With the German and Italian conquest of Yugoslavia and the occupation of mainland Greece, the struggle between the German and Italian blocs intensified with each other, and the plundering of booty. As Mussolini said:

"Hitler, the scoundrel, has robbed us of all the fat, and all we are left with is a small pile of bones...."

Hitler and Mussolini occupied mainland Greece by force, but in the Aegean Sea and Crete, the war was still raging.

The two sides have not only mobilized a large number of land forces, but also modern air and navy. On the island of Crete, a three-dimensional battle of sea, land and air was carried out, and the most heroic and tense scene in the history of Greek battles was performed.

As early as the end of March 1941, it was already clear to the Allies that Mussolini's fleet was about to make a massive sortie to the Aegean Sea. The British Admiral Cunningham decided to let his convoy avoid for the time being, and he himself sailed out of Alexandria in the twilight of 27 March aboard the USS Worthpet, with nine ships of the Valiant and Balham, the aircraft carrier Dreadnought, and the destroyer. At dawn on the 28th, an aircraft that took off from the aircraft carrier "Dreadnought" reported that four Italian cruisers and six destroyers were heading southeast.

In Mussolini's fleet there were three cruisers with eight-inch cannons, while all British cruisers were armed with six-inch cannons. However, after half an hour of a decisive battle, the Italian ships retreated, and the British cruisers gave chase.

Two hours later, an Italian battleship "Vittorio. Veneto"; A group of fighters taking off from the aircraft carrier "Dreadnought" attacked the Italian battleship; After being wounded, the ship did not dare to fight, and immediately retreated to the northwest.

In the evening, the British ship launched a third attack, hitting the Italian heavy cruiser "Bora", only to see the ship withdraw from the battle sequence and anchor. At night, Admiral Cunningham decided to let the destroyers attack, and risked a night battle with the main fleet, in order to destroy the wounded Italian battleships and cruisers and prevent them from coming within cover of the planes taking off from the bases off the coast of his country. Driving in the dark, he unexpectedly launched an assault on two Italian cruisers, the "Fum" and "Zara", both of which were armed with eight-inch cannons, which were rushing to the aid of the "Bora".

At close range, the "Fum" was immediately overwhelmed by the fire of a 15-inch caliber cannon flavage salvo from the ships "Vospet" and "Valiant" and was sunk. The "Zara" was besieged by three British battleships and was immediately destroyed in a raging fire.

After this battle, Mussolini did not dare to challenge Britain's supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Even before this naval battle, the Allied land forces had already arrived in Greece to provide support. In the order of embarkation, the troops sent to Greece included the British 1st Armoured Division, the New Zealand Brigade and the 6th Australian Division. These units are fully equipped with the weapons of other forces in the Middle East. Next bound for Greece were the Polish Brigade and the 7th Australian Division. The troops began operations on 5 March. The plan was to defend the Aliakmon Line, which began at the mouth of the Aliakmon River and reached the Yugoslav border through Veria and Edessa.

The Allies would fight in concert with the Greek forces deployed on this front. At that time, most of the Greek army, numbering about 15 divisions, was in Albania in a confrontation with Berat and Vlora, which they had not been able to capture. They repelled an offensive launched by Mussolini on 9 March. The rest of the Greek army, with three divisions and border guards, was in Macedonia, and General Papgos refused to withdraw them. Therefore, as soon as the Germans attacked, they were routed after four days of fighting. …,

The 19th Greek Motorized Division, which then departed, was also annihilated or scattered.

The British Air Force in Greece had only seven squadrons of 80 combat aircraft in March, and its operations were greatly affected by the lack of landing sites and poor signal communication. Although a small number of reinforcements were sent in April, the RAF was still far inferior to the enemy in numbers. Two of these squadrons fought on the Alba front; The remaining five squadrons, supported by two squadrons of Wellington bombers redeployed from Egypt for night combat, had to meet all other operational requirements. Opposing them was a German and Italian air force with more than 800 combat aircraft.

In the early hours of 6 April, Hitler and Mussolini launched a joint attack on Greece and Yugoslavia, while launching a heavy air raid on the port of Piraeus. The convoy of British troops was unloading cargo at the port. The British ship "Clan Fraser", which was anchored at the dock of the port, was carrying 200 tons of high explosives, and the ship exploded, almost completely destroying the port. This air raid alone cost Britain and Greece 11 ships, totaling 43,000 tons!

From then on, the Allies continued to maintain the supply of their troops by sea under increasingly large-scale air raids, and did not take effective countermeasures to the enemy's air raids. The key to the maritime problem was to control Mussolini's air base in Rhodes, but the Allies were unable to deploy sufficient forces to carry out this task.

Fortunately, the recent battle at Cape Matapan had taught the Italian fleet a lesson that would not dare to act rashly during the year. In this period, if Mussolini's navy had taken an active part in the fighting, it would have made it impossible for the British Navy to carry out missions in Greece at all.

The surrender of Yugoslavia on 17 April dashed the hopes of the Greeks. All the joint actions that Churchill had urged had failed, and the situation was already dire. The next few days were fateful.

Feeling powerless to save his country from peril, Colliss, who succeeded Metaxas, decided to redeem himself by dying and committed suicide on the 18th, like Count Count Zong Tai Leki of Hungary. This makes the situation even more chaotic.

The retreat to Demobil was a difficult military operation, as German and Italian forces had blockaded the Tambo Valley, the Olympus Pass, and other locations, and all Allied forces had to pass through Larissa, a narrow bottle.

In order to ensure the completion of this task, the 5th New Zealand Brigade and the Australian Brigade held out here for three days. They fought tenaciously and made great sacrifices, and finally ensured the completion of the retreat mission.

