, mainly old French and Italian field guns. There were no anti-aircraft guns.
The door of the Ju52 is open and we can see two other aircraft in the same flight, flying in formation. In the far distance we can see the Cretan coastline. This photograph must have been taken literally a few minutes before the aircraft began their approach on the drop zone. The Germans had tried to carry out photoreconnais-sance over Rethymno. A reconnaissance aircraft had been shot down and from it the British had found a photograph, dated 8 May. On it was marked a company position. Campbell abandoned this position and redeployed the unit. The Germans had launched their last reconnaissance flight on 18 May and still believed that the paratroopers would come up against very little opposition on the ground. In all probability Sturm’s men had been selected for what they believed to be the easiest of the operatioons, as a result of the casualties that he had suffered when they had landed to seize the Corinth Canal.
Below, at 0900 hours on 20 May, Campbell’s men had watched flights of Ju52s heading towards Hania. The Rethymno area had come under air attack at 1600 hours. Twenty or so German fighters and light bombers had searched the plain and the hills for targets. Some of the Greek recruits had panicked, but Australians were sent to get them back into position. Suddenly, at around 1615 hours, an enormous number of Ju52s, which Campbell knew to be troop carriers, appeared over the sea. They made for the coast near Heraklion, some splitting off but others continuing west along the coast.
Another view out of the window of the Ju52, with a second aircraft clearly visible but slightly lower, below the left wing. Campbell’s men could see around 160 Ju52s passing close to the hillsides. The defenders opened up p with everything they had and seven of the aircraft were brought down, crash-landing along the beach. Some others were also hit and limped back out to sea on fire. In one of the units the platoon commander was shot dead in the doorway as he prepared to jump and his men were so panicked that they refused to jump. On this aircraft the pilot circled round, but as he came in a second time one of the engines was hit and it caught fire. The pilot managed to crash-land into the sea and the paratroopers clambered out and got into a dinghy; of the men that escaped the aircraft only two would be alive at the end of the day. By the time the Ju52s began dropping men around the Rethymno area it was about 1700 hours.
This is another view from the window of the Ju52. A member of the headquarters company of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger regiment, Rudolf Adler, described the scene as the aircraft approached the drop zone:
We spotted the island and the aircraft went down. AA fire started. Events rushed by. Bullets were ripping through the body of the aircraft at head height. The first three jumpers fell on the floor of the aircraft. We approached the door; it was blocked by the bodies of the dead and our bundles. Everybody was shouting ‘Out! Out!’ The engine started coughing; there was black smoke. Impossible to think but the instinct for survival was there. I don’t remember how I left the aircraft.
This view is from a different window of the Ju52; this time it is clear that the aircraft is considerably lower than before. Dropping onto a position such as the one chosen for this operation was fraught with difficulties. If the paratroopers were dropped too early there was a likelihood that they would fall into the sea and be drowned by the weight of their equipment and the silk canopies. If they wy were dropped too far inland the danger was that they would land on rocky terrain and either injure or kill themselves as they hit the ground. In fact, there was an even worse fate for twelve men – a whole Ju52’s worth of paratroopers. They landed on top of a bamboo cane windbreak between fields and were impaled on the canes. The first drop would consist of 1,380 Fallschirmjäger; most of them were dropped in the wrong place. Adler explained:
Because of the enemy fire, the Fallschirmjäger left their aircraft earlier than planned and missed their drop zone, the weapon containers dropped into enemy-held territory and we jumped directly over their lines. Hours later I found the first three of my surviving comrades.
The low hills along the Cretan coast can be clearly seen in this photograph. Behind them are the higher and rockier hills and beyond them the be beginning of the mountain range, which extends from west to east almost as far as Rethymno. This photograph probably shows the mountain range that lies between Rethymno and Heraklion. This is the second of the three mountain ranges on the island. So indiscriminate were the parachute drops that only two of the companies in the entire operation were dropped in the right place. Major Kroh, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, along with a complete company, was dropped three miles to the east of the airfield that had been his objective. To add to the insult there was also injury, as the men fell on ground so rocky that a number of them broke bones. The two companies that did land on target, on the airfield, landed slap bang in front of Campbell’s positions. As soon as the Germans that had landed here knew the peril that they now faced some wanted to surrender. One of the sergeants took control and led them out of the impossible position to join up with Kroh’s main force.
