Comments by "Stephen47 22" (@Stephen-bq4nq) on "A brief history of Freyberg's 2nd New Zealand Division in WW2" video.

  1. The Maori took the railway station but didn't take a secondry objective which enabled the German to machine gun the engineers and forcing them back preventing the clearing of the last demolition. Name me the incidents where the New Zealand division failed the Maori I know you won't be able to because it didn't happen. The maori also weren't always given the tough jobs and any study of 2nd New Zealand division proves this.
    3
  2. ​ @DaveSCameron His brigade commander and battalion commanders at Maleme failed him when they didn't carry out there orders in the first vital 24 hours and even worse told him everything was satisfactory misleading him to the fact that 22nd battalion had been withdrawn from the airfield and hill 107.
    2
  3. He was told by British intelligence weeks before the landing that it was going to be 30,000 strong with 10,000 coming by sea.
    1
  4. Freyberg was made a scapegoat for Crete the infantryman had the battle won at Maleme and it was thrown away by the Brigade commander and the three battalion commanders from the 21,22,23 battalions who failed to carryout their orders and even worse then told freyberg the situation was "quite satisfactory" omitting to tell him 22nd battalion had been withdrawn from hill 107 overlooking the airfield which had a major effect on the outcome of the battle
    1
  5. His books whole agenda was to trash freyberg so I wouldn't put too much stock in what he says
    1
  6. Freyberg didn't position troops west of Maleme because they were told by British intelligence the attack was going to be airborne and seaborne with the best landing beaches being from Maleme to Platanias so the troops were strung out defending the coast and the airfield. The result was there wasn't enough troops to man positions west of the airfield. For all that the battle would still have been won if the Brigade commander and battalion commanders had carried out their orders which they didn't and even worse the brigade commander Hargest contacted freyberg informing him the situation was "quite satisfactory" making no mention of the fact the 22nd battalion had been withdrawn from hill 107.
    1
  7. Mu grandfather was in the 22nd fought in greece,crete and was in North Africa till Jan 1943 with 22nd battalion
    1