Crete - possession of the airfields is vital

22nd May 1941: The exceptional Charles Upham leads a counterattack at Maleme airfield and personally overcomes several enemy positions

A German transport plane burns as more Fallschirmjäger descend onto Crete.

After the battle on Crete, many commentators suggested that the most senior British officers on the island had failed to adapt to the new realities of responding to an airborne attack. It was suggested that, as veterans of the First World War, they had failed to appreciate the ove…