This is a perplexing photograph, as it does not appear to have been taken from the Ju52 and may well be out of sequence in the photo album. It shows a flight of German aircraft, almost certainly Ju52s. If indeed this photograph was taken once Plieschen had landed this must have been just minutes after he dropped onto Cretan soil. Most of Krohs men fell around the olive oil factory at Stavromenos, some two kilometres away from the airfield. As quickly as he could he tried to regroup his force and make for Hill A. Kroh’s group had landed to the far east of the drop zone. Between them and the landing strip was an entire Australian battalion.
A last shot of the Fallschirmjäger, as they prepare to parachute out of the aircraft. Sergeant Plieschen referred to having fallen and fought around what he called Vineyard Hill, or Bloody Hill, so this may help us to identintify precisely where he was engaged during the operation. This indicates that he almost certainly landed with Kroh’s group, as Hill A was known as Bloody Hill by those involved in the engagement. The maelstrom into which the paratroopers would jump would be a nightmare. The paratroopers did not have tropical uniforms and were heavily laden with all of their equipment. As the aircraft made their way along the coast of Crete they should have been escorted by fighter aircraft, but the paratroopers could see through the windows that the fighters were actually heading back for refuelling; everything was out of sync.
This is the rugged coastline of Crete, as seen from the window of the Ju52. Despite the fact that Crete lies relatively close to the North African coast of Libya, its countryside is quite lush and is covered in olive trees. The aircraft came in around 1600 hours and the men were told that they would be dropping at a height of around 500 feet. As the aircraft reached the drop zone they came under antiaircraft and field gun fire. Aircraft were dropping out of the sky. Desperately, the pilots nursed their machines on course to give the paratroopers the chance to jump out. Many of the aircraft would not make it back home.
This is a second view of the peninsula on the coast of Crete. It is likely that this shot was taken literally minutes before the aircraft reached the drop zone, as the Ju52 is skirting the coastline, hunting for the drop zone. Below, the Australians could hear the hum as the aircraft approached. The Ju52s were preceded by Dorniers, which dropped smoke flares to indicate the landing areas. Australian eye witnesses reported seeing eight or nine groups of around eighteen Ju52 troop-carrying aircraft. They came in three or four minutes apart and turned west at the coast around a mile from the drop zone. Plieschen was one of those that dropped in the area between the olive oil factory at Stavromenos, over the airstrip and as far as the village of Perivolia. Around 1,600 men dropped and one of the eye witnesses was in an observation slip trench on the east side of Hill A. He had a telephone linked to brigade headquarters. After reporting the incoming flights and the number of aircraft, he shook hands with his signaller and said, ‘We may have five or six minutes to live but we will get a few before we die.’
The last moment of calm and contemplation for the paratroopers, who are now ready for their jump into the unknown. The main part of Kroh’s battle group, of which Plieschen and his fellow paratroopers were a part, had aimed to be dropped directly on the airfield, but the main part fell around the olive oil factory two kilometres to the east. Very quickly the paratroopers would not only realise that they had dropped into a killing zg zone, but also that German intelligence, which had led them to believe that the airfield was unprotected, was far from correct.
This is a fascinating photograph, which was presumably taken moments after Plieschen had landed on Cretan soil. We can see a flight of three Ju52 aircraft about to pass overhead. In the distance three or four minutes behind them is another flight. The beach is to the rear of the photograph and off to the left, indicating that this is a shot taken to the east and that Hill A is actually behind Plieschen. Note that the terrain consists of scrubland but in the foreground there is a wheat field. It is likely that this is the outskirts of Stavromenos, as scattered buildings can be seen in the centre of the photograph. Stavromenos would prove to be an important position in this part of the struggle for the island of Crete. The paratroopers had been dispersed and in fact the paratrooper group of which Plieschen was a part had been dropped over a five-mile area. Very soon after this photograph was taken Kroh was desperately trying to organise his men for an assault on Hill A.
This photograph amply illustrates just how dispersed the parachute drops were around Rethymno. Here we can see dozens of German paratroopers, along with their weapons canisters, floating down towards the Cretan countryside. This photograph looks to the west. Hill A is just in view on the extreme left. Plieschen has now taken cover in the wheat field. Far in the distance we can see Rethymno, which sits on a promontory. These men may well have been those that dropped on and around Hill A, literally amongst the Australians. Campbell, in his command post on Hill D, could see that his own men and the German paratroopers were intermingled. Lieutenant Dieppe was with the Australians on Hill A and described his first encounter with the enemy:
I saw one of our 2/1 MG battalion machine guns being enveloped by a parachute. At the same time one parachutist landed almost on top of me, and immediately surrendered. He was shaking like a leaf. I saw a parachutist throwing a stick grenade whilst still in the air.
