Crete: The Battle and the Resistance

Excellent book by Beevor, if you love his other works youll love this one. Excellent overview and in depth look at Crete by the men who fought it, and the subsequent reistance and liberation. The story of Crete plays out like a poorly written drama, but as they say truth is stranger than fiction. The ups and downs, the missed opportunities, and the various personalities and politics all play their role in a story that wouldnt be out of place in a modern soap opera. Highly reccomended for those interested in the subject or just a fan of Beevors writing.

Excellent book by Beevor, if you love his other works youll love this one. Excellent overview and in depth look at Crete by the men who fought it, and the subsequent reistance and liberation. The story of Crete plays out like a poorly written drama, but as they say truth is stranger than fiction. The ups and downs, the missed opportunities, and the various personalities and politics all play their role in a story that wouldnt be out of place in a modern soap opera. Highly reccomended for those interested in the subject or just a fan of Beevors writing.

I have become quite the fan of Antony Beevor, who has become an authoritative voice on the path to World War II and the key turning points of the war. I've thus far enjoyed his books on the Spanish Civil War, the Battle of Stalingrad and post-liberation Paris and so made reading "Crete" a priority.

"Crete" was an early book by Beevor and one can see that he was still in the process of creating the masterful turns of phrase and dialog that he has become famous for. Beevor charts the invasion of Crete, the surprising surrender of the Allied Forces and the resistance by the Cretans and random allied soldiers.

Beevor seems to be quite taken with the New Zealand troops involved in the battle for Crete (in particular the Maori soldiers), while show more the Australian soldiers fare poorly by comparison (it makes one wonder whether Beevor ever got served a bad pint by an Australian bartender). And Beevor seems determined to show that all the key British figures were eccentrics, even when her evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

While I didn't enjoy "Crete" as much as his other tomes, Beevor still has the ability to personalise the fatality statistics by leaving us with some haunting anecdotes which will stay with me always. show less

You may find this book is not as good as other Beevor books. First off Crete is an island and big set-piece battles are few in number. Next read it as background to

and the movie 'Ill Met by Moonlight' . Now the praise: Beevor builds the sequence of events from the invasion of Yugoslavia to the retreat from Crete wonderfully. The intelligence boys (and the odd girl too) pop up everywhere. The threads of 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' are mixed in here too. However to understand North Africa (especially Wavell's part) you HAVE to know Crete. From the German side it was an audacious plan but see it this way: without Operation Mercury Market Garden would not have occurred.

Beevor's usual level of exacting detail and lack of respect for national mythologies. Spells out the cock-ups of allies and the brutality of the invasion and occupation of Crete with agonising clarity.

Exactly what you'd expect from Beevor, fulsome, slightly opinionated, eminently readable.

Endless succession of names and places, with barely any maps, makes the book hard to follow, which is to say boring.

The talent that Mr. Beevor shows, in later books of his, for mixing the big picture with charming personal anecdotes is completely missing from this book.

Also it stinks, I can't think of a better word, from bias against the Germans. As both sides commit crime after crime the author constantly tries to excuse such behaviour when its perpetrators are Greek or, specially, when they are British.