Battle of Crete 1941
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 May 1941 – 1 June 1941 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1941 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Greece | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War II in the Balkans | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 35.5000, 24.0611 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (German: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete.
The battle began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete; Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After the first day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion.
The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation, and German offensive operations, Maleme Airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions in the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast; more than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance. The defence of Crete evolved into a costly naval engagement; by the end of the campaign the Royal Navy's eastern Mediterranean strength had been reduced to only two battleships and three cruisers.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Crete (revision 1375600486), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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