On the other hand the Germans were in great force in southern Greece, so the stage was set for an attempt to capture a comparatively small piece o%fOstile territory mainly bs © of air-borne' troops. Altpeeth comparatively "mall Crete vens an area of 3,000 square miles—it the fourth island in the Mediterranean after Sardinia, Sicily and Cyprus the enemy could count on a large proportion-of our troops being concentrated on the defence the air-bases, Suda Bay and the two chief towns.
The first point was: would tempt to take Crete be made by a borne troops alone? In such a ca one or two thousand parachutist would be landed in an effort to secure level ground on which troop-carrying planes could land. If this ers off their own land ounds.
The German; are said to have about 1000 planes available in the Eastern Mediterranean. but I do not, know what proportion are troop-ca: riers The more men landed the more supplies of food and ammunition needed. Suppose the enemy landed 40,000 men, and thereafter their air service became disorganized, then these 40,000 would be doomed, because they could not live on the island much. less conquer it. Therefore I thought that a determined attempt would also be ma from the a, Tackled that way the problem is quite different...if enemy could land men l supplies by sea they would win by sheer weight of numbers, for the air-boi troops would not then have to do the w job, but would concentrate on zing po and beaches to which to} direct shipping
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