The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
German paratroopers march into town after spending seven long days of severe fighting. German paratroopers of General Kurt Student’s XI Air Corps – were highly trained and motivated. For ten days they, and the elite mountain troops that were sent to reinforce them, hunted and were hunted by the Australian, New Zealand, British, and Greek soldiers, as well as Cretan farmers, townspeople, and police. Fighting was savage and bloody. In the countryside and villages of the Heraklion and Retimo sectors, the Germans were driven from their objectives. The Allies denied the airfields to the enemy but were cut off from each other as they fought bitter battles on their flanks. At Maleme, the Germans captured the airfield and flew in desperately needed reinforcements. Over the next week they drove the Allies east to defensive positions around Suda, capturing the port at Canea on the way. By 26 May Freyberg reported that his position was hopeless and his men had reached their limit: food and ammunition was in short supply, they had no motor transport, and communications were sporadic at best. The three forces established to defend the sectors around the airfields could not support each other. The German Air Force had unchallenged mastery of the skies and, therefore, dominated the battlefields during daylight hours.
A scared elderly Cretan couple stands in their home as the German paratroopers float to the earth. The civilians of Crete, along with the British and allied soldiers, were amazed by the sight of thous
EGYPT. 1941-05. DRAMATIC ESCAPE OF THE KING OF THE HELLENES FROM THE GERMANS. AFTER THE GERMANS HAD LANDED THEIR AIR-BORNE FORCES IN CRETE, THE GREEK KING AND HIS ESCORT OF GREEK GENDARMES AND 12 PLAT
Dutch New Guinea. Javanese prisoners of war (POWs) who were employed by the Japanese as labourers building roads at Biak Island hold out their hands for food. Eventually they were too weak from starva
Ham, France. c. 23 March 1918. An allied storage area captured by the Germans during fighting in the Somme. Munitions and shells are stacked in wooden structures beside which is a railway and train. T
Original 16 page handwritten memoir by VX11578 Private Reginald Arthur Walsh. The memoir reflects the experience of the 2/7th Battalion on Crete, commencing from the sinking of the Costa Rica, which w
RABAUL, NEW BRITAIN, 12/9/1914. A GROUP OF NATIVE PRISONERS WHO WERE DETAINED ON BOARD HMAS SYDNEY UNTIL FIGHTING HAD CEASED, DURING THE CAPTURE OF RABAUL FROM THE GERMANS BY THE AUSTRALIAN NAVY AND M
