At 7:30, the Germans captured the bridge. The 3rd Battalion happened to land at the preset positions of the 22nd and 23rd Battalions of the New Zealand Army, and all the officers and two-thirds of the soldiers of the battalion were killed and completely incapacitated. The 2nd and 4th battalions parachuted near the airfield and were unable to assemble into formed units after landing, and the situation was passive. The commander of the Western Battle Group, Colonel Maiendel, was seriously wounded during the landing. Due to the loss of combat effectiveness of the 3rd Battalion, it had to change its plan and attack the commanding heights near the airfield, Heights 107, and then seize the airfield. The German paratroopers suffered heavy losses, but made no progress.

The first airborne forces also included the 3rd Paratrooper Regiment of the Central Battle Group, which landed in the Galatus area near Chania, under the personal leadership of the commander of the 7th Airborne Division, Major General Sussman. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the glider on which Sussman and the division headquarters were flying crashed, and all Sussman and the division members were killed. The landing of the 3rd Paratrooper Regiment was too dispersed, and during the landing it came under intensive fire, resulting in considerable losses.

Among them, the 3rd Battalion landed in the defense area of the 4th Brigade of the New Zealand Army and was almost completely annihilated. The 1st and 2nd battalions were forced to build fortifications on the spot under the attack of the British and moved to the defense. Due to the interruption of German communications, Student did not know that the first attack wave had suffered a serious setback, but still organized the second attack wave according to the original plan to carry out airborne attacks on Rethymnon and Erachrin.

The transport planes transporting the first attack wave returned to the departure airfields one after another, and due to the chaotic landing order, several crashed planes blocked the runway, which even affected the landing of subsequent planes, and the loss of planes in the landing was even much greater than the combat losses. At noon, Student learned that the Marama airfield was still in the hands of the British, and soon received a report from the Airborne Forces in the Chania area. The Central Battle Group halted its offensive due to heavy casualties. Student immediately organized a second wave of reinforcements.

The second German attack wave was disorganized, and by 16 o'clock, most of the aircraft were still at the airfield. After landing piecemeal over Crete, the airdrop lasted intermittently for more than three hours. The losses were even more heavy due to the delay in the take-off time and the absence of air cover from fighters. The central battle group landed in Rethymnon, and the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment were originally planned to land on the east and west sides of the airfield and attack the airfield centripetally. Due to the large dispersion of paratrooper landings, only one company of the 1st Battalion landed at the scheduled landing site, and the regimental commander, Colonel Slim, and the regimental headquarters and two companies directly under it landed at the Australian position, killing and wounding more than half. Until dusk. The regiment also did not seize the airfield.

The Eastern Battle Group, commanded by Colonel Brower, consisted of the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment, a total of 4 battalions, to seize the city of Eraculin and the airport. Brower planned to use one battalion each to attack the city and the airfield. The other two battalions provided flank cover on the east and west flanks. But the departure time was delayed. A further 600 people were stranded at the departure airport due to the loss of aircraft. The airborne landing lasted more than two hours, the landing was scattered, and the formation was chaotic. After Brower's landing. Seeing that the situation was not good, they concentrated on attacking the airfield, but until it was dark, there was no progress.

In Athens, Student realized that the situation was unfavorable, none of the three airfields had been successful, the landing force lacked unified command, suffered heavy casualties, and was in high danger of total annihilation. At that time, the Germans had been attacking the Marama airfield and its southern commanding heights, the 107 heights. The 22nd Battalion of the New Zealand Army, which defended the airfield, had four infantry companies under its command, and its strength was evenly distributed between the airfield and the 107th Heights. The battalion headquarters was located on the 107 heights. During the fierce fighting, contact between the airfield and the defenders of the high ground was lost. In the afternoon, the defenders of the heights withdrew to the top of the hill, and in the absence of reinforcements, the commander lost confidence in holding out and withdrew after receiving permission.

