2542
July 2nd, 1941
Mönichkirchen, Hitler HQ - The Führer reviews the situation in Greece with Jodl, Keitel, Göring and several high-ranking officers. "As I have always said, the British have set up the whole Greece thing so that they could base their heavy bombers in Crete and threaten the Romanian oil fields! We have to seize Crete as soon as possible, by an energetic airborne and naval operation!"
Lieutenant-General Kurt Student, still convalescent after the wounds received in Corsica, is appalled. "My Führer, the XI Flieger Corps is still unable to undertake such an operation. Our troops suffered heavy losses in Corsica and Sardinia during Merkur; they are far from having made up for them, because the training of a paratrooper is long and expensive. Moreover, we have barely 200 Ju 52s, and more than half of them are currently used to transport supplies between Bulgaria and the Athens region. We need at least 500 aircraft! Even if we are scraping the bottom of the drawer and recovering for example the last old Italian bombers like the SM.82 Pipistrello, which would take several weeks, we would not reach this figure. Then, supposing we could gather the necessary means for a first airborne wave, it seems doubtful to me that we could mobilize the naval means necessary to transport the second wave by boat. It would be wiser to seize first the first Cyclades, until Milo and Thira-Santorin, in order to be able to assault Crete more easily afterwards."
Hitler does not appreciate this speech and also refuses to accept the opinion of Keitel, who underlines that most of the Greek civilian ships have left for Crete or the Dodecanese and that the Axis forces have very few means of naval transport at their disposal.
"Do not always invoke your stupid questions of logistics!" the Führer lashed out, annoyed. "Once the Peloponnese is in our hands, Crete will only be a short hop away!"
Göring intervenes at this point: "I don't see the problem! The power of the Luftwaffe is sufficient to annihilate the enemy's air assets in Crete for the time necessary to organize a large-scale attack. It would be enough, my Führer, if you would authorize the transfer to Greece of the I. FliegerKorps, which is in Poland."
But this transfer does not suit the Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, General Jeschonnek, at all: "My Führer, the land available in Greece is scarce, poorly developed, and moreover, we have just spent several weeks bombing them! We have already installed the Vth FK, it is impossible to deploy a second FliegerKorps there overnight! Moreover, the fuel supply, which is already inadequate for a FliegerKorps, would be totally inadequate for two!"
These objections are rejected by Göring himself, but Hitler, for once, does not allow himself to be carried away by the enthusiasm of his heir apparent. Not that he was worried about a question as stupid as the supply of fuel for his planes, but he refuses to clear the border with the USSR or the Channel front against the RAF any further.
Nevertheless, he refuses just as much to admit the threat posed by an Allied-occupied Crete on the Romanian oil. The air battle of Crete will take place with the forces already deployed on the spot, even if this decision - as the Führer undoubtedly knows, without wanting to admit it - implies that operation Barbarossa, already very delayed, will have to be postponed to the spring of 1942.
Mönichkirchen, Hitler HQ - The Führer reviews the situation in Greece with Jodl, Keitel, Göring and several high-ranking officers. "As I have always said, the British have set up the whole Greece thing so that they could base their heavy bombers in Crete and threaten the Romanian oil fields! We have to seize Crete as soon as possible, by an energetic airborne and naval operation!"
Lieutenant-General Kurt Student, still convalescent after the wounds received in Corsica, is appalled. "My Führer, the XI Flieger Corps is still unable to undertake such an operation. Our troops suffered heavy losses in Corsica and Sardinia during Merkur; they are far from having made up for them, because the training of a paratrooper is long and expensive. Moreover, we have barely 200 Ju 52s, and more than half of them are currently used to transport supplies between Bulgaria and the Athens region. We need at least 500 aircraft! Even if we are scraping the bottom of the drawer and recovering for example the last old Italian bombers like the SM.82 Pipistrello, which would take several weeks, we would not reach this figure. Then, supposing we could gather the necessary means for a first airborne wave, it seems doubtful to me that we could mobilize the naval means necessary to transport the second wave by boat. It would be wiser to seize first the first Cyclades, until Milo and Thira-Santorin, in order to be able to assault Crete more easily afterwards."
Hitler does not appreciate this speech and also refuses to accept the opinion of Keitel, who underlines that most of the Greek civilian ships have left for Crete or the Dodecanese and that the Axis forces have very few means of naval transport at their disposal.
"Do not always invoke your stupid questions of logistics!" the Führer lashed out, annoyed. "Once the Peloponnese is in our hands, Crete will only be a short hop away!"
Göring intervenes at this point: "I don't see the problem! The power of the Luftwaffe is sufficient to annihilate the enemy's air assets in Crete for the time necessary to organize a large-scale attack. It would be enough, my Führer, if you would authorize the transfer to Greece of the I. FliegerKorps, which is in Poland."
But this transfer does not suit the Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, General Jeschonnek, at all: "My Führer, the land available in Greece is scarce, poorly developed, and moreover, we have just spent several weeks bombing them! We have already installed the Vth FK, it is impossible to deploy a second FliegerKorps there overnight! Moreover, the fuel supply, which is already inadequate for a FliegerKorps, would be totally inadequate for two!"
These objections are rejected by Göring himself, but Hitler, for once, does not allow himself to be carried away by the enthusiasm of his heir apparent. Not that he was worried about a question as stupid as the supply of fuel for his planes, but he refuses to clear the border with the USSR or the Channel front against the RAF any further.
Nevertheless, he refuses just as much to admit the threat posed by an Allied-occupied Crete on the Romanian oil. The air battle of Crete will take place with the forces already deployed on the spot, even if this decision - as the Führer undoubtedly knows, without wanting to admit it - implies that operation Barbarossa, already very delayed, will have to be postponed to the spring of 1942.