The Persecution of the Allies' Defence of Crete in 1941 and the Enduring Lessons - Essay Example

In the Battle of Crete in 1941, the defense was left to the ground forces, but, as these forces were undermanned and undersupplied – some troops did not have weapons, while tanks were antiquated  - combined with the fact that communication of the ground was woefully inadequate, they really did not have a chance.  Moreover, the leadership, going into the battle already defeated, did not bother to put together a coherent strategy for battle, but, rather, seemed to make it up as they went along.  These are all reasons for the defeat, and lessons that were learned.  Nevertheless, as the Allies did delay Hitler’s forces for a few weeks, which, in turn, delayed Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, which was the turning point of the war, one could say that the battle of Crete set into motion a chain of events that led to Hitler’s destruction.  This paper will examine the reasons why Crete was fought¸ and how the British tried to defend it¸ coupled with an analysis of the mistakes made and an analysis of why the battle might not have been so bad after all, as it delayed Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Why Germany Wanted Crete and How Germany Got Involved in Greece

The Battle for Crete had its roots in a demand by Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator, to Greece to allow an Italian occupation of Greece in October of 1940.  When the premier of Greece, John Metaxas, defied this request, the Italians began the invasion of Greece (Woodhouse, 1976, p. 16), a move that would prove to be a “disaster” for Mussolini (Heckstall-Smith, A. & Baillie-Grohman, H.T., 1961, p. 15), and would make Mussolini a “laughingstock” in Greece (Hart, 1996, p. 87).  This move by Mussolini was precipitated by Germany sending soldiers into the Ploesti oilfields, which enraged Mussolini enough for him to launch this invasion (Mazower, 1993, p. 15). 

The reason that the German action of sending soldiers to Greece so piqued Mussolini was because Mussolini was jealous of Hitler, and felt that he stood in Hitler’s shadow while Hitler rampaged Europe.  While Hitler added Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Romania to the Third Reich, Mussolini fantasized about adding the Mediterranean to the Italian column, while Hitler insulted him by not allowing him access to the fruits of victory.  The final insult was Hitler’s occupation of Romania, a move that was done behind Mussolini’s back (Kiriakopoulos, 1995, p. xv).  This insult to Mussolini was what initially caused the Italian dictator to invade Greece in 1940, as Mussolini stated that, about Hitler invading Rumania without consulting him that he “shall pay [Hitler] back with his own coin; he shall learn from the newspapers that I have occupied Greece. Thus equilibrium would be restored” (Cervi, 1971, p. 60). However, this move was unsuccessful, as Mussolini’s troops were defeated and pushed back into Albania (Mazower, 1993, p. 15). 

Hitler was incensed by the Italians failure (Van Creveld, 1973, p. 57), regarding it as “definitely a regrettable blunder” (Hinsley, 1951, p. 102), however, as Hitler could not allow his ally to be totally defeated, he had to launch his own invasion of Greece, which began April 6, 1941 (Kiriakopoulos, 1995, p. xvi).