Raid on Crete, June 1942

Operation

The Raid on Crete is a targeted British special forces raid conducted by the No. 1 Special Boat Section and L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade against German-occupied airfields in Crete in June 1942. The primary objective of this operation is to disrupt the Luftwaffe’s ability to provide air support for Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika (Afrika Korps) in the Western Desert campaign. This mission is part of a broader strategy that includes similar raids on Axis airfields in Benghazi, Derna, and Barce, Libya, marking one of the early instances of planned sabotage activities in occupied Europe.

By the spring of 1942, Crete’s airfields have become critically important for the Axis powers, serving as a key transit hub for the Luftwaffe to supply logistical support to Rommel’s forces in North Africa. The airfields facilitate a range of operations including photoreconnaissance, bombing missions, and convoy attacks across the southeastern Mediterranean.

To counter this threat, British high command in Egypt deploys David Stirling’s L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade to attack these airfields. The strategic focus of David Stirling’s operations, which initially target the airfields in Benghazi, Derna, and Barce, utilises nearly all of his personnel. However, the operational scope expands to include additional targets on Crete, acknowledging the strategic importance of the island’s airfields. Mike Kealy, at that moment the Commanding officer of No. 1 Special Boat Section agrees that his teams will undertake raids on the airfields at Kastelli, Tymbaki, and Maleme.

Despite this agreement, Stirling’s adept manoeuvring in the broader strategic context leads to a change in plans for the most significant target at Heraklion. This critical mission is assigned not to Kealy’s teams but to a specially assembled group. This unit includes a Greek guide and four French recruits, reflecting Stirling’s recent expansion of his force’s multinational composition. The team is to be led by Commandant Bergé. Captain Lord Jellicoe is assigned as the advisor and overseer, tasked specifically with commanding any L Detachment seaborne elements involved in the operation. The officers of No. 1 Special Boat Section are not pleased with this allocation but know it is no use to object against a decision made by David Stirling.

The targeted airfields host various aircraft types crucial to the Luftwaffe’s operations, such as the Junkers Junker 52/3m and Messerschmitt Me 323 for transport, the Junker 88 bomber, Junker 86 for long-range photoreconnaissance, and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.

The Teams

The Kastelli airfield operation involves Captain George Duncan, Lieutenant Barnes and Corporal Barr from the No. 1 Special Boat Section, and a Greek gendarme named Vassilis Dramoundanis. The sabotage team, is supported by local Cretans Giorgos Psarakis, Kimonas “Blackman” Zografakis, and Kostas Mavrantonakis,

The French Captain Georges Bergé leads the Heraklion airfield operation with Captain George Jellicoe as his second in command. The L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade team includes four members of the 1^re Compagnie d’Infanterie de l’Air Free French forces, Jacques Mouhot, Pierre Léostic, and Jack Sibard, alongside Lieutenant Kostis Petrakis from the Greek army.

The operation targeting Tympaki airfield, is led by Captain David Sutherland from No. 1 Special Boat Section. Part of the team is Corporal Riley.

The operation at the Maleme airfield involves Major Mike Kealy and Captain Richard Allott from No. 1 Special Boat Section. Part of this team is also Sergeant Feeberry.

June 6th, 1942

The four contingents leave Alexandria during the evening aboard two Greek submarines, the R.H.N. Papanikolis (Y 2), the R.H.N. Triton (Y 5) and a motorboat. Two teams of the Special Boat Squadron travel with the R.H.N. Papanikolis the other team with the motorboat while the L, Detachment, Special Air service Brigade team travels aboard the R.H.N. submarine Triton. The trip to Crete will take four days.

June 10th, 1942

The three No. 1 Special Boat Section teams reach the island of Crete at Cape Trikala. Here, they meet Tom Dunbabin, a British liaison officer from MO 4 with connections to the Cretan resistance, will facilitate No. 1 Special Boat Section ‘s arrival by providing local guides to assist in the operations. Dunabin briefs them on their routes and how to deal with the friendly Cretans, the teams head for their objectives.

