Sunday Wargame - 28mm Battle of Heraklion, Crete 1941

 Today, Paul, Barry, Andrew and I took the attacking Germans against Mark, Nick, Rick and John with the British Commonwealth (and Greeks). Julian provided the scenario and umpired the game, for which we used Andrew's home brew AS9 system

Firstly a "brief" outline of the background, courtesy of Wikipedia

Heraklion was defended by the British 14th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Brian Chappel. The brigade was made up of the 2nd Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment (2nd York and Lancs; with a complement of 742 officers and men on the eve of the battle) and the 2nd Battalion, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) (2nd Black Watch; 867), with the Australian 2/4th Battalion (2/4th; 550) temporarily attached. The men of the 2/4th had been evacuated from mainland Greece to Crete, arriving on 27 April. On the night of 15/16 May, four days before the battle, the brigade was reinforced by the 2nd Battalion of the Leicester Regiment (2nd Leicester's; 637), which was transported from Alexandria to Heraklion by the cruisers HMS Gloucester and HMS Fiji. Also attached were 450 artillerymen of the 7th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery fighting as infantry and the Greek 3rd and 7th regiments (both battalion-sized and lacking training and weaponry) and a Greek depot battalion undergoing training. Supporting the brigade was the 234 Battery of the 68 Medium Regiment of artillery, which was equipped with 13 captured Italian field guns. Also attached to the brigade were the 7th Battery of the 2/3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, five heavy infantry tanks and six light tanks – not all necessarily operational at a given time – and a variety of other small anti-aircraft, support and ancillary units. As well as the Italian guns the brigade could field a further two artillery pieces and 14 anti-aircraft guns of several calibres. In total Heraklion was defended by just over 7,000 men, of whom approximately 2,700 were Greek.

The German assault on Crete was code-named "Operation Mercury" (Unternehmen Merkur) and was controlled by the 12th Army commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm List. The German 8th Air Corps (VIII Fliegerkorps) provided close air support; it was equipped with 570 combat aircraft. The infantry available for the assault were the German 7th Air Division, with the Air-landing Assault Regiment (Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment) attached, and the 5th Mountain Division. They totaled 22,000 men grouped under the 11th Air Corps (XI Fliegerkorps) which was commanded by Lieutenant-General Kurt Student who was in operational control of the attack. Over 500 Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft were assembled to carry them. Student planned a series of four parachute assaults against Allied facilities on the north coast of Crete by the 7th Air Division, which would then be reinforced by the 5th Mountain Division, part transported by air and part by sea; the latter would also ferry much of the heavy equipment.

For the assault on Heraklion the Germans assigned their strongest individual force of those launching the initial assault on Crete: the 1st Parachute Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Regiment and an anti-aircraft machinegun battalion, all from the 7th Air Division. This force totaled approximately 3,000 men and was commanded by Colonel Bruno Bräuer. A few days before the attack, German intelligence summaries stated that the total Allied force on Crete consisted of 5,000 men and that the garrison of Heraklion was 400 strong. Before the invasion, the Germans conducted a bombing campaign against Crete and the surrounding waters to establish air superiority. The RAF rebased its surviving aircraft to Alexandria after 29 of their 35 Crete-based fighters were destroyed.

General overview of Operation Mercury

Action around Heraklion. I think our area of operations was probably the left-hand side of the above map only. Heraklion was at one end of the table, and we were landing at the other end.

So, how did this translate to our battle....well.... using a scenario book he had, Julian told us we Germans had four units, one of which had a command unit attached, another had an AT asset attached, the third had a command unit AND an HMG and the fourth was a straight unit with no attachments at all - I commanded the latter! So, effectively we had 6 fighting units, as the command element in Andrews rules basically fights as a unit. Being paras, we also got a +1 on everything - firing, melee and rally tests.

The defenders outnumbered us BY A LOT! They had about 12 units of infantry - some of these were poor quality and had a -1 modifier on all their rolls, but I think the majority were standard quality troops. They also had an AA gun, which could operate as an AT weapon as well, 4 armored cars and an HMG company. Perhaps one third of these units started in the town of Heraklion itself, quite a distance from most of the German DZ's, so they were not immediately available to get involved in the fight. We Germans were able to choose which 4 of 7 possible DZ's we would use. We could choose to drop from a great height (reducing risk of being hit by AA but increasing risk of landing off target) or at medium or low level to reduce the impact of drift but with increased risk of casualties. We all chose to drop at medium level and were not too badly affected by drift - but I think we all hit the ground carrying at least one hit - Barry possibly already had three and spent quite a few turns trying to rally these off in the first part of the game.

