CRETE 1941
– GERMANY’S LIGHTNING AIRBORNE ASSAULT
Reviewed by Andy Callan
The battle of Crete is a natural for the Osprey “Campaign” treatment – a short, exciting story, fulfilling the classical dramatic unities of time, place and action. The WW2 Pacific island assaults have already been described in this series - for example, Tarawa (no.77), Iwo Jima (no. 92) and Okinawa (no. 96) – but Crete is, of course, the only equivalent battle in the western hemisphere.
The battle has been well-covered both in “classic” (eg Alan Clark’s “The Fall of Crete”) and more recent (eg Callum McDonald’s “The Lost Battle- Crete 1941” and Anthony Beevor’s “Crete – the battle and the Resistance”) studies, let alone various “specialist” works by sundry Fallschirmjager fans. In this book Peter Antill gives a competent re-telling of a familiar tale, according to the usual Osprey Campaign format, without really adding any new perspectives to the literature of the battle. It contains all that you might expect – strategic background, a coherent narrative and adequate (if not over-detailed) Orders of Battle. The eight colour maps are really excellent and the black and white photographs are well chosen, containing a particularly interesting selection from the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand. As usual, however, the specially commissioned paintings really add little to the book and I wonder why Osprey continue to bother with them in this series.
The final chapter, on the battlefield today, is rather disappointing, amounting to little more that a description of the various military cemeteries. In fact, there is still a lot worth seeing on Crete and the hire of a car can give an interesting touch of variety to a beach holiday on the island. The Maleme sector is well worth a visit, as is the road over the mountains to Sfakia – watch out for the hand painted signs down a side road to a private military museum, where the elderly owner (a teenager at the time of the battle) has assembled a treasure trove of rusting relics, abandoned by the armies. He is particularly keen to welcome English visitors with a glass of the local firewater!
So, this book gives you all you might need to game the battle, in one handy-sized volume. But Alan Clark, Callum McDonald or Anthony Beevor might give you a more entertaining and satisfying read, if you wanted to pack only one book to take with you for a holiday on Crete.
Crete 1941 –
Germany’s Lightning Airborne Assault
By Peter D Antill.
Illustrated by Howard Gerrard.
Osprey Campaign Series Number 147.
ISBN 1 84176 844 8 £12.99
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