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 December, some 50,000 soldiers had been evacuated, but they were heavily damaged by the Luftwaffe, about 26 troop carriers were sunk, and the Germans captured some 7–8,000 Commonwealth (including 2,000 Sepjes and Palestinians) and Yugoslav soldiers who had not had time to retreat at Kalamata, while releasing many Italian prisoners of war from Allied prisoner of war camps.

The Wehrmacht took Yugoslavia in a month, and it stands to reason that the victory of the Wehrmacht was also brilliant, but the Wehrmacht grandson compared his own record with that of the SS, and was immediately dissatisfied, and the SS surrendered Denmark in four hours, and in 17 days defeated the Norwegian and British and French reinforcements, thus completely occupying Denmark and Norway. And the Wehrmacht also used 300,000 people, but it took a whole month to completely take Yugoslavia and Greece, which made the Wehrmacht's group of grandsons very unhappy.

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 Wehrmacht has not completely occupied the entire territory of Greece, and has left a "tail" on Crete, on which tens of thousands of British and Greek troops are stationed, and he is like a nail in Germany's back.

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 kilometers away from Malta Island in the west, about 520 kilometers away from the island of Cyprus in the east, 90 kilometers away from the Peloponnese Peninsula in the northwest, about 360 kilometers away from Tobruk, an important town in North Africa, and about 560 kilometers away from Alexandria in Egypt in the southeast. If the Germans occupied the island, they could not only control the eastern Mediterranean, threaten British positions in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, defend the Romanian oil fields from British air raids, but also use the island as an advance base for invading the Middle East. For the British, Crete was an outpost defending Egypt and the Suez Canal.

Both sides want to take Crete for themselves, which is destined to be stained red with blood, and who will become its new master can only depend on who is stronger and whose tactics are more suitable, everything is unknown.

After the Wehrmacht's grandsons took Greece after Yugoslavia, they looked back and saw that there was still a Crete island that had not been pocketed, and they hurriedly formulated a campaign plan to seize Crete, which was a complete strategic mistake, and they actually made a campaign plan on an improvised basis, and I don't know if the Wehrmacht's grandsons had "tofu dregs" in their heads.

The Wehrmacht had intended to use one and a half paratrooper divisions to parachute into the island's three airfields, two divisions to attack by beach-grabbing landings, two more air corps to assist in the attack, and the Italian fleet to provide escort protection for the landing force. Germany does not have any fleet in the Mediterranean, and the EU member states have a fleet in Italy that can provide this protection, and the Italian Navy was attacked twice by the British Navy at Taranto and Cape Matapan, and 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 Wehrmacht, which has no choice, changed its strategy and completely used paratroopers to seize Crete, To this end, the Wehrmacht: The Wehrmacht mobilized three paratrooper divisions for the Battle of Crete.

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The Germans were preparing to seize the island, the British and Greek defenders were of course preparing to defend the island, Britain had absolute naval superiority in the Mediterranean, but Germany had air superiority, and Britain's 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 **00,000, including about 14,000 Greek troops and about 50,000 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 January 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. 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 that the Central Battle Group had stopped 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 intended 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 of them, and the regiment did not capture the airfield until dusk.

The Eastern Battle Group was commanded by Colonel Brower, consisting of the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment, a total of 4 battalions, to seize the city of Iraklin and the airport, with Brower planning to use 1 battalion each to attack the city and the airport, and the other 2 battalions to provide flank cover on the east and west flanks respectively. However, departures were delayed and 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 landed, seeing that the situation was not good, he concentrated on attacking the airfield, but until it was dark, no progress was made.

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...... (To be continued.) )