Originally targeting Karteros beach for their landing, the L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade team under Captain Georges Bergé’s team inadvertently arrive at the Gulf of Malia around 22:00. The conditions are ideal: no wind and a flat calm. The six-man raiding party descends into two German-made inflatable rubber boats. R.H.N. Triton then tows the boats closer to shore. However, when they are still about three kilometres from the shore, an Royal Air Force raid on the party’s objective causes a spectacular display of searchlight beams, which could easily silhouette R.H.N. Triton. After a brief consultation, the tows are slipped, and the raiders embark on a two-and-a-half-hour paddle, prolonged by the leaky boats. Captain Jellicoe, sacrifices his best service dress cap as a bailer. The unintended detour and the long paddling, sets them behind their planned schedule.

June 11th, 1942

Once ashore, the L Detachment team faces the challenge of disposing the boats without revealing their presence or compromising the beaches for future operations. While the Frenchmen repack rucksacks and prepare for a long march, Captain Jellicoe swims out to sea for about 200 metres, towing the boats loaded with pebbles and then sinking them by pressing out the remaining air from the flotation bags. This task, combined with other delays, means the party leaves the beach three hours behind schedule. The now upcoming necessitated overland march to Heraklion airfield becomes a challenging task by the need to remain hidden during the day and move only under the cover of night.

The march proves far more challenging than anticipated. Although they cross the coast road easily enough, the ridges they face are much steeper than reconnaissance or aerial photographs had indicated. Climbing almost vertical rocks while heavily laden with weapons, maps, general equipment, and rucksacks, each weighing over 25 kilograms and containing at least twelve bombs, is extremely difficult and dangerous.

Just before dawn, they find a cave and decide to rest there for the day. While four members of the party quickly fall asleep, Captain Bergé and Jellicoe remain awake, kept alert by benzedrine tablets. They are also unsettled by the occasional encounters with Cretan peasants, who greet them enthusiastically in fractured English or wave cheerfully. During the rest of their approach march, they demand to see papers in German whenever they encounter Cretans, adopting a hectoring attitude, but most Cretans are not deceived and leave with much headshaking and chuckling. The two officers are unsure whether to be worried by the lack of security or reassured by the friendliness of the natives.

June 12th, 1942

After several days on rough terrain and the need to make a half-circle approach march, Captain Georges Bergé’s team reaches the airfield during the evening. Despite these complications, the party is in position to observe the airfield that same evening. Commandant Bergé counts over sixty aircraft on the field, mostly Junker 88 Bombers. Unfortunately, an unexpected sentry post along a ridge delays their attack that night.

June 13th, 1942

The L Detachment Team under Captain Bergé spends the next day completing their detailed plans while lying up in a vineyard, growing thirsty on sour grapes and occasionally chatting with an old Cretan labourer who is unconcerned by their presence and, in the evening, with a younger one who fetches them water.

Leaving Lieutenant Costi and the heavier stores in a cave, Captain Bergé, Jellicoe and the other Frenchmen move off while it is still light to within half a kilometres of the first defences. They are conscious of being late in their attack as flights of Junker 88’s take off and return shortly afterwards, some doing the German equivalent of a Victory Roll.

Kastelli Airfield

Captain Duncan and his men succeed in a significant blow against the Axis forces. They manage to destroy eight aircraft, six trucks, four bomb dumps, seven petrol and two oil dumps. They later learn that their attack results in the deaths of at least seventy enemy soldiers. Later, reports reaching Cairo indicate that once the German authorities identify the approach and departure routes used by the raiding party, they order the execution of all sentries on duty at the time for their perceived carelessness.

