The Battle of Crete and Greece’s Role in WWII:
American Perspectives Then
and Now
By Dr. Constantine Hatzidimitriou-AHI- Washington D.C. 5-25-07
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. First, I want to thank the American Hellenic Institute for inviting me here today to speak on this important topic on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the justifiably famous Battle of Crete.
I will begin by telling you why I put this presentation together and how it relates to the broader historical context of Greece and WWII and Greek-American studies. Several years ago, I realized how important it is for historians to make Greece's role during the Second World War better known while talking to a well educated congressional representative here in Washington. We were discussing modern Greek politics, when he astounded me by asking whether Greece had been part of the Axis or the Allies during WWII. It was a revelation for him to learn that little Greece had not only stood by the United States during that war, but that it had been the first allied nation to defeat a Fascist power!
Subsequent to this, I noticed that most television programs and books about the Second World War hardly mention Greece or leave it entirely out of their narrations. Almost every American has heard something about the Battle for Britain and the French resistance, but few if any, know anything about how Greece's poorly equipped citizen army held out for seven months against overwhelming odds and how the first air-born invasion in history was so costly for the Nazis, it was never attempted again . With the exception of England, no other European nation resisted the modern mechanized forces of Fascism for a longer period. Unfortunately, this situation is still standard in our schools as I have verified by examining most of the high school social studies textbooks used in NYC.
As I hope to briefly demonstrate, this amnesia is a recent phenomenon. For, if we look at the newspapers, books, and especially the political cartoons drawn from the British and American press, there was a time when Greece's heroic resistance was recognized throughout the world, and had a major impact upon the image of the Greek-American community in the United States. I will draw upon the accounts of people who were there (mostly non-Greeks), who observed what was widely referred to as the "Greek Miracle," and thought that Greece’s role was an example for free people everywhere Those days are worth remembering today, when some circles in Washington and elsewhere question Greece's value as an ally and loyal friend of the United States. My brief remarks are based upon a new book I am working on, entitled: American Perspectives on Greece During the Second World War—which is the last volume of a trilogy that I conceived of over twenty years ago in order to remind my fellow Americans of how they viewed my ancestral homeland in the past. The first two have already appeared, one dealing with American views on the Greek Revolution; and the other on American Eyewitness Accounts on the Destruction of Smyrna in 1922.
Before we get to the battle of Crete I must set the stage of what had happened prior to this final scene of Greece’s dramatic struggle against Fascism. You will recall that Italy had invaded Greece on October 28th 1940. It is easy for us today, using our hindsight to underestimate the superhuman effort it took for the ill equipped and outnumbered soldiers of Greece to repel the invader. Secret British diplomatic dispatches now make clear, that even the British who were resolved to aid Greece at all costs, did not expect the Greeks to put up the stiff resistance that they did. This sentiment was echoed by a first-hand account by Leland Stowe, foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News and Life Magazine. He was in Bulgaria when war broke out in Greece, and was among the first American journalists to reach the front lines: (I quote)
" Steve and I took the Athens road out of Salonika on November 5th... The road
serpented up and down over several mountain ranges. Near Kozani we overtook column after column of marching troops and long lines of plodding burros. They were swinging northward toward Florina and had been traveling like this for several days...
They were bright-eyed, wiry-built men. They looked strong, all
right, even if most of their uniforms were rumpled and messy and seemed
about two sizes too big for them. "Poor devils," we said. "What chance have they got against the Italian army? Maybe the Fascists' mechanized divisions are a third of the way to Athens already." But these little Greeks, like the people in the villages, didn't seem at all worried. They kept going, up and up....
A great many of the Greek troops were singing as they passed us. Others yelled and gesticulated, gaily and madly. They acted as if they couldn't wait to lay hands on an Italian. "What crazy people! Steve said. "Don't they know they haven't a chance?"
