225 - Hill 107 and the Battle of Crete

On the morning of May 20, 1941, the Germans launched Operation Mercury. The invasion of Crete was the largest airborne operation yet attempted during the war, with thousands of Fallschirmjäger deployed.

Key to the operation's success would be the capture of the airfield at Maleme. Outnumbered and having suffered horrendous casualties, when the airborne troops secured Hill 107, overlooking the airfield, it opened the door for reinforcements and, ultimately, the Allied withdrawal from the island.

For this episode, I'm joined by Robert Kershaw, a now-regular show participant who was last with us to discuss Dunkirk. He has a new book available, The Hill: The Brutal Fight for Hill 107 in the Battle of Crete.

[carthy]

9 allied battalions sat idle on day one and didnt reinforce hill 107, read it in a book recently, the loss of hill 107 was the decisive battle in crete, the germans then were able to fly in reinforments into airfield and eventually take crete - the allies could have won it on day one too, it was close run thing

[cybertronian]

Crete is such a frustrating one, could easily have been the Western Allies' first major victory over Germany on land but it was cocked up so badly by the commanders on the ground.