Another photograph, this one taken seconds later, of the parachute drop. We can see that some of the paratroopers have landed close to the coast, whilst others have drifted toward Hill A. Other paratroopers are still descending from the skies. The Australian official history of the event describes it as:
…a bitter series of fights between sections or platoons of Australians on the one hand and, on the other, such groups of paratroops who survived long enough to organise and go into action.
It is important to bear in mind that the paratroopers were often landing just with grenades or a pistol, although others had slung machine pistols around their necks. Most of the weapons were still in the containers, which they needed to retrieve before they were fully operational.
These German paratroopers were dropping around Stavromenos and the olive oil factory. Kroh had headed west with his company, collecting up the survivors of 2 Company MG Battalion 7, of which Plieschen was a member. He gathered together elements of the 10th and 12th Companies of the 3rd Battalion; by mistake they, too, had been dropped to the east of the airfield.
A photograph showing more paratroopers landing further east, possibly around the airfield, or these may be men of Wiedemann’s group, which landed closer to Perivolia. This photograph certainly dispels the myth that Crete was a barren wastelaand; we can see a number of olive trees in the foreground, which would have been a major hazard to the paratroopers. However, they were to come to love these trees, as they would provide them with vital cover in the hours to come. Far to the west, around Rethymno, some 800 Cretan gendarmes, led by Major Christos Tsiphakis, a Cretan officer, lay in wait for the Germans. As soon as the German paratroopers started landing Campbell realised that he would have to commit his reserves as soon as possible. He did not lack decisiveness, but elsewhere the men on the ground were perfectly capable of taking the initiative against the invaders. As Kroh made his way towards Hill A he came across Lieutenant von Roon. The lieutenant had gathered some men together and was hotly engaged by Cretan irregulars. As Kroh and his force arrived they managed to overcome the defenders and they killed the field gun and machine gun crews. They were then able to use the vineyards as cover.
This is an excellent photograph of a German paratrooper stealthily moving towards Stavromenos, in the hope that he would find more of his unit. This man has obviously retrieved his rifle from a weapons’ canister. Overhead we can see at least three more flights of Ju52s coming into the drop zones. Pretty soon the attack on Hill A would be developing. As the official Australian historian recounted:
On the east of the line paratroopers landed on top of one platoon of infantry, the 75-mm guns, and the two Vickers guns, under Lieutenant Cleaver. Crew after crew of the Vickers guns were shot down, and the guns were finally put out of action by a German mortar bomb. The surviving gunners of the 75s, who had no small arms except three pistols, withdrew to the battery headquarters further up the ridge, carrying their breech blocks with them.
Such was the determination of the defenders thatt this gun crew fought on well into the night. They held their position and fired at the advancing paratroopers with captured German weapons.
This is one of the last photographs of the landings. Things did not go well for the Germans. Colonel Sturm’s group, comprising nearly 200 men, had dropped right in front of an Australian battalion. Sturm and his headquarters staff were lucky enough to drop into dead ground. Casualties were enormous and before nightfall around eighty-eight prisoners had been taken and Sturm himself was captured the following morning. Krohs determined attack on Hill A had succeeded in overwhelming the Australian positions.
Campbell now determined to stop them from advancing east from Hill A and onto the airfield. His two Matilda tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, under Lieutenant George Simpson, met an early disaster; one fell into a drainage ditch and Simpson was killed a and the second one slid into a gulley 10 feet deep and could provide no further support. Campbell regrouped his infantry and tried to retake Hill A but the paratroopers now had excellent cover in the terraces. At 0525 hours on 21 May 1941 the Australians launched a counter-attack against Hill A; it quickly ground to a halt but some of the Australians had managed to get a toe hold on the south-west corner of the hill. Campbell collected up every man, cooks, gunners and signallers included, and at 0800 hours another counter-attack was made on Hill A. This time they took a number of prisoners and the Germans fell back. In fact, the number of prisoners taken was beginning to become a problem. Ultimately, Kroh had to fall back to the olive oil factory and beat off repeated attacks.
This photograph was taken in Rethymno after the fighting had been concluded. By dawn on 22 May Campbell was ready to launch an attack on the olive oil factory. He began the assault by firing what remained of his artillery and then it was planned for an assault to be made at dawn. As it was, the attack went in at 1000 hours but it was beaten off by rifle fire. Another attack was prepared for 1800 hours but once again this failed and the Australians fell back to Hill A, leaving Greek troops to surround the factory. There was a short truce on 23 May and a Fallschirmjäger officer appeared with a white flag, but instead of offering his surrender he invited Campbell to surrender; the offer was declined. It would not be until the morning of 26 May that Campbells eastern flank would be secured and the olive oil factory captured, but by then many of the Fallschirmjäger had slipped east.