"Quite evidently the Greeks knew nothing of the sort.... Fascist divisions were already
slashing deeply into Greek territory.... What could the dwarfish Greeks do against a machine like that? Well there was not a military attache in the Balkans who believed that they had even an outside chance." (end of quote)
As we shall soon see, Mr. Stowe was mistaken in his opinion of the dwarfish Greeks and their abilities, later on in his account of the war he changes his tune. Halfway around the world in the United States, Greece's resistance united the Greek-American community. The October 30th 1940 issue of the New York Times contained the following item:
HEADLINE: "Americans Enlist to Defend Greece!"
U.S. and British citizens today began mobilization of a Greek International Brigade to reinforce the outnumbered but stubbornly resisting Greek troops. Among those ready to join up with the new international brigade today was 36 year-old John Theotochi, a restaurant operator who was born in Kansas City. (quote) "I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud today that I also am a Greek," he said. "We cleaned up the
gangsters in the United States, and now we have a tougher job to do..."
Within two weeks after the invasion of Greece, the formation of the Greek War Relief Association was announced in New York City. Headed by Spyros Skouras, the President of the National Theater Company, and Athenagoras, the Archbishop of North and South America, the GWRA launched an immediate drive to raise $10 million.
It is a little known fact that the Greek-American community raised $162 million dollars worth of War Bonds during the Second World War--the largest amount raised by any American ethnic group!
Let us return for a moment to the narrative of Leland Stowe, the American journalist who thought that the little Greeks didn't have a chance. Only a few weeks later his attitude had completely changed and this is what he writes: (I quote)
" When the news reached Athens I saw the first victory celebration
in fifteen months of reporting the war. From all quarters of the metropolis
church bells clanged madly. Tens of thousands of Athenians poured into
the street.... Athens went to bed very late that night. Yes, if these people
knew how to fight, they also knew how to celebrate a victory. This was one
of several things which [no one] would ever be able to take away from them...
So the Greeks fought with the dauntless fire of their ancestors, and
the world marvelled.... Sometimes we passed them where they lay like corpses on rocks beside the road, asleep from exhaustion. Columns of troops and mules covered miles of back breaking roads. In all those days from one end of the war zone to the other I never
met a single down-hearted or complaining Greek soldier. Sometimes they
had trudged for fifteen hours through rain and snow, yet they could always
smile. It seemed they had bodies of iron to match hearts like lions."
(end Quote)
As you can see, Mr. Stowe had greatly changed his opinion of the quality and abilities of the Greek soldier. Elsewhere in Athens, Laird Archer another American writes in his journal:
“ Whatever comes...Greece will win. She will win even though she be crushed in the process--for she will have revived for a disillusioned and despairing Europe the unquestionable spirit of liberty and independence." (end of quote)
These American accounts of the victory that stunned the world were echoed by many other journalists and diplomats of the time and were dramatically depicted by many cartoons printed all over the U.S. that deserve to be better known. But victory did not come at a cheap price. Archer's journal also contains much information about the thousands of Greek soldiers who were killed, maimed and crippled at the front. The severe weather in the mountainous terrain caused many amputations due to frostbite. Legless soldiers became a common sight throughout Greece. But let us return to our story.
As we know, it eventually became clear that Italy could not defeat Greece without German aid. 50,000 German troops had to reinforce the Italian army in Albania in December 1940. At the same time, the Germans offered the Greeks attractive peace proposals to lay down their arms. In order to intimidate them, Yugoslavia (March 25, 1941) and Bulgaria (March 1) were formally recruited into the Axis camp. Despite the fact that everyone recognized that Greece could not defend itself against both Germany and Italy, Greece rejected all inducements to stop fighting.
