General Sir Archibald Wavell was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the newly created Middle East Command on 2 August 1939. Wavell, who was born in 1883 and educated in Winchester, was commissioned into the Black Watch in 1901, serving in both South Africa and India. In 1917 he was sent to represent the Chief of the Imperial General Staff at General Allenby’s headquarters during the Egyptian campaign, and later wrote his biography. It was under Wavell’s command that O’Connor routed the Italian forces advancing into Egypt in December 1940. One of the major problems Wavell faced was his relationship with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, whose complete underestimation of Wavell was made worse by his constantly trying to interfere with his command. He was succeeded by General Claude Auckinleck as C-in-C, Middle East in June 1941 and was posted to the Far East until June 1943 when he was appointed Viceroy of India, a position he held until the end of the war.
Major General ‘Tiny’ Freyberg at over 6ft tall was an imposing man, but is seen here in a relaxed moment. He took over the command of Crete shortly before the invasion on 30 April 1941. (IWM – E3021E)
Major General Bernard ‘Tiny’ Freyberg, VC, commanded the Allied garrison on Crete (known as ‘Creforce’). Freyberg was one of the war’s most charismatic leaders and although born in England, spent all his childhood in New Zealand. In 1914, he came back to Britain and managed to secure a commission, fighting at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. He was wounded a dozen times and received the Victoria Cross at the battle of the Somme. He stayed in the army during the inter-war years, but was finally forced to retire due to ill health. Nevertheless, he offered his services to the New Zealand government in 1939 and, due to his reputation, was given command of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. It was the same qualities he had displayed in the First World War, as well as his personal relationship with Winston Churchill, which led to his selection as overall commander of ‘Creforce’. After the campaign, he remained the commander of the New Zealand Division through its campaigns in North Africa and Italy and, following the war, became his country’s governor general until 1952. In 1953 he was made deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle, taking up residence in the Norman Gateway. He died on 4 July 1963.
General Sir Archibald Wavell KCB, CMG, MC, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, a position he had held since August 1939, lands by boat at Souda Bay to inspect the garrison on 13 November 1940. He faced constant interference with his command from Prime Minister Winston Churchill. (IWM – E1179)
Colonel Howard Kippenberger (left) and Lieutenant Charles Upham. Kippenberger commanded the 10th New Zealand Brigade on Crete and was awarded the DSO, while Upham won the first of his two Victoria Crosses. (IWM – K1904)
Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham (‘ABC’), who had assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station in June 1939, commanded the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean theatre. Born in Dublin in January 1883, Cunningham spent three years at the Naval Preparatory School, Stubbington House and then moved to HMS Britannia in 1896. He served with the Naval Brigade as a midshipman during the Boer War and commanded a destroyer, HMS Scorpion during the First World War, winning the DSO and two bars. Cunningham’s main concern was for the convoys heading for Egypt and the safety of Malta, whose significance he fully appreciated. He adopted an aggressive policy against the Italian fleet, with victories at Calabria, Taranto and Cape Matapan. He was also able to provide valuable support to ground operations, particularly during the campaigns in both Greece and Crete, where the Royal Navy evacuated thousands of Allied troops in the face of powerful opposition from the Luftwaffe.
Brigadier Edward Puttick was in temporary command of the New Zealand Division while Freyberg commanded the island garrison. He was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1890 and, after joining the Roads Department in 1906, joined the Territorial Force and was commissioned into the 15th (North Auckland) Regiment, later transferring to the 5th (Wellington) Regiment. During the First World War, he served with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in Egypt, Cyrenaica and on the Western Front, where he rose to command the 3rd Battalion. He took command of the 4th New Zealand (NZ) Brigade in January 1940 until August 1941, becoming Chief of Staff and General Officer Commanding, New Zealand Forces until December 1945.
Brigadier James Hargest was born in Gore, New Zealand in 1891. He fought in the First World War with the Otago Mounted Rifle Regiment, where he commanded the 2nd Battalion and won the Distinguished Service Order and bar, as well as the Military Cross. He became a farmer during the inter-war years and was a Member of the New Zealand Parliament (for the constituency of Invercargill, then Awaura) from 1931. He became CO of the 5th New Zealand Brigade in May 1940. Hargest was killed on 12 August 1944 while attached to the British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division as an observer.
