31st Panzer Regiment on Crete?

[Liam]

How exactly did 2nd battalion of the 31st Panzer Regiment of 5th Panzer Division qualify for the 'Kreta' cuff title? Were there tanks involved or did the troops fight as infantry?

[Doktor Krollspell]

Hello Liam!

Here's some quotes from me and Phylo_Roadking from an old riddle in the greatest of all Feldgrau threads...

When the 5. Panzer-Division left Greece after the invasion for their start line for Barbarossa, their 31st Panzer-Regimnt left behind it's 5th Kompanie (light) to be used for the invasion and occupation of Crete. It was used to establish Panzer-Kompanie Kreta. The light company was authorized the following equipment:
5 Panzer IIs
17 Panzer IIIs

two PII tanks at Crete, landing at Baia di Castello on 27 May 1941 in the morning. Has to have been part of the above unit.

Yes, it was Oberleutnant z. See Albert Oesterlin that commanded the actual transport of the two Panzer II's from Piraeus to the Bay of Castelli. The Panzers contributed to breaking free to the encircled remains of Fsch.Jg.Rgt. 2.

Albert Oesterlin was killed in an Air attack on January 23, 1944 in Piraeus. His last command was that of Gruppenführer i. d. Küstenschutz-Flottille Attika. He posthumously recieved the Knight's Cross on 09.06.1944 together with promotion to Korvettenkapitän d. R..

Source for pic and info was the book "Kampf um die Ägäis" by Peter Schenk (2000). So it was a scanned pic and not from the Internet...

And the photograph we were discussing was this one...


Source for pic was the book "Kampf um die Ägäis" by Peter Schenk (2000).

And the actual riddle can be reached by the following link (so you don't have to read trough 177 pages of riddles!

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... &start=645


Regards,

Krollspell

[Liam]

Ah-ha! Now if only someone could uncover a picture of a Panzertruppen soldier wearing his black uniform with the Kreta cuffband...