At this time, the German Western Battle Group was also very difficult and had to stop the offensive. At midnight, the Germans, who were less than 600 men, made a final blow with all their might, sneaking up on the west and south flanks, but unexpectedly, the British had withdrawn from the high ground. After daybreak, the Germans condescendingly captured the Marama airfield. The gains and losses of the 107 Heights directly affected the gains and losses of the Marama Airport, which in turn determined the victory or defeat of the Battle of Crete......

In the early morning of the 5th, Student airborne 600 paratroopers stranded at the airport landed at Marama Airport. At 16 o'clock, the 5th Mountain Division arrived by plane, and by sunset, a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division had landed with planes, and the strength of the German army was markedly enhanced, and the tide of the battle began to change in favor of the German army.

The British communications system was severely damaged by heavy German air raids, and Freiberg was not informed in time of the loss of the Marama airfield, and missed the opportunity to recapture the airfield. When he learned of the situation in Marama, he ordered a counterattack to be carried out overnight. Unfortunately, the order was not delivered in time, and the British army launched a counterattack at dawn on the 22nd. The road near the airfield was heavily attacked by German aviation, and the counterattack was ineffective.

At Rethymnon and Erachrin, the Germans still did not turn around, and even the commander of the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment, Colonel Slim, who was commanded by Rethymnon, was captured in battle. After dawn on the 7th, the Luftwaffe forced the British Navy to withdraw to Alexandria. The Germans then sent heavy equipment and troops to Crete from the sea, and the situation on the island was further favorable to the Germans.

The Germans completely occupied the Marama region and began an offensive on Chania. Major General Lingel, commander of the 5th Parachute Division, arrived on the island and took over command of the Western Battle Group. On the same day, the Western Combat Group and the Central Combat Group joined forces. Lingel commanded a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division and the remnants of the Gliding Assault Regiment and the 3rd Parachute Regiment to attack Chania with all their might.

On the 5th, the Germans broke through the Chania Line. On the 11th, the Germans captured the city of Chania. On the 7th, the Germans occupied Suda Bay. At the same time, a reinforced regiment of Italian troops landed on the eastern shore of Crete. On the 13th, the Germans occupied Rethymnon and joined up with the Airborne Forces near Erachrin. On April 15, 1940, the Germans completely occupied Crete.

The Cretan Airborne Campaign lasted 7 days and ended with the German occupation of Crete. In the battle, the Germans suffered a total of 14,000 casualties in battle and missing, including Major General Sussman, commander of the 7th Airborne Division, and lost 220 aircraft, including 179 transport aircraft. The German airborne division, which suffered huge losses in the battle, lost more than 15,000 people, nearly three-quarters of the three paratrooper divisions; A total of 9,500 people were wounded in the airborne troops who participated in the battle, accounting for a third of the total.

Due to the huge losses of the German Airborne Forces in this campaign, Crete was called the "grave of the German paratroopers". The British Commonwealth troops on Crete suffered 1,700 killed and 15,000 wounded, and the navy suffered about 2,000 casualties, totaling about 18,000. The Greek army suffered about 6,000 prisoners and about 3,000 casualties, for a total of nearly 10,000 casualties.

The total Allied casualties were about 28,000. Three cruisers and six destroyers of the British Navy were sunk, and one aircraft carrier, three battleships, six cruisers and seven destroyers were damaged. The resistance of the British troops in Crete actually helped Malta indirectly, because after the fighting in Crete, the German high command had no airborne troops to participate in. But Li Mo still has the upper paratrooper division in his hand, and these three paratrooper divisions are the basis for Li Mo to launch the airborne operation on Malta Island.

The Battle of Crete continued the myth of German invincibility, and the Germans paid 1/2 of the casualties. The loss of personnel was not the most terrible, but the real fatal thing was that this battle completely lost the confidence of Hitler and his generals to fight with paratroopers, and for more than two years after that, this devil's army was reduced to the embarrassing situation of being in the company of ordinary infantry.

…… (To be continued......)

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