Download The Battle of Crete: The History of Nazi Germany's Airborne Invasion of Greece During World War II AudioBook Free

In 1941, with the dark superstar of Nazi conquest in the ascendant over Europe, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler sustained seeking fresh ways to extend the Third Reich's domains. Two proper issues occupied Hitler's immediate attention: interacting with Britain and the Soviet Union. Hitler and Goering disagreed fundamentally on the next steps to be studied, and Hitler's ideas normally won out on the Reichsmarshal's objections. Goering favored a direct attack on Great britain and conquest of the British isles Isles as the next step to guarantee the security of Europe. After conquering the British, the Germans would deprive the People in america of a Western european base from which to counterattack when they moved into the war. The Third Reich could spend many years accumulating and creating new weaponry before tackling the Soviet Union. Hitler, on the other hand, wanted to leave the British isles at least quasi-independent, and affect at their peripheral holdings, such as staying helpings of the Uk Empire, to induce those to sue for tranquility before the United States joined the turmoil. Hitler always designed a treacherous assault from the Soviet Union, his ally in 1939, 1940 and early 1941 because of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's actions induced the Fuhrer to move up his timetable for anti-Soviet action greatly. The Third Reich and USSR cooperated in conquering, dismembering, and plundering democratic Poland. The Soviet Union also negotiated for some time to become the fourth Axis member, alongside Germany, Italy, and Japan. However, Stalin launched unilateral aggression against Finland and seized Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, plus part of Bulgaria. While Hitler, alarmed at this, offered India and Iran to the Soviet Union, The Soviets responded tightly that they wanted the Balkans. This potential advance westwards into Europe by the communist dictatorship increased Hitler's suspicions to a straight higher pitch. The Soviets also annexed parts of Romania, intimidating Hitler's oil source. The Fuhrer, seething at the treachery of the dictatorship his own dictatorship designed to betray, declared privately to his top generals: "Stalin is ingenious and cunning, [...] He calls for increasingly more. He's a cold-blooded blackmailer. A German triumph has become intolerable for Russia. Therefore: she must be taken to her knees at the earliest opportunity." (Shirer, 2011, 788). Hitler assumed the liquidation of Russia would likely also frighten the Uk into a negotiated tranquility. However, before attacking the USSR, Hitler wanted to secure the Balkans and Greece to safeguard his flank. Specifically, he wanted to ensure that the Uk could not land an army from North Africa to threaten the Wehrmacht's advance into Russia. Consequently, he gave Mussolini his assent for an Italian invasion. Mussolini's farcical army - ill-trained, ill-equipped, and led with a startling purity of incompetence - attacked Greece out of Albania and, despite its huge amounts, endured a swift and stinging defeat at the hands of the Greek army. Consequently, the Wehrmacht invaded, taking the Balkans and Greece in just three weeks. British isles, Commonwealth, and Greek troops evacuated to Crete, and thus set the level for a Nazi invasion of the island - one relating to the first mass deployment of paratroopers ever sold.

Category: Germany