Crete, The Battle and the Resistance de Antony Beevor - 1991

London: John Murray, 1991. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Good. First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 24 × 16cm, 383pp. The Germans expected their airborne attack on Crete in 1941 - a unique event in the history of warfare - to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. They had no idea that the British, using Ultra intercepts, knew their plans and had laid a carefully-planned trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle round. Nor did the conflict end there. Ferocious Cretan freedom fighters mounted a heroic resistance, aided by a dramatic cast of British officers from Special Operations Executive. Condition: A good copy. There is some light fading to the spine and a little wear to the wrapper's edges. The wrapper has been neatly price-clipped. A previous owner's inscription has been whited out to the ffep. The main body of text is in very good order with clean pages and secure binding.