The Battle of Crete

The Battle of Crete

The battle that I chose as the focus of this paper was the battle of Crete which took place during World War 2 and was the first time in history that an airborne assault was conducted. The two forces involved in this battle included Nazi Germany and Allied forces. For this battle I am going to focus on the German side and analyze Hitler’s purpose of this assault, outcome and a lesson learned from this battle. The island of Crete was the home to several allied airfields and harbors which threatened German operations. Hitler wanted to end the allied occupation of this island and also take over the airfields and harbors as he believed them to be key infrastructures that could give his German forces an advantage in the war. Hitler’s intent for this battle was to conduct an assault on Crete in order to destroy the allied forces occupying the island and to occupy key infrastructures essential to his operations in the war. His intent led to the ordering of a direct assault on Crete which was titled, “Operation Mercury.” (pg.194)

Hitler’s concept for this operation was to conduct the first ever full scale airborne assault in the history of the war as he was aware of the Germans air superiority. Conducting the assault would be the well trained paratroopers from the 7th Air Division. Hitler wanted to begin the assault on the island with two waves on the first day and seize several key airfields in which little resistance was expected. Once this was accomplished he would then send reinforcements to the captured airfields and then together these forces would further pursue the remaining enemy forces. Altogether 15,750 airborne and 7,000 seaborne troops were planned to be used. Supporting these airborne forces would be several bombers, fighters, and recon aircrafts that was hoped would deter the allied navy forces from interfering with the mission. (pg.195)

The operation began on the 20 May 1941 and airborne operations began. Things...