Battle of Crete - Sfakia

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Panzer F2 75mm
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Battle of Crete - Sfakia

#1

Post by Panzer F2 75mm » 09 Sep 2018, 05:20

Hello,
after hearing the old stories of my grandfather who was 22 in 1941, going up into the vast mountains of southern Crete and shooting the German invaders I always wanted to know who he was up against in terms of German units at that time from invasion to occupation.

In our village, my grandpa still had a P38 Lugar he got off a dead pilot whom he had found disemboweled and hanging off a tree after his parachute got stuck and lee enfields left by the British after they evacuated the sfakian bay. The history has always fascinated me as this specific theater of war is very understudied and I want to know more about what was happening in that area at this time.

My grandmother who was very young at the time remembers all these shiny helmets coming over the hill, with men wearing short pants and boots who were mountain troops. they treated my grandmother very well giving her chocolate and treated the people in loutro well. They set up mines and an outpost on the beach, u can look it up its called Loutro, which is today a massive place for tourists funny enough in the 80s and 70s a lot of German tourists would come to the village and the old men riddled with dementia used to yell the ''germans bastards are back what are you people doing''.

My Grandfather survived, but he lost 3 brothers, one of which was taken into the forests and killed by the Germans with 25 other villages. He was killed as he was a Shepherd, and these class of people as masters of the terrain and the Germans believed that they must be the ones who assist and harbor British intelligence in the area and any Englishmen who were left behind.

https://www.west-crete.com/photo/sfakia/sfakia47.htm (image of the monument, their skulls can be seen as a gruesome reminder of the horror of war)

Anyway, my main question is what German units were in the area, and was it the SS responsible for these executions of the Wehrmacht?
thank you

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jwsleser
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Re: Battle of Crete - Sfakia

#2

Post by jwsleser » 10 Sep 2018, 00:45

Not much to go on.

First, if you are on Facebook, join the 'BATTLE OF CRETE (Historical research and collections)' page. This is a group of very dedicated Greek, UK, and Commonwealth researchers, many of whom either live on Crete or regularly visit, that have accomplished some excellent field research on the battle. Some of the members have published books and articles on the subject (including Yannis Prekatsounakis, the author of The Battle For Heraklion. Crete 1941: The Campaign Revealed Through Allied And Axis Accounts). The more info you can provide them, the better they might be able to help answer questions.

Second, checking the Greek official history, it was the Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100 that advanced to capture Loutro. After that, I am unsure which units garrisoned the area during the occupation.

Pista! Jeff
Jeff Leser

Infantrymen of the Air


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