German troops are looking over a captured Bren gun carrier in this photograph. Allied transport on Crete was fairly limited, as much of it had been abandoned during th the evacuation of mainland Greece. The events that had taken place at Rethymno were overshadowed by German reinforcement of their landings at Maleme and in the Prison Valley area near Chania. The Germans’ attack on Heraklion had similarly met with stiff resistance and heavy casualties. In the Rethymno area, once Maleme had fallen and the Germans were able to pour in additional troops, including mountain units, onto the island, the battle was clearly lost. A large number of German motorcyclists had entered Rethymno on the evening of 29 May 1941; German tanks had also been landed. Still the island’s defenders put up a stiff fight, denying the Germans each inch. Reluctantly, Colonel Campbell, still on Hill D, ordered a white flag to be made as the Germans closed. He realised that any further fighting would be a senseless loss of life. They turned in 500 German prisoners, including Sturm. The Australians had lost around 120 killed and they had managed to kill more than 500 German paratroopers.
A second shot of the Germans looking over a Bren gun carrier. The evacuation of Allied troops from Crete began on the night of 29 May and continued through until 1 June. Several whole battalions, or at least what remained of them, had to be left behind, although some battalions were more fortunate and half escaped to fight again from Egypt. The roads heading towards the south coast were strewn with abandoned equipment and vehicles. There was simply no time for the men to even contemplate trying to repair broken down vehicles, or to find fuel. The retreating columns were under constant air attack.
German troops settle into billets in Rethymno. The last Allied ships left the Cretan coast before dawn on 1 June. The Allies were forced to leave 9,000 men behind. Most of the infantry had come down to the coast on foot and many of them had turned to act as a rearguard, holding back the Germans for as long asossible. It had been an exhausting campaign, albeit a brief one. The retreating Allies had been pursued by mountain troops, as one Gerbirgsjäger recalled:
Every group has its wounded and yet we carry on with unheard of élan. We no longer feel the heat and have overcome extreme exhaustion. Below us is the sea and port of Safakion with the white cubes of its serried buildings. The rugged mountains drop steeply to the ground below.
A street scene in Rethymno; note the mix of vehicles parked along the street, including a captured Bren gun carrier, which has been pressed into action by the Germans. The Allies destroyed as much equipment as possible as they retreated. Even though many of the units towards the end were unarmed, exhausted and hungry they had still been machine-gunned by Luftwaffe aircrcraft. The formal surrender took place at the foot of the Imbros Gorge, when Lieutenant Colonel Theo Walker, an Australian battalion commander, found himself the senior officer left on the island. Walker followed the track up to the village of Komitades and here he found an Austrian officer of the 100th Mountain Regiment. The Austrian spoke first:
‘What are you doing here, Australia?’
Walker replied, ‘One might ask what are you doing here, Austria?’
‘We are all Germans,’ replied the Austrian.
This is a shot of one of the many requisitioned Greek civilian sailing vessels that were used by the Germans to ferry in reinforcements during the invasion of Crete. These relatively flimsy wooden vessels proved to be death traps for many of the German reinforcements when they were intercepted by Royal Naval vessels. On 22 May 1941 Admiral Cunningham, based in Al in Alexandria, had despatched Rear Admiral King’s Force C to intercept flotillas of German vessels. The three cruisers and four destroyers made short work of many of the German-held vessels and the German air cover did not dare risk bombing Royal Navy vessels for fear of hitting their own ships.
This is a view of the Venetian harbour and Turkish lighthouse at Rethymno. The mole was built in around 1300 and the lighthouse in the seventeenth century. For centuries the harbour was used to build and moor Venetian galleys and Turkish warships. The masts of some of the vessels that were used by the Germans can be seen behind the buildings, on the left hand side of the photograph. By the evening of 29 May 1941 the Australian troops that remained in the Rethymno area were virtually cut off. A Greek officer had arrived and told Campbell that the British had left Heraklion and that not only was Rethymno now menaced from the westt, but also from the east. All through that night Australian soldiers had tried to use signals to attract Royal Navy warships, hoping that an evacuation might be mounted. The Germans renewed their advance on the port the following day and it was clear that Rethymno was doomed.
