Heraklion:
Scenario Preview, Part Two
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
December 2021

Adding the battle game, a fairly simple structure that allows players to tie individual scenarios together, has added a great deal of play value to Panzer Grenadier. It works perfectly with the chapter structure of the story-arc format, which uses the scenarios as part of the campaign narrative.

Parachutes Over Crete: Heraklion designer Mike Perryman is a believer in fairly short chapters, with battle games that can be played in a single session.

The second chapter of Heraklion has four scenarios, and probably can’t make that single-session goal (maybe if it’s a long session). Let’s take a look at them.

Chapter Two
Subduing Heraklion
The following four scenarios cover the 1st Parachute Regiment’s attempts to secure Heraklion and the surrounding area.

Scenario Three
Cretan Fury
20 May 1941
Heraklion, the capital of Crete, would be the target of Col. Bruno Bräuer’s reinforced 1st Parachute Regiment. His 3rd Battalion would land the west of Heraklion with orders to rapidly subdue the town and secure the port located there. Due to a lack of transport planes it would be late afternoon before the aircraft could return to Greece, load the paratroopers and drop them around Heraklion. The Germans do not seem to have considered that this awkward turnaround would cost them the element of surprise.

Conclusion
Despite the early warning elsewhere, news of the German attack did not reach the defenders here until 1430 and the commanders scrambled to gather their men and prepare the defenses to receive the Germans. It’s unclear when the Greeks received word but as they had been assigned to defend Heraklion itself, they manned the walls at all times and eagerly awaited the Germans. The 9th Parachute Company made repeated, determined attacks against the South Gate but the Greeks turned them back with heavy causalities. The rest of the battalion could not force their way through the West Gate despite coming close to overwhelming the Greek defenders more than once.

Notes
Now this is a different sort of scenario. Heraklion is a walled city, with fortifications that fended off the Ottoman Turks for more than two decades – three centuries before this battle. Against modern heavy weapons, they would provide little shelter, but the German paratroopers don’t have much in the way of heavy weapons and the Greeks are not going to give up the city without a fight. The Germans have to contend with not only Greek regulars, but waves of pissed-off Greek civilians.

Scenario Four
Niki Elas
21 May 1941
The initial German assaults on Heraklion failed to get through the ancient city walls, much less reach the port. During the night, Maj. Karl-Lothar Schulz of the 1st Parachute Regiment’s 3rd Battalion gathered his company commanders in an olive grove and hatched a plan to force the Broken Walls Gate and secure the port. The attack would begin well before dawn, with the 10th Company attacking the West Gate in an effort to drive through the town and grab the airfield. It was an ambitious plan for a single depleted battalion, even after two wandering platoons from 2nd Battalion showed up and were incorporated into the group attacking the Broken Walls Gate.

Schulz worried that he had not been able to establish contact with regimental headquarters. When his radio operators intercepted a German Air Force transmission indicating that Heraklion would be bombed between 0900 and 1000 hours the next morning, he delayed his attack until the planes had worked over the town.

Conclusion
The aerial bombardment had little effect on the defenders, but the determined attack of 11th Parachute Company did. Their superior firepower allowed them to suppress the defenders in front of them, allowing a block-by-block advance until they reached the port itself. Yet every time they attempted to expand their right flank towards the center of Heraklion, the defense stiffened and the paratroopers could not make any progress. The attackers at the West Gate wedged their way into the city but not in enough force to drive the Greeks out of their positions. As darkness fell the invaders withdrew from Heraklion. 

Notes
The Germans are back, having rallied themselves – sort of – to make an attempt to force their way through the walls. The Greeks are ready for them, in a battle that looks a lot like the Siege of Constantinople. The Greeks lost that one, probably because they lacked enough of the ochi spirit.

Scenario Five
Siege of Candia
22 May 1941
Venetian troops had held out in Heraklion, then called Candia, for 21 years in the 17th Century; Karl-Lothar Schulz did not intend to allow the Greeks to do the same. Having been repelled twice already, Schulz crafted a new plan, now aided by additional troops from his regiment’s 2nd Battalion. But balancing this accretion of strength, the Greeks had followed his men out of Heraklion and now barred his way back to the capital. Before the city could be attacked, this blocking force would have to be removed.

Conclusion
The morning found a Greek force consisting of regular army, gendarmes and pissed-off civilians advancing westward towards the iron bridge over the Giofyros River in an attempt to overrun Schultz’s headquarters on the other side. They managed to reach the Giofyros but were stopped short of crossing the iron bridge and had to content themselves with digging in on the east bank. While this was going on the German assault force reached Heraklion but could not breach the walls and instead milled about outside, picking off anyone exposing themselves above the parapet.

Notes
Not content to just drive the Germans away from Heraklion’s walls, the Greeks chased them out of the city and into the countryside. If the Germans want another shot at the city, first they have to get past the Greeks who’s set up a pretty formidable blocking position, even if they don’t have the Venetian walls.

Scenario Six
West of Heraklion
25 May 1941
In the five days since the Germans had dropped west of Heraklion, little progress had been made toward securing the town. On the 21st they broke into the city, but the Greeks drove them back out. On the 22nd they hadn’t even managed that much. For two days afterwards they rested, gathering more stragglers and allowing Col. Bruno Bräuer to gain control of his scattered paratroopers. Meanwhile the Allies had re-shuffled their deployments, giving the British the responsibility for defending the Cretan capital.

Conclusion
The attack lacked enough men to seriously threaten Heraklion and soon ran out of steam. Bräuer, disappointed at yet another failure, cancelled all further offensive actions until reinforcements arrived. To strengthen his position against expected British counterattacks, the survivors of Schulz’s depleted force would swing to the south before heading eastward to join the rest of the 1st Parachute Regiment east of Heraklion.

Notes
The Greeks have sailed away to be replaced by Brits, who are also pretty tough but not nearly as fanatic. At this point they don’t have a lot of support weapons either and the Germans actually out-gun them.

And that’s Chapter Two. Next time, it’s Chapter Three.

You can order Parachutes Over Crete: Heraklion right here..

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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 a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and his Iron Dog, Leopold.

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