The Battle of 42nd Street was fought between Australian and New Zealand (Anzac) forces and German troops on the island of Crete on 27 May 1941, during World War II. The location took its name from a sunken dirt road south-east of Chania, unofficially named 42nd Street by British troops after the 42nd Field Company, Royal Engineers, who had been stationed there. On 20 May, Germany launched a combined airborne and amphibious invasion of Crete. A week later, after the British and Commonwealth forces defending the island were forced to withdraw towards Chania, a force of several understrength Australian and New Zealand infantry battalions established a defensive line along 42nd Street, south-east of Chania, forming a rearguard for the withdrawing troops.
On 27 May, as a German battalion advanced towards 42nd Street, the Anzac defenders carried out a bayonet charge that inflicted heavy casualties on the German attackers, which forced them to withdraw and briefly halted the German advance. Afterwards, the Anzac troops kept retreating towards the southern coast of the island.
Background
Greece became a belligerent in World War II when it was invaded by Italy on 28 October 1940. A British and Commonwealth expeditionary force was offered to support the Greeks, but they did not immediately accept the offer, and personnel did not begin to arrive until 4 March the following year. This force eventually totalled more than 60,000 troops. British forces also garrisoned Crete, enabling the Greek Fifth Cretan Division to reinforce the mainland campaign instead of defending Crete. This arrangement suited the British as Crete could provide the Royal Navy with harbours on its north coast. The Italians were repulsed by the Greeks without the aid of the expeditionary force. In April 1941, six months after the failed Italian invasion, a German attack overran mainland Greece and the expeditionary force was withdrawn. By the end of April, over 50,000 Allied personnel were evacuated by the Royal Navy. Some were sent to Crete to bolster its garrison, though most had lost their heavy equipment.
Opposing forces
Allied forces
After departing from Alexandria in Egypt, British personnel began arriving on Crete on 1 November 1940. They then began Operation Scorcher, the operation covering the defence of Crete. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered three new airfields to be created on Crete, and they were ready by February 1941, as were additional coastal defense guns and anti-aircraft units. Using the Ultra decryption system, which included the Enigma machine, the British discovered the German plan to invade Crete on 26 April. Prior to the Battle of Crete, Axis victories in Greece provided the Germans with a semi-circle of aerodromes, the closest situated just 60 miles (97 km) north of the island. These gave them air supremacy over the island, as their airplanes could operate from nearby, whilst the nearest British airbases were in Alexandria, 400 miles (640 km) away, with aircraft coming from there nearing the limit of their range. The Royal Navy could thus not successfully operate around Crete except for fast ships operating in the dark once the Germans had gained aerial supremacy.
On 29 April 1941, Major-General Bernard Freyberg, who had been evacuated from mainland Greece with the 2nd New Zealand Division on HMS Ajax, arrived at Crete. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the island the next day by General Archibald Wavell. Freyberg noted the acute lack of heavy weapons, equipment, supplies and communication facilities. Equipment was scarce in the Mediterranean, particularly in the isolated areas of Crete. The British forces on Crete had seven commanders in seven months. By early April, airfields at Maleme and Heraklion and the landing strip at Rethymno, all on the north coast, were ready and another strip at Pediada-Kastelli was nearly finished.
Of the airstrips on Crete, the only one with a concrete runway was at Heraklion. A radar station was established on Ames Ridge, a hill south-east of Heraklion airfield, but it was outside the defensive perimeter and its communications were unreliable. By 29 April, the Commonwealth troops of the defeated Allied expeditionary force were evacuated from mainland Greece. In the space of a week, 27,000 of these personnel arrived on Crete from Greece; many lacked any equipment other than their personal weapons, and some lacked even those. Of these, 9,000 were further evacuated and 18,000 remained on Crete when the battle commenced. With the pre-existing garrison of 14,000, this gave the Allies a total of 32,000 Commonwealth personnel to face the German attack, supplemented by 10,000 Greeks.
On 6 May, Freyberg received a message called "Secret and Most Immediate" from the Middle East Command Headquarters saying the Germans would attack on 17 May, the Ultra system then updated him on the date, first moving it to the 19th and then to the 20th. Using the information gathered from Ultra, he split his forces into four semi-independent sectors. The four sectors were: Chania and Souda Bay with 15,227 personnel, Maleme with 11,859, Central with 6,730, and Heraklion with 8,024 defenders. The British originally had aircraft defending the island. However, by 19 May, the Luftwaffe had destroyed all but seven fighter aircraft, which were ordered to return to Egypt for safety. The forces in the battle on the Allied side were the Australian 2/7th, 2/8th, and 2/1st Machine Gun Battalions, and New Zealand's 21st, 28th (Maori), 19th, 22nd and 23rd Battalions. A few Greek soldiers were involved as well. The troops were positioned parallel to the north-south 42nd Street, with the 2/8th situated furthest north followed sequentially down the road by the 2/7th, 21st, 28th, 19th, with the 23rd being positioned behind the 19th and 22nd in reserve.
