Qualla: Battle of Heraklion https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Heraklion https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion Battle of Heraklion: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit New Zealand Official, Public domain. An old Cretan farmer at Galatas reportedly killed a German paratrooper with his walking stick before the man could reach his weapons container. The story may be apocryphal - oral histories of Crete in May 1941 are full of such moments, and not all of them happened to the people who told them. But the spine of it is true. When the German Fallschirmjager dropped onto Crete on 20 May 1941, the villagers came out of their houses with hunting rifles, axes, scythes, and rolling pins, and they joined the British, Australian, and Greek soldiers already dug in around the airfields. They had no doctrine, no command structure, and no orders. They had a homeland that was being attacked.

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: New Zealand Official | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Heraklion: The Last Place Left https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit Weixler, Franz Peter, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. By April 1941 the Greek mainland was lost. German divisions had overrun Yugoslavia and Greece in a six-week campaign, and the Royal Navy had evacuated some 47,000 Commonwealth troops south to Crete and Egypt. Most arrived on Crete with their personal weapons and not much else - a...

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: Weixler, Franz Peter | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-the-last-place-left.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Heraklion: Falling Through Anti-Aircraft Fire https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit New Zealand Official, Public domain. The German plan was Operation Mercury, the largest airborne assault yet attempted in any war. Fallschirmjager of the 7th Air Division and Air-landing Assault Regiment, supported by the 5th Mountain Division, would seize the four north-coast airfields - Maleme, Chania, Rethymno, a...

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: New Zealand Official | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-falling-through-anti-aircraft-fire.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Heraklion: The Cretan Counter-Attack https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit New Zealand Official, Public domain. West of Heraklion, the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Parachute Regiment landed in open country and tried to fight its way into the town. The early-modern walls of Venetian Heraklion - built by the Republic of Venice in the sixteenth century, expanded to handle gunpowder, never stormed...

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: New Zealand Official | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-the-cretan-counter-attack.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Heraklion: Decision at Maleme https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit New Zealand Official, Public domain. Heraklion held. So did Rethymno. So did Chania. The decisive battle was at Maleme airfield in the west, where Allied confusion and a New Zealand decision to abandon the high ground above the airfield on the night of 20-21 May allowed German transports to land troops directly on t...

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: New Zealand Official | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-decision-at-maleme.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Heraklion: What the Stones Remember https://qualla.com/battle-of-heraklion/ Photo credit New Zealand Official, Public domain. The Germans suffered roughly 6,500 casualties on Crete - a number small in comparison to Eastern Front operations a month later, but enormous as a percentage of the Fallschirmjager elite committed. Hitler never authorized another large-scale airborne operation. The cost to the Cr...

Read more: Battle of Heraklion on Qualla

Image: New Zealand Official | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/battle-of-heraklion-wp/sw3c-battle-of-heraklion-what-the-stones-remember.mp3 0:06 6 full