Kreta – Sieg der Kuhnsten [Crete – Victory of the Boldest]

A German commemoration of the Battle for Crete.

The island of Crete has long been an important lynchpin in the strategic defensive and transportation network of the Mediterranean. In 1941, a large-scale Axis airborne invasion, the first of its kind, took place to secure the island from its coalition of defenders that included armed locals and troops from Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and Greece. Despite a valiant defense, the Germans captured Crete after about two weeks of fighting and held it until the end of the war. This necessitated changes to Allied strategy in the Mediterranean but was ultimately perhaps less critical than the possible alternative of losing Gibraltar or Malta.

This volume is a German commemoration of the Battle of Crete and the subsequent occupation of the island. An introduction by Hermann Goring is followed by 30 pages of text that provide a decidedly one-sided perspective of the engagement. The heroics of Stuka dive bombers, paratroopers, and reinforcing naval units are highly exaggerated, and references to the armed local inhabitants (validating any measure of responsive violence), superhuman German soldiers, and ‘Cretan Dunkirk’ reflect the vindictive attitude of racial superiority that was pervasive in much of the Wehrmacht. Several dozen pages of photographs contrast images of corpses and rubble with exciting battle scenes and cheering soldiers. An interesting preview into the perspectives of a German soldier while the Third Reich was ascendant across Europe and beyond.