Crete 1999 Background

On the morning of May 20, 1941, Germany launched what was, at that time, the largest airborne assault in history. Codenamed Merkur (Mercury), their objective, the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Germans had just completed the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece, forcing British troops who had come to the aid of Greece to once again evacuate the European mainland. The struggle for Crete would be the final act of the Balkan campaign and allow the Germans to concentrate their forces and attention on the imminent invasion of the Soviet Union.

Crete was strategically valuable at this stage of the war for several reasons: in German hands they could use Crete as a springboard to simultaneously threaten Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt and the Suez canal; in British hands it provided the RAF with a base in range of the Ploesti oilfields, lifeblood of the German war effort. It would also assure Royal Navy control of the Eastern Med.

Hitler committed his entire airborne force to the operation, Kurt Student's Fliegerkorps XI. Veterans of the fighting in Holland, Belgium and Norway, the four regiments of Fallschirmjager were among Germany's best-trained troops. But the Germans knew that the paratroops could not sustain themselves in action for long without immediate reinforcement by the heavy weapons that were unable to drop with them. They realized - as did the British - that ultimate success lay in the quick capture of one of Crete's three airfields: Maleme, Heraklion or Retimo. Primitive as they were, thousands would fight and die to possess them.

Opposing them were Commonwealth troops - Brits, Ausies, New Zealander and Greeks. The vast majority were recent evacuees from Greece, tired, harried and facing acute shortages of ammunition, tools, heavy weapons and basic amenities. But there were twice as many of them as the Germans expected, as they would soon discover to their misfortune. Overall command was given to Gen Bernard Freyberg, a legendary recipient of the Victoria Cross in the First World War, who had, unaccompanied, swum the Hellespont during the Gallipoli campaign.

The first wave of glider and paratroops targeted Maleme airfield and the Commonwealth command center near the capital of Canea - both defended by New Zealanders -- while later in the afternoon following waves dropped on Heraklion and Retimo. These later drops were a complete debacle, and, to the Germans who survived, their objectives must have seemed far out of reach. As the German command in Athens agonized over the fate of the first day's drops, it became clear that a desperate decision had to be made to salvage the situation on day 2 - where to commit the last remaining parachute reserves to tip the balance.

Assault on Crete is a tactical campaign simulating the first decisive days of the struggle for Maleme airfield, the Prison Valley, Galatas Hills and Canea. Players are right in the middle of the fight as battalion, regimental and division commanders. On the rugged terrain of Crete you will not conduct sweeping maneuvers with huge panzer armies or fight over famous cities. You will be lucky to have a handful of tanks under your command, and even then they might prove useless and unreliable. There is little artillery and not much leeway to practice combined arms tactics by the book. Where's the fun in all that? A closer look reveals that there are different decisions to be made than you are probably accustomed to.

As the Germans, your parachute troops will no doubt be scattered unpredictably around the island. On top of that you will find that they are also mostly unarmed and considerably outnumbered! Your first order of business will be to assemble a coherent fighting force, gather your equipment and move on your objectives. If you're lucky, your men will drop out of range of the Kiwis, but perhaps you will land right in the middle of them. Then you can display your improvisational skills as you attempt to merely stay alive. Your force will melt away before your eyes, but they are elite troops, and even a few of them can make life miserable for the Allies if you keep your head about you.

Hold on they must, for friends are on the way - but only if they can capture the airfield. Oh, and don't run out of ammo, since it arrives by parachute as well. Pray that the enemy doesn't hold the drop zone. As if you didn't have enough to worry about, lose too many men in the attack on the airfield and the Fuhrer will turn you into infantry fodder for the Russian Front! Conserve your force or press on - the choice is yours.

The Allies have other concerns. You possess overwhelming superiority in numbers, and your troops are just as tough as the enemy's, but the Luftwaffe rules the skies above you. Moving in the open to attack the helpless paratroopers becomes a hazardous proposition and communication between your battalions will be tenuous at best. But you know that possession of the airfiled means life or death, and if the enemy captures it you must venture out and take it back. You, too, must worry about losses, because you have little hope of replacing yours. The enemy will strengthen before your eyes if he gains the airfield while you inevitably wither away. But he has to come to you.

Success or failure will not come quickly or easily. The attacker is outnumbered, the defender is almost without hope of reinforcement and there are no mobile forces to quickly turn a breakthrough into a rout. Crete is an infantryman's battle. Each side must outlast the other, while trying against all odds to conserve their force, capture their objectives and ensure that the frontline troops receive enough ammo to accomplish both.

Thus one of the most important players on each side is one with no ground troops to command: the Air & Naval commander. This player has the responsibily to balance the support needs of the ground troops against the opportunity to cripple British naval power in the region. Other duties will include scraping together enough transport planes and Greek caiques to shuttle reinforcements to the island. The British counterpart must stop the German naval reinforcements at all costs and prevent the Italians from making mischief, but must be very careful when the Luftwaffe comes out to play. If you are too aggressive in pursuit of the convoys you will lose valuable ships; too passive and the the land battle will swing heavily in the Germans' favor. As you can see the job requires a bit of strategic flair, combined with solid planning and sound judgment.

Assault on Crete will use Command Decision III rules to capture the down-and-dirty feel of the tactical battle. Special rules will cover supply, naval task forces and air power. Thousands of 15mm Old Glory miniatures will fight from the Tavronitis River all the way to Heraklion. My thanks go out to MAJ Pete Panzeri and Old Glory for providing the forum and the means to play out one of the most underrated battles of the Second World War.