The Battle of Crete (1970)

The picture is set during Battle of Greece and Crete Battle in 1941 , after the fall of the mainland and then the Germans entered Athens . These battles were fought during World War II on Greece and the Greek island of Crete . A group formed by Captain Andreadis (Stephanos Stratigos) , British secret agent Lt. Bob Tucker (Paolo Casella as Paul Sullivan) accompanied by a journalist , Anna Gordon (Maria Pia Conte) , are assigned by the High Command to carry out a dangerous mission to transport the gold Bank of Greece in the Middle East to first stop the homeland of Crete . As they have to carry out the gold reserves to England in a disguised Red Cross ship . Then , on the ship appears a stowaway called Anthony Fletcher (Giorgos Tzortzis) , and , subsequently , the team is betrayed by a traitor . Despite the obstacles they find on their way , they arrange to reach the island , where are helped by a sympathetic partisan (Fernando Sancho) along with his family to cross the path of Armenians and simulating they are transporting sanitarian material . There the Germans have already begun their attacks . It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany began an airborne invasion of Crete . Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island . British forces had initially garrisoned Crete (in the film commanded by high official Freiber : Ángel del Pozo) when the Italians attacked Greece on 28 October 1940, enabling the Greek government to employ the Fifth Cretan Division in the mainland campaign . The Italians were repulsed, but the subsequent German invasion of April 1941 (Operation Marita), succeeded in overrunning mainland Greece . After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures , Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island . Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the Royal Navy ; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance . Either way, every secret, Greeks and British soldiers will try to transfer the gold to Greek destroyer South of Crete . The existence of a secret agent will not be perceived as information about the company would reach the enemy so that business and the lives of Greek fighters put at risk . The Battle of Crete was the first battle where German paratroops were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population . Due to the heavy casualties suffered by the paratroopers, Adolf Hitler forbade further large-scale airborne operations. In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form both airborne assault and airfield defense regiments .

This passable wartime picture contains high-powered action-packed , busy shootouts , spectacular parachuting , stock-shots , noisy explosions , mass slaughter with violent firing squad and bustling battles in medium budget . It presents the historic events of hokey and rowdy manner but it does so fascinatingly entertaining , being better than expected . Fairly decent acting by the mostly Greek stars , this one resulted to be an acceptable and exciting WWII actioner , though mediocre . All in all, it's an ordinary piece of warlike fluff . Although average , it has good battle footage , functional acting , breathtaking scenes which help offset a sometimes far-fetched plot , but suffers on television, as the small screen damages its really spectacular images . Highlighted by a stirring and thrilling climax . Though the cast is unknown , it appears some familiar Spanish faces such as Fernando Sancho and Angel Del Pozo , both of them played lots of Spaghetti/Paella Western . Atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Enrique Escobar . Evocative cinematography by Julio Perez De Rozas ,though a perfect remastering is necessary . Including colorful exteriors from Crete , similarly to ¨Guns of Navarone¨ and gorgeous caves . Being decently written and produced by prolific Ignacio F. Iquino from production company ¨IFI¨ . The motion picture was regularly directed by Siro Marcellini and Vasilis Georgiadis . Marcellini , who often used pseudonym Omar Hopkins , was a nice craftsman who directed various Westerns such as ¨Lola Colt¨ , "The Man of the Accursed Valley" but his speciality was the adventure genre such as "The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules" , I Cavalieri del Diablo¨, "The Two Rivals" and "The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan" .