Quote:
Originally Posted by Rundstedt
If 45,000 troops on Crete with rifles or hand guns took out one German each then there would be no need to evacuate, Crete holds, no the British general staff on the island paniced and fled. I will never cut anyone slack if they out number their opponent three to one and still with weapons and still capitulate. Imagine they stood fast and wiped out those 15,000, i bet Hitler would not even try to attack Crete again, it was after this that Hitler forbade the deployment of the Fallschirmjeager ever again.
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I don't know about your numbers, or your hasty judgement, but you have to remember the German paratroopers were fresh, elite troops with all their equipment, with an undefeated record and air superiority. On the other hand, the Allied armies had really expected to hold the mainland, so by the time they retreated to Crete they were pretty beaten-up. There actually was some pretty hard fighting but the problem with the numbers is that once the Germans got the airfield, they could pretty much continue to reinforce and resupply, whereas the Allies had to run a gauntlet just to get there by sea. 15,000 would have rapidly turned into enough troops to overwhelm the remaining defenders.