We played with almost a full pack of cards. All the black face cards were Stuka strikes, to 6 in total, but these could be driven off by the British AA scoring 9 or better on the turn they were arriving. There were two or three red face cards for British artillery support and two Jokers, which would indicate the arrival of 5th Mountain Division (which did not happen in reality but would happen at some point in our game) The latter would arrive at one of six beaches along the northern edge of the table, decided on a D6 roll, and the reinforcements would be from 1 - 6 tanks and 1 - 6 infantry units, based on two more D6 rolls.

There were 7VP available on the battlefield and to win, the Germans had to be in control of 4 of them when the last card was turned.

Right - how did we get on?!

View down the table from the east - Heraklion in lower right, with the possible German landing beaches on the north coast of Crete. The woods are olive groves. The British vehicles could only move along roads within the wooded area.

View from the west, most of the potential DZ's were in this area, and we chose 4 of these

Initial dispositions, with Greek and British troops also in evidence. The Greeks were all -1 and the Brits in this area were the same - they were rear echelon cooks and bottle washers who had been given a rifle and asked to remember their basic training, prior to military specialisation!

Andrew's command, including our sole AT weapon, already carrying two hits from their descent.

My unit with a single hit from AA fire

Paul had the strongest unit of paras (also carrying a hit!)

We were quite lucky and got the first joker on about the fifth turn. I rolled for beach number 4 and unfortunately only rolled a 1 for tanks but managed a 4 for infantry.

The 38t heads for the heights defended by British infantry

My FSJ had already seized the small BUA and secured 1VP so far. They watched on as the Gebirgsjaegers got stuck into the kiwis of the NZ Division!

The 38t in close combat with the Brits defending the 2 VP hill.

Mark had rolled some great dice for AA up to this point, driving off first two Stuka attacks - but the third got through, and for the rest of the game, the Luftwaffe would be untroubled by any British ack-ack!

On the hill, a well-placed Mills bomb took out the German panzer - verdammt!

Meanwhile Andrew's FSJ were assaulting into the olive groves and inflicting some pain on the defenders.

Paul was moving in on the cooks and bottle washers defending the supply depot.

One of the seaborne units finally made it up the hill to assault the Brits, whilst the unit that had previously assaulted the NZ'rs had been pushed back to the landing beach and the other two units were moving very tardily - perhaps they were suffering ill effects of their trip across the Med?

Confused close combat action continued in the woods 

The armed cooks were putting up a staunch resistance to the superior FSJ

And the Brits on the hill threw back the Gebirgsjaegers - this wasn't in the plan!

This unit was driven back with four hits, then rallied one off and attacked again, two or three times over the next few turns.

Andrew's troops were gaining the upper hand in their fight with some Aussie artillerymen, who were also classed as -1, seeing as they were using rifles rather than 25lbrs to fight this battle!

Finally, the Germans managed to push the plucky Brits off the 2VP hill! With possession of the BUA in the left of the image, we now held 3 of the requisite 4 VP - however, the rest were all located deep within the British held area of the battlefield.......

The paras were giving multiple enemy units in the olive grove a pretty hard time, with Barrys command joining in the assault.

The HMG Company sitting on the edge of the olive grove, covering potential landing sites.

"Potential" no longer! The second joker came up at about the three-quarter point of the game, and a second landing by one 38t and three units of Gebirgsjaegers was the result. If only either Paul or I had rolled a 6 with the first dice.....

The situation seen from the east - Germans hold the 2VP heights and 1 VP BUA, and the enemy forces are teetering on the brink of collapse.

Confused melees continue in the olive groves - the superior Germans are winning, but there is always another Allied unit arriving to contest their advance.

The rest of the game was centered on a grim struggle for control of a second 2 VP hill that lay just to the SE of the second landing beach

Paul's troops managed to drive the kiwis off the hill - but there were still about ten turns to play!

Apart from Mark and me, all the units headed for the sound of the guns!

Gebirgsjaegers and kiwis slug it out for control of the vital heights

Three of the four German units that landed on the beach are in a pretty bad way.

Its still all to play for!

The Gebirgsjaegers seize control of the hill, can they hold on till the end of the game?!

The other hill is securely in German possession

The third to last turn saw the tide turn again, and the Germans were forced off the hill!

The very last card was a bit of an anti-climax - a black face card! We obviously could not seize the hill with a bombing raid - and to add insult to injury, Andrew rolled double one and then one and two for the attack, resulting in absolutely no casualties on the enemy below!

