Ultimate Blitzkrieg: WW2: Battle of Crete: Episode 3 - Occupation

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Episode 3: Occupation
The resulting German and Italian occupation of Crete was marred by massacres on both
sides : of both German soldiers and Greek partisans and civilians. More than 8,000 Cretans
lost their lives in the resistance .When 20,000 Italians surrendered in 1943 they were made
POWs too but almost a third drowned at sea after German merchant ships carrying them to
the mainland were torpedoed by British submarines. These forgotten tragedies constituted
one of the world’s biggest maritime disasters. In all more than 20,000 people from all sides
lost their lives in the Cretan conflict. The British intelligence service, known as the SOE,
assisted what became one of the most successful resistance movements of the war .It helped
rescue Allied soldiers who had been abandoned on the island and involved agents such as
archeologist John Pendulbury, known as “the Cretan Lawrence” and writer and adventurer
Patrick Leigh Fermor who staged the famous kidnap of the German commander of Crete with
William Moss. Crete was one of the last places surrendered by the Nazis right at the end of
the war. German soldiers had to be escorted off the island by the British for fear of reprisals.
Two German commanders on the island were executed by firing squad for war crimes. It took
more than 30 years before the 4,000 German dead were properly buried on the island. They
were stored in a monastery as claims for reparations dragged on. They have still not been
settled today.

[ted]

The German behavior in Crete during WW2 was inexcusable. Absolute animals.

[KateLicker]

Just watched the first 2 parts of this series on SBS TV...it is worthwhile, but many basic factual errors. 1. HMS Fiji and HMS Gloucester were NOT sister ships or same class.Different types. 2. The Germans did NOT lose more men on Crete than they had on entire Blitzkrieg in Western Europe so far...it is quite plausible that Crete might have cost more German --parachute troops -- than those lost in war previously so far, but this was not how the claim was framed. Germans lost about 3000 men KIA on Crete. Clearly they did not take Poland, Norway, France, Belgium and Netherlands and then Yugoslavia/Greece for less than 3000 men total, even though it probably was a lot cheaper than it should have been. 3. The Bf109 CGI shown is an F or G model, although F-model was around in May 1941 probably only Battle of Britain style E-models were used in Greece/Crete. The JU87 and JU52s shown and maybe the Me110 shown, looked about right to me. And 4. "Fallschirm" does not mean 'sky' in German, it means what it sort of hints at meaning. Parachute. Fall, get it? Fallschirmjaeger" does not therefore mean 'sky-hunter" means, "Parachute fighter/hunter".There were other mistakes, but this was as many as I could retain mental notes on. Goodness me. With error-making this basic on our side, no wonder they beat us again in this case.