Taking back Crete

We all know how Crete fell to the Germans. But I have not been able to find out how the Allies took back Crete. Was it ever invaded? Did the Germans abandon it or was it manned until the surrender?

 

I think the Allied tried to take some eastern Med islands in autumn 1944 and Germans sent troops to take them back, which strategically, was the best choice for Germans of course....Uncle Adolf´s wisdom again. Like they did not need troops elsewehere.

So I think after that the islands stayed in German hands until the war was over.

 

The Germans withdrew from Crete - almost bloodlessly - during October 1944, at the same time that their forces were abandoning mainland Greece.

OSS and SOE agents were heavily involved in Crete at the time, and in fact the Allies were more concerned that harassment to the Germans from partisans of ELAS ( Nationalist ) and EOK ( Communist ) would lead to a civilian bloodbath as reprisal from the German forces.

After the Germans withdrew, the Allies were again concerned about fighting between ELAS & EOK and a possible Communist takeover.

I must say that it is extremely complex to read about ; there's a very good account of all this in Antony Beevor's book 'Crete'.

 

Thanx for remembering it better Martin!

 

( I couldn't remember it, Kai - I had to go and look it up in the book ! )

 

Interesting. i did some digging myself on the subject... a while back...

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/13347-war-aegean-oct-1944-july-45-a.html

 

didn't the Nazis drop some paratroopers over Crete but they all got slaughtered?

 

The Germans originally invaded Crete by using paratroopers dropped from Ju 52s. They did indeed take very heavy losses - so much so, that the Germans never again launched major paratroop operations. But the British and Dominion forces on Crete overestimated the strength of the Germans and underestimated their own position - and the Germans won the battle.

Again, Beevor's book gives an excellent account of the story.

 

Depends how you look at it.

Students pre-operation casualty estimates for Merkur suggested around 1 in 3 Fallschirmjager would become casualties... a rather profound and accurate estimation. He realised the operation would be heavy in losses but he was of the opinion that airborne operations would always be due to the nature of the beast, as had been the case in Norway and Holland.

The real problem for the Germans, and the reason that strategic airborne operations were curtailed was the losses in transport aircraft and crews. Crete bled the transport fleets white and when added to the losses in Holland and Norway, it was losses they could not replace or afford. It is also interesting to note the knock-on effect that losses in airborne operations had on Luftwaffe bomber crew training as many of the transport crews were made up from those assigned to training bomber crews as it was felt that a high degree of accuracy was required when dropping paratroopers.

After Crete Germany only carried out smaller tactical airborne operations but they did not stop the planning and indeed preparation for large strategic operations. Till the end of the war, large amounts of parachutes were kept ready for airborne operations and development of gliders continued as the Germans saw them as a better means of delivery than the parachute. Later German operations laid some of the groundwork for post-war special forces doctrine showing the possibilities of a vertically deployed force in undertaking tactical operations.