The Battle of Crete
| The Battle of Crete: Important or Insignificant? |
The Battle of Crete began May 20th, 1941. Nazi Germany launched an airborne attack called Operation Merkur or Operation Mercury on the island of Crete. This battle will be important because it will hold great influence over the course of the war in the means of power. The Greek, Allied forces and even civilians attempted to defend the island and after day one the Germans suffered heavy casualties. The next day, the Allies were confident they could gain control back but they would have miscommunications that would lead to Germany gaining Maleme Airfield and flying in reinforcements to overwhelm the defenders of the island. This research is being used to answer the question why the Axis powers and the Allied powers believed that having power over Crete was such an advantage to each side of the Second World War. Overall, this paper will reflect the reasons why historians believed Crete was or was not important to the history of the Second World War. The Battle of Crete was unprecedented in three aspects. First, this was the first battle in which German paratroopers were used in massive scale and also the first mainly airborne invasion in history. Second, this was the first battle that the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the deciphered German enigma code. Thirdly, it was the first time that invading German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Many of these aspects form questions that can be brought about to be answered from different historians views on the war and tactics. Historians such as Antony Beevor, Callum MacDonald and James Sadkovich question why Hitler felt it was important to capture the island of Crete and why an airborne invasion was the solution to this capture. Owning the island of Crete would prove its importance and the technologies used would come to help in future battles during World War II and future wars. The possession of Crete provided
The Battle of Crete began May 20th, 1941. Nazi Germany launched an airborne attack called Operation Merkur or Operation Mercury on the island of Crete. This battle will be important because it will hold great influence over the course of the war in the means of power. The Greek, Allied forces and even civilians attempted to defend the island and after day one the Germans suffered heavy casualties. The next day, the Allies were confident they could gain control back but they would have miscommunications that would lead to Germany gaining Maleme Airfield and flying in reinforcements to overwhelm the defenders of the island. This research is being used to answer the question why the Axis powers and the Allied powers believed that having power over Crete was such an advantage to each side of the Second World War. Overall, this paper will reflect the reasons why historians believed Crete was or was not important to the history of the Second World War. The Battle of Crete was unprecedented in three aspects. First, this was the first battle in which German paratroopers were used in massive scale and also the first mainly airborne invasion in history. Second, this was the first battle that the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the deciphered German enigma code. Thirdly, it was the first time that invading German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Many of these aspects form questions that can be brought about to be answered from different historians views on the war and tactics. Historians such as Antony Beevor, Callum MacDonald and James Sadkovich question why Hitler felt it was important to capture the island of Crete and why an airborne invasion was the solution to this capture. Owning the island of Crete would prove its importance and the technologies used would come to help in future battles during World War II and future wars. The possession of Crete provided