Heraklion Airfield

At 22:30, Captain Bergé signals the start of the attack, and the team moves towards a barrack hut and a belt of Dannert Wire. As they reach it, a German patrol approaches from the far side. The leader flashes a torch but fails to notice Jellicoe’s large, curly head protruding from the ditch. However, his immediate follower is more alert and loudly demands to know what is happening, with his comrades gathering to support the inquiry. Unable to provide a satisfactory answer, Corporal Mouhot produces a ghastly, lingering, drunken snore, which disgusts the German patrol so much that they move off along the wire, muttering with distaste. The Germans believe they stumbled on drunk Greeks. This distraction allows Captain Bergé and his team to quickly cut through the wire and hide in a bomb dump twenty metres away. This swift action proves wise because the patrol leader soon has second thoughts, turns his men around for further investigation, and quickly discovers the newly cut hole in the fence, calling up another patrol and holding a council of war.

A timely diversion occurs as a flight of Junker 88’s returns, closely followed by a pair of Royal Air Force Blenheims, which make correct landing signals until they are over the field, then drop their bombs and zoom away. In the ensuing confusion, the raiders move onto the main field and take cover in a fold in the ground, watching and waiting until the airfield is quiet again. They then move to the blast-proof shelters where aircraft are housed, placing charges on the wings and tailplanes of sixteen Junker 88’s. Avoiding patrolling sentries, they leave undisturbed the personnel sleeping in the shelters.

Next, they cross to the other side of the field, occasionally delayed by searchlight beams illuminating the runways as more flights of aircraft land. They plant charges on another plane about to take off, a light Fieseler-Storch reconnaissance plane, and crated aircraft engines. Frustration sets in when a promising-looking group of dispersed aircraft turns out to be parked derelicts.

Their situation becomes urgent when their first charges explode, and they realise dawn is only an hour and a half away. They decide to leave, which they do with unexpected ease by mingling with the slightly harassed occupants thronging the main barrack complex. They walk out through the main exit behind a dozen or so German ground staff, placing their remaining charges on several trucks as they go.

Tympaki Airfield

The operation targeting Tympaki airfield, encounters an unexpected situation upon their arrival. The team discovers that recent air raids launched from Egypt have caused the airfield to be temporarily abandoned, with the aircraft previously stationed there being relocated to a different location. This discovery indicates that the immediate strategic value of sabotaging the airfield has diminished, given the absence of aircraft or active operations at the site.

Maleme Airfield

Upon landing, the team embark on a challenging trek towards their objective, the Maleme airfield. However, upon reaching Maleme, they encounter unforeseen fortifications that render their mission unsuccessful. The airfield, they discover, is heavily guarded and has been recently fortified with an electric fence, effectively preventing any attempt to breach its perimeter. This causes the team to abandon their part of the operation.

June 14th,1942

By 08:00, Captain Bergé L Detachment Team is back at the cave, where they are delighted to find that Lieutenant Costi has procured an excellent meal of bread, soup, roast chicken, and local wine from the nearest village. They enjoy this meal enormously and then lie down for a well-deserved sleep. However, Bergé and Jellicoe are again unable to sleep due to the benzedrine.

Now they face the task of crossing the width of Crete, including two ranges of hills and the Plain of Mesara, to make the rendezvous. This task is complicated by their already being a day behind schedule and an error on their first night’s trek, which takes them in a half-circle and leaves them at dawn no further from Heraklion than when they started.

In reprisal for the sabotage at Heraklion Airfield, the Germans execute fifty inhabitants of the greater Heraklion area.

June 15th,1942 – June 16th,1942

Captain Bergé L Detachment Team meets an old acquaintance of Lieutenant Costi’s, who feeds them and provides a guide for the next stage of the journey to the village of Karkadhiotissa, where they rest for two days, sleeping in the open under rugs provided by the locals, from which they all become afflicted with lice. Here they also hear a rumour that fifty Cretan hostages have been shot as a reprisal for their raid.

June 17th,1942

Captain Bergé’s L Detachment Team walk southwards, lying up the following day in a river bed, which, although it provides no food, allows them to wash themselves and their clothes.

