Operation Mercury (13 page)

Whilst some of the German dead may have been cut up by the locals, it would appear more likely that damage to the bodies was simply the work of predators. Such assertions, however, would serve to fuel resentment against the indigenous population and be employed as a rationale for the savagery of reprisal.

Colonel Leckie, commander of 23rd Battalion, found himself sharing the experience of having Germans landing, in his case, almost literally, on top of him. The Colonel immediately brought his Thompson into use, to good effect. His adjutant, otherwise immersed in regimental business, accounted for a pair of the intruders without being constrained to rise from his improvised desk. His experiences were similar to those of the 21st and 28th who accounted for most of the intruders in their respective sectors. The consequences for the parachutists were grim, Major W.D. Philip, a gunner in charge of an artillery unit recorded:

In the centre the attack toward Chania was in difficulties before Crete was ever sighted. General Sussman, together with his HQ staff, was killed when his glider folded, not long after take-off, and smashed into the rock strewn hillsides of Aegina. The baton of command thus passed to Major Richard Heidrich, commanding 3 Parachute Regiment. The plan for a pincer movement from dropping zones on the flanks was to be supported by glider-borne attacks on the defenders' AA batteries.

An Allied officer in Chania later recalled:

A sapper from the New Zealand Field Park Engineers looked on as the circling gliders found out just how tough their reception would prove:

Although the defenders, well versed in the techniques of opposing an airborne assault, reacted with ruthless vigour it was difficult not to admire the bravery of the
Fallschirmjäger
who pressed on to certain death with such élan. The men who had earned such a formidable reputation were undergoing their greatest test. In the main they would not be found wanting.

Captain Altman's northern detachment, fifteen gliders of 3 Parachute Regiment, were tasked to silence the guns on the Akrotiri Peninsula; despite losses some of the group attained their target only to find the guns, reputedly sited near the Venizelos tombs, were dummies.

The Northumberland Hussars, the ‘Noodles', were dug in around Profitilias on the Akrotiri Peninsula, (or as dug in as the surface rock would allow). Sir Lawrence Pumphrey had landed at Souda after the regiment was evacuated from Greece. He was part of C and D squadrons (A & B had been taken directly to North Africa).

Since arriving on the island the Hussars had enjoyed the warm Mediterranean spring. Sir Lawrence, with his brother John, also serving in the regiment, spent many hours walking over the broad expanse of the Peninsula, visiting the small villages and the ancient monasteries that seemed to grow from the living rock. Nonetheless their positions were so well constructed as to be almost invisible from the air and German aerial reconnaissance had failed to detect their presence. Both sides received a substantial shock on the morning of 20 May:

There was no armoured or artillery support and the battalion possessed only one grenade, though this was put to good use. The Hussars, originally a Yeomanry regiment, had been deployed in Greece in an anti-tank role, where the Duke of Northumberland served as a troop commander. Despite fighting a series of successful rearguard actions, most of their heavier equipment had had to be abandoned in the evacuation.

Six German gliders came down, virtually in a line, in front of the olive groves where the HQ company occupied prepared positions; a further quartet of the intruders landed on or around the dummy AA position. (Although the deception succeeded, the sandbagged emplacements left behind enabled the paratroops to establish themselves and, for a while at least, hold out.)

Of the half dozen, virtually all were accounted for on landing; a number of parachutists were captured, many more killed. Those who did land and get out were swiftly counter-attacked. One glider, the second, blew up when rounds detonated the grenade locker. Only the crew of the third or ‘C' glider managed to get free and dig in. The fight to destroy their foothold was bloody, costing the Noodles a number of casualties. Major David Barnett, the second in command, leading a probe in the thicket of olive groves, creeping up to a low wall, carefully raised his helmet on a stick to draw fire. None came, but the instant he lifted his head he was drilled by a sniper.

