#218: Invasion of Crete - TWiE War on the Southern Front

Crete, May 20th 1941: In the desert, Tobruk was surrounded and Rommel stood on the Egyptian frontier facing the British, who, a few days previously, had halted Operation Brevity to relieve Tobruk. Operation Seelowe, the invasion of Britain, had been cancelled and all eyes were now looking east. Six weeks had passed since the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece to bail out their Italian partners. Now their attention was focused on the Soviet Union, where Hitler had massed his army on the Russian border for Operation Barbarossa. Thus, in the big picture, Crete was a small sideshow where the Allies clung by their fingernails to southern Europe, the Germans having far greater issues pressuring them. It was at this time, the Germans, at the pinnacle of their airborne power, decided to invade Crete using Generalmajor Kurt Student's crack force of Fallschirmjäger. There were several plans proposed, ranging from one major Drop Zone, to others where troops would arrive scattered in 7 locations. The final plan for "Operation Merkur", or "Mercury", represented a compromise imposed by Reichsmarshall Goering, calling for a morning assault in the Maleme\Canea sector, followed up with two afternoon drops in the vicinity of Rethymnon and Heraklion. Designer Note: To investigate alternative Axis Drop Zones, see scenario # 219.