For both Allies and Axis powers, Crete offered immense strategic importance for controlling the Mediterranean, with great naval harbors, level areas for airfields, and mountain anti-aircraft positions. How did it happen, then, that in 1941, German paratroopers spectacularly overcame thousands of British troops and an even larger contingent from Greece to hold Crete until the war ended? A world-class historian vividly explains the events that led up to first major airborne assault in history.