Wednesday, November 02, 2022

More German plans as of 20 May 1941 at Crete

 As we mentioned the 7th Air Division and the assault regiment would be drpped. They hoped that there would airfields captured so that troops from the th Mountain Division could be landed from transport planes. More of the mountain division would be brought by sea. that all would give70 men landed from gliders, and 10,000 by parachute. 000 men would be flown in by transport aircraft. The plan was to bring in some 7,000 men on ships. 

There were to be somewhere between 70or 80 gliders. They expected to have 600 t0 70 Ju-2 transport aircraft. The transports would bring in five thousand to six thousand men with equipment in one trip. Air support would include 430 dive bombers, 180 fighter aircraft, with about 40 reconnaissance aircraft. The British knew of these numbers but did not believe that the numbers were accurate. In fact, the estimates proved to be good.

The attackers would be divided into west, center and east groups. The western group was to capture Maleme air field and hold it so that it could be used to land transport aircraft. They were also supposed to scout to te west.This is based on the account in "Greece, Crete, and Syria" by Gavin Long.

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