The Battle of Crete: Storm from the Sky 1941: Then and Now

Operation _Merkur_, the German airborne invasion of Crete, is an iconic operation in military history.It pitched an elite airborne division against Creforce, a rag-tag force of British and Commonwealth escapees from Greece.The outcome to the Germans seemed assured. Yet, not only had the Germans underestimated the size of the defending force, they lacked an appreciation of the willingness to fight of the defenders, and had wrongly understood the reception they would receive from the Cretan civilians.To add to their woes their uniforms were ill-suited to the climate and other conditions they were to encounter on the island, and the dropping of their primary weapons in separate containers proved to be a grave doctrinal error. For many of the fallschirmjäger, the events of the first day ensured that this turned into a struggle for their own personal survival as the need for water and ammunition became paramount, while being hunted by Allied troops and civilians alike.It was a disaster and