The Germans parachuted into the bridge over the Corinth Canal, which had the dual purpose of cutting off the British retreat route and covering their entry into the Isthmus of Corinth, and the attack was successful in the early stages, until the bridge was destroyed by mistake by a British shell, and the German 1st Motorized Brigade assembled at Ioannina to prepare for the march through Arta along the foothills west of the Bandus Mountains towards Misolongi, and at Patras across the Peloponnese and from the west into the isthmus, When they arrived at 5:30 p.m. on July 27, it became known that the paratroopers had been replaced by troops from Athens.

The erection of a temporary bridge over the Corinth Canal allowed the 5th Panzer Division to cross the Peloponnesa in pursuit of the enemy, and as they passed through Argos to Kalamata they found that most of the Allied units had retreated, and they reached the southern coast on 29 July 1940, where they joined up with the Armed Guards from Pyrgos, where they fought sporadically with a number of Allied forces isolated and untimely on board in the Peloponnesa......

The attack was several days late in cutting off the British retreating from central Greece, but they still surrounded the Australian 16th Infantry Regiment and the Australian 17th Infantry Regiment. On 30 July, some 50,000 troops had been evacuated, but they were heavily damaged by the Luftwaffe, some 26 troop carriers were sunk, and the Germans captured about 7–8,000 Commonwealth (including 2,000 Sepjes and Palestinians) and Yugoslav soldiers who had not had time to retreat at Kalamata, and released many Italian prisoners of war from Allied prisoner of war camps.

In addition, Greece also has a large island of 8,300 square kilometers - Crete has not yet been taken by Germany, that is, the German high command has not completely occupied the entire territory of Greece. Also left a "tail" on the island of Crete, on which tens of thousands of British and Greek troops were stationed, he was like a nail in the back of Germany.

Crete is pinched on the Mediterranean route, and if Limer wants to open the route from Italy to North Africa, he must first take Crete and Malta.

Located in the Eastern Mediterranean, at the confluence of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the largest island in the Aegean Sea. It is about 810 km from Malta Island to the west, 520 km from Cyprus Island to the east and 90 km from the Peloponnese Peninsula to the northwest. It is across the sea from Tobruk, an important town in North Africa. It is about 360 kilometers and about 560 kilometers southeast of Alexandria in Egypt, and its strategic position is extremely important.

If the Germans occupied the island, they would be able to control the eastern Mediterranean. Threaten British positions in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Defend Romanian oil fields from British air raids. The island could also be used as an advance base for invasions of the Middle East. For the British, Crete was an outpost defending Egypt and the Suez Canal.

Both sides want to take Crete for themselves, and it is destined that this Crete will be stained red with blood. Who will become its new owner in the end can only depend on who is stronger and whose tactics are more suitable, everything is unknown.

After the group of grandsons of the high command took Yugoslavia and Greece, they looked back and saw that there was actually a Crete island that was not in the bag, and they hurriedly formulated a campaign plan to seize Crete, which was a complete strategic mistake, and they actually formulated a campaign plan temporarily, and I don't know if the grandsons of the German command had "tofu dregs" in their heads.

The High Command originally intended to use one and a half paratrooper divisions to parachute into the island to seize the three airfields on the island, and also to use two divisions to attack by means of a beach-rushing landing, with two air corps to assist in the attack, and at the same time the Italian fleet to provide escort protection for the landing force.

Germany does not have any fleet in the Mediterranean, and among the EU member states, Italy has a fleet that can provide this protection, and the Italian navy was attacked twice by the British navy in Taranto and Cape Matapan, and it is unable to escort the landing force at sea, without an escort fleet, the German transport ships can only be the dishes of British and French submarines, and tens of thousands of German troops will be ruthlessly sent into the arms of the sea by those British and French submarines, and the German high command, which has no choice, changed its strategy and completely used paratroopers to seize Crete, To this end, the High Command mobilized three paratrooper divisions for the Battle of Crete. These three paratrooper divisions are not the three commanded by Li Mo.

……

Germany is preparing to seize the island, the British and Greek defenders are of course preparing to defend the island, Britain has absolute naval superiority in the Mediterranean, but Germany has air superiority, British Churchill also ordered the British Mediterranean fleet to send troops and materials to Crete as far as possible, and the British army sent 6,000 troops to Crete. Together with the Greek and British troops who retreated from Greece one after another, the total number was about 64,000, including about 14,000 Greek troops and about 50,000 British Commonwealth troops. Major General Freiberg, commander of the New Zealand Division, was appointed commander of the Cretan garrison, with unified command of the island's troops.

British intelligence had the details of the German airborne operations and the possible date of the attack, and immediately informed the defenders whether Britain had deciphered the German Engel code, and now no one knows, perhaps the British spies got the code. Freiberg believed that the main forces of the German army landed from the sea, and the airborne assault was nothing more than the capture of airfields and ports.

Therefore, the Suda Bay and Marama airports are the key defenses, and the support point defense system is formed with them as the core, and the whole island is divided into four independent defense areas: the Malama Defense Zone, the Suda Bay Defense Zone, the Resim Agricultural Defense Zone, and the Eraclin Defense Zone. One brigade of the New Zealand Army and one battalion of the British Army were deployed as reserves in the Malama Defense Area and the Suda Bay Defense Area. There are only 36 tanks, which are attached to three airfields. Three light anti-aircraft artillery batteries and two heavy anti-aircraft artillery batteries were responsible for anti-aircraft defense.

The British army camouflaged the support points, set up false positions and false targets, and maximized the use of complex terrain to deploy firepower. Replenishment was the greatest difficulty in the preparation of the British defense, and the daily unloading of supplies at the port dropped from the initial 700 tons to only 300 tons. Based on the example of the German invasion of Denmark and Norway and the landing of planes on roads, airports, beaches and other areas, Freiberg believed that the German army did not rely on the airfield strongly, and the British army would still use the airfield, so the airfield was not destroyed.

The German campaign was divided into two attack waves, each assault on about one and a half paratrooper divisions, with a strength of 15,000 troops, and two waves of 30,000 men, the first wave of attacks in the western areas of Malim and Port Suda, and then, after the planes carrying the first wave of troops, the second wave of raids on the areas of Rethymnon and Erachrin. The two waves will be reinforced by paratroopers, supported by airborne troops, followed by a landing force at sea, until the entire island is occupied. The German air force included the 8th and 11th Air Forces of the 4th Air Force (433 bombers, 233 fighters, 500 transport aircraft, 50 reconnaissance aircraft, and 72 transport gliders)

At 4:30 a.m. on August 4, 1940, the first German attack wave took off. At 5 a.m., the German 8th Air Army made heavy aviation fire preparations for the Marama, Iraklin airfields, and the city of Chania. At about 7 o'clock, the Western Combat Group, commanded by Colonel Maiendall, consisting of the Gliding Assault Regiment (with four battalions under its jurisdiction), flew to the Marama airfield. After the landing of the 1st Battalion, the main force attacked the airfield from the west, and the other part attacked the only bridge over the Tawilanitis River, which connected the east and west coasts of the island.

…… (To be continued......)

PS: Thanks:

Big alcohol and small defects rewarded 588 starting coins [2014-12-1716:16