Lieutenant Colonel Howard Kippenberger, commander of the newly formed the 10th New Zealand Brigade, was born in Ladbrooks, New Zealand in 1897 and served as a private soldier with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the First World War. He was badly wounded in the arm just after the battle of the Somme by shrapnel and discharged from the army in April 1917. He became a lawyer in Rangiora during the inter-war years and joined the Territorial Force in 1924. He commanded the 20th New Zealand Battalion from September 1939 until April 1941, when he took control of the 10th New Zealand Brigade. He assumed command of the 20th New Zealand Battalion again in June 1941 until the end of the year, and then commanded 5th New Zealand Brigade from January 1942 until June 1943 and again from November 1943 until February 1944. He briefly commanded the New Zealand Division (30 April–14 May 1943 and 9 February–2 March 1944) until he was badly wounded after stepping on a mine. After the war, he became the editor-in-chief, New Zealand War Histories from 1947 until his death in 1957.
General Claude Auckinleck, who took over the post of Commander-in-Chief, Middle East from Wavell immediately after the Crete campaign, talks to Lieutenant Charles Upham after the award of his Victoria Cross in Egypt. (Alexander Turnbull Library, DA-02165)
Brigadier Lindsay M. Inglis was born at Mosgiel, Otago, on 16 May 1894, was educated at Waitaki Boys’ High School, and studied law at the University of Otago. He also served in the 2nd (South Canterbury) Regiment and joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 30 April 1915 serving with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. After deploying to Egypt, his battalion was sent to the Western Front in April 1916 and on 15 September 1916 he won the Military Cross. In March 1917 he was transferred to the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps until his discharge in April 1919. He returned to New Zealand and married his fiancée in Wellington in December 1919. Inglis completed his law studies in 1920 and eventually became CO of the 3rd New Zealand Infantry Brigade in July 1931. At the start of the Second World War, Inglis immediately volunteered and took command of the 27th (Machine Gun) Battalion in December 1939 and of the 4th New Zealand Infantry Brigade on Crete on 17 May 1941, immediately before the German invasion. Afterwards, he commanded it throughout the ill-conceived Crusader offensive in late 1941, taking over command of the New Zealand Division at Mersa Matruh after Freyberg was wounded. He also led the division during the attacks on Ruweisat Ridge and the El Mreir depression. He then reorganised the 4th Brigade as an armoured brigade. He briefly served as divisional commander in June/July 1943 in Freyberg’s absence, but had little opportunity to command his formation as a whole, as many units were detached to support the infantry brigades. Somewhat disillusioned, he returned to New Zealand and was made a military CBE in 1944. In July 1945 he was appointed president of a military government court in the British zone of occupied Germany and was to preside over criminal cases brought by Germans involving the Allied occupying powers, and cases dealing with Allied nationals.
Brigadier George Alan Vasey commanded the 19th Australian Brigade on Crete, responsible for Georgioupolis and Rethymnon. Born in a suburb of Melbourne on 29 March 1895, he studied at Canterbury Grammar School and Wesley College, and went to the newly opened Royal Military College at Duntroon. He joined the Expeditionary Force in April 1915 and saw action on the Somme, at Messines Ridge, Passchendaele and Amiens. Between the wars he served in India and attended the Quetta Staff College between 1928 and 1929. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered and became GSO1 (General Staff Officer, Grade 1) for the 6th Australian Division, commanding the 19th Brigade during the Balkan and Crete campaigns. He commanded the 7th Division in the Papua–New Guinea campaign that saw the division advance from Kokoda through Buna to Sanananda during 1942 and in 1943. The unit was airlanded into Markham Valley, capturing Lae and advancing into the Ramu Valley despite stubborn Japanese resistance. He was killed in an air crash in March 1945 whilst on his way to take command of the 6th Division at Aitipe.
