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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1231.PDF
MAY 29TH, 1941. f War in Paratroops, Gliders and Air Transports Invade Crete WITH the first streak of dawn ofMay 20th German parachutetroops opened a full-scale in- vasion of the Island of Crete. Why the enemy need to occupy Crete is obvious, because it threatens the flank of any further drive they may make through Syria to Irak. If Crete is captured by the Germans, then it is to be ex- pected that an attempt will then be made on Cyprus for the same reason. In order to obtain a clear picture of the pros and cons it is necessary to note the positions of the aerodromes available to the opposing sides. The nearest point of Greece to Crete is only some 60 miles away and the Greek aerodromes are less than 150 miles from the island. On Crete itself there are several areas which are referred to in war communiques as aerodromes, but these are actually only in the nature of emergency landing grounds. The three which are of any real account are at Maleme, Retimo and Heraklion. The North African coast from which we must operate is about 200 miles distant. Owing to the in- adequacy of the landing grounds in ALL ABOARD : The air crew of a long-nosed Blenheim prepare for a daylightsweep over Northern France. The twin Brownings in the gun turret are a vast improvement on the single Lewis gunned Blenheim Mk I. Crete our fighters had been withdrawn shortly before the attack materialised. The Germans opened the battle with terrific bombing—both level and dive —of the A.A. positions, towns, har- bours and military works, and then landed some 1,500 air-borne troops to SUBTERRANEAN AIRMEN : A group including some South African officersand N.C.O.s of the R.A.F. after their recent release from captivity at Asmara. In order to escape they had dug a tunnel from the inside of the hut they were sleepingin, one hundred and five feet long, and needed to dig a further fifteen feet to complete it. The work was started on January 9th and progressed at the rate ofa foot-and-a-half a day ; making detours round rocks they came across in their digging, each man working for thirty-five minutes at a time. establish a foothold. These troops, it has been officially stated, were wear- ing New Zealand battledress, but this has been denied by the Germans, who say they have a colonial uniform which may be similar. By midday the same day our military authorities reported the situation to be in hand, with most of the invaders mopped up. Air Divisions T ATER in the afternoon, after further •*-"* intensive attacks by divebombing Junkers Ju 87s and ground-strafing Messerschmitts, another concentration of troops was dropped in the area around Suda Bay. Presumably the idea was to hold the port, the only one in Crete, in order that ship-transported supplies could be unloaded during the night. Within two hours the majority of these men had been accounted for. The actual number of air troops em- ployed by the Germans for the initial invasion attempt is not known with any exactitude, but the expectation is that at least one, if not two, air-borne divisions, of 7,000 effectives each, were employed. A German air-borne division consists of two brigades of infantry each of three battalions, a brigade of artillery with 24 3m. guns, an anti-tank battalion with 37-mm. high-velocity guns and a number of specialised units. For transport the troops are expected to seize vehicles locally. Each infantry brigade has an infantry-gun company equipped with
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