Introduction This is the second story in an examination of how the Battle of Crete was shaped, fought and ultimately lost. The first story, Crete Was Lost Before Maleme, stepped back from the fighting itself and asked a broader question: whether the conditions that made defeat possible had already been created before the first German…
The decisions that shaped the battle before the first German parachute opened Hill 107 is not much of a hill by Cretan standards. At 107 metres above sea level, it would barely register on many of our E-MTB rides, yet climb onto it above Maleme and the western battlefield of May 1941 opens below you.…
The ride began, as most of mine do, from home in Kokkino Chorio. On paper it was a fairly ordinary Apokoronas circuit: 38.4 kilometres, 819 metres of ascent, 831 metres of descent and a highest point of 300 metres. The E-MTB was moving for 2 hours 27 minutes, averaging 15.6 km/h, with nine recognised climbs…
One of my favourite Cretan foods is antikristo, and I should probably admit at the outset that my interest in it is not entirely academic. Put a plate of properly cooked lamb in front of me, browned at the edges, still succulent beneath, with bread, a village salad and a glass of red wine within…
Ammoudari–Askifou Plateau Loop Introduction Some rides are remembered for a summit or a descent. This one was claimed by a jar. At the edge of Ammoudari, beside an old threshing floor, a weathered pithos stood half in the earth, emptied of grain or oil but not of meaning. From there the track climbed through the…
The Greek Civil War — A Two-Part Study Introduction The Greek Civil War cannot be understood solely through the fighting of 1946–49. Its origins reached back into the Axis occupation, when resistance, political rivalry and competing ideas about the future of Greece developed alongside the struggle against the occupiers. After liberation, those internal divisions became…
42.4 km | 886 m ascent | 891 m descent | Moving time 2:38:37 | Ascent time 1:26:26 | Descent time 1:08:30 | Maximum gradient +23.8% / −19.2% | Maximum speed 51.6 km/h | Average speed 16.1 km/h | Eight recorded climbs It was advertised as a social ride: easy pace, plenty of stops to…
Two young men from Leicester became Yeomanry soldiers, volunteered for the Middle East Commandos and reached Crete with D Battalion, Layforce, during the final days of the Battle of Crete. One was killed and lies in Suda Bay War Cemetery. The other escaped from the island and went on to serve in one of the…
Introduction “The heroic Greek Army … have revived before our eyes the glories which, from the classic age, gild their native land.”— Winston Churchill, 9 February 1941 I have read countless military histories of the Battle of Crete. Inevitably, many cover the same ground: the German airborne plan, Maleme, Hill 107, the fighting around Galatas,…
The Royal Horse Artillery in the Battle of Crete On the morning of 20 May 1941, men from two old British yeomanry regiments looked into the sky over western Crete and watched one of the most extraordinary military assaults of the Second World War begin above them. German bombers and fighters swept across the island,…