Axis forces
The German assault on Crete was code-named "Operation Mercury" (Unternehmen Merkur). It was ordered on 25 April 1941 by Dictator of Germany Adolf Hitler's Directive 28, despite the Germans not knowing the Allied forces and underestimating them at 5,000 personnel. The directive also stated the operation was to take place in May and must not interfere with the planned campaign against the Soviet Union. The attack plan was to have three parts, Group West focusing on Maleme airfield, Group Central on Chania, Souda Bay, and Rethymno airfields, and Group East on the airfield of Heraklion. It was controlled by the XII Army and commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm List. The German VIII Air Corps (VIII Fliegerkorps) provided close air support; it was equipped with 570 combat aircraft. The infantry available for the assault were the German 7th Air Division, with the Air-landing Assault Regiment (Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment) attached, and the 5th Mountain Division. They totalled 22,000 soldiers grouped under the XI Air Corps (XI Fliegerkorps) commanded by Lieutenant-general Kurt Student, who was in operational control of the attack. Over 500 Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft were assembled to carry them. Student planned a series of four parachute assaults against Allied facilities on the north coast of Crete by the 7th Air Division, which would then be reinforced by the 5th Mountain Division, part transported by air and part by sea; the latter would also ferry much of the heavy equipment. Before the invasion, the Germans conducted a bombing campaign to establish air superiority and forced the RAF to evacuate its aircraft and rebase them in Alexandria. A few days before the attack, German intelligence summaries stated that the total Allied force on Crete consisted of 5,000 men. This was increased to 12,000, and as the transports of the 7th Air Division were taxing for take off on the morning of 20 May its officers were given an updated estimate of 48,000 Allied defenders. On 21 May the first landings began, concentrated around four points: Maleme, Chania, Rethymno and Heraklion. The personnel in the battle on the German side were the 1st Battalion of the 141st Mountain Regiment, commanded by Major Hans Forster, and some paratroopers who were left from the original landings.
Battle
During the initial stages of the fighting on Crete, the Australians defending Heraklion managed to defeat the attacking force and the troops at Rethymno were able to blunt the attack, holding it for more than a week. However at Maleme, the Germans managed to wrest control of a vital airfield, and as a result began flying in reinforcements of airborne and mountain troops. As the Germans began moving inland to outflank the defenders' positions, the Australian, New Zealand and British forces were forced back towards the city of Chania, which came under heavy air attack by German bombers. The British Royal Navy kept control of the sea around Crete despite the initial German attack. By 27 May, the weakened Australian 2/7th and 2/8th Battalions, supported by the New Zealand 21st, 28th (Maori), 19th, 22nd and 23rd Battalions, had taken up positions along 42nd Street, south-east of Chania, where they formed a rearguard to protect the rest of the Commonwealth forces being pushed south. The Australian and New Zealand (Anzac) units were manned at less than 50 percent of their normal strength, having suffered heavy casualties earlier in the fighting. The various units believed they were acting as reserves and would be shielded by other Allied forces whilst the Germans attacked. They did not know they were meant to take up defensive positions, as according to Maori soldier Rangi Royal, the troops were not aware they were the first line of defence.
There was an unsealed road that ran from Chania to Tsikalaria, lined with olive trees, and ran south from the main coastal road from Chania to Souda Bay. The road was lower than the surrounding land and was nicknamed 42nd Street, after both the 42nd Field Company of the Royal Engineers, who had previously camped there, and the musical film 42nd Street. Early on the morning of 27 May, around 0800, Lieutenant-Colonel George Dittmer, commander of the Maori Battalion, called a meeting with Lieutenant-Colonels Theodore Walker of the 2/7th and John Manchester Allen of the 21st and they decided that if the Germans approached their battalions, they would engage them and charge. At this meeting, they also agreed on defensive positions, ordering that all men to the west of the road should be moved onto it or to its east, as that side was more defensible.
At roughly 1100, the 1st Battalion of the 141st Mountain Regiment was seen approaching 42nd Street, roughly 400–500 strong, by the 2/8th. Advancing along the road to Souda, they were estimated by the Australian and New Zealand defenders as numbering about 400, and were attempting to raid an abandoned supply depot under the cover of mortar and machine-gun fire. The 2/7th's Major Walter Miller commanded Lieutenant Beverley McGeoch to lead a 14-strong patrol to observe them, while he planned an attack. McGeoch was not to attack until the Germans had come close enough to be too close to escape a surprise attack. The patrol advanced about 500 metres (550 yd) after draping their helmets with green silk from parachutes to act as camouflage.
Miller then told Captain St Elmo Dudley Nelson to join the attack, and sent a runner to Walker with the same message. At the start of the attack, when McGeoch's patrol was about 450 metres (490 yards) away from the Germans, half of them opened fire on the Axis. Roughly five minutes later, the other half of McGeoch's 14 soldiers opened fire as well. Miller was walking over to the Lieutenant's patrol when the firefight began and sent his C Company forward to join in. One platoon of C Company was placed on each side of McGeoch's patrol to create a line. The Anzacs established superiority of fire after a few minutes. Together, they ended up killing most of the Germans in the area whilst others fled. Then, doing as they were told, D Company of the 2/7th joined the fight after hearing the first shots fired. Nelson was shot in the shoulder advancing with his unit. Lieutenant Stephen Bernard then took over his company, and kept leading even after being injured. He and his company chased the Germans, killing every German in the area who hadn't surrendered or been taken prisoner. Walker ordered the reserve A and B Companies to take the place of the attacking C and D Companies. Miller ordered roughly six bombs to be fired by the Anzac mortar teams, which they did. This caused the few remaining Germans to flee, and they were pursued by Miller's forces. In Charles Moihi Bennett, a Maori officer's account, Greek soldiers could be heard during the charge shouting "Aera" (transl. like the wind).