The Battle for Crete

Cyril Crosland, a driver in New Zealand's Army Service Corps in Crete, was finishing  breakfast on 20 May 1941 when he looked up into the sky.

They were coming over with big Dorniers, planes with gliders on behind. They let the gliders go. A lot of [paratroopers] came down in the olive groves and were killed. They were in front of us, behind us, beside us. We didn't know where they were.... [We were] busy trying to stay alive, because you didn't know where the Germans were... A lot of them were hung up on trees – killed coming down.

German paratroopers over Crete.

It was the start of what is known as the Battle for Crete. For 12 days New Zealanders, British, Australian and Greek troops, assisted by Cretan civilians, tried to repel a huge airborne assault by the Germans. They almost succeeded.

Many New Zealanders made it off Crete; more than 2000 were taken prisoner; over 650 died. Among those evacuated was Charles Upham, who won the first of his two VCs on Crete - the only combat soldier ever to have received such honours. A few New Zealanders took to the hills, sheltered by the Cretans who, to this day, remember New Zealand's role in this key battle in the Second World War.