Made for the home market and sold in department stores in Germany, this silent newsreel is one of a series showing the Balkans Campaign, with a focus on the invasion of Crete. The film begins with images of German Army elements aboard ships, headed towards the island. At :39, Axis warships are seen escorting the convoy. A map at 1:27 shows the strategic importance of Crete in the Mediterranean. At 1:35, German paratroops board Junkers trimotor transports in preparation for the assault. At 2:34, the largest combat jump in history (up until that time) takes place. Combat scenes follow, with British prisoners shown at 3:51 and wrecked RAF aircraft at 3:58. At 4:03, German Luftwaffe general Kurt Student congratulates his men.
The Battle of Crete, code name Unternehmen Merkur (Operation Mercury), began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion. Greek and Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered very heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would prevail against the German invasion. The next day, through miscommunication and the failure of Allied commanders to grasp the situation, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell to the Germans, enabling them to fly in reinforcements and overwhelm the defenders. The battle lasted about 10 days.
The Battle of Crete was unprecedented in three respects: it was not only the first battle where German paratroops (Fallschirmjäger) were used on a massive scale, but also the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the deciphered German Enigma code, and the first time invading German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Because of the heavy casualties suffered by the paratroopers, Adolf Hitler forbade further large-scale airborne operations. However, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to build their own airborne formations.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
