The battle for Crete begins

20th May 1940: German bombing and machine gunning are followed by parachute drops over a wide area - they are met with fierce resistance and suffer heavy casualties

14,000 to 15,000 paratroopers dropped directly into combat during the initial waves.

On Crete, the anticipated German airborne assault began early in the morning. ‘Ultra’ decrypts of German messages sent by ‘Enigma’ had forewarned the High Command -but there were limitations on how widely the highly secret intelligence could be shared. The small RAF cont…