Things historic / military / aviation to see on Crete?

Bob Ogden’s book (I only have the 2006 edition) has four collections on Crete:

Askifou War Museum – fuselage frame of D.F.S. 230 (PPO).
Iraklion Air Force Base Collection – 3 x F-5 Freedom Fighter, Thunderstreak, Thunderflash (PPO).
Maleme Collection – UH-1H, T-33, F-104, F-5 Freedom Fighter, Thunderstreak, Thunderflash (PPO).
Souda Air Force Base Collection – 3 x T-33, 3 x Thunderstreak (PPO)

Don’t go getting yourself arrested Moggy we don’t want to have to organise a whip-round to cover your bail 😀

Roger Smith.

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70 years from the Battle of Crete in Heraklion
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Venetian Gate Makasi (Pyli Makasi)
Military exhibits and photographs
21 May 2011 – 20:00 Opening Ceremony
Open to the public from 22 May until Friday 27 May 2011 (including Friday)

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70 years from the Battle of Crete in Rethymnon
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Police School
Museum Exhibits from the Battle of Crete
Until 22 May 2011
10:00-13:00 & 18:00-20:00

House of Culture
Photography Exhibition from the Battle of Crete
Until 22 May 2011
09:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00

Official ceremony
20 May 2011 – 13:15

Military Museum in Chromonastire
Exhibition for the Battle of Crete
21 May 2011 – 09:30

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70 years from the Battle of Crete in Chania
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Old Customs Office (Venetian Port)
WW2-era military and non-military vehicles, objects and photography exhibition
Until 22 May 2011
11.00 – 13.00 & 18.00 – 22.00

New Zealand Monument in Galata
20 May 2011 – 19:00
Speeches of NZ MoD Wayne Mapp and “Sandy” Thomas (Ret.)

Allied Cemetery in Souda
21 May 2011 – 18:00, British Embassy

Old Port of Chania
22 May 2011 – 11:30
Red Arrows of RAF
http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/displayinfo/displaydates.cfm

German Cemetery in Maleme
22 May 2011 – 13:00, German Embassy

Maleme Airport
22 May 2011 – 18:30
Free access
F-16C Solo Demo flight of HAF at 19:30?

Visit at reasonable hours:
Navy Museum of Crete
War Museum of Chania
Historic Archive of Crete

You should also ask these people for more details:
http://members.explorecrete.com/index.php?showtopic=2962&st=20

Then there are these T-33´s, still visible under takeoff and landing:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=24720

Jon

There is a Ju 52 off the coast of Chania. All the local skippers know it and you can swim down to it (its in about 6m). Made my trip!

That must be the one I was thinking about. I am sure someone in Chania mentioned it as an 88, but that must have been to heighten the exitement.

Didn´t go there as I was there in winter….

Jon

When I was there in the mid nineties there was an F-5 and an RF-84F on display at the airport. Did ask to take a photo but was told NO!

Regards

I was there a couple of years ago and hired a car for a day trip up into the mountains, right above the main cruise port.
Some pics for you of a rather sad ex museum which was not open, but seems to have some wartime vehicles parked up. Poss. German (not my bag)
Have a good treasure hunt.

Well the M.A.N truck is definitely German, though I am not sure if it is WW2. The other truck doesn’t look very kraut, but that’s a feeling rather than knowledge.

The AA gun is Bofors, not German WW2 kit, more likely British.

I have suddenly realised I have no idea how the Germans eventually left Crete. I certainly can’t recall an allied invasion, so I’m guessing they just went home when the final whistle blew?

Moggy

Going by the photos i would say they were used in the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which i’m sure was filmed on Crete

Hi Moggy,

Do you like a good walk???

If so then look out for trips to Samaria Gorge.

You will be taken high into the White mountains and then down the side of the same mountains dropping over 1000 ft over the first 2K. It will take from 8am till roughly 4 pm with a 30min break in between. And the only way out is a ferry at the end of trip. Luckily there are cafes and shops for drinks while you wait for the ferry.

And it just so happens to be the same route that the Greeks lead out the Allied forces to the waiting ships. Unfortunately the allies had to leave behind a lot of the forces to be captured by the Germans a few days later. It is also the third largest gorge in the world.

Well worth the visit.

