Fortress Crete () was the term used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by the German occupation forces to refer to the garrison and fortification of

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

Background

The Greek island of Crete was seized by the

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after a fierce

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

at the end of May 1941. The Germans occupied the western three prefectures of the island (the prefectures of

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

, and

Rethymno Rethymno (also Rethymnon; ) is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 35,000 inhabitants (nearly 40,000 for the municipal unit). It is believed to have been built ...

) with their headquarters in

, whilst the Italians occupied the easternmost prefecture of

Lasithi Lasithi () is the easternmost regional unit on the island of Crete, to the east of Heraklion. Its capital is Agios Nikolaos, the other major towns being Ierapetra and Sitia. The mountains include the Dikti in the west and the Thrypti in the ...

until the Italian capitulation in September 1943.

Garrison

The first German garrison unit was the 5th Mountain Division, which had seen combat during the capture of Crete. In late autumn 1941, the 5th Mountain Division was replaced by the 713th and 164th Infantry Divisions, which in early 1942 were reorganised as Fortress Division Crete (). In the summer of 1942, FDK was split to form the smaller Fortress Brigade Kreta () and the 164th Light Afrika Division () which was sent to

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. The 164th was succeeded in 19431944 by the 22nd Infantry Division. In autumn 1944, after the 22nd Division withdrew from Crete, the remaining German units on the island were consolidated under the 133rd Fortress Division (). The Italian garrison units were the 51st Infantry Division "Siena" and LI Special Brigade "Lecce", which surrendered to the Germans after the Italian armistice of 1943. The garrison's strength rose and fell considerably, depending on the progress of the North African and Russian campaigns, and the perceived threat for invasion. Its peak was 75,000 men in 1943 and its nadir 10,000 at its surrender of 12 May 1945. After the general retreat from Greece in October 1944, the Germans, along with some Italian battalions, remained in Crete and in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

islands. They were cut off, possessed no air power or naval forces, with only some small patrol vessels and landing barges to maintain the links among the islands. The food problem was a serious one both for them and the inhabitants. Links were maintained (mainly postal) by some captured B-24 bombers under Luftwaffe colours which made flights at night from Austria.

Evacuation and surrender

The eastern part of Crete was evacuated during the winter by the Axis forces and was then taken by a very weak mixed Anglo-Greek garrison. There was, then, an unofficial truce between the two parties until the final surrender order issued by the OKW in May 1945 after the unconditional surrender on 8 May. British SOE officer Dennis Ciclitira arranged for ''

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'' Hans-Georg Benthack to formally surrender all German forces on the island to Major-General Colin Callander.

Commanders of the German forces on Crete

* 1 June 1941 – 8 June 1941: General der Flieger Kurt Student * 9 June 1941 – 28 August 1942: General der Flieger Alexander Andrae * 6 September 1942 – 1 July 1944: Gen.Lt. (Lw) Bruno Bräuer (briefly substituted in April 1944 by Carl-Erik Koehler) * 1 July 1944 – 18 September 1944: Gen.d.Inf. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller * 18 September 1944 – 9 October 1944: Gen.Lt. Ernst Klepp * 9 October 1944 – 8 May 1945: Oberst (Gen.Maj. after 1 Dec 1944) Hans-Georg Benthack Until the Italian armistice of 1943, the Italian occupation forces were commanded by General Angelico Carta.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortress Crete Crete in World War II German occupation of Greece during World War II Military units and formations of Germany in World War II Mediterranean theatre of World War II