Lieutenant Colonel L.W. Andrew, VC, was commander of the 22nd New Zealand Battalion, defending Maleme and Hill 107. It was his fateful decision to withdraw his battalion, under severe pressure and suffering from poor communications, which handed Maleme airfield to the Germans. He was born in 1897 in Ashurst, New Zealand, and won the Victoria Cross for heroism during the First World War as a corporal in the 2nd Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force at La Bassee Ville, France, on 31 July 1917. A regular soldier, he commanded the 22nd Battalion from January 1940 until March 1942, but also commanded 5th New Zealand Brigade from 27 November to 8 December 1941. He was Commander, Wellington Area, from November 1943 until December 1946 and then the Central Military District from April 1948 until March 1952.
Alexander Löhr was commander-in-chief of the small Austrian Air Force, and one of the few senior Austrian officers incorporated into the Wehrmacht after the Anschluss of 1936. By the summer of 1939, he was in command of Luftflotte IV, which was one of the two major air formations used in the Polish campaign. Löhr submitted the original plan for an attack on Crete, emphasising the need for a single concentrated drop in the area of Maleme and Hania. After the Crete campaign he supported Von Rundstedt’s Army Group South in its drive into the Soviet Union, then became the commander of the Balkan theatre in 1942, air commander in Italy from January to August 1943, and finally commander of the Greek and Aegean area until the end of the war. Löhr was the only Luftwaffe officer, except Kesselring, and the only Austrian except Rendulic, to become a theatre commander. He was an experienced and effective air commander but had very little knowledge of ground operations.
Generalmajor Kurt Student commanded Fliegerkorps XI, assuming control of the new formation in January 1941. The corps included not only the 7th Flieger Division, but also the army’s 22nd Luftlande Division, antiaircraft and medical support units, three wings of Junkers Ju-52 transport aircraft and DFS 230 gliders. Student had started his career as an infantry officer before becoming a fighter pilot in the First World War. During the inter-war years he worked as a gliding instructor, a Reichswehr battalion commander and was head of two Luftwaffe technical departments. In July 1938 he was charged with the formation of the first airborne division, bringing the relevant units under the overall control of the Luftwaffe, as well as being made Inspector of Flying Schools. Student was a man who believed in leading from the front, a characteristic he tried hard to instil in all his subordinate commanders, and it was thus hardly surprising that he was wounded in Holland during the 1940 campaign and awarded the Knight’s Cross at its conclusion. Even though the original idea of forming a parachute corps had been Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s, Student remained the men’s spiritual leader through his dedication to hard work and disregard for personal safety. Later in the war he commanded the 1st Parachute Army in Holland, followed by Army Group ‘H’. After the war, the Allies put Student on trial for condoning reprisals against civilians on Crete. He was acquitted thanks to the testimony of the 4th New Zealand Brigade commander, Brigadier Inglis, and walked free. He died in 1978 but remains an icon to paratroopers of all nations.
A portrait photograph of Generalmajor Kurt Student, commander of Fliegerkorps XI, author of one of the plans to take Crete and founding father of the German airborne forces. (IWM – HU32007)
Generalmajor Julius ‘Papa’ Ringel commanded the tough 5th Gebirgs Division that was to reinforce the paratroopers once they had captured an airfield. (IWM)
General der Flieger Freiherr (Baron) Wolfram von Richthofen was the commander of Fliegerkorps VIII, which had the mission of supporting Student’s Fliegerkorps XI during its campaign on Crete. A cousin of the famous Baron von Richthofen, better known as the ‘Red Baron’, he himself was a fighter ace during the First World War. He worked in engineering after the Great War and then rejoined the army in 1923, serving for a time as a military attaché in Rome. After transferring to the Luftwaffe, von Richthofen worked in the Air Ministry after 1933 and in 1936 became assistant to the head of the Technical Department. He briefly commanded the ‘Kondor’ Legion in Spain, which with the campaigns in Poland, the Low Countries and France, helped him perfect the tactical use of close-support aircraft, particularly the Ju-87 Stuka. While sometimes critical of the army, he never let his feelings affect his performance. Göring rated him as one of his best operational commanders, alongside Kesselring. He was promoted to field marshal on 17 February 1943 and was transferred to the Mediterranean theatre from the Eastern Front to try and shore up resistance there.
