Summary of Antony Beevor's Crete 1941

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 The archaeologist John Pendlebury was one of the members of MI(R) sent to Greece and Albania in 1940. He was a romantic who had been interested in Greece since his time as curator at Knossos in the mid-1930s.

#2 During the summer of 1940, Britain prepared for invasion, as the first skirmishes took place in the Western Desert. The Greek dictator, General Ioannis Metaxas, acutely aware of the threat from the Italian army, made every effort to avoid confrontation.

#3 The Italian invasion of Greece was a case of disaster waiting to happen. The country had already united instinctively against the Italians, and Metaxas’s No! to Grazzi is still commemorated each year on 28 October with the national holiday known as Ohi Day.

#4 The Italian invasion of Greece was a failure, and the British guarantee of Greek independence in 1939 was due to the Italian invasion of Albania. The arrival of British bombers in the region of Mussolini’s main fuel supply, the oilfields of Ploesti, increased his fear that the Russians would attack him from behind.