Tracks of the Minotaur

Category: Battle of Crete

  • The Battle That Nearly Failed – Maleme, 20 May 1941

    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…

  • Crete Was Lost Before Maleme

    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 Commando Who Made It Home and the Commando Who Didn’t

    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…

  • The Greek Forces and People in the Battle of Crete

    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 Hussars Without Horses or Guns

    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,…