Editing Battle of Crete (section)

====Allied forces====
No RAF units were based permanently at Crete until April 1941, but airfield construction had begun, radar sites had been built and stores delivered. Equipment was scarce in the Mediterranean and in the backwater of Crete. The British forces had seven commanders in seven months. In early April, airfields at Maleme and Heraklion and the landing [[Pigi Airport|strip at Rethymno]] on the north coast were ready and another strip at [[Kasteli Airport|Pediada-Kastelli]] was nearly finished. After the German invasion of Greece, the role of the Crete garrison changed from the defence of a naval anchorage to preparing to repel an invasion. On 17 April, Group Captain [[George Beamish]] was appointed Senior Air Officer, Crete, taking over from a flight-lieutenant whose duties and instructions had been only vaguely defined. Beamish was ordered to prepare the reception of the [[Bristol Blenheim]] bombers of [[No. 30 Squadron RAF|30]] and [[No. 203 Squadron RAF|203]] squadrons from Egypt and the remaining fighter aircraft from Greece, to cover the evacuation of W Force, which enabled the transfer of {{nowrap|25,000 British}} and Dominion troops to the island, preparatory to their relief by fresh troops from Egypt.{{sfn|Richards|1974|pp=324–325}}

The navy tried to deliver {{convert|27000 |LT|t}} of supplies from {{nowrap|1–20 May}} 1941, but Luftwaffe attacks forced most ships to turn back, and only {{cvt |2,700|LT|t}} were delivered. Only about {{nowrap|3,500 trained}} British and Greek soldiers were on the island, and the defence devolved to the shaken and poorly equipped troops from Greece, assisted by the last fighters of [[No. 33 Squadron RAF|33]], [[No. 80 Squadron RAF|80]] and [[No. 112 Squadron RAF|112]] squadrons and a squadron of the [[Fleet Air Arm]], once the Blenheims were ordered back to Egypt. In mid-May, the four squadrons had about two dozen aircraft, of which only about twelve were serviceable due to a lack of tools and spares. The unfinished ground at Pediada-Kastelli was blocked with trenches and heaps of soil and all but narrow flight paths were blocked at Heraklion and [[Rethymno]] by barrels full of earth. At Maleme, [[Revetment (aircraft)|blast pens]] were built for the aircraft, and barrels full of petrol were kept ready to be ignited by machine-gun fire. Around each ground, a few field guns, anti-aircraft guns, two [[infantry tank]]s and two or three light tanks were sited. The three areas were made into independent sectors, but there were only eight [[QF 3-inch 20 cwt|QF 3-inch]] and twenty [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|Bofors 40 mm]] anti-aircraft guns.{{sfn|Richards |1974|pp=325–327}}

[[File:Lieutenant General Freyberg gazes over the parapet.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg|Major-general Freyberg]] (right), Allied commander at the Battle of Crete]]
On 30 April 1941, [[Major-general]] [[Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg|Bernard Freyberg]] [[Victoria Cross|VC]] a [[New Zealand Army]] officer, was appointed commander of the Allied forces on Crete (Creforce).{{sfn|Playfair|Flynn|Molony|Toomer|1956|p=126}} He was Churchill's personal choice, as the British Prime Minister admired his loyalty and the bravery he had shown during the First World War.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peponas |first=Emmanouil |date=April–May 2021 |title=Winston Churchill and the Battle of Crete (1941) |journal=Electronic Journal of Social and Strategic Studies |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=78–90 |doi=10.47362/ejsss.2021.2112 |doi-access=free |issn=0975-6299}}</ref> By May, the Greek forces consisted of approximately {{nowrap|9,000 troops:}} three [[battalion]]s of the [[5th Infantry Division (Greece)|5th Greek Division]], which had been left behind when the rest of the unit had been transferred to the mainland against the German invasion; the [[Cretan Gendarmerie]] (2,500 men); the [[Heraklion]] Garrison Battalion, a defence unit made up mostly of transport and supply personnel; and remnants of the 12th and 20th Greek divisions, which had also escaped from the mainland to Crete and were organised under British command. Cadets from the Gendarmerie academy and recruits from Greek training centres in the [[Peloponnese]] had been transferred to Crete to replace the trained soldiers sent to fight on the mainland. These troops were already organised into numbered recruit training regiments, and it was decided to use this structure to organise the Greek troops, supplementing them with experienced men arriving from the mainland.

The [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] contingent consisted of the original {{nowrap|14,000-man}} British garrison and another {{nowrap|25,000 British}} and Commonwealth troops evacuated from the mainland. These evacuees were a combination of intact units, composite units improvised locally, stragglers from every type of army unit, and [[deserter]]s; most of them lacked heavy equipment. The main formed units were the [[2nd New Zealand Division]], less the 6th Brigade and division headquarters; the [[Australian 6th Division|19th Australian Brigade Group]]; and the [[14th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|14th Infantry Brigade]] of the British [[6th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)|6th Division]]. There were about 15,000 front-line Commonwealth infantry, augmented by about 5,000 non-infantry personnel equipped as infantry and a composite Australian [[artillery battery]].<ref name=long218-219>{{harvnb|Long|1953|pp=218–219}}.</ref> On 4 May, Freyberg sent a message to the British commander in the Middle East, General [[Archibald Wavell]], requesting the evacuation of about 10,000 unwanted personnel who did not have weapons and had "little or no employment other than getting into trouble with the civil population". As the weeks passed, some 3,200 British, 2,500 Australian and 1,300 New Zealander troops were evacuated to Egypt, but it became evident that it would not be possible to remove all the unwanted troops. Between the night of 15 May and morning of 16 May, the allied forces were reinforced by the 2nd Battalion of the [[Royal Leicestershire Regiment|Leicester Regiment]], which had been transported from Alexandria to Heraklion by {{HMS|Gloucester|62|6}} and {{HMS|Fiji|58|6}}.<ref name="Cunningham S2 P5">Cunningham, Section 2 paragraph 5</ref>

On 17 May, the garrison on Crete included about 15,000 Britons, 7,750 New Zealanders, 6,500 Australians and 10,200 Greeks.<ref name=long210-213>{{harvnb|Long|1953|pp=210–213}}</ref> On the morning of 19 May, these were augmented by a further 700 men of the [[Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders]], who had been transported from Alexandria to [[Tymbaki]] overnight by {{HMS|Glengyle||6}}.<ref name="Cunningham S2 P5"/>