Naval Battle of Crete 1941.pdf

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NAVAL BATTLE
OF CRETE 1941
The Royal Navy at Breaking Point
ANGUS KONSTAM
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
CAMPAIGN 388
NAVAL BATTLE OF
CRETE 1941
The Royal Navy at Breaking Point
ANGUS KONSTAM
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
Series editor Nikolai Bogdanovic
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Origins of the campaign
5
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
Allied
n
Axis
11
13
OPPOSING FORCES
Allied
n
Allied order of battle
n
Axis
n
Axis order of battle
17
OPPOSING PLANS
Allied
n
Axis
25
THE CAMPAIGN
The prelude
n
The fleet deploys
n
The invasion
n
The first clashes
n
The Luftwaffe strikes
Black Thursday
n
Mountbatten’s sortie
n
Keeping up the pressure
n
The evacuation
29
AFTERMATH
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
FURTHER READING
INDEX
90
93
94
95
12°E
14°E
16°E
18°E
20°E
22°E
24°E
26°E
28°E
30°E
32°E
34°E
42°N
ITALY
Italian convoy route
to Albania
Taranto
Adriatic
Sea
42°N
GREECE
ALBANIA
Aegean
Sea
Salonika
Istanbul
Tyrrhenian
Sea
Brindisi
Naples
40°N
40°N
TURKEY
Smyrna
38°N
Ionian
Sea
Athens
38°N
The
Sicily
The strategic situation, April–June 1941
Nar
row
s
Syracuse
Kalamata
PELOPONNESE
Tunis
36°N
Malta
Cape Matapan,
28 April 1941
Rhodes
Canea
36°N
TUNISIA
Crete
Cyprus
Famagusta
34°N
Italian convoy route
to/from Libya
Mediterranean Sea
34°N
SYRIA
Allied convoy route
to/from Malta
Tripoli
Benghazi
Haifa
32°N
32°N
N
Gulf of Sidra
Tobruk
Port Said
Alexandria
an
Suez C
al
30°N
30°N
Naval base
LIBYA
16°E
18°E
20°E
22°E
24°E
26°E
28°E
EGYPT
28°N
30°E
32°E
34°E
0
150nm
0
150km
INTRODUCTION
In March 1941, the tide of war in the Mediterranean seemed to be flowing
Britain’s way. The Italians had been driven out of Cyrenaica in the Western
Desert, and the situation seemed so stable that Prime Minister Winston
Churchill decided to send British and Commonwealth troops to Greece, which
was being half-heartedly attacked by the Italians. On 28 March, Admiral
Andrew Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet inflicted a major defeat on the
Italian Regia Marina off Cape Matapan. Effectively, this secured Britain’s
control over the eastern Mediterranean. The tide, though, was about to turn.
Throughout that month the Germans had been building up their strength in
Libya and the Balkans. Two days after Matapan, Rommel made his move,
and within two weeks had driven the British Army out of Libya. A week
later, on 6 April, the German blitzkrieg began in the Balkans. Yugoslavia
fell within days, and by mid-April the Greeks and their Commonwealth
allies were in full retreat. This change of fortune had been as rapid as it
was dramatic.
The Allies had been singularly unprepared for this two-pronged
onslaught, and so were outmatched and outfought. Key to this German
success was air power. With over a thousand aircraft at its disposal the
Luftwaffe also enjoyed complete air superiority over its opponents. The
rapid German advance also meant that there was now a real danger that
the 60,000 Commonwealth troops in Greece would be lost. So, on 22 April,
Cunningham was ordered to evacuate these men by whatever means he could.
This marked the beginning of what
would become one of the Royal Navy’s
most gruelling and costly campaigns of
the entire war.
Cunningham was well aware that,
having overrun Greece, the Germans
were preparing to invade Crete. This
invasion would probably come by
both air and sea, with the Luftwaffe
supporting the assault, and protecting
the invaders. Opposing them would
be the small Commonwealth garrison
on the island, reinforced by troops
evacuated from Greece, and supported
by a handful of understrength RAF
squadrons. Protecting the island from
Admiral Andrew B.
Cunningham, Commander-
in-Chief of the British
Mediterranean Fleet, was
arguably one of the best naval
commanders of the war. Even
he, though, for all his skills,
had nothing to counter the
Luftwaffe’s air superiority in the
campaign apart from his own
determination.
5

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