Private Arnold Ashworth was one of those who took part in this fight; he used his new Lee-Enfield, still in its protective daubing of grease, to good effect. Advancing over the dense ground he heard a wounded German crying out for someone to end his agony. He found the casualty in ‘a little grassy hollow, a few yards from his comrades. I don't know he had got so far, for half his hip was shot away. He had been hit with the heavy calibre bullet of an anti-tank rifle … A short while before he had been a fine specimen of manhood … and now here he lay at my feet pleading with me to put and end to his horrible suffering and wasted life.'
²¹

In such circumstances it was impossible not to feel pity for such a desperately wounded foe, the dead enemy lying broken and bloodied amongst the pathetic remains of their personal effects and family photographs. Such a sight tends to evaporate the demonic quality of even the most fanatical opponent and Ashworth, like so many others in similar positions, was bound to wonder if someone soon might be viewing his remains in a similar situation.
²²

The survivors of ‘F' glider also managed to gain a brief lodgement but the single cherished hand grenade was thrown in a dynamic counter-attack which resulted in the death or capture of all the parachutists. Altman's attack, had it achieved success, could have threatened Creforce HQ, destroying command and communications structures.

The AA guns sited a mile or so south of Chania, at a crossroads on the Chania Mournies Road, were to be attacked by Lieutenant Alfred Genz and his company landing in nine gliders. Genz was already a worried man. Just as his glider began to move on take-off he received a belated intelligence message that intimated the garrison he and his comrades were about to attack was at least three times greater in numbers than had been anticipated. This was scarcely an auspicious beginning. As the descent began his worst fears were realised when two of his gliders crashed over Chania and another exploded when anti-aircraft fire detonated a box of hand grenades.

The remainder were able to land close to the battery manned by a single troop from the 234th Heavy AA Battery operating four 3.7-in guns. Despite a spirited resistance Genz and his men successfully overran the position; few of the gunners survived. Glider-borne troops possessed the inestimable advantage of having all their weapons, including MG 34s, with them and could thus swing fully into action immediately on landing.

He now proceeded to his second objective – the nearby wireless station – but was repulsed by other elements of Force Reserve, 1st Ranger Battalion and more Bren Carriers of the 1 Royal Welch Fusiliers. Isolated and without support Genz clung briefly to his gains but wisely opted to break off and attempt to break out toward the rest of his regiment. Luck, cunning and their commander's excellent English got them through.

The bulk of Sussman's troops were to be landed in the dead ground of Prison Valley whilst Heilman's 3rd Battalion 3 Paratroop Regiment was to drop at Karatsos and secure the coast road. The two forces would then converge on the capital, the main body on the Alikianou – Chania axis and the lesser along the axis from Platanias. The plan began to unravel when the transports, sailing majestically over the Akrotiri Peninsula, were filleted by heavy AA fire; the surviving parachutists scattered over a wide area, several battalions became hopelessly intermingled:

These tough, young German
Fallschirmjäger
proved, in some cases, to be far from their heroic best in these chaotic conditions. Whilst many fought stubbornly in small groups and refused all quarter, others gave up without a fight and in the bloody scrum of the mêlée it was the New Zealanders and their Greek comrades who fared best. The paratroops were trained to form up swiftly on landing, follow their officers and fight hard to secure an identifiable objective.

As was often the case on Crete, officers and NCOs were missing or dead, the drop zones so scattered that it was nigh on impossible to determine where the actual objective lay and the quality of the opposition exceeded all expectation. The men who dropped on Eben Emael were anticipating a hard and desperate fight, their objective was impossible to miss, whereas here they'd been promised a walkover. The reception they received must have come as a very unpleasant shock:

Heidrich's three battalions, together with his engineer battalion and some heavy weapons companies, had landed without too much difficulty in Prison Valley but again their intelligence had let them down for, rather than finding themselves commanding a plateau, they were dropped into the bowl of a shallow valley with the heights before Galatos held by the defenders.

The 4 and 10 New Zealand Brigades had given Heilman's battalion a very rough reception. Those who dropped around the positions held by 18th and 19th New Zealand Battalions with the 6 Greek Regiment were shot down in scores; those who came down further south did succeed in linking up with their comrades in von der Heydte's 1st Battalion. At least one section of parachutists dropped into the water of the Alikianos reservoir, wherein all drowned.

Corporal Howard of the 18th used tracer to direct his fire at descending paratroops, the air alive with the crackle of small arms. Parties of Germans were coming down barely 200 yards distant where they provided excellent targets, many being dropped as they struggled to free themselves from ‘chutes that swiftly became shrouds. In the same sector Lieutenant Colonel Gray: