BATTLE OF CRETE

One-hundred kilometres from the mainland, Crete is the second-largest of the Greek islands, a strip of land measuring 258km from east to west and just 12km at its narrowest. Dominated by the White Mountains that form its spine, it has a rich history of invasion and occupation, with the Romans, Arabs and Venetians among others all having left their mark, especially on the likes of Khania, Rhethymnon and Heraklion on its more populated northern coast. Historically fought over, it had been a relative backwater for years until WWII erupted and thrust it centre stage in the spring of 1941.

THE MEDITERRANEAN WAR

Fascist Italy took the lead for the Axis in the Mediterranean, its military weakness exposed by the December 1940 British offensive in the western desert that almost wiped out Mussolini’s forces in North Africa and saw more than 130,000 dispirited Italians shuffle into captivity. However, with total victory within its grasp, British Middle Eastern Command was ordered by London to send its best troops to Greece, where an earlier failed Italian invasion had forced Hitler’s hand. There, on the morning of Sunday 6 April 1941, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List’s 12th Army crossed the Greek frontier and proceeded to drive the British into a hasty retreat that ended just over three weeks later with the evacuation of the British force back to Egypt.

Not all, however, arrived in Alexandria – some were dropped off in Crete