Qualla: Battle of 42nd Street https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Battle of 42nd Street https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street Battle of 42nd Street: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ By the morning of May 27, 1941, the men holding the line southeast of Chania had been fighting and retreating for a week. They were Australian and New Zealand infantry - the 2/7th Battalion, the 2/8th, the 28th Maori Battalion, and others - many without proper equipment, all hungry, none of them sure what they were doing on Crete in the first place. The road they were dug in along had been built decades earlier by the British 42nd Field Company, Royal Engineers, and the troops still called it 42nd Street. When the German mountain battalion came down the hill toward them through the olive groves, the Anzacs did something the German manuals didn't predict. They fixed bayonets and went up the hill.

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of 42nd Street: How They Got There https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ The road to 42nd Street started in Albania. Italy invaded Greece in October 1940 and was driven back by a Greek army that had no business winning. Britain sent more than 60,000 Commonwealth troops to help. When Germany struck through Yugoslavia in April 1941, the mainland fell in...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-how-they-got-there.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of 42nd Street: Operation Mercury https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ The German plan was code-named Unternehmen Merkur and was personally signed off by Hitler on April 25. Generaloberst Kurt Student commanded twenty-two thousand paratroopers and mountain infantry, supported by 570 aircraft of the VIII Fliegerkorps and more than five hundred Junker...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-operation-mercury.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of 42nd Street: The Charge https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ The 1st Battalion of the German 141st Gebirgsjäger Regiment, commanded by Major Hans Forster, advanced toward 42nd Street through olive groves on the morning of May 27. They were Bavarian mountain troops, fresh, disciplined, well-equipped. The Anzacs in front of them were the opp...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-the-charge.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of 42nd Street: The Cost on Both Sides https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ When the Germans recovered the ground, they counted 121 of their own dead from the 1st Battalion, 141st Gebirgsjäger - many killed by bayonet, many with crushed skulls. The Allied dead left on the field numbered around 20, and only 3 wounded German prisoners were taken. The Germa...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-the-cost-on-both-sides.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of 42nd Street: What the Charge Bought https://qualla.com/battle-of-42nd-street/ Tactically, 42nd Street was a brief Allied success. The German advance halted for the rest of the day. The 1st Battalion of the 141st Gebirgsjäger was effectively broken; reinforcements had to be brought up. The Anzac line withdrew that evening, having bought the retreating colum...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/1/battle-of-42nd-street-wp/sw31-battle-of-42nd-street-what-the-charge-bought.mp3 0:06 6 full