Since the Germans were preparing for an invasion of Russia, Hitler decided that Greece must be conquered as quickly as possible. The preparations for German aggression were met with courage and British aid. Facing a second invasion within six months the Greek people had no illusions about their situation. In an open letter to Hitler an Athenian wrote the following words in a Greek newspaper: "This little nation which has taught other nations how to live, will now teach them how to die. In the event of a German attack we will resist even if we have to fight alone"
Subsequent events unfolded like an ancient Greek tragedy. The Germans invaded Greece on April 6th 1941. Yugoslavia, which had repudiated its alliance with Germany was invaded at the same time and was crushed in a matter of days. Bulgaria opened its borders into Greece and joined in the AXIS attack. By this time the British had dispatched 58,000 troops to aid Greece. Despite stubborn resistance that surprised the Germans, their advance into central Greece threatened to cut off the bulk of the Greek army fighting in Albania from their British allies in southern Greece. Reluctantly, the Greeks withdrew from Albania and northern Epirus. A new defensive line, formed at the historic pass of Thermopylae, failed to stop the German advance. The Germans entered Athens on Sunday, April 27th. Laird Archer records in his journal that as he waited for word of the first sighting of German troops he came upon a Greek shepherd tending his flock. He asked him if he had seen any Germans yet and he replied: “let them come, we’ve had the enemy here before and we’ve always thrown him into the sea in the end.”
Despite heavy aerial bombardment by German Stukas, 42,000 British troops are evacuated to Crete. It is there, that the Allies decided to make a last stand. As early as October 1940, Winston Churchill considered the holding of Crete to be of paramount importance. He wrote that: “the successful defense of Crete is an invaluable aid to the defense of Egypt. Loss of Crete would be a grievous aggravation of all Mediterranean difficulties. So great a prize is worth the risk....” Yet he was later to observe that: ..”it remains astonishing to me that we should have failed to make Suda Bay the amphibious citadel of which all Crete was the fortress. Everything was understood and agreed, and much was done; but all was ahalf-scale effort. We were.. to pay heavily for our shortcomings.”
Churchill put a New Zealander, major-General Bernard Freyberg in command of the Allied forces in Crete. He had about 32,000 Commonwealth troops (including 2,000 Cypriots) under his command, an additional 10,000 Greek troops that had been evacuated from the mainland and some local Cretan forces. He had very little air support, some light tanks, and mostly captured or outdated artillery. As subsequent events were to show, he also had a secret weapon-- the fighting civilian population of Crete – who were to prove themselves a formidable force that terrified the mighty German army and caused them many casualties. This of course comes as no surprise, since the militarily and independent spirit of the Cretans has a long historical tradition, as other invaders, Arabs, Venetians and Turks had discovered throughout the centuries. For you see, Cretans can never be conquered but only occupied for a time—and they will be in constant revolt and turmoil until they regain their freedom. This Cretan spirit has been portrayed in poetry, art and literature as the world knows from many works, for example, those of Nikos Kazantzakis.
My purpose here is not to describe the military details of the Battle for Crete- Ten Days That Shook the World! I will only touch upon some of the highlights and basics of the battle and share with you some of the American impressions I have so far found. After doing so, I will then attempt to give you some appreciation of what was accomplished despite the ultimate Nazi victory, its connection to Greece’s broader role in the war, and how Americans at the time thought it should be remembered. For those of you interested in the day by day fighting, there are several excellent detailed histories of the Battle of Crete, and even a recent documentary film that I think should be promoted more widely in the mass media.
On April 25th, Hitler signed Directive Number 28, ordering the invasion of Crete—called Operation Mercury. He realized that control of Crete was crucial to sea power in the Mediterranean and that if the British remained in control of its airfields they could threaten his crucial oil reserves in the Balkans. Additionally, since he had already decided to invade Russia he had to secure his southern flank. Command of the German paratroop forces was given to major General Kurt Student who planned several strategic drops to capture the important airfields at Maleme, Heraklion and Rethymnon. The German forces numbered 750 glider troops, 10,000 paratroops, 5,000 airlifted mountain troops and 7,000 seaborne troops.
One must point out that the Allies knew of all the details of the German plan of attack because they had already cracked the ultra codes because of Enigma. That they failed to adequately defend the Cretan airfields was the most crucial factor of the entire battle. In fact, General Freyberg to his credit, had requested permission from Cairo to destroy these airfields in order to thwart enemy landings but was prevented from doing so. Apparently, the leadership in Cairo and Alexandria were so confident in his ability to defend the island, that they felt that they would need the airfields in Crete to mount future counterattacks. Although the British maintained naval superiority, it cost them dearly since they lost two cruisers and four destroyers to German air power and seriously weakened their Mediterranean fleet.