What appears to be a German headquarters and billet near the seafront at Rethymno. For the paratroopers, even after the surrender, their job was not yet over. For some time they would be involved in rounding up Allied stragglers, guarding the prisoners and trying to secure the island. Amongst those captured were Spanish republicans, who feared that the Germans would turn them over to Franco, when they would be shot. The battalion medical officer, Captain Cochrane, who had served with the international brigades in Spain, suggested that the men pretend that they were Gibraltarians. Not all of the men that missed the evacuation transport were captured. Some would be taken off by submarine, others would live in the mountains, and some would try to escape in tiny boats across the Libyan Sea. Years later the skeleton of a soldier was discovered high up in the mountains; he had clearly fallen from the cliff and had laid there undisturbed.
A German soldier rides a mule. Many of these beasts were brought over to the island by the Germans themselves, primarily by the mountain troops. Additional waves of German reinforcements had spread out across the island. The Germans ran into what appeared to be enemy light tanks beyond Aghios Nikolaos, to the far east of the island. They were about to engage and a German officer went forward to investigate. He found the tanks belonged to the Italians, who had landed at Sitia unopposed on 28 May.
This is an unidentified merchant ship on fire and close to sinking off the Cretan coast. Note that this is an armed vessel, as it has at least one deck-mounted gun. The seas around Crete had seen the loss of several Royal Navy vessels, in addition to the ships that the Germans had lost during the invasion. Amongst these was HMS Greyhound, a G-class British destroyer sunk by Stukas on 22 May 1941, and the light cruiser HMS Fiji, which was straddled by twenty bombs. Many of the crew were rescued by HMS Kandahar and HMS Kingston.
The streets of Rethymno are strewn with rubble, showing signs of the intense fighting in and around the port. Colonel Campbell had refused to retreat from Rethymno until he had received explicit orders to do so. In some respects the Allies were very lucky, as they streamed south towards the coast and the evacuation ports. A large number of the fighters and bombers had already been recalled for the impending invasion of Russia plus Campbell’s troops were only pursued by a single regiment.
Lew Lind was a nineteen-year-old soldier in the Australian 2/3 Field Regiment. They had fought hard to hold the Germans off at Rethymno and on the night of 29 May they were still in position around the airfield. On the morning of 31 May, German tanks and motorcycle troops arrived. Lind and a few others tried to run for it, but two of them were shot. They were captured and marched west without food and sent on to Chania before going on to Maleme. They were forced to march for sixty miles with little food and water in the blazing sun. Lind and the others were forced to clear the airfield. By 12 June only about half of the men were left; the others had succumbed to dysentery.
These are the remains of the British heavy cruiser HMS York. On 26 March 1941 she had been attacked by the Italians. The previous night the IItalian destroyers Crispi and Sella had managed to get close to Souda Bay and they launched six one-man high-speed explosive motorboats. The vessels were so tiny that they got over the anti-submarine nets and boom and made for their target. One of the motor-boats hit HMS York; she was the largest warship in Souda Bay. She was extremely badly damaged. The Royal Navy was forced to ground her in an attempt to save her from sinking, but a few days later she was devastated by a German air attack. HMS York was wrecked by the Royal Navy using demolition charges on 22 May 1941 and by this time some of her guns had been taken away and used as land-based artillery.
This is a second shot of HMS York. Attempts had been made to try to save her and the British submarine HMS Rover had been sent from Alexandria, but the submarine had been attacked by German aircraft and the salvage attempt had been abandoned. HMS York had been launched in 1928 and completed on 6 May 1930. She had been the eleventh Royal Navy ship to carry the name and had already seen service in the Atlantic in 1939 and off Norway in 1940. In August 1940 she had been transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and in October had been in Malta. After sailing to Alexandria in late 1940 she had reached Crete in January 1941 and was engaged in covering the military convoys to Greece. HMS York was salvaged in 1952 and was towed into Bari in Italy to be broken up in the March.
This photograph is believed to portray Major Erich Schulz, who was commander of the machine gun company between June 1940 and August 1941. He is clearly a major from the design of his epaulettes. We can clearly see his Fallschirmjäger collar tabs, his parachuter’s badge pinned to the bottom right and he also wears an officers peaked cap, proprobably in tropical tan. The parachute regiment had its own distinctive cap badge. There was another Major Schulz on Crete at the same time; he was in command of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Fallschirmjäger and his men dropped around Heraklion. We can also see his Luftwaffe officer’s cap reef and the Luftwaffe eagle that was worn on the breast.
Schulz is awarding medals of gallantry to the members of the machine gun company in this picture. Note that the men are now in tropical dress, with shorts. Some are wearing jack boots whilst others are wearing their jump boots. The two men on the right of the photograph are obergefreiters. They have simple shoulder straps and one of them has the three eagles on his collar. All of the men retain their sidearms. Schulz appears to be decorating the men with the Iron Cross, dispensed from a mess tin.
In order to o win the Iron Cross a soldier would have to display three to five acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Soldiers would initially be awarded with the Iron Cross Second Class for one act of bravery. This would then be one of the requirements to win the Iron Cross First Class. During the war the Germans awarded some three million Iron Cross Second Class decorations and 450,000 Iron Cross First Class. As for the men in this photograph, it is difficult to know precisely whether they were amongst the 500 German prisoners that had been scooped up by Campbells forces by 25 May 1941. They were all held on the southern side of Hill D.
The handing out of the awards has now been completed. Note that it appears that only the men to the extreme left have been presented with gallantry awards. The man closest to Schulz, on the extreme right of the photograph, is a gefreiter. The paratrooper carrying the mess tinn, standing next to Schulz, seems to be either a feldwebel or an oberfeldwebel, although it is difficult to see from the angle of the photograph. Due to the similarity between the M1936, M1937 (two variants) and the M1938 model paratroopers’ helmets it is difficult to be sure which variation the men are wearing. In all probability the thickness of the chin straps indicate that these are M1938 versions and would have either been painted in grey or apple green. The shape and style of the eagle on the left hand side of the helmet is typical of either the first or second model eagle, which was standard Luftwaffe insignia for these helmets. If indeed these are the M1938 helmets then they would have heavy rubber padding on the sides and the crown. Helmet sizing was achieved by varying the thickness of the rubber padding, but there were four different shell sizes.
Schulz can be seen here with his ownn Iron Cross above his parachutist’s badge. The photograph also indicates that the non-commissioned officer is likely to be a feldwebel. Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Campbell, during the height of the fighting around the olive oil factory and at Perivolia, had been faced with having to contend with a number of German prisoners and a large number of wounded. Undoubtedly, the presence of the battalion medical officer, Dr Alan Carter, not only saved the lives of many Commonwealth troops but also the wounded paratroopers:
As soon as we had recaptured Hill A and the country to its west, Captain Carter and his stretcher bearers had moved east of Hill A down into the flat narrow coastal strip 800 yards across which to the east stood the factory. I agreed Captain Carter should try to arrange a truce with the Germans, so that our own and the paratroop wounded could be cared for. Captain Carter, under a white flag, then walked east to the factory and arranged a three-hour truce.
More of the unit receiving the congratulations on their gallantry from Schulz. Note the differences in the style of helmets worn. The helmet worn by the man shaking hands with Schulz is undoubtedly an M1937 variant, probably in Luftwaffe blue with the traditional national colours of Imperial Germany on the side. In this picture we can also see the belt and buckle worn by the man nearest to the camera. The buckle consists of a wreath surrounding a German eagle carrying a swastika.
It is clear that even some of the less injured German paratroopers owed their lives to the prompt work of Captain Carter and two German doctors and their staff, who operated from an isolated two-roomed shack 300 yards to the east of Hill A. The two German doctors had made a gentleman’s agreement with Carter to work on all wounded, but as prisoners. Carter remained with the Germans at the aid posst until 29 May, when it was closed down.
On the evening of 21 May 1941 a column of wounded, both Commonwealth and German, was being transported to Adhele. The Luftwaffe attacked the column and one of the German doctors was killed. The medical staff used both Commonwealth and German drugs and medical equipment, and they shared the same rations equally.
Schulz pins an Iron Cross onto the chest of one of the men in his unit. Colonel Campbell was clearly impressed by the calibre of the German paratroopers:
On the afternoon of 23 May, a force of seventy paratroops (wounded) marched out of the factory to surrender to us, as they could not be cared for by the Germans in the factory, apparently. We [Captain Carter] accepted them and they were sent on from the ex-German aid post by Carter to Adhele. We captured the factory on the morning of 26 May and we found that most of the paratroops had fled during the previous night leaving a small fit guard and about forty more wounded to surrender to us. The paratroops were the finest-looking group of young men I have ever met. Hand-picked. They fought bravely and fairly. We had 500 of them as prisoners of war, so I saw a lot of them. There was no real alternative my troops and I could take in caring for the German wounded. An unsuccessful parachute landing will always end up with the defenders having to care for the wounded paratroops.
This photograph features Plieschen, whose shoulder tabs are somewhat confusing. He is variously described as being a hauptfeldwebel (company sergeant major) or a stabsfeldwebel (effectively a sergeant). It does appear that he has two pips on his shoulder tab in this picture, which would indicate that he is an oberfeldwebel, or platoon leader. Certainly the four wings on his lapel indicate that he is at least this rank, as four were worn by oberfeldwebels and stabsfeldwebels. A number of men close to him in his unit were killed during the air assault on Crete and it is not precisely clear as to whether or not he was captured during the fighting and subsequently released, or whether he evaded capture.
The congratulations and awards continue in this photograph. Note that in the distance there is an armed Fallschirmjäger on guard. Even after the surrender of the Commonwealth forces on the island Crete remained a dangerous place for German soldiers. During the fighting Cretans had used rusty old guns, agricultural tools and even sticks to defend their homes. The Germans had reacted with harshness and brutality, mounting reprisals against the armed resistance movement that grew in strength every day.
The Cretan resistance and ciivilians assisted the many hundreds of Commonwealth troops that had failed to reach the evacuation beaches in time. The Cretans hid and fed them and guided them down to lonely beaches and coves to be picked up by submarines. The resistance movement was one of the most successful of the war, operating in conjunction with the British Special Operations Executive. Many Greeks would also return to the island to operate in the resistance.
One of the high points was the capture of General Kreipe. In the spring of 1944, the Allies planned to kidnap General Mller, ‘the Butcher of Crete’. However, by the time the operation could be launched by the SOE and Cretan resistance, Mller had left the island and had been replaced by General Kreipe. He was snatched on 26 April 1944 and despite being hunted by thousands of German troops, the kidnap party crossed the mountains and reached the south coast where they were picked up a British motor launch on 14 May. Kreipe was taken to Egypt for interrogatigation, later being imprisoned in Canada and then Wales. He was released in 1947.
Members of the machine gun unit are proudly posing after receiving their Iron Cross decorations. It is interesting to note that two of the men are wearing jack boots whilst the rest wear their Fallschirmjäger boots. Also note that some of the men are not wearing regulation belt buckles, notably the two men in the centre, who may well be officers in the unit. So outraged were the German authorities regarding the attacks on the paratroopers by Cretan civilians that Goering ordered Student to make a judicial enquiry and to carry out immediate reprisals. The process took three months and Judge Schlz, in a preliminary report written on 4 June 1941, wrote: ‘Many parachutists were subjected to inhumane treatment or mutilated [and] Greek civilians participated in the fight.’
A more balanced study showed that there were only around twenty-five cases on the entire island and most of these were post mortem injuries. At Kondomari sixty civilians were shot, at Kastelli Kissamou 200 Greek men were executed and special action squads roamed across the island indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and destroying villages.
This is another shot of the awards ceremony. Whilst Students Fallschirmjäger and the mountain troops had scored a remarkable victory over the Commonwealth troops on Crete it had been touch and go. They had suffered appalling casualties. As it was, Crete (as a strategic position) never lived up to either the Germans’ or the Allies’ expectations. Crete was never used as a major base against Allied forces in North Africa and Greece was never chosen as a primary target by the Allies; instead the first Allies to step foot back on the European mainland did so in Italy. Even Hitler concluded: ‘The day of the Fallschirmjäger is passed.’
Student referred to Crete as: ‘The grave of German airborne forces.’
A post-award ceremony celebration is shown in this photograph. The men are wearing a mixture of uniforms; some have the M1941 Luftwaffe cotton shirt or are wearing the tropical tunic and matching trousers. Others are more formally dressed, with their flieger blouse. Occupied Crete was ultimately divided into a German and an Italian zone. The east was Italian but the Germans occupied three of the provinces, with garrisons in the major towns and smaller outposts scattered throughout the countryside. The southern coast became a prohibited zone, with linked guard posts to try to prevent clandestine landings.
Another group of award winners assemble outside a Cretan house. Plieschen is second from the left in this picture. Considering the fact that the air assault on Rethymno had been a disaster and based on faulty intelligence, these men must have believed themselves incredibly lucky to still be alive. The Germans had launched an assault force of 22,000 men against the island; they suffered 6,500 casualties. Out of this total 3,352 had either been killed or were missing in action. British and Commonwealth forces suffered 3,500 casualties; around 1,700 had been killed and 12,000 had been taken prisoner in addition to 10,000 Greek troops. Operationally, the German airborne forces had done well but everything had been flawed due to the poor intelligence and lack of surprise. Had it not been for the officers and NCOs on the ground the Germans would undoubtedly have lost the battle for the island.