So, in the end, a very close fought win for the Brits is how Julian called this game. One could make the argument for a draw - neither side really controlled the hill, which meant of seven VP in total, the Germans held three and the Brits and Greeks two.

Great fun and a very good scenario in the end, although without the seaborne reinforcements, it would have been nigh on impossible for the Germans to win. On the other hand, in a way, it was just as well Paul and I only rolled rather average dice for the Gebirgsjaegers; if we both landed four to six tanks plus three or four infantry units, the boot would have been well and truly on the other foot and would have made the defenders job far too hard too.

For those who are interested, we seem to have done a reasonable job of recreating what actually occurred in and around Heraklion, at least in terms of the success (or otherwise) of the German attack:

When the parachutes opened at about 1730 on 20 May, the defenders were ready for them. The German Air Force worked over the defenses starting at about 1600; the four operational fighters of 112 Squadron, facing certain destruction from the waves of Bf.110 heavy fighters accompanying the bombers, abandoned Heraklion and set out for Egypt. The ground crews would now fight as infantry.

Bräuer’s assault plan brought his headquarters and 1st Battalion down several miles east of Heraklion, where they landed and gathered in fairly good order. (I think this is the part of the battle we recreated) The reduced 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Regiment – only two of its companies could be carried by the available aircraft – landed well to the west of the city to seal the coastal road against Allied reinforcements. But the other two battalions came down on the outskirts of Heraklion, and there the defenders proceeded to cut them to pieces. The 2nd Battalion of the 1st Parachute Regiment attempted to land directly on the airfield and was promptly attacked by both the Australians and the 2nd Battalion of the Black Watch. That shattered the battalion, dispersing the survivors in the area east and south-east of Heraklion.

Maj. Karl Lothar Schulz, who would later command the 1st Parachute Division, gathered most of his 1st Battalion and moved directly against Heraklion, where he was met by the fanatic Greeks of the Kriti Division Depot Battalion. Raw recruits for the most part, with a handful of instructors, they at first barred the way to Heraklion but Schulz and his men broke into the city and German patrols actually reached the port. Additional Greek troops and crazed armed civilians counter-attacked, forcing Schulz to call a retreat before his paratroopers became trapped in Heraklion. Schulz claimed that the city had surrendered, but he appears to have mistaken a French-speaking Heraklion civilian, Sotiris Papapolychroniou, for the city’s mayor.

On the following day, the Greeks threw back Schulz again, while the British repelled an attempt by Bräuer to advance from the east. The Germans suffered from a lack of food and water, while the Greeks deployed captured recognition panels inside their perimeter, causing the German Air Force to drop weapons and supplies to them instead of the Germans. For the next several days the Germans held back, gathering stragglers and a handful of reinforcements dropped by parachute – most additional troops went to the west end of the island to help capture Maleme, where Student now made his main effort.

By the 25th when the Germans tried again, the Allies had re-shuffled their dispositions. The Greeks withdrew by sea to Knossos for rest and refit, while the British took over defense of Heraklion itself. The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders had arrived after bashing their way past the paratroopers behind their trio of Matildas. The Germans again failed to take Heraklion, but on the 26th Freyberg informed his superiors that Crete was lost, with the Germans having secured Maleme Airfield and the nearby port at Chania.

The Germans won the Battle of Heraklion, as they did eventually capture the city and its airfield. But they had been balked at their attempts to take it by force, thanks to a poor attack plan that deliberately divided their forces, and stout resistance from both the British and the Greeks.

As for the seaborne reinforcements, in reality they never arrived, 

Aware of the convoy's progress due to Ultra signals intercepts the Allies sent a squadron through the Kythira Strait to the west of Crete. This was Force D, consisting of the cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Orion and HMS Dido, and three destroyers commanded by Rear Admiral Irvine Glennie. They were unsuccessfully dive bombed as they entered the Aegean and intercepted the German 1st Motor Sailing Flotilla at about 22:30. The British squadron attacked the head of the by now scattered convoy, harried by the Italian torpedo boat Lupo, which was hit repeatedly and driven off. Believing that they had destroyed the convoy, the British ships withdrew. In fact, many caiques escaped in the confusion. A total of 297 German soldiers from a force of 2,000 were killed. The diminished 2nd Battalion of the 85th Mountain Regiment (II/85) from the 5th Mountain Division was later airlifted into Crete and by the evening of 23 May they were fighting against the New Zealand 5 Brigade at Galatas.