The following morning, the German paratroopers, exhausted, once again stormed the hill. To their surprise, they meet no resistance. Even before all the importance of this news could be appreciated, Captain Kleye landed at the western limit of the band held by the Germans:he had come to see the general evolution of the fighting and was able to immediately inform Student .
Six planes loaded with supplies having succeeded in landing on a beach, west of Tavronitis, Student decides to exploit this success. At 9 a.m., two parachute companies that had not been able to participate in the drop of the first wave jump west of Tavronitis. A parachute of reinforcements east of Pirgos fell right in the middle of the 5th New Zealand Brigade and suffered heavy losses.
On learning that the Maleme ground was usable and Hill 107 occupied, Student launched his airborne troops. Colonel Hermann Ramcke disembarks with the 5th mountain division, to take over from Meindl evacuated by air. Student had some concerns about Ramcke's ability to exercise such command, but within days Ramcke would prove to be a strong and competent leader.
As the Junkers' noria continues , relentlessly unloading their cargoes of men and materials, Ramck - forms the plan to clear the island from west to east. Maleme was still under fire from old Italian garrison guns, and the runway was entirely covered with the wreckage of transport planes. Major Snowatzk gathers some prisoners and clears the ground using a captured British tank as a bull dozer. the glow of artillery fire illuminating the sea to the north. German Rear Admiral Schuster's landing fleet had been spotted on radar and intercepted by Rear Admiral Glennie's 'D Force'. For two and a half hours the British cruisers and destroyers struck "with all their might and all their soul", in the words of one of their commanders. They firmly believed that they had inflicted heavy losses on the Germans and Italians. In reality, a large number of castaways were fished out or were able to reach the neighboring islands; the next convoy was able to turn around before being intercepted.
This naval "victory" seemed to bode well for Freyberg, who had just launched his counter-attack against Maleme. Two New Zealand battalions, 1,500 men, were engaged in the operation. They must make a long night walk to reach the aerodrome; but they come up against the survivors of Major Scherber's 3rd parachute battalion and the survivors of the reinforcement jump from Pirgos on May 21. These two pockets of resistance delayed the New Zealanders who did not reach Maleme until dawn. It's too late:the Luftwaffe rules the sky at daybreak. The attack is cancelled. The order to fall back is given
Student will now focus his efforts on Maleme. The detachments of Heraklion and Rethymnon are ordered to meet and fix the maximum number of troops in their sectors. Meanwhile, the bulk of Luftwaffe support was concentrated on the eastern outskirts of Maleme, while the 5th Mountain Division attempted to outflank the New Zealanders. The German maneuver consists in seizing Chania and forcing the dam of the Prison Valley to join the paratroopers, still blocked by the 10th New Zealand Brigade. The small village of Galatas formed a lock at the entrance to the valley of the Prison. The Germans absolutely had to seize it before going any further. As for Freyberg, he absolutely had to keep control of it, if only to give his men time to withdraw.
On May 24, he indeed realized that his forces could not hold the island; the Royal Navy, on the other hand, suffered heavy losses in its efforts to support the garrison. The order to retreat was given.
On May 25, the Germans were within immediate range of Chania, the road to which was now defended only by a few remnants of Allied units, supported on the mountainous spur dominated by Galatas. They concentrate all their means against the village, which is subjected to a deluge of mortar shells. His defenders eventually give in. But in the evening, a very vigorous British counter-attack forced the Germans to abandon the village.
On May 25, Student himself landed at Maleme. On the 27th the paratroopers took Chania. The British forces in the area then began a painful retreat through the mountains to reach the small port of Sfakia, on the south coast of the island. The commandos of Brigadier-General Robert E. Laycock will carry out delaying actions with dedication and skill in covering the withdrawal of the garrison.
May 28, in Heraklion, Brigadier-General B. H. Chappel which received the order of evacuation makes embark all its men (except the Greeks). In Rethymnon, on the contrary, Lieutenant-Colonel Ian R. Campbell did not receive it. A German column of paratroopers eventually reached the town; many Australians were taken prisoner.
During the evacuation operations the Royal Navy lost the cruiser Calcutta, and the destroyers Hereward and Imperial. On board the cruiser Orion, loaded with men at the limit of the possible, a single bomb on target is enough to kill 260 men and wound 280.
By the end of May, the Royal Navy had evacuated 18,000 men, almost a third of the garrison from the island of Crete. Its losses were so heavy that it was necessary, very reluctantly, to abandon nearly
5,000 men in Crete. A few managed to find small boats on which they attempted the crossing. Others went to the mountain maquis. Most had to surrender.
In total, the British forces counted in their ranks 1,742 killed, 1,737 wounded, 11,835 prisoners. The Royal Navy had nine warships sunk and 17 damaged, and the R.A.F. lost 46 aircraft.
Victory cost the Germans dearly. Out of a total force of 22,000 men,
6,000 had been put out of action, including 1,990 killed and 1,955 missing. The Luftwaffe lost 220 aircraft, including gliders, out of the 493 aircraft involved in the operation; Above all, it lost elite officers and non-commissioned officers:General Süssmann, commanding the 7th Air Division, Major Scherber, commanding the 3rd Battalion of the Assault Regiment, Lieutenant von Plessen, one of the glider specialist pilots.
The Luftwaffe was finally losing Hitler's confidence in it. Two months after the operation, the Führer declared to Student that “The time of the paratroopers is over. The airborne weapon is only worth the surprise. Without the surprise, there is no future for her”. The losses suffered in Crete had hit him hard and all the persuasion of Luftwaffe officials was powerless to bring him back to more measured opinions.
Admittedly, the paratroopers were again used for operations ad hoc, but never again on major objectives. However, landings by air on Malta, Cyprus, or the Nile delta, could perhaps have influenced the course of the war.