Robert Kershaw (https://robertjkershaw.com) is the author of nearly 20 books. The Hill was published last month and it is the 44th book I have completed reading in 2024.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this book as R.

This book looks at the German invasion of Crete in 1941. Specifically, it looks at the battle for Hill 107 and the struggle around Maleme and the airport. The battle for Crete lasted only a few days. The Greek, British, and Commonwealth forces defending the island had only recently escaped from the relentless advance of the German Wehrmacht in mainland Greece. They were ill-prepared, having left much of their equipment behind in their struggle to avoid capture.

Germany was attempting to use its airborne force to quickly overwhelm the defenses of Crete, much like they had in Belgium in 1940. This was their opportunity to strike quickly utilizing their paratroopers and glider-born forces. The invasion was a success but at the cost of terribly high casualties.

The author lays out the battle for Crete in detail, giving nearly equal coverage from both the German and Allied perspectives. Many mistakes were made by both sides.

I enjoyed the 11.5+ hours I spent reading this 429-page WWII history. I had known very little about the battle for Crete before reading this book. I like the cover art that was chosen. I give this novel a rating of 3.6 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

An intriguing and well-written novel regarding the fall of Crete in WW2. The author made good use of firsthand accounts from both sides of the conflict. The stories were full of heroism and bravery on both sides. The author also did a good job of explaining the faults in leadership that led to the outcome of the battles.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A detailed narrative of the seldom discussed battle of Crete, which occurred in May/June 1941. Crete's location was strategically important and needed to be captured from the British, by elite German airborne forces.
After eight days of bitter fighting the British allies suffered a humiliating defeat, with 6000 casualties. The author makes it clear in the book that the Allies were not a coherent force, lacked effective communications, heavy weapons, and close air support. The bravery on both sides was outstanding. in particular that showed by the pilots of the lumbering Junkers 52 transport aircraft. The Germans had total air superiority during the battle.
It was a disastrous mistake for the British to abandon the strategically placed Hill 107, allowing German reinforcements to land at the key airfield.
I enjoyed learning about the battle from the perspective of both sides of the fighting. The author has undertaken an amazing amount of research.to gather many first-person narratives together.
I've read one of the author's earlier books, Dunkirchen 1940, which in my opinion has a slight edge in terms of readability. However, I recommend The Hill to any military buff.

Not as earthshaking as his earlier history of the 1940 battle for Dunkirk, but Robert Kershaw brings the same writerly skill and unusual military background to "The Hill: The Brutal Fight for Hill 107 in the Battle of Crete". I've never encountered a historian so well equipped to write about the clash of German and British armies in the Second World War. Mr Kershaw served in the Parachute Regiment in Ireland, Bosnia, and Kuwait attended the Fuhrungsakademie (German Staff College) and spent two years as an instructor with the Bundeswehr, making him a historian who works with equal skill in German and Allied archives.

The 1941 battle for Crete, off the south coast of Greece, isn't nearly as familiar as Dunkirk, but it was arguably more important, marking the first -- and last! -- time a major target was conquered from the air. Hill 107 overlooked the tiny airfield at Maleme and was defended by a battalion of New Zelanders. German paratroopers dropped first, with terrible losses, with one company losing 112 men killed out of the 126 who jumped. Incredibly, the Fallschirmjaeger were armed only with pistols and grenades, with their rifles dropped separately. Next up were the gliders, with losses almost as horrendous. Only when the Kiwis foolishly abandoned Hill 107 that night did the situation turn around, enabling the tri-motored Junkers transports to land troops directly on the airfield and only minutes apart. What a mess it was!

Ironically, the Germans never again relied on airborne troops, while the British and Americans were so impressed by the Fallschirmjaeger that they immediately began to develop parachute and glider forces of their own.

(will be posted at www.warbirdforum.com/club.htm on April 1)

I've read numerous books by Robert Kershaw. The most memorable is "War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942" and the most recent was "Borodino Field 1812 and 1941: How Napoleon and Hitler Met Their Matches Outside Moscow." In this case, "The Hill", for me, simply did not have have the same type of feel. It took about 120 pages to actually get to the invasion of Crete and once that started I simply lost any interest I might have had in the event, the people, or the outcome. Perhaps this campaign simply doesn't carry the same weight as the others Kershaw has focused in on and written about but I was, unfortunately, disappointed and felt it a waste of time.