Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "Germany's Worst Airborne Disaster: The Battle of Crete | Animated History" video.

But what use did they subsequently make of this 'victory?'
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It was a disaster in that German airborne forces were so badly mauled that they never carried out any more major operations. Moreover, having conquered Crete, the Germans made little use of it as a base.
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The 1928 census identified the number of Cretan Muslims as 0%... Crete itself ceased to be an Islamic state after Nikephoros Phokas conquered it in 960-961.
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In May, 1941? Try again.
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And when you have done that, try to think of one for the Hurtgen Forest.
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I don't suppose that it has occurred to you that the Enigma machine evolved & developed over time. The Poles did indeed break an early Enigma, but not the more complex later ones.
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@DivineWisdom28 You may not like the idea, but the people at Bletchley Park did rather more than simply drink tea. Certainly the Poles made significant progress in the field, but to claim, as you have, that the Poles broke the Enigma code is an exaggeration.
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Why should it be? Sinking landing craft with troops aboard isn't.
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@Wehraboo-fi9vm Well, Air Marshal Dowding didn't consider this to be the case. During the Battle of Britain, he informed his staff that German pilots were entitled to shoot at RAF aircrew bailing out over Britain, because they remained potential combatants, whereas British pilots were not entitled to shoot at German aircrew in the same position, as they were potential prisoners of war.
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A victory is only impressive if it makes a greater victory possible. Midway being the most obvious example. The Germans made little use of their occupation of Crete, and effectively destroyed their paratroop force achieving it. Pyrrhus of Epirus would have taken the point.
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What subsequent use did the Germans make of Crete? A battle is usually fought to attain a wider objective. In this case, what was the wider objective?
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@tristanceld8208 If so, why were British operations not impeded by the loss of Crete? After the loss of Greece, Crete was, from the point of view of the North African Campaign, unimportant.
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@tristanceld8208 Malta was never taken by the axis, and if you think that Crete was relevant in the transportation of supplies to Tunisia, then I recommend you purchase a map.
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@tristanceld8208 Sorry, but it is difficult to interpret exactly what you are saying because your posts are difficult to understand. What, for example, does ' a thread for the supply lines to Tunesia' or ' Not my fold if you don't understand.' One thing which cannot be disputed, however, is that Crete was never, at any time, relevant to Tunisia.
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@tristanceld8208 Just look at a map. Crete is far way from Italy or Tunisia. Especially when the main RN bases were Alexandria, Malta, & Gibraltar.
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@tristanceld8208 Distance might or might not be a problem, but axis air and sea activity was. I suggest you read up on the naval & air war in the Mediterranean. Moreover, with bases in Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria, why should the British be perverse enough to us a base further away. Moreover one which, unlike the three I have named, was not in 1939-41 an established and operational one? As to air raids on Romanian airfields by the British from Crete, are you unaware of the fact that the whole problem faced by the British & Commonwealth army & navy at that time in the Mediterranean was the almost total absence of any sort of RAF support at all?
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The High Command on Crete was more or less entirely New Zealand & Australian, in point of fact.
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Because the British had the largest navy in the world. Moreover, at Crete the New Zealanders & Australians were evacuated as well. At Dunkirk, the British lifted over 120,000 French troops. The British then began landing new troops in Cherbourg, until told by General Weygand that the French army was no longer capable of organised resistance.
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The British tactic in every war - DOMINATE THE SEA LANES.
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Did the Poles break Shark, or Tunny?
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@pawluszagordze Why? What have you done?
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@pawluszagordze Shark was the four rotor enigma, broken at Bletchley Park by the 'Bombe' and Tunny was the Lorenz decoding device, vastly superior to Enigma, broken by Tommy Flowers and Bill Tutte.
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@pawluszagordze Shark (four rotor naval enigma) was intermittently read from late October, 1942, after the capture of a number of code books & documents by HMS Petard, but only read with regularity from around September, 1943. Tunny was read almost as quickly by the Allies as by the Germans after the introduction of the 'Colossus' computer in Dec. 1943/Jan. 1944.
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@pawluszagordze Yes, I know. But to claim that Enigma was broken by Poles because of their initial research is rather like saying that all aircraft were invented by Wilbur & Orville Wright. The early Polish successes soon became outdated by developments.
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But what use did the Germans make of the 'victory?' A battle isn't fought just for the sake of it, but to attain a wider objective. All the Germans did was destroy the confidence of their own high command in the use of airborne forces, lose a large number of transport aircraft, and find themselves facing determined resistance fighters on the island itself. In short, from the German point of view, Crete was far more trouble than it was worth.
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However, the Germans made no use of their occupation of Crete, and never undertook any large scale paratroop operations again.
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Presumably. Pyrrhus of Epirus would have agreed with you, after the Battles of Heraclea & Asculum.
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And what benefit did it bring to the Axis cause?
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Strategical victory? What strategic use was made of it?
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In point of fact, the allied forces on Crete didn't have any heavy equipment either, and were still disorganised from evacuation from Greece. What actual profit did throwing away a well-trained and motivated paratroop force, and losing large numbers of transport aircraft, bring to the Axis cause in the Mediterranean?
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