Word: crete
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Although he spoke with characteristic flourish, the Prime Minister failed to quell a widespread uneasiness. He had not accounted for the fact that Britain's naval losses at Crete were greater than the Italian losses at Matapan (see p. 32). He had not satisfied many of his listeners that the British High Command was up-to-date as to military brains. And many hearers had found the Prime Minister's thrusts at his critics bitter beyond all reason...
...George to another, Britain's King cabled Greece's last week a message of heartfelt condolence: "Britain shares the grief of the Greeks at the loss of Crete." Britain's grief was indeed deepseated, but it was not entirely sentimental. Not until last week had the full significance of the loss of Crete, in terms of British war effort, come home to the British people...
...British base of operations in Egypt's Western Desert. So did Alexandria and To bruch and Haifa. The blow to home morale was heavy; the first airborne invasion of an island was not easy for islanders to for get. But the biggest shock was the expense of losing Crete...
...loss in Empire personnel was also grim-proportionately far greater than at Dunkirk or Greece. Here the "known loss" was 15,000 men, against 17,000 evacuated, nearly 50% (at Dunkirk losses were 12%, in Greece 25%). Winston Churchill, as a palliative to rising British anger over Crete (see p. 24), estimated that the Germans had lost 17,000 men. But the German High Command, whose claims if not admissions have usually proved unfailingly accurate, last week admitted losing only 5,893 men (1,353 killed, 2,621 missing, 1,919 wounded). Of these admitted casualties...
...only premise on which a war of successive brilliant withdrawals can be fought with any hope of eventual victory is that the withdrawers should inflict great casualties on the enemy and suffer small ones. In Crete that premise did not obtain...