Battle of Crete airfield question

[The_Enigma]

Am currently watching 'The Real Dad's Army' and the presenter noted that during the construction of anti invasion defences, in the summer of 1940, the planners realised that the RAF's own airfields were an achillies heel in the defence of the British isles i.e. they realised they were perfect landing ground for paratroopers.
In responce to this pillboxes were constructed facing in on the airfields so they could be machine gunned etc if the Germans attempted to land etc

A year later down on Crete this is exactly what happened. I believe that the order was given well prior to the battle for the island to be turned into a fortress, so was this step taken to defend the 3 fields?

[phylo_roadking]

There may indeed have been gunpits, sandbag emplacements etc. around Heraklion - and there were certainly rifle pits and trenches along the edge of the runway at Maleme, for they're mentioned as one of the ways the attempted counterattack got so close - the one with the two Matildas - one of which' breech wouldn't close and the other's turret wouldn't traverse!!! And of course having had to be cleared by the Germans before that. But I'm not aware in any of the major histories - MacDonald, Beevor or Clark - of any mention of "pillboxes" etc. ...nor do any include good maps of the airfields except bigger-scale diagrams of the Maleme area to take in the Tavronitis river, the "tented camp" for the RAF groundcrew and Hill 107. In fact - that "tented camp" is maybe indicative of the value of the airfield's defence; they didn't extend in any way to the tented RAF camp just to the north and west of the western end of the runway at Maleme, and when the FJ hit it they butchered the occupants.

The Cretan landscape was very hard (literally) to dig into, the Allied forces didn't actually deploy much in the way of hardware onto the island in the months before the fall of Greece - just AA guns, and the RAF's limited runway maintenance gear...a lot of which in the weeks immediately preceeding the attack was IIRC way out to the West trying to clear and level another diversionary field at Kastelli.

Instead - the majority of the airfields' defences consisted of the aforementioned close-in defences - rifle pits etc, - AND by the Commonwealth troops occupying high ground overlooking the airfields - Hill 107 at Maleme, and the "Two Charlies" that overlooked Heraklion...and STILL visibly overlook the international airport there today!

Contrary to this problem of digging into the hard ground - the landscape itself provided great cover - dry stone walls breaking up the landscape, dry water features etc....that the Commonwealth troops were able to improve on and fortify their positions to an extent - bearing in mind they were woefully sort of personal gear - including entrenching tools, mess kit etc. - after the evacuation from Greece.

Most of what can be seen on the island today - pillboxes etc. - were constructed in the following three years of Axis occupation.

[Peter H]

German airborne doctrine was to land near an objective,assembly,unpack weapon containers,and then take it.This assembly point could be 500 to 2000m from its target.By this method enemy defences could be neutralised as they were reached.The problem with this on Crete was that Allied defences(Maleme,Heraklion etc) were centred on hills overlooking airfields.I don't think any German accounts of Crete literally state a direct jump onto an airfield was planned.Some did land on airfields but not intentional.

[Simon K]

The withdrawal of the NZ Btln under Col. Andrews from the high ground overlooking Maleme arguably lost the whole battle.

[phylo_roadking]

One thing that's obvious from both the major histories, the Australian OFFICIAL History, and various anecdotal accounts - is that the defenders were instructed to keep VISIBLE fortifications to a minimum. As we know the Commonwealth forces on the island had VERY good intelligence as to German intentions, and it was their orders and intetntions to deal the FJ a very bloody nose...but they were also aware that the island would be under air attack and aerial recce for some weeks before the invasion. So the various area commanders were instructed to dig in where possible, but to avoid doing anything visible from the air.

Freyberg's orders were interpreted seemingly differently in different locations regarding these fixed defences; at Maleme barbed wire defences were set up, but set up to cover the defences only...and weren't positioned to cover the open ground towards the Tavronitis river that thus made an excellent DZ, and the FJ elements that dropped there were able to deploy pretty well...it was FJ falling in OTHER locations around Maleme that suffered. IIRC one writer, I can't remember which, commented that the barbed wire setup at Maleme looked remarkably like WWI Flanders - reflecting the formative experiences of some of the local officers' previous military service...and thus their limitations This compared unfavourably with Heraklion, where the wire defences were set so as to break up the approaches to the Commonwealth defences on the Charlies, and prevented German forces making broad-front attacks on sections of the defences.