General Kurt Student inspects the unit in this photograph. He had joined the German army in 1910, initially serving as a light infantry officer. He began his pilot training in 1913 and in the period 1916 to 1917 shot down six French aircraft. Student worked hard to maintain the effectiveness of the German air force during the interwar years. In the early 1930s he became head of the Luftwaffe’s training schools and in July 1938 he became the commander of airbornee and air landing troops, taking up the role of the commander of the 7th Flieger Division. Student had flown into Crete on 23 May 1941 to personally supervise the battle. His medal ribbons included a wound badge, a Luftwaffe combined pilot and observer badge, and a World War One Imperial German Army pilot badge. After the war Student would be charged with war crimes that took place on Crete. He was sentenced to five years, but was released due to ill health after two years. Student was the holder of the Iron Cross, the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and a number of other awards.
This is a collection of German and British vehicles, which were photographed in Crete at some point after the capture of the island. Note the Orthodox Greek Church in the background. The 2nd Fallschirmjäger Regiment, consisting of the two battalions and the two machine gun companies, remained on Crete only until thehe beginning of June 1941 and Alfred Sturm remained in command of the regiment until September 1942. Confusingly, the regiment formed the nucleus of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division, but this was not until February 1943. The regiment, as an independent entity, would spend between October 1941 and July 1942 in Russia and would not return to Germany until that time. We also know that the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Regiment had been temporarily based at Plovdiv in Bulgaria in March 1941. This had been its first posting out of Germany since May 1940, when it had been involved in operations in Holland.
This is another photograph of some of the company during Student’s visit and inspection. In all likelihood this is at a former British base on the island. Note that many of the buildings to the rear of the men appear to have sustained roof damage. Some of these men may well have been involved in the attack on the Ce Corinth Canal that took place in the early hours of 26 April 1941. It was the only airborne operation that took place during the war without Students direct knowledge. The 2nd Fallschirmjäger Regiment had jumped in to secure the area around Corinth and mop up resistance. The 1st Battalion, under Kroh, had jumped to the north of the bridge; the 2nd Battalion, under Schirmer, had jumped to the south and the 3rd Battalion had dropped a day later, in the afternoon of 27 April.
This is the newly dug grave of Karl Matern, one of the men from the unit that were killed on 20 May 1941. Along with the collection of photographs was a list of the men that had all died on the same day or the day after. All of them had been killed on Vineyard Hill or Bloody Hill. This adds credence to the belief that Sergeant Plieschen had also been dropped in this immediate area. Matern was a gefreiter.
This is the grave of another German non-commissioned officer, Gerhard Scheunemann, also of the same machine gun company. He was probably a member of the headquarters unit.
Otto Schmidt’s grave is shown in this photograph. This man also fell on 20 May 1941. He was an oberinspektor, a senior technical officer, and therefore his primary role would have been predominantly administrative.
This is a close-up of the grave of Oberleutnant Kurt Glanz. The rank would have been awarded to Glanz as a commissioned officer after five or six years of active duty service. He was the adjutant of the machine gun company and would have worked closely with Major Erich Schulz. A number of the members of the headquarters unit had been killed on 20 or 21 May. Anotherr member that had worked closely with Schulz and Glanz, Wilhelm Binder, had been killed during the Corinth Canal operation on 26 April 1941.
This is the newly dug grave of Feldwebel Heinz Feuerstein, who was killed on 21 May 1941. Although many of these men from the unit were buried almost where they fell, the vast majority of them were later reburied at the German war cemetery near Maleme. The German cemetery that overlooks the airfield itself has 4,000 German troops buried there. A tablet is laid flat on the ground, one for each of the two men. There are also a number of small stone crosses. Incredibly, George Psychoundakis, a Cretan who operated with the SOE throughout the German occupation of the island, worked on tending the graves of the German dead after the war. The German War Graves Commissioner was amazed at the care and attention but surprised that Psychoundakis spoke no German. The Cretan’s reply was: ‘Well, there’s not much opportunity to learn it here. All the Germans I look after are dead.’
George Psychoundakis, also known as the Cretan Runner, died in 2006.
Another grave – this one is close to the sea, and holds the remains of Gefreiter Herbert Sutter. The Souda Bay area is dotted with cemeteries. There are 1,509 Second World War graves in the Souda Bay War Cemetery and of these 782 are unidentified. Some 85 km to the east of Souda Bay, on the old coast road at Stavromenos, is a memorial to British, Greek, Australian, and New Zealand and of course Cretan patriots. It consists of paved steps leading up to a terrace where there are two field guns, a pylon and a memorial wall with bronze plaques. The Australian Embassy in Athens takes care of its upkeep.