On 24 April, the Greek government surrendered under the threat of an overwhelming German and Italian offensive, and now the British army faced another naval retreat that had been encountered in 1940.

An organized evacuation of more than 50,000 people from Greece under normal circumstances seemed simply impossible. However, in Pridham. Vice Admiral Wippel and Bailey. Rear Admiral Groman, under the command of the Army Command, the British Navy once again accomplished this difficult task brilliantly.

In the Battle of Dunkirk, air supremacy, in general, was in the hands of the British; In Greece, however, it was the Germans who had complete and absolute control over the sky.

Thus, they could inflict almost continuous raids on the harbor and the retreating army. The army apparently could only board ships at night, and during the day the army had to avoid detection by enemy aircraft near the beach. Churchill said it was a repeat of the Norwegian Namsos scene, but on a scale 10 times larger. The retreat lasted five nights and safely rescued 50,662 people, including RAF personnel and thousands of Cypriots, Palestinians, Greeks and Yugoslavs.

This figure corresponds to about 80 per cent of the original number of troops sent to Greece. These achievements are due solely to the United Kingdom and its...,

The courage and skill of the seamen of the merchant fleets of his allies. In the face of heavy enemy fire, they were brave and tenacious, and did not flinch. From 21 April until the end of the retreat, they lost 26 ships in enemy air raids. Of these, 21 were Greek ships and included five medical ambulances. The rest were British-Dutch ships. The British Air Force, in conjunction with a naval air force dispatched from Crete, tried to alleviate the difficulty of retreat, but was unable to do so because of the overwhelming superiority of enemy aircraft.

Nevertheless, the few air squadrons that have been deployed to Greece since October have achieved remarkable results. They destroyed 231 enemy planes, and although they themselves lost 209 aircraft, they fought stubbornly.

In April, they fought for three weeks in the face of the disparity in strength, the hardest of the five months they had waged against the Italian army, which had almost exhausted their vital forces.

After the conquest of Greece by Hisler and Mussolini, Crete became the last stronghold of the Greek king and government, as well as an important refuge for troops of all arms. Germany and Italy are staring at the island. For the Allies, it was an important outpost for Egypt and the island of Malta; For Mussolini and Hitler, Crete was a bone spur in their throats.

Therefore, the struggle to defend and seize Crete became the focus of the struggle between the two armies in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Churchill knew for a long time that Goering was constantly working to create and develop a powerful airborne force capable of making a massive landing. This was in line with the aspirations of the fanatical Nazi bandits in Germany. The German paratrooper division was an elite force that Britain considered when studying how to defend itself against German invasion of the homeland. However, all such German plans would require at least temporary daytime air supremacy. Germany did not receive such air supremacy over Britain.

The situation in Crete is different. The enemy's full and seemingly lasting air superiority in the Balkans and the Aegean Sea, especially the fortress of Rhodes, controlled by Mussolini, posed a serious threat to the defense of Crete!

On 28 April, British intelligence learned that Germany and Italy were about to attack Crete from the sea and air. In their opinion, the enemy's attack on the island by simultaneous air and sea forces was on the way. In the Balkan countries, the fascists may have amassed 315 long-range bombers, 60 twin-engine fighters, 240 dive bombers, and 270 single-engine fighters for various purposes; The enemy may drop three or four thousand paratroopers or airborne troops in the first attack, and may make two or three assaults a day from Greece and three or four from Rhodes, all covered by fighters. There will be heavy bombardment and sea raids before the arrival of air and sea troops.

Churchill immediately telegraphed the above to General Wavell, the British commander-in-chief of the Middle East, asking him to strengthen his combat readiness, hold on to the island, and prepare to destroy the enemy's paratrooper units in large numbers; and recommended to the British General Staff Headquarters that General Freiberg be appointed commander of the Cretan garrison.

Bernard. Freiberg had known Churchill for many years. During the First World War, he came to England as a young volunteer in New Zealand. Churchill, then Secretary of the Navy, appointed him a lieutenant in the battalion "Hood".

During the war, he was promoted to brigade commander during his four years at the front, and in 1918, at the critical juncture of the German summer offensive, he was appointed commander of all units defending the frontal gap in Bayel, numbering almost a corps. The Victoria Cross and the Order of Merit with two gold threads, as well as 30 scars on his body, mark his outstanding feats. …,

The geography of Crete does make it difficult to defence. Its only road is on the North Coast. Once the road was cut off by the enemy, the Allies could not move their reserves to threatened positions at any time. From the south coast to the north coast, there are only a few small roads in Sfakia and Timbaki that run north from the south coast, which are not suitable for motorized transport vehicles. When the military leaders concerned began to feel the imminent crisis, every effort was made to send reinforcements, supplies and weapons, especially artillery, to the island, but it was too late.

In the second week of May, German and Italian air forces, taking off from bases in Greece and the Aegean Sea, effectively imposed a daytime blockade on Crete. They raided all ships passing and flotted from the island, and in particular blockaded the north shore, the only port in the north. In the first three weeks of May, less than 3,000 tons of the 27,000 tons of vital weapons shipped to Crete reached the island, and the rest were either forced back or lost en route.

The forces participating in the defense of Crete were very weak, and the total number of troops from all sides was only 28,600 people.

The German attack on Crete included the 11th Air Regiment, with about 16,000 people landing by airdrop, and another 7,000 landing from the sea. In addition, air support was provided by the 8th Air Force Corps. The number of planes that could take part in the operation was 280 bombers, 150 dive bombers, 180 fighters, 40 reconnaissance planes, 100 gliders, and 530 Junkers-52 transport planes, a total of 1,280 planes.

Fierce fighting broke out in Crete! . ）