UNTERNEHMEN MERKUR THE CONQUEST OF CRETE, 1941 Book Reviews

[Glen S.]

Just curious if anyone has bought/read the book titled UNTERNEHMEN MERKUR: THE CONQUEST OF CRETE, 1941: Wars and Battles No. 3 . I am not familiar with this series and there are no reviews for this book on Amazon. I am curious if this book is similar to Osprey and if it iis worth buying.

Thank you!

Glen

[Glen S.]

I decided to go out on a limb and buy this book, Unternehmen Merkur, and found it for around $10. Just finished reading it. This book is similar to the Osprey series though the color plates are not as descriptive.

The author made it clear where he stands that the Germans were successful in this operation of taking Crete though at a high cost. He also states the lessons learned by the Germans could have been used to make other large scale airborne drops later in the War with better success (such as the Allies did at Normandy), but Hitler was unwilling.

Overall I thought the book gave a good overview of the 1941 Battle of Crete and had some decent photos and artwork. This book was originally written in Spanish and the translation was a little awkward at times and there were a few typos here and there. Nothing too terrible.

Here is a link that provides the book description:
http://www.casematepublishing.com/ti...=9788496935143

Glen

[Willi Z.]

The reality is that the Allied Airborne forces suffered the same % in overall casualties in Normandy as the Germans did in Crete. We could discuss Sicily as well. It is all about who writes the books.

What point would there have been trying to conduct massive airborne operations later in the war, when the Germans were no longer on the offensive and had lost air superiority?

[Glen S.]

Willi,

I think the author's point was the Germans could have conducted more of the larger operations later in the War while they still had the offensive capability using the lessons learned with Crete. Malta and possibly Gibraltar could be examples of large scale airborne ops the Germans could have conducted while they still had the resources, say about 1942.

I agree it would have been pointless for these types of ops after the Germans lost air supremacy and were on the defensive.

Glen

[Willi Z.]

Glen, they were going to attack Malta, but after Tobruk fell they called it off. The sent those FJs to North Africa just before El Alamein.

They jumped into Sicily and Italy as well, during the summer of 1943. The main lessons learned from Kreta were to jump with their weapons and redesign their jump smock. They implemented both.

[Glen S.]

Willi,

Just thought I would let you know I just finished reading about the jumps into Italy and Sicily in Jump Into Hell. I was surprised there were that many FJ operations after Crete that I never read about before. Tough troops!

Glen