Product Description

The Germans expected their airborne attack on Crete in 1941 - a unique event in the history of warfare - to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. They had no idea that the British, using Ultra intercepts, knew their plans and had laid a carefully-planned trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle round. Nor did the conflict end there. Ferocious Cretan freedom fighters mounted a heroic resistance, aided by a dramatic cast of British officers from Special Operations Executive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27552 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Michael Foot, Observer
'The best book we have got on Crete'

Review
‘Antony Beevor’s unerring flair for the climate and the feel of the conflict ... his insight and his grasp of these vents make them seem as though they had happened last week’ (Patrick Leigh Fermor, Daily Telegraph )

'Excellent... an arresting account of the whole war on Crete, including the ghastly experiences of the Cretans under German occupation' (John Keegan, Sunday Telegraph )

'The best book we have got on Crete' (Michael Foot, Observer )

'Beevor's account is excellent: fresh, lively and peppered with anecdotes' (Mail on Sunday )

‘A new paperback edition is welcome for two reasons; reminding us that Beevor is a writer and historian of rare ability and for starkly illustrating the variables of war’

John Keegan, Sunday Telegraph
'Excellent... an arresting account of the whole war on Crete, including the ghastly experiences of the Cretans under German occupation'

Customer Reviews

Clarity brought to a Complex Story
This is a splendidly-written account of the British Campaign in Greece and Crete in 1941, and to a lesser extent, of the resistance to the Germans during the occupation. The account of the defence against the German airborne invasion is masterly, and though many units are involved, the writer has the knack of keeping them distinct in the reader's mind such that there is no difficulty in following the actions at four separate but simultaneous landing points. Stories of heroism and of initiative, and also sadly of failure of will, abound on all sides. The aspect of the knife-edge that separated success and failure is very well conveyed. Bernard Freyberg emerges as a tragic figure, a man of magnificent personal courage and a Homeric hero of an earlier war, and in the same general theatre, but sadly out of his depth in the Cretan operation. One is reminded poignantly of the merciless revelation of John Bell Hood's weakness as a commander during his invasion of Tennessee in late 1864. The only fault I found with the Resistance part of the book was that it was too short, and I would have enjoyed a more extended account of individual actions. Inspired by this, I am now keen to locate "The Cretan Runner", so favourably mentioned by the author. Given the prominent role played in the Resistance story by Patrick Leigh-Fermor, those who enjoy this book will be entranced by his two books detailing a foot journey he made as a youth from Hook of Holland to Istanbul in 1934. In Crete, he and small band of heroes, British, Commonwealth and Greek, faced terrifying consequences for any failure when they faced a ruthless and merciless foe. This book underlines how high was the price paid for freedom in the 1940's, and how dreadful were the consequences of disarmament and pacifism in the democracies in the two previous decades - a lesson we forget at our peril.

He has produced better...
I am a big fan of Antony Beevor, enjoying every book that I have read by him. However, this account of the invasion and resistance on Crete during WW2 falls a bit short compared to his epic works on Berlin and the Spanish Civil War.
The best thing about this work is that it does flow well and is written in a very readable style, so you don't get bogged down and I believe it gives a good overview with what was going on from beginning to end.
There are quite a few things which would improve it though. There are not enough maps for a start and the work is so skewed towards a British viewpoint that I would have loved to have found out a bit more about the Cretans and the Germans. The Italians hardly get a mention so I really have no idea what they did on the island ( maybe nothing?! ). Whilst I think the story of the invasion is covered pretty well, covering parallel actions in different areas the occupation/resistance seems a bit bitty. We hear too much about some SOE agents, but only tantalising titbits about others, or about other soldiers left behind after Crete fell, for instance the handy trio of Australians that crop up every now and again...I am assuming they must have had a good story to tell but they are not even named!
One other item that I feel would be really interesting is covering what happened to some of the characters after their involvement in Crete came to an end...what happened to Captain Forrester after he led that amazing charge of Cretan men, women and children!
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this book but feel it could have been a lot better.

Good short history of a complex subject
The author's style is fast paced and entertaining without loosing track of a strategic overview or the main operational essentials. He provides a good background to invasion, covering political situation, the Greek campaign and evacuation, the organisation of the defence and preparations for the attack. He covers the fighting adequately giving more emphasis to individual experience rather than operational details and analysis of command decisions.

The author squarely blames Freyberg for the Allied defeat, with some justification. Puttick and Hargest, as senior commanders bungling severely in the most important sector deserve at least as much blame yet he gives them relatively less criticism.

A much stronger emphasis is given to the Allied side; although the book's full of anecdotes and personal experiences of fighting men, virtually none appear from the German side. Perhaps the paucity of primary sources makes this impossible.

The last hundred pages deal with the resistance; inevitably, coverage is sketchy with some personalities accorded detailed examination and other important personalities mentioned only in passing. Nevertheless, it's an interesting narrative and the author covers a lot of ground in the short space available. His summary of the internal Cretian politics and infighting are excellent.

This book does not quite measure up to Beevor's Berlin or Stalingrad but it's a good short history of a complex subject: Crete in the Second World War.