Generalmajor Eugen Meindl commanded the Luftlande Sturmregiment that was tasked with capturing and holding Maleme airfield in the first wave of the assault. Meindl had initially been trained as a gunner in the mountain troops and led the 112th Mountain Artillery Regiment during the Norwegian campaign of 1940. Although none of his men had received parachute training, he and some of his gunners were dropped as reinforcements near Narvik. As a result, Meindl became an airborne enthusiast, applied for a transfer to the Fallschirmjäger and passed his training with flying colours. Student recognised his potential and appointed him as the commander of the still embryonic Luftlande Sturmregiment. Unluckily, he was badly wounded very early on in Crete, but went on to command the II Parachute Corps in Normandy after commanding the ‘Meindl’ Division and the 21st Luftwaffe Field Division on the Eastern Front, playing an important part in the relief of Kholm in 1942.
A photograph showing Generalmajor Ringel decorating the Gebirgsjäger of his division after the battle in mid-1941. Ringel displays the edelweiss badge of the Gebirgsjäger on his right sleeve. Each man would be given a certificate of authorisation which proved the soldier’s right to wear the decoration as German awards were not marked with the recipient’s name. (Alexander Turnbull Library, DA-12642)
Generalmajor Julius ‘Papa’ Ringel, in command of the 5th Gebirgs Division, was born in 1889. He served in the Austrian Army between 1909 and 1938 and was a Nazi before the Anschluss in 1938. He briefly commanded the 3rd Gebirgs Division in 1940 and then transferred to become the commander of the 5th Gebirgs Division as it was being formed in Salzburg during October 1940. The unit would first see action during the Balkan campaign and would be in combat again very soon in Crete. Ringel would go on to command the LXIX Corps in 1944, and then, as General der Gebirgstruppen commanding Korps Ringel, would fight the Russians in southern Austria during 1945.
Oberst Bernard Ramcke and his adjutant Hauptmann Vogel were responsible for helping to train and organise the 5th Gebirgs Division in its airlanding role. He had to take command of the remnants of the Luftlande Sturmregiment at short notice on 21 May after Meindl was seriously wounded. Born in 1889, he joined the navy as a ship’s boy but fought in the trenches on the Western Front with the Naval Infantry Division, winning the Iron Cross, First and Second Class, as well as the Prussian Military Service Cross. After the end of the First World War, he joined one of the most brutal units of the Freikorps, General von der Goltz’s ‘Iron’ Division, which terrorised the Baltic States in 1919 on the fringes of the Russian Civil War. He subsequently became an officer in the Reichswehr during the inter-war period. He earned his para-rifleman badge in 1940 at the age of 51 and was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 21 August 1941 for his actions during the Crete campaign. Afterwards, he commanded the elite Ramcke Parachute Brigade in the Western Desert, earning his Oakleaves, and then the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division in Italy. The Oakleaves were followed by the Swords and Diamonds for his defence of Brest in September 1944. He was the 20th out of only 27 members of the German Armed Forces to be awarded the coveted Diamonds.
Commander of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment, Oberst Bruno Bräuer, talking with an Unteroffizier from his regiment during the battle for Heraklion. Bräuer went on to become the most humane of the island commandants. (IWM – MH12797)
Oberst Bruno Bräuer started his military career as an army cadet in 1905 and in 1914 joined a Prussian Infantry Regiment, winning both the Iron Cross, First and Second Class during the First World War. Afterwards he joined the Reichswehr, followed by police group Wecke and took command of the 1st Battalion, General Göring Regiment in 1936. He was appointed commander of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment in 1938, leading it during the campaigns in Poland, France and the Low Countries (receiving a Knight’s Cross for the operations in Holland), as well as the Balkans and Crete. After serving in Russia, Bräuer returned to Crete in February 1943 as commandant and eventually commanded the 9th Fallschirmjäger Division in the final stages of the Eastern Front campaign and was captured by the British on 10 May 1945. He was returned to Greece to face trial for alleged war crimes against the local populace and, despite there being very little evidence in that regard, was executed on the sixth anniversary of the battle for Crete. His body was buried in Athens but returned to Crete in the 1970s at the request of the Association of German Airborne Troops.
