Crete Invasion

[Tony C]

Hi, only have one FJ photo & thought it may be of interest to someone. On the reverse is written "In Greece, getting ready for Crete", but what does everyone think?
Sorry, not the most exciting photo.

Cheers.....Tony

[W Petz]

Tony,

Welcome to the FJ forum. Very nice photo! Did you take a look at the thread I'lll show you mine if you show me yours" many of this type of photo is posted there. Thanks for sharing - Bill

[Óscar G]

Nice photo, Tony. They might be FJs about to board into the JU52. But, in my opinion, the conditions of the aerodrome in your pic are far from being those lived by the Fjs prior to board towards Crete... Many of the photos taken before taking off show very well the difficult conditions caused by the dust and the high temperature. Most of the aerodromes (Topolia, Megara, for instance) were just sandy grounds. Yours shows a well surfaced aerodrome (even wet by the rain?). Besides, the activity on the early hours of May 20th had to be more "frenetic" than the "quite relaxed" look shown by several FJs in your pic...
Another interesting detail: photos of the operation show that the Crete assault units still wore many bare helmets (some units of the LL. Sturm Regiment, for instance) alongside the green helmet cover. I miss the latter in your pic, as well as the lifejacket seen in the majority of the photos (the Crete operation obviously involved a real danger of coming down in the sea...).
As for the parachutes, it seems a RZ16, common by this moment. It seems to be that the RZ20 was issued too. The jumpsmock seems to be the M38 without pockets (?). In this regard, it´s admitted that after Fall Gelb (1940), smocks had pockets factory applied as a normal feature.
All this factors make me think that it might be a training exercise, but not Crete nor 1941...
Just my thoughts. I may be wrong. Anyway hope this helps!
Óscar

[Willi Z.]

A nice photo! Could we see the back where the comments are written? I also do not think it is a photo which has any reference to Kreta, I think it is an earlier photo.