This scenario is more of an expansion of PoCr #1 Hil 107 than anything else. At 121 counters and 24 turns spread over fou boards, it encompasses the attack on Maleme Airfield, Hill 107 and the bridge over the Tavorontis River. These sere German objectives at the beginning of the First day, May 20, 1941. It was a hard fought paratrooper victory. But the Kiwi’spulled back and left the airfield to the Germans. It is thought by some historians that if the New Zealanders would have held their positions around Hill 107 and the airfield, the Germans might have been beaten.

Such was not the čaše, and it is difficult to underdtand how the Germans could have lost given their overwhelming firepower. This reenactment played out showing that the Germans had an easier time capturing the three aforementioned objectives than during the actual battle. Ground firepower in the form of the Assault Regiment wasn’t the only advantge of the German attack. They also possessed the Luftwaffe. However, for the most part it was ineffective, but on turn 13, it dramatically turned the slow developing situation on the left flank to the east of Maleme when it destroyed a full strength HMG unit and demoralized an accompanying INF platoon. With this result, the 22nd Battalion positions in this area collapsed and defenses around Maleme became untenable.

The game was stopped in the 16th turn after the decision to tighten its perimeter its overextended positions from the Tavorontis River towards Maleme to bolster the defense around the airfield backfired on Creforce commander Bernhard Freyberg. Nine paratrooper platoons came onto the board close to the bridge u op posed. At this point, the NZ 22nd Battlion was in crisis, with it having lost eight steps and in disarray. The Assault Regiment lost just one step. It appeared that three was nothinng standing in the was of a German major victory.

So why was this scenario rated a four, what with its apparent imbalance? The potential is for a fluid defense which can respond to each attacking force one wave at a time. For this to occur, the German attack must be unncoordinated. Actually this is more of a possibility than a coordinated attack, which is what happened in this game. Luck did play an important part, with the Germans prevailing, especially in Assault combat. Creforce was aggresive in trying to tie up the paratroopers at the airfield, but simply lost the Assaults because of the disparate morale between the two sides. This provided for an an eyeopening and enjoyable scenario!