The Germans also made important errors. They underestimated the forces they would face in Crete, did not arm most of their paratroopers with assault weapons (instead they dropped them to be used on the ground) and assumed that the population of Crete would welcome them. The latter sentiment was based on the mistaken intelligence, that since most of Crete was Venizelist, Republican and anti-monarchy—they would oppose King George and the Allies along political grounds. Instead as they discovered the Cretans not only supported the Greek government and mounted a fierce resistance, but loyally aided King George and helped him escape to Egypt. In fact, the savage resistance of the Cretan population was so widespread and severe, it shocked the Germans who had not encountered anything like it in all of Europe up until that time. The massacre of captured Germans became commonplace, as did the equally brutal vengeance of the Nazis on the Cretans.
On May 20th Operation Mercury launched the first large airborne invasion in history which Hitler thought would quickly result in the island’s conquest. By the third day the number of German dead exceeded their losses in any single battle since the outbreak of the war and they seriously considered abandoning the attack. For the first time Hitler ordered that daily reports of the fighting not be given to the German people – so high were the casualties.
Lets now turn to our American observers and what they have to say about all of this:
Laird Archer ( Director of Near East Relief) journal, Athens, May 20th 1941:
“Hitler launched his attack on Crete today. Since dawn, planes in large formations have been passing over our heads, some low as if heavily laden with paratroops, others towing weird-looking gliders like young vultures following the parent bird from the roost. ...
The invaders also got a setback as they prepared to launch their offensive by sea. Two Italian destroyers blew up in Phaleron Bay this morning with a roar.... The destroyers were loaded with soldiers and escorting German troopships. The air was filled with screams of drowning men and the Phaleron shore was littered with debris, oil and dead seamen...
Somehow, Cretan Boys here have obtained copies of a leaflet in Greek dropped by German planes on Crete urging the people to wipe out the English and accept a German landing in order to get home twenty thousand of their sons entrapped and starving on the mainland. The boys here are enraged beyond words. But, according to the BBC of London, the Germans have had their answer already in the massacre of paratroops by the mountaineers. Crete will pay heavily for this, no doubt, but that’s the way they are....
May 25th journal -Athens.
The fourth week of the German occupation has ended with Crete still holding out amazingly, and an attempted landing by sea broken up.... These terse terms do not adequately describe what happened to the armada, the remnants of which returned to Phaleron Bay, pumping water from their holds and burdened with dead and wounded....
Greek nurses in hospitals where there are still some Greek wounded among the Germans say that the Nazi paratroops brought back rave deliriously about giant beings who emerged from caves with double-edged swords to behead their victims; others remain stunned and silent with cold horror in their eyes. Many of their comrades lost their lives in crash landings of the troop carriers and gliders. About four thousand were accounted for by the Imperials and the Greeks out of an airborne division of seven thousand, including mechanized equipment, police motorcycle corps, signal corps, medical men, etc.. It was undoubtedly a rehearsal of what Germany may attempt on the British Isles. ...
German wounded are coming in at such a rate that the high command has called for Greek nurses. But the great majority have refused to serve....
Journal, May 29th
Seventeen women defenders of Canea were brought from Crete by plane today. They and other women of that historic town scaled the walls of the houses were Germans had entrenched themselves during the street fighting, tore off the tiles and leaped upon the invaders, slaying them with short swords. Dressed in the national costume of the island, they still wore their bandoleers, now empty of cartridges. Among them were the wife and daughter of Dr. Georgalaki, a former member of parliament. These two and four others were taken before von Liszt at the high command as Exhibit A. The marshal told them that they should be stood against a wall and shot as guerrillas. But, he continued prompously, because of their sex, Adolf Hitler would honor them by making them prisoners of war instead. He strode forward to shake hands with them. They refused to take his hand. Standing, tall and rather imposing despite the bandage covering a head wound, the wife of the M.P. spoke for the little party of heroic defenders, very briefly, she said: Hitler cannot honor the women of Crete!
