Battle of Crete Memorial Committee of Wa

following the greek campaign of the second world war (february to april 1941); depleted elements of the 6th division, second australian imperial force (2 nd aif) were redeployed to the island of crete along with the 2 nd new zealand division joining up there with an array of british and local greek forces. at the same time, hma ships perth, napier and nizam were attached to the british mediterranean fleet supporting allied naval operations in that theatre of the war. with the german airborne assault on crete of 20 may 1941, came 10 days of fierce fighting, often involving cretan civilians. despite inflicting severe losses on the germans, the allied position on crete became untenable and they were forced to evacuate the main body of their force between 28 may and 1 june 1941. not all allied personnel were able to be evacuated during this operation and over 12,000 allied personnel were captured. rather than surrender, a number of allied soldiers chose to attempt to escape and evade the