[Peter H]

Retimo-a good article on the fight for Hill A and the two 7RTR Matildas with the Australians there:

http://www.army.gov.au/AHU/docs/Matilda ... Retimo.pdf

[Peter H]

Heraklion.Photos from Jean-Yves Nasse's Fallschirmjager in Crete.

Vineyard used as an assembly area for for III/FJR1 west of Heraklion.The last photo shows Heraklion under Luftwaffe bombing.

Schirmer's II/FJR2 landed even further out than this--6 kms to the south west of Heraklion.

[phylo_roadking]

Peter, thanks for that. Most of the mainline historians of Crete use the Official History designations for the tanks on Crete, so they're just referred to as *I* tanks, except for the adventures of Roy Farran and the Vickers Lights. I had however always presumed Matildas...simply because THAT early in 1941 they would hardly be Valentines AND so shagged out as they obviously were on Crete. The "offical" line has always been that Valentines FIRST saw action in CRUSADER at the other end of 1941

Alan Clark is the historian who pays the most attention to tanks on the island, apart from the actual combats; he's regarded as "dated" because he was writing in the days before ULTRA was known about BUT therefore he was looking at ALL the possible reasons for the Allies doing so badly on the island, and he spends 3-4 pages discussing Churchill's liaising with Wavell over sending tanks to the island...

Just to paraphrase - Clark makes good reading, he's a lot more stylish a writer than MacDonald or Beevor, so he's well worth a look - Churchill demanded that tanks from the just-arrived TIGER convoy were sent to the island. Wavell at first refused, saying that he'd already sent some tanks to the island - which he had, the shagged-out Matildas - then IIRC he told Churchill that EITHER more had been sent when Churchill asked, OR that new tanks off the boats had been sent; I can't remember which it was - but one way or another it was certainly Wavell telling his Minster For War porky pies!!!

[The_Enigma]

German airborne doctrine was to land near an objective,assembly,unpack weapon containers,and then take it.This assembly point could be 500 to 2000m from its target.By this method enemy defences could be neutralised as they were reached.The problem with this on Crete was that Allied defences(Maleme,Heraklion etc) were centred on hills overlooking airfields.I don't think any German accounts of Crete literally state a direct jump onto an airfield was planned.Some did land on airfields but not intentional.

Looking at the RAF bases in south Wales i think it was RAF Carew Cheriton that was used as the example. I've looked around but cant find any pics of the base or any defences. I think the point the programme was making was that it was a second line of defences - one to defend the base from external threats and ones from paratroopers and/or enemy landings.

Of course German doctrine may/would have been different to what the planners in the UK were thinking but i dont think they envisioned them being right on top of the runways - although i dont know just how far from the runways were the defences were located etc The example stated of the infantry being dug in on the hills overlooking the runways i think serves in the role of the fixed defences established within the UK.

that the defenders were instructed to keep VISIBLE fortifications to a minimum.....The Cretan landscape was very hard (literally) to dig into, the Allied forces didn't actually deploy much in the way of hardware onto the island in the months before the fall of Greece

I think this highlights how widespread ME Commands forces and materials were spread and how they were unable to comply with the orders given (am sure its Beevor who mentions the place was suppose to be turned into some fortress).

But (lol i hate saying that) the programme also highlighted that at home over the space of a short period of time the UK was turned into a fort (which was then devloped upon over the course of the next year or so) which included knocking up things like pillboxes, anti tank walls etc in the space of a short time. It also showed some of the engenious/wierd ways these were disguised. They used the example of at the hight of the construction they were able to knock up a concrete pillbox in 20 minutes.

Although i should note that i know of at least one RAF base outside of the UK which i know a bit about and did not follow in these steps - RAF Habbaniya in Iraq. I know its far from the war and was only a training base but i think it does serve as an example of maybe it was a UK only policly not followed abroad. I.e. i dont believe there was any base defences, no proper garrison (an armoured car squadron of the forerunner to the RAF Regiment and upto 1000 locally raised troops), the highground undefended/un-fortiefed etc

[The_Enigma]

Excellent photos!

