Operation Mercury

[caption id="attachment_6195" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Chania Fallschirmjäger Memorial 1940s[/caption]

"It is true that at the beginning Cretan irregulars attacked and killed wounded parachutists – after all, early on there was no organized resistance. The Germans reacted by taking reprisals. I wrote that until Operation Mercury, WWII had been a ‘clean’ war in which neither side committed war crimes but respected the international rules of war [Hague Conventions]. But when attacks by noncombatants and reprisals began, the war became ‘dirty,’ i.e. the participants no longer obeyed the rules of war. This is the view of international historiography."

Heinz A. Richter, historian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTxsGYCZiQ

Auf Kreta, im Sturm und im Regen (In Crete, by Storm and Rain) - English translation

In Crete during storm and rain,

A paratrooper stands on guard

He likes to dream of home,

Where a tender girl's heart awaits him

The little stars twinkle in the night from the sky,

Say hello to my home,

 

Say hello from bloody battle to my little maid

 

Jumping on the enemy's trench

Enemy's bullet hit his heart

Crashing on the bloody lawn

He painfully whispers to the stars

You, little stars sparkling in the night from the sky

Say hello to my home,

 

Say hello from bloody battle to my little maid

 

Then he said with a dying voice

Comrade, come and give me your hand

And take this ring off my finger

And give it to my beloved as a pledge of farewell

The little stars twinkle in the night from the sky

Say hello to my home,

 

Say hello from bloody battle to my little maid

 

In Crete flags are fluttering

We paratroopers won anyway

Even if so many have died

The the paratroopers' fame will remain

The little stars twinkle in the night from the sky ,

Say hello to my home,

 

Say hello from bloody battle to my little maid