Oberst Richard Heidrich, formerly a tactics instructor at the military academy in Potsdam, was in command of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment that landed in Prison Valley on 20 May, tasked with attacking towards Hania and Souda Bay. After consolidating his regiment, Heidrich determined that his force was too weak to force their way to Souda Bay and so waited for the German forces around Maleme to build up and advance eastwards, at which point his regiment joined the attack. Later, he took command of 7th Flieger Division and, after it was renamed 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, commanded it in Italy for the remainder of the war, eventually being captured by a patrol from the 3rd Battalion, the Grenadier Guards. However, while being interrogated by Lieutenant Nigel Nicolson, the intelligence officer, Heidrich almost managed to turn the tables on his captors. He started to talk about the relative merits of Allied and German small arms and, in order to illustrate a point, asked the sentry to pass him his Thompson submachine gun. The guardsman moved to comply, being stopped by Lieutenant Nicolson just in time. Heidrich merely smiled.
Major Walter Koch was in command of the 1st Battalion, Luftlande Sturmregiment, actually the regiment’s glider unit. Koch was born in Bonn on 10 September 1910 and after leaving school was commissioned into the police force. In August 1935, however, he transferred to the Luftwaffe, underwent parachute training at Stendal and eventually joined the newly formed 7th Flieger Division. In May 1940 he commanded a battalion-sized unit that stormed the Belgian fortress of Eban Emael, as well as capturing a number of bridges over the Meuse River. As a result, Koch was promoted to major and given the command of the 1st Battalion in the newly expanded Luftlande Sturmregiment in time for Operation Merkur. Koch received a serious head wound early on in the battle and played no further part. Having served on the Eastern Front, and with preparations for the invasion of Malta (Operation Hercules) cancelled, Koch and the 5th Fallschirmjäger Regiment were deployed to Tunisia in November 1942. It was here at Depienne that Koch managed to intervene to prevent the slaughter of a number of wounded British paratroop POWs. In October 1943, while convalescing in Germany from another head wound received in Tunisia, he was killed in a mysterious car accident while driving in thick fog.
Commander of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment under Heidrich was Hauptmann Freiherr (Baron) Friedrich August von der Heydte, born on 30 March 1907 into a Bavarian noble family. He joined the army in April 1925, initially with an infantry regiment but later transferred to the cavalry. Von der Heydte was then released into university life where he studied law at Innsbruck University and joined the Catholic Society, earning the nickname in later years of the ‘Rosary Paratrooper’. He also studied at Berlin University and the Austrian Consular Academy. He rejoined his cavalry regiment and with the outbreak of war managed to transfer to the Luftwaffe, joining the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment in August 1940 as a battalion commander. After the campaign in Crete (where he received the Knight’s Cross) he served on the Eastern Front, in North Africa and Italy. Heydte was then given command of the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, which he led in Normandy and in the Low Countries. Later in the year he was tasked with raising a paratroop unit to take part in the Ardennes Offensive, where he was taken prisoner, returning to Germany in 1947 to take up university life once more.
Hauptmann Rudolf Witzig commanded No. 9 Kompanie, part of the ill-fated 3rd Battalion, Luftlande Sturmregiment under Major Otto Scherber. Born on 14 August 1916 in Roehlinghausen, he followed the normal educational path for a German boy, but joined the army in April 1935 as a pioneer. He transferred to the army’s parachute battalion in August 1938, having developed a keen interest in advanced engineering and airborne assault techniques. The parachute battalion was absorbed into the Luftwaffe and Witzig’s engineering skills came to the attention of Hauptmann Walter Koch. The attack was a complete success and Witzig was awarded the Knight’s Cross, as well as the Iron Cross, First and Second Class retrospectively. During the invasion of Crete, Witzig was wounded whilst leading an attack on Hill 107 and evacuated by air. This was followed by promotion to major and command of a parachute pioneer battalion in Tunisia, Normandy and on the Eastern Front, eventually gaining command of the 18th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, part of the 6th Fallschirmjäger Division in Holland, where he remained, becoming a POW on 8 May 1945.