1941 Fallschirmjäger in Crete

[Uncle Sam]

As this forum is about the Luftwaffe I thought I would post a review on the battles of a branch of this organization.

1941 Fallschirmjäger in Crete
by Jean-Yves Nasse



This book is about the role of the Fallschirmjäger of the 7. Fliegerrdivision and L-L-Sturmregiment of the XI. Fligerkorps and their British, New Zealand and Australian opponents during Unternehmen 'Merkur', the attack on Crete, from 20 May - June 1941.

First of all, this book is not an overall campaign history as some might expect it to be. It mainly consists of more than 400 unpublished photographs and documents from Mr Nasse's collection, from German and Allied veterans, other collectors and the Imperial War Museum. Most of them show the Fallschirmjäger, their planes and equipment, their leaders and their opponents. A very good touch was how Mr Nasse covered the combat careers of several Fallschirmjäger through their Soldbuchs, documents, etc. However the setting out of the photographs is not too good, but it is only a minor distraction. Also what makes the book lively are veteran accounts and war diaries from both sides. The Maps are quite good. In a nutshell, the book mainly shows the human side of the battle, which makes it interesting.

Overall, if one is interested in the Fallschirmjäger or the Battle for Crete, then this is a good reference book, and well worth the price, which is not very expensive by the standards of some reference books.

Mr Nasse is a member of MCF and can be contacted by PM with the user name JYN.

K