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Battle for Crete:
Maleme airfield May 20,1941 Although the Fleet Air Arm airfield, with its aircraft and some of its FAA personnel, at Maleme,Crete had been turned over to the Royal Air Force on May 1,1941, the base commander, Commander G.H. Beale RN remained on as an advisor.German bombers mounted their first large scale raid on Maleme on May 12 and continued to pound the
airfield for a week. Then,on the morning of May 20, waves of enemy aircraft struck Maleme strafing up the camp and defensive positions all around it, but not attacking the runway.
When a lull in the bombing allowed the curious defenders of Maleme to emerge from cover they saw troop carrying Ju 52 transport aircraft flying overhead and disgorging hundreds of German paratroopers.
Cdr. Beale was seriously wounded by a hand grenade soon after reaching his action station at the headquarters of the 22nd Battalion of the New Zealand Brigade. Beale's second in command, Lt. A.E.F.Sutton RN grabbed a rifle and ran to a spot on high ground above a four-inch gun where he could see the field and surrounding countryside. However, enemy paratroopes and planes strafing and bombing the srea soon forced Sutton and his party to pull back to a defensive position manned by two 3 inch HA guns and protected by barbed wire. From his dug out on the top of this hill, Lt Sutton spent the day of the German invasion sniping at enemy paratroopers. Below him L.A.C. Denton of No. 815 Squadron blasted away at the descending German parachutes with an air Lewis gun.
Neither man realized that the R.A.F. camp below them had been overrun and the unarmed troops taken prisoner. When the Germans advanced using some of these prisoners a body shields, Pilot Officer Crowther rounded up some fellows and fought back. In the nasty firefight that followed a few RAF personnel were killed but others were set free.
Meawnhile, Lt. Sutton spent the first day of the battle clinging to his hill top, barely able to move lest he be targeted by enemy machine guns or mortars. Ju 87 or Stuka Dive bombers blasted the 3-inch gun below Sutton and watching the Germans land near Maleme. One Royal Marine braved enemy fire to bring Sutton and the others trapped on the hill top some rations and that evening Sutton took command of a motley group of about 150 officer-less R.A.F. and F.A.A. from Maleme who had been cut off from their units and led them to an olive grove for the night.

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