Metaxas-style defenses protect key sites

The Metaxas Line demonstrates the type of prepared defences Greece could build between 1936 and 1941. Its concrete and underground works combined 75 mm guns, machine guns, mortars, and anti-aircraft positions rather than relying on improvised field defences. On Crete, those works would naturally cluster around ports and the main airfield, with the railway carrying concrete, engineers, and heavy equipment. Such positions would make an airborne seizure much more costly and give Greek forces time to reorganize or counterattack. Even a delay of several days would be decisive because German airborne troops needed to capture a usable field and fly in reinforcements before their isolated landing force was destroyed.