740.0011 European War 1939/11610: Telegram
The Minister in Egypt (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 4—1:45 a.m.]
643. My 642, June 2, 4 p.m.17 Aside from the strictly military aspects of the defeat in Crete and its inevitable effect on British prestige particular emphasis should be placed on the immediately serious consequences of further but as yet undisclosed heavy British naval losses and of the precarious position in which the remainder of the fleet is left as a result of the limitation on its movements imposed by the establishment of German control over the narrows between Libya and Crete. In fact the question is now raised in certain quarters as to whether the eastern Mediterranean may be considered tenable for surface craft and it is also problematical whether it will be possible to hold Malta.
Another serious aspect of the Crete campaign is the further demonstration which it furnishes of the lack of coordination among the [Page 733] various branches of the British Armed Forces owing to the absence of a unified command and to interference in military matters on the part of the executive branch of the Government and as a result of the foregoing there appears to be a development of a tendency to outspoken mutual recrimination among the members of the army, naval and air units.
- Not printed.↩