June 18th,1942

Well rested, Captain Bergé’s L Detachment Team crosses the plain that night and then detours to allow Lieutenant Costi to visit his family, accompanied by Captain Bergé. They return sad but resolute, Lieutenant Costi’s brothers are living as ‘brigands’ in the hills. His sisters are afraid to sleep at home and his parents speak of increasing oppression from the Germans, reaching even the smallest Cretan villages. Nevertheless, his mother gives him two chickens for his friends.

June 19th, 1942

As Captain Bergé’s L Detachment Team moves towards their rendezvous they come to the conclusion that avoiding contact with the peasants proves impossible, as they all seem friendly. One in particular brings some excellent wine, and when questioned, Lieutenant Costi confirms the man is not only a personal acquaintance but also an excellent individual. That afternoon, Captain Bergé and the other French rest in a small valley on the northern slopes of the hills south of the Plain. Captain Jellicoe moves forward with Lieutenant Costi, acting as a guide, to contact their agents in Krotos, whom they meet that evening. Leaving the tired Lieutenant Costi in Krotos, Captain Jellicoe returns with one of the agents to bring the main party to the rendezvous with the Special Boat Section. It is dark, and despite a thorough search, they cannot find the party. The agent is unwilling to stay in the area during daylight, so Captain Jellicoe sends him back to Krotos and continues searching for evidence of the party’s whereabouts.

Young peasants from a nearby village arrive in a state of agitation. From their words and gestures, Captain Jellicoe gathers that Commandant Bergé has been betrayed and attacked by a German patrol. After a brief resistance, during which Pierre Léostic is killed, Captain Bergé surrenders, and the captured men are led away. The peasants warn Captain Jellicoe that the German patrol is returning and advise him to flee.

June 20th, 1942

As Captain Jellicoe flees from the area where the Frenchmen of the L Detachment Team were captured, he manages to contact the agent in Krotos, whom he luckily encounters on the track. When Captain Jellicoe explains the situation, the agent becomes incoherent with fear, forcing him to abandon cooperation with him. At the time, Captain Jellicoe is wearing civilian clothes and is unarmed.

By pure chance, that evening, he meets Lieutenant Costi with a local peasant he has spent the night with. This man, Miroyannis, is fully aware of the situation and the risk he is taking by sheltering Lieutenant Costi. He immediately welcomes Captain Jellicoe in and feeds him, showing him where the main rendezvous with the Special Boat Section is, and Captain Jellicoe makes contact that evening.

Miroyannis goes back to the area where Captain Bergé was captured to gather news. He confirms what the peasants told Captain Jellicoe and reports that German patrols are searching for Lieutenant Costi and him. He also states that Captain Bergé and the remaining two prisoners have been transferred to Heraklion. Unfortunately, it is clearly impossible to do anything to help them.

June 23rd, 1942

Three days later, Captain Jellicoe and Lieutenant Costi are taken off Trypiti beach near Krotos village on the island’s south coast in a caique which also collects David Sutherland and his group, plus one each of Lieutenant Costi’s brothers and sisters and another twenty miscellaneous refugees, mostly brigands, called patriots in this part of the world. They leave just as the location is on the brink of being overtaken by Rommel’s advancing Axis forces.

Aftermath

After several days of interrogation under the threat of execution, Bergé, Mouhot, and Sibard, captured following the Heraklion sabotage, are transferred to the Oflag X-C prisoner-of-war officers camp (Offizierlager) in Lübeck in northern Germany. Eventually, after several escape attempts Bergé is moved to Colditz Castle in Saxony, a facility designated for prisoners who repeatedly attempt to escape. There, Captain Bergé joins the former Special Air Service Brigade commander David Stirling, who has also been captured.

The four raids account for twenty-six aircraft, fifteen to twenty trucks, unknown but sizeable quantities of petrol, oil, and bombs, and cause the deaths of over 100 German soldiers, at the cost of one Frenchman killed and three others taken prisoner.

The inability to prevent the raids on the airfields leads to the replacement of General Alexander Andrae by Bruno Bräuer as the commander of Crete.

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