The invasion was ultimately a success for the paratroopers, though almost six thousand German men had been killed or wounded in action. Even Winston Churchill was impressed. “The German Air Corps represented the flame of the Hitler Youth Movement and was an ardent embodiment of the Teutonic spirit of revenge for the defeat of 1918,” he wrote. “The

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Harald and his comrades took off from their base on the Greek mainland before sunrise, “with a fiery heart in proud confidence of our wartime good fortune.” Flying over the mainland coast, German fighter planes appeared on all sides to escort the paratroopers to their jump site over the island. British anti-aircraft guns started firing on the plane

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Early in the morning of May 20, 1941, Harald finally went to war. His first mission was the spectacular invasion of Crete. Allied forces wanted to build a bomber base on their remaining bastion in Greece, and the Germans wanted to prevent this at all costs. Dubbed Operation Mercury, it was the first largely airborne operation in military history. I

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