This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. On the morning of 20th of May, 1941, the Germans launched Operation Mercury.

The invasion of Crete was the largest airborne operation yet attempted during the war, with thousands of Fauchum Yeager deployed.

Key to the operation's success will be the capture of the airfield at Malamay.

Outnumbered and having suffered horrendous casualties when the airborne troops secured Hill 107 overlooking the airfield,

it opened the door for reinforcements and ultimately the Allied withdrawal from the island.

For this episode I'm joined by now regular of the show, Robert Kershaw, who was last with us to discuss Dunkirk.

He has a new book available, The Hill, the brutal fight for Hill

107 in the Battle of Crete. Robert, welcome back. Before we get to Crete, we should perhaps set the same. The Allies had just

been forced to withdraw from Greece. I wonder what condition the British and

Commonwealth troops were in on Crete. Pretty powerless because rather like Dunkirk, they didn't get any of the heavy equipments out and really the war for that expeditionary force had simply been

reagard actions constantly in contact with the enemy and withdrawing all the time to the self.

So a bit like the picture in France before,

in that the Germans outflank the force by coming through Yugoslavia, which was unexpected.

And again, a bit like the Belgians during the Blitzkrieg, the Greeks surrendered and that left no option but to get across the Peloponnese to the south

and away as soon as possible.

So the entire campaign increased was a succession of retreats and quite intensely

for rearguard actions trying to buy time to break clean of the main body.

And the brigade, the 5th New Zealand brigade that ends up on and around Hill 107 barely got away and had been part of this retreat and so their background as soon as the war had begun for them actively was being completely

assailed by the luthuffer whenever they moved and barely getting out of the southern ports near Athens

amid air raids. Were they expecting to be a tacked on Crete? Was it seen as being the next German objective?

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