Parachutes Over Crete: Heraklion
Publisher’s Preview
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
July 2026

The May 1941 Battle of Crete is a fascinating study on a tactical level. The Germans land elite airborne troops by parachutes and glider, following them up with crack mountain troops who land on newly-captured airfields. Those crucial airfields are defended by the best the British Empire has to offer: New Zealanders, Australians, the Highlanders of the Black Watch, and some very angry Greeks.

The Germans overcame their resistance after a bitter fight that wrecked the elite 7th Airborne Division (along with many irreplaceable transport aircraft) and pretty decisively brought an end to independent airborne operations for the Germans. The paratroopers would serve for the rest of the war as elite infantry, usually given defensive assignments.

The Battle of Crete evolved into four separate battles, due to geography and circumstance. In Panzer Grenadier: Parachutes Over Crete, we cover three of them: Maleme, Canea, and Rethymnon (sometimes called by its old Venetian name, Retimo), where the Greeks, New Zealanders, and Australians battled the Nazis drifting down from above. We left out the British stand at Heraklion to keep the game at the standard Panzer Grenadier size, and always intended to return to it with an expansion book.

Parachutes Over Crete: Heraklion is that expansion book. It’s a Campaign Study, as we call our little books filled with history and scenarios. You’ll need Parachutes Over Crete (for the maps and the German, Greek, and Australian pieces) and Road to Dunkirk (for the British pieces) to play all of the scenarios.

Heraklion, the book, is all about the British stand at Heraklion, the city and airfield. And while that battle has never gotten the same acclaim as the others, if anything it was even more important to the outcome of the struggle for Crete. Heraklion would be the last of the airfields to be taken by the Germans, thanks to a poor attack plan, well-organized British defenses, and fanatical Greek resistance. It was the only airfield on Crete at the time with a concrete-surfaced runway and revetments to protect aircraft from enemy air attack.

British AA batteries have claimed a Ju52 over Heraklion.

Heraklion, the book, comes with nine scenarios based on Heraklion, the battle. They’re divided into three chapters. “Highland Attack,” is all about the efforts of the 1st Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders to cleanse the area south-west of Heraklion of flying Nazis. In the second chapter, the Greeks with some British help fend off German attacks on the walled city of Heraklion itself. They repelled every German attack, inflicting heavy losses on the paratroopers who did manage to break through the medieval walls once, only to be driven out. Greek civilians joined the defense and once the island had surrendered, the Germans massacred thousands of the city’s people.

In the third chapter, the Germans are fighting south-east of Heraklion against the Black Watch, some Australians, and those ever-present angry Greeks. It’s pretty tough on the Germans, who would not actually take Heraklion until the British high command ordered an evacuation; the Royal Navy lifted off 4,000 British and Australian troops, and one Greek (that’s right, just one guy).

Heraklion lay outside the range of most German fighters, which limited the ability of the Germans to provide as much air support as they did to their assaults on the western end of the island. They also did not have enough transport planes to bring the entire reinforced 7th Airborne Division across from the assembly airfields in southern Greece in one wave. The Greeks had captured a set of signal panels used by the Germans to direct re-supply drops and tricked the German transport crews into dropping weapons, ammunition, and food to them instead of the paratroopers.

That makes this battle different from the other three, and so the scenarios play out differently as well. The defenders had plenty of warning, thanks to the landings in eastern Crete, and had all of their positions manned and ready to greet the flying Nazis. Two of the invading force’s four parachute battalions came down directly atop the defenses of the city and the airfield, to be greeted by a torrent of automatic weapons fire and then prompt counter-attacks once they hit the ground. One battalion took heavy losses, while the other was nearly exterminated.

German bombs fall on Heraklion Airfield.

The other two German battalions tried to land farther away, and one of them did so relatively intact. The fourth battalion had only two companies, thanks to a shortage of aircraft, and so even though its men arrived more or less safely, it was hamstrung from the start. While the 1st Battalion’s remnants battered itself to pieces at the gates of Heraklion, these other two battalions would carry most of the weight of the German attempts to both take the airfield and stop British reinforcements from reaching the battle zone.

The Germans are paratroopers, which means that they have sky-high morale. But the Brits include the Black Watch, still more Highlanders, and an attached Aussie battalion. They are almost as determined, and unlike the Germans (who, you’ll remember arrived via parachute), they have heavy weapons and even a tank platoon. The Germans are going to have to count on that morale, their excellent tactical leadership and superb initiative, to overcome those deficiencies.

But they also have to face the Greeks. Most accounts of the battle emphasize the British role, as they got to write the histories. Cretan culture revolved around generations-long vendettas, and most households owned firearms (chiefly, shotguns). Heraklion housed the depot battalion of the 5th “Kriti” Infantry Division, which had moved to the mainland to fight the Italian invasion in late 1940. But it left behind its tactical instructors, new recruits, and an arsenal of weapons which were now distributed to the local volunteers. The population of Heraklion appears to have set aside their grievances and taken the German invasion as a personal affront. The Greeks don’t have a lot of staying power, but their rage can carry them far.

And that’s Heraklion: a tightly-focused story of a battle between two well-honed infantry forces, over rough terrain, with both attackers and defenders relatively isolated from reinforcements. It makes a great addition to Parachutes Over Crete.

Order Heraklion Here.
This is the printed edition.

Heraklion is also available as a digital download. This is not a physical product (you’ll get a .pdf microseconds after completing your order):

Download Heraklion Here.
It’s $12.99, but if you’re a Gold Club member, you can download for $9.09 using your Gold Club link (That’s the only way to claim your Gold Club discount).

Order Parachutes Over Crete Here.

Order Parachutes Over Crete (Anarchy) Here.
No rules! You’ll need the Fourth Edition rules from another Panzer Grenadier game. Earlier edition rules will not work with this game.

Parachutes Package
      Parachutes Over Crete
      Road to Dunkirk (Anarchy ed)
      Heraklion
Retail Price: $217.97
Package Price: $185
Gold Club Price: $148

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children

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