Crete: one British advantage

The one shortcoming of the German preparations for attacking Crete is that they new essentially nothing about the forces opposing them. The seem to have expected far fewer troops in the defence than there were actually there. The British, in contrast, had been keeping watch over preparations through aerial reconnaissance. Undoubtedly, they must have had agents in Greece, as well, since they had only recently left there. They had a fairly complete picture of the forces being prepared for the assault. The mistaken report that the Germans might attack Cypress, instead of Crete proved an unwelcome distraction for Wavell and his staff. The deteriorating situation in Iraq seemed to lend credence to Cypress being the target. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Official History.