Turkey estimates that the Germans now have landed twenty-eight thousand in Crete. Imperial and Greek troops, driven to caves or lying flat on the beaches and in valleys by day.. emerge at night to fix bayonets and charge on the new accumulation of paratroops.... There are more stories of massacre of German prisoners by enraged Cretan women, this time in Heraklion. Logothetopoulos has issued an appeal to the Greeks not to be inhuman to the German prisoners for fear of retaliation....
Journal, June 1st
Crete has fallen after ten days of the war’s toughest fighting.... The siege lasted three times as long as Hitler had predicted....
Archer’s observations were also echoed by another American observer. Betty Wason, a CBS news correspondent in Athens who wrote the following:
"There are many stories about the German reaction to the battle of Crete. One involved an Austrian aviator who refused to fly there again for a third time and was shot. One of his buddies then was ordered to do so instead. Forced to do so, he dropped his bombs on the German airfield at Tatoi and disappeared…. More than 300 paratroopers have been imprisoned in the Center of Athens because they refused to go to Crete…"
"Among the first prisoners brought to Athens by the Germans, during the battle of Crete in May 1941, was a woman wearing a cartridge belt. She was Maria Georgibalaki, the wife of the mayor, who put on one of her husband's uniforms when she learned that the main body of the army was being evacuated from the mainland. Like a modern Joan of Arc she led her fellow townsmen in battle, shooting at the German parachutists who
landed on the island by the thousands. She claimed seventeen German soldiers killed by her own hand...." (end quote)
Even after the fall of Crete Ms. Watson continued to write about the widespread resistance there which she considered an example for all of Europe. It was also only in Crete that a daring raid by the Greek resistance led by British officers was able to kidnap the German Commander of the occupied island and use him for the Allied cause!! No other occupied people throughout the war did that!
It remains for us to briefly consider what was the significance of Greece's seven months of stubborn resistance within the broad context of the Second World War. The American correspondent, Leland Stowe had an opinion on the matter. This is what he wrote from the perspective of the time:
" The importance of the Nazis' Balkan campaign in the spring of 1941
must be gauged in relation to Hitler's chief military objective-- namely, a
knockout blow against the British Isles...He had expended so much armed
force in the new Balkan war theater that Germany's chance of invading the
British Isles had been postponed by several exceedingly costly months. It
might even prove true that Hitler had lost his last great opportunity to
invade Britain. If Nazi arms had not become involved in the Balkans in
April and May, an all out blow against England might well have succeeded.
At that time American-made weapons could not reach Britain in time or in
anything like sufficient numbers. The American government's policy was
still uncertain. Wavering America might well have been confronted with a
fait accompli in the doom of British resistance." (end of Quote)
Some modern historians highlight the fact that Hitler's campaign in Greece had an effect on the timing of the invasion of Russia. In 1943, when the fortunes of war had turned against Germany, Hitler was asked by a Bulgarian visitor if he would have started Operation Barbarossa had he known how difficult it was going to be. "I would have started earlier," he replied. Perhaps, the delay in Greece cost the Germans precious time against the coming of the Russian winter.
Betty Wason, the CBS correspondent who had lived in Greece both during its days of glory and defeat, thought that the significance of Greece OXI lay not in strategies and timetables but in a spiritual dimension. This is what she wrote in 1943:
"The great significance of the Greek victory and then stubborn resistance, was that it marked a turning point in the world's attitude. For the first time in the course of the war, the human spirit was acknowledged to be an element quite as important as mechanized force. Since then, miracles have been occurring throughout occupied Europe, as the indomitable desire for freedom has grown in strength, spreading to whole populations, touching even those who are spent in body and weakened by the misery of cold, hunger and material destitution.
Something happened in Greece in the winter of 1940-41, which was bigger than government, bigger than any individual participating in the war. It was a rekindling of the fire which burned in ancient Greece, the flame of which has inspired all the West in its striving to see justice granted to the individual and the recognition of human dignity." (end quote)
The words of this brave American journalist should be in every U.S. textbook on the Second World War. As in so many other instances our course is clear--- we must remind our countrymen of our common struggles for freedom and honor--- we owe it to those who sacrificed so much so we can be here today.
