A view of the Corinth Canal taken by a Fallschirmjager in 1941.

The parachutists rushing onto bridge.

However the bridge blew up into the sky.

Operation Hannibal 1941

At the Corinth Canal on April 25 German paratroopers were tasked with seizing the bridge that spanned the deep ship canal dividing the North and South Peloponnese. If the Germans could hold it they would speed the advance of the XII Army and also cut off the retreat of British and Commonwealth forces. The troops assigned to the task were commanded by Colonel Sturm and consisted of 52 parachute engineers (Fallschirmpioniere) under Leutnant Haffner supported by the 1st and 2nd Battalions of Fallschirmjager Regiment 2 (FJR 2) under respectively Hauptmann Kroh and Hauptmann Pietzonka with signals and medical detachments. It would be a classic attack with Kroh’s battalion landing to the north of the bridge and Pietzonka’s to the south. The engineers would then move in to remove any demolition charges that might be in place.

The force of 270 Ju52s took off from Larissa at 05.00 and the gliders carrying the engineers landed accurately at 07.00 with the engineers racing to capture the bridge. They held it but were strongly counter-attacked and the situation was only resolved by the late arrival of the 2nd Battalion.

There are indications that ULTRA intercepts may have alerted the British troops at the bridge, however there is no explanation for what happened a few moments later. The engineers had removed the charges, but then a British anti-aircraft shell happened to strike the demolition charge after it had been removed, and the resulting explosion flung the bridge to the canal bottom, thus blocking the tanker’s passage. XI Air Corps’ quartermaster, Lieutenant-Colonel Seibt, had divers flown out from Kiel, and finally on May 17th the waterway was cleared. Next day at Piraeus, the time-consuming process of transferring the fuel into barrels began in feverish haste.

German losses were light, only eight engineers were killed, and a temporary structure was built across the canal by the morning of April 28. The capture of the Corinth Canal cut off the rearguard of the 4th New Zealand Brigade at Erithrae, but they were eventually evacuated from Port Raphti.

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Corinth Jump Para OoB

Corinth Canal jump by Sturm’s 2nd Para Regt.

Detached for the landing at the canal-bridge:
Commander FJR.2 Oberst Alfred Sturm
I./FJR.2
II./FJR.2
— 6.Kp. Chef Hptm.Schirmer takes command of II./FJR2 after the commander is wounded
1 Pionierkompanie
1 le.Gesch.Kp.
1 Nachr.Kp.
1 San-Kp.

The first to land was a Pionierzug under Lt.Hans Teusen and one platoon of the 6.Kp.
The gros of this group should land with II.Btl. south of the canal, I.Btl. to the north of the canal.
A Kriegsberichter Sonderführer E.von der Heyden was with the first wave.

Additional Reading:

Merglen, Albert. “A Brief Survey Of The German Airborne Operations On the Corinth Canal, April 1941.” In Revue Historique de’l Armee, volume 16, number 2 (1960), pp. 77-82.

Miranda, Joseph. “The Balkans Campaign of 1941.” In Strategy and Tactics, number 182 (September/October 1996), pp. 4-19.

Morzik, Fritz. German Air Force Airlift Operations. New York: Arno Press, 1968.

Whiting, Charles. Hunters From the Sky: The German Parachute Corps, 1940-1945. New York: Stein and Day, 1974.