Word: crete
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Behind this agitation was a rising awareness of air power's decisive part in World War II. Had not the German Luftwaffe conquered Crete? Had not British torpedo planes nabbed the German Bismarck, laid her low for the kill? Did not another British torpedo plane last week hunt down a Nazi pocket battleship, send her limping home (see p. 44)? And did not all these facts add up to the conclusion that the U.S. ought to copy Great Britain's independent R.A.F., the Nazi Luftwaffe, and turn its air power over to independent, unfettered airmen? Most Congressmen...
...Luftwaffe alone that had conquered Crete; the Luftwaffe skillfully screened, transported, delivered land fighters who conquered with the attacking airmen. So Congressman Maas proposed first to provide the U.S. forces (Army, Navy, Marines) with a real, overall command. Then, said he, consider what to do with the land, sea and air forces under that coordinating direction...
Britons wanted to know why, with seven months in which to do it, the Cretan airdromes had not been either fortified or dynamited against Nazi landings. They wanted to know why Nazi planes had been able to soar against Crete in hordes from Greek airdromes which British officials had called practically useless...
Widely circulated in London was the account of an Australian officer in Crete, suggesting that the British Command had merely expected a "leisurely sea invasion." Said he: "We were having a nice sunbathing holiday till the Germans came. . . . A truck driver was telling my Colonel that he had seen men coming down by parachute 16 miles up the road. I did not believe...
...beginnings of this change date from the start of the Battle of Crete, when...