Review of "History of the Second World War, part 18: How Crete Was Lost," edited by Barrie Pitt

 Review of

History of the Second World War, part 18: How Crete Was Lost, edited by Barrie Pitt

Five out of five stars

History of a semi-decisive battle

 With millions of men and women under arms and nearly six years long in Europe, the Second World War had many phases. One smaller battle that had decisive consequences that are not often appreciated was the battle for the Greek island of Crete. While the end result of a German victory was never in doubt due to total air domination by Germany, it had repercussions shortly afterward.

 Despite putting together their defensive forces on a shoestring, the Allied forces made up of Greeks, British and Commonwealth troops put up a superb resistance. Short of time due to the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, the German high command wanted to move as quickly as possible. Therefore, they relied on airborne units as the first wave on the island. The losses of these troops were so high that the Germans never again mounted a major airborne assault. Their later action was generally as ground forces.

 This magazine is a history of that brief conflict from the perspective of both sides, where the goal of the Allied forces was to keep the fight going as long as possible, followed by evacuating as many as possible from Crete when their position became untenable. In that context, they were successful, keeping major German combat forces tied down. The invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed by a few weeks due to the operations in Greece and it can be strongly argued that the delay kept the Germans from reaching and taking Moscow.