Crete Nov 1943

[Kim Sung]

I've never heard a thing about Cretans not want to cooperate with the rest of the Greek forces.
Never.
Im a Greek born and raised in my Country's mainland and i never had a problem with a Cretan.

The Cretan revolt of 1938

...The Cretans, more than any other Greeks, never forgave King George for having granted a dubious legitimacy to the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas on 4 August 1936. Traditional Venizelist sympathies were affronted, and on the second anniversary of the August Decree, the Cretans had risen in revolt. Afterwards, their weapons - both the agent and the symbol of resistance to foreign oppression - were confiscated. That aroused more than disgust when the Cretan population then found itself practically unarmed in the face of the German invasion...

From "Crete, the Battle and the Resistance" by Antony Beevor

[phylo_roadking]

I've never heard a thing about Cretans not want to cooperate with the rest of the Greek forces.
Never

If you read "The Cretan Runner" its mentioned several times that the Cretans of the "Intelligence Service" run by Force 133 in the island were VERY loath to go to Egypt for rest and recuperation, because they ran a VERY great risk of getting co-opted into the Greek Army-in-exile in Egypt, and under the control of the rump Secret Police. Many HAD to go, as Crete got too hot for individual "names" and their whereabouts too well known, but the British were VERY careful to sequester them in hotels, flats, and a camp specially hidden from the Greek Government inside an Australian camp!

Don't forget, many of the Greek Kapitans of the Resistance, ex-Greek Army officers...had been back living on the island in 1941 BECAUSE they were Venizelist officers who been purged in 1938 and 1939.

[asiaticus]

So it was captured Italian Artillery. Interesting.


Vis a vis the 155mm guns the Germans had two types in service that might fit the bill. Both were originally from France but one type was also possessed by the Italians in some numbers and would have fallen into German hands in late 1943.


The 155mm GPF Gun first saw action in 1917. With some modernization, it was still in service with the French Army in May 1940. The GPF was one of best pieces in the French inventory. After France's defeat, these guns were used by the German army as coastal artillery guns or in corps level artillery battalions. Some of them even served in North Africa with the DAK.

MAX RANGE 18,600m
SHELL WEIGHT 43kg
WEIGHT IN ACTION 10,750kg


The mle 16 145/155mm Gun was a WWI vintage gun, still in service in France in May 1940. After the armistice, these guns were taken over by the Germans and used as coastal artillery as the 420(f) 155mm Gun. Italy bought some of these guns too, prior to WWII, and these received the same designation when taken over after September 1943.

MAX RANGE 18,500m
SHELL WEIGHT 43.1kg
WEIGHT IN ACTION 12250kg

[Peter H]

Photos of the 22.Infantrie-Division on Crete can be found here:

http://www.historic.de/Home/home.html

[Annelie]

Great Site!

One I definitely have bookmarked.

Thankyou for sharing.