In contrast to the Greek mainland, the Nazis occupied most of Crete between 1941 - 45. After the German troops' defeat in North Africa, Crete was turned into a fortress. This study examines the goals, methods and effectiveness of the German occupation policy, the reactions of the Cretan administration and of the population in particular, and also describes the opponents' combat operations. The study is based not only on written papers, documents and files of Greek, Cretan, British and German origin, but also on letters, manuscripts, expos'es and interviews by and with contemporary witnesses.

After a ten-day, hard-fought battle against the German invader, Crete lay conquered. However, Cretan resistance was so fierce that with the battle concluded, the Nazi conqueror was intent on punishing the entire Cretan population.

George Psychoundakis was a twenty-one-year-old shepherd from the village of Asi Gonia when the battle of Crete began: “It was in May 1941 that, all of a sudden, high in the sky, we heard the drone of many aeroplanes growing steadily closer.” The German parachutists soon outnumbered the British troops who were forced first to retreat, then to evacuate, before Crete fell to the Germans. So began the Cretan Resistance and the young shepherd’s career as a wartime runner. In this unique account of the Resistance, Psychoundakis records the daily life of his fellow Cretans, his treacherous journeys on foot from the eastern White Mountains to the western slopes of Mount Ida to transmit messages and transport goods, and his enduring friendships with British officers (like his eventual translator Patrick Leigh Fermor) whose missions he helped to carry out with unflagging courage, energy, and good humor. Includes thirty-two black-and-white photographs and a map.

"[This] is the story of all those Greeks, Allies and Germans who lived and witnessed every moment of the eleven-day battle of Crete, the one and only air-borne invasion in history. Combined with the six-month Greek epic on Mainland Greece this epoch-making campaign greatly contributed in turning the tide of World War II in favour of the Allies. This book is an anthology of authentic testimonies. Supported by letters, diaries, poems, photographs, sketches, it recaptures ... the 'feel' of this fateful battle"--P. [4] of cover.

Acclaimed historian and best-selling author Antony Beevor vividly brings to life the epic struggles that took place in Second World War Crete - reissued with a new introduction. 'The best book we have got on Crete' Observer The Germans expected their airborne attack on Crete in 1941 - a unique event in the history of warfare - to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. They had no idea that the British, using Ultra intercepts, knew their plans and had laid a carefully-planned trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle round. Nor did the conflict end there. Ferocious Cretan freedom fighters mounted a heroic resistance, aided by a dramatic cast of British officers from Special Operations Executive.

May 2011 marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Crete. It was in this battle that the new Airborne Forces' weapon was deployed for the first time in history. It was a venture that war history had never seen before, especially since the Cretan defenders knew the plans of the Germans in detail from wartime signals intelligence (Ultra) and had prepared themselves accordingly. Starting from Clausewitz's famous statement that war is the continuation of politics by other means, Heinz A. Richter's study does not view the Battle of Crete in isolation as a purely military event, but as part of the then political and military confrontation between the British world and its allies with the Axis powers. Thus, as far as the prehistory is concerned, the presentation is also a piece of history of diplomacy. At the same time, the different strategic concepts of the two parties involved are analyzed, taking into account the partly divergent internal German plans of the army on the one hand and the navy and air force on the other. The operational planning of both sides are discussed in detail. Finally, the tactical implementation and parallel effects in the Middle East and London are observed in the description of the battle itself. The volume is the English edition of the study, which was published in German and Greek in 2011. In addition to revisions and amendments, it contains an extra chapter describing the events after 2011.

For ten dramatic and bitterly fought days in May, 1941, British Commonwealth and Greek soldiers fought with the valiant assistance of Cretan civilians -- men and women, young and old -- to hold their island against a Nazi onslaught. This is the documented story of the one of the most important yet least acknowledged battles of World War II.