Quite

Knossos! I’d forgotten that was on Crete…..‘Linear B’! 😉

Moggy,
You must do Knossos – it puts a lot of things (including WW2, and aviation) into perspective.
You must also (possibly with the Lady Moggy?) walk high up some ajacent hillside from your Mrs Miggins’s. Carry something heavy in your back-pack. The sun will be shining, the insects buzzing, etc, and all might seem to be well with the world. Then imagine the same scene with 2 foot of snow and a howling wind. That’s how many Cretans kept out of the clutches of the Germans – the horrific pix we’ve just seen showed what happened to those who didn’t.
I did a similar journey many moons ago. We got to a tiny hamlet high up some hillside. I had no local lingo – they had no English. There was a well. I motioned to some old guy “Could I take some water?”. He shook his head. In next to no time it seemed like half the inhabitants were there. Bread was produced (the crust would have defied AP ammo!), cheese was produced (the smell should have been outlawed under the Geneva Convention!), and wine was produced (it would take the enamel off your teeth!!). One of the best lunches I’ve ever had. We couldn’t understand each other – but with a bit of miming and facial expressions everybody was soon falling about!!
Yrs Aye
Resmoroh

There is a Ju 52 off the coast of Chania. All the local skippers know it and you can swim down to it (its in about 6m). Made my trip!

http://www.diversclub-crete.gr/english/sites-wreck.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t9SR8bq9p8

I am quite sure there also is a wreck of an Ju 88 that is visible from one of the boats with a glazed bottom. Couldn´t find a link now.

Regards

Jon

The tiny island of Spinalonga, at the eastern end of Crete is an interesting day trip if you are in the area. It is a derelict leper colony in Elounda bay, and a short boat trip from Agios Nickolias. There is a small museum showing images of sea planes that used the bay as a staging post (to India I believe) A quick search found this image, might be a good place for snorkelling.

http://lemontree.typepad.com/a_lemon_tree_of_our_own/2007/06/road_trip_day_4_1.html

Imperial Airways Short S.17 Kent flying-boat (G-ABFA, named Scipio).

I think I’d prefer to take my chances with the Cretans rather than freezing my knackers off outside Stalingrad though.

1,100 deaths in around 1,400 days, take from that the wounded from the invasion, accidents, illness.

There is an interesting account in ‘KG200 – The True Story’ by P.W.Stahl of a flight by Ju290 A3+HB on the night of 27th November 1944 from Vienna to drop agents and equipment near Mosul in Iraq. On the return leg the Ju290 needed to refuel, with fuel brought in especially by a second Ju290, and one of the few German held airfields available was on the Greek island of Rhodes. The author describes Rhodes as:

…the island with its German garrison and local population was completely cut-off from outside supplies and the German troops there no longer had any influence on the war in the Mediterranean. Consequently it could be left to its own devices at the same time saving all the effort and cost it would to keep such a large POW camp; for that is what Rhodes was now, in every sense but one.

Indeed it was only with the greatest effort and by suffering many hardships that the German garrison managed to keep alive on this largely barren island.

Ironically, it was a captured B-24 Liberator flown by KG200 that visited the island…..but the only things it could bring to the cut-off troops were some urgently needed medicines and mail. On the return flights the B-24 would take out some critically ill soldiers.

The conditions on the island were truly catastrophic; the food shortage so acute that the exchange price for one simple bread roll was about one-thousand cigarettes!

On the return flights the two Ju290 were to carry out thirty sick soldiers.

The situation on Crete must have been pretty similar and it also sounds similar to the situation in the Channel Islands that were virtually cut-off following the D-Day landings. I found the story of the German garrison, and the civil population, on Guernsey absolutely fascinating and the suffering of both through malnutrition is an aspect of the war that I’d not imagined; the German garrison on Guernsey were even reduced to eating their own transport horses.

I would still agree with you that I’d rather go hungry on Crete than in Stalingrad!

Moggy, hope you have a great trip.

The battle for Crete is well known amongst those who have an interest in Airborne /Para ops in WW2 , the German paratroop regiments were decimated and IIRC werent used as airborne troops for the rest of the war.

They are regarded as being some of the more “decent” Axis forces , and it has to be said that many Veterans will tell you that. Having read “The Lost Battle: Crete 1941” by Callum MacDonald and seen these images you would begin to wonder. In total,3474 civilians died in front of firing squads up to the german surrender in 1945, Kev 35 has the german figures correct, Commonwealth casualities were 1741 including some who died while being used by german forces as a human shield. Brutality comes with war and many of these men would have been tremendous strain, but still that is no excuse for what the Fallschirmjager started and their successors continued.

That book, by the way , gives an excellant account of the battle and might make a good read while you are doing a cookstown on the beach !

Hello Moggy,
This might be of interest http://www.my-crete-site.co.uk/maleme_20_may.htm
lots found Googling ,have a great trip .

Dead is dead.

Regards,

kev35

I think I’d prefer to take my chances with the Cretans rather than freezing my knackers off outside Stalingrad though.

1,100 deaths in around 1,400 days, take from that the wounded from the invasion, accidents, illness. Given the choice where would you fancy Kev, even the fatherland flak battalions must have had a greater loss rate?

Moggy