military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (05/21/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Thursday, 22 May, 1941 The Luftwaffe reacts to the British ships near Crete with sustained air attacks. The cruiser Gloucester is sunk, and the Fiji crippled and abandoned. The destroyer Greyhound is also lost, and the battleship Warspite is damaged. The DD's Hero and Decoy remove King George of Greece from the island, and three other destroyers use the cover of darkness to shell German positions around Maleme. Despite British efforts, the German forces at Maleme continue to grow, and General Freyberg orders his troops to withdraw. Britain issues a strong warning that she will not tolerate further Vichy collaboration with Germany. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "If the Vichy government, in pursuance of their declared policy of collaboration with the enemy, take action or permit action detrimental to our conduct of the war ... we shall no longer feel bound to draw any distinction between occupied land and unoccupied territory in the execution of our military plans." - Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden