Operation Mercury: On the morning of 20 May 1941 the German airborne invasion of Crete began. Codenamed Unternehmen Merkur, (Operation Mercury), it was not only the first battle where German paratroopers were used on a massive scale, but also the first true airborne invasion in military history. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered very heavy casualties and the Allies were confident that they would prevail against the German invasion. The next day however, despite the Allies powerful advantage which came from having broken the German Enigma code (this gave them advance notice of all German plans), the failure of Allied commanders to grasp the situation, as well as their chronic miscommunications, allowed the Fallschirmjäger to capture Maleme airfield in western Crete. Control of this landing point enabled the Germans to fly in mountain troops as reinforcements and ultimately overwhelm the defenders. The Battle of Crete lasted about 10 days, and it firmly established the elite reputation of the German Fallschirmjäger of the Second World War. German newsreels of this era were often cinematic masterpieces in their own right, powerfully juxtaposing film footage and music to create the impression of the utter invincibility of German arms. At 3:44 in this fast-moving and excellently-produced newsreel, one is struck by certain similarities to the helicopter attack scene in Francis Ford Coppolas Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now, which was produced nearly forty years after the film seen here.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 13:18:45 +0000
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