Quite a distance too that they landed from the airfields - sort of destroys the point pondered about in the original post
Had the Germans completely cleared the areas surrounding the bases before attempting to land the Ju52s?

Peter, thanks for that. Most of the mainline historians of Crete use the Official History designations for the tanks on Crete, so they're just referred to as *I* tanks, except for the adventures of Roy Farran and the Vickers Lights. I had however always presumed Matildas...simply because THAT early in 1941 they would hardly be Valentines AND so shagged out as they obviously were on Crete. The "offical" line has always been that Valentines FIRST saw action in CRUSADER at the other end of 1941

Well there certianlly wasnt any Vals on the Tiger Convoy There was Crusaders however.

Just to paraphrase - Clark makes good reading, he's a lot more stylish a writer than MacDonald or Beevor, so he's well worth a look - Churchill demanded that tanks from the just-arrived TIGER convoy were sent to the island. Wavell at first refused, saying that he'd already sent some tanks to the island - which he had, the shagged-out Matildas - then IIRC he told Churchill that EITHER more had been sent when Churchill asked, OR that new tanks off the boats had been sent; I can't remember which it was - but one way or another it was certainly Wavell telling his Minster For War porky pies!!!

Well to defend Wavell somewhat - the 2nd Armoured Division had to send half its tanks off to Greece were they were lost and the rest were "shagged out" ( ) as noted by the fact most broke down (something like only 10 were lost to the Germans in combat. Jentz - Tank Combat) in the upcoming campaign when Rommel drove to the Egyptian border.

The Tiger Cubs were desperatlly needed in Egypt not over on Crete. I would have really have hated to have had Wavells job.

[Peter H]

Any airfield defence on Crete would have taken the tanks into account.They were viewed as a counterattack force.Something the Germans fallschirmjäger didn't have.

There were 16 Vickers Light Tanks of C Squadron,3 Hussars,and 9 Matildas of B Squadron,7 Royal Tank regiment.Deployed as follows:

Heraklion-2 Matildas,6 Vickers
Retimo-2 Matildas
Maleme-Galatas-2 Matildas,10 Vickers(but 3 being repaired)
Suda Bay-3 Matildas

The Vickers Light Tanks later achieved greater fame for their counterattack into Galatas:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/21 ... rete04.htm

Lt. Roy Farran
http://home.freeuk.net/johndillon/lt__farran.htm

As they got out of Galatas an incident occurred of which Farran was not proud, but neither did he feel too much remorse. His tank was approached by some German parachutists with their hands in the air. "I ordered the gunner to fire. Three dropped dead, but two others managed to limp away into the trees. I do not think that I would make a practice of shooting prisoners, but Crete was different, and in the heat of the moment I had not time to think".

German photo from Jean-Yves Nasse's book of disabled Matilda near Tavronitis Bridge, Maleme

[Peter H]

Had the Germans completely cleared the areas surrounding the bases before attempting to land the Ju52s?

Actually the first transports landed on the nearby beach at Maleme under heavy artillery fire.

From Jean-Yves Nasse's book

[The_Enigma]

Excellent pics again but that tank.... Sure its a Matilda II because am thinking its not

The hull doesnt look quite right and where are the side skirts? The turret seems more slanty than round. It looks more like an A13 (MK III) with sideskirts.

See the hull of this later model A13 (MK IV tank with new turret)


Also the road wheels dont appear to be simlar. See this drawing, showing 10 small road wheels just visable under the skirts

Turrets:
A13, at an angel cant get a better on sorry and a Matilda

[Simon K]

Its a Valentine. look at the wheel arrangement.

images val.jpg (2.27 KiB) Viewed 4661 times

Val road wheels are quite small and have the characteristic small "bolts" or indentations like the photo.

Also its quite boxy. Like the side on view given.

[The_Enigma]

Valentines should have 6 road wheels, i can only count 4 (excluding the wheels the tracks run on) and then they cant have been in theatre during the time frame.

Also compare turrets:
Close up of a Val turret