Crete's defence suffered from command instability

Were the British officers defending Crete simply incompetent?

No; repeated command changes prevented continuity, and a specialist in island and port defence was displaced before his plan could be implemented.

Organizational instability explains more of Crete's defensive failure than a simple charge of officer incompetence. Each arriving commander altered the previous plan, so no command team remained in place long enough to implement and test a coherent defence. A Royal Marines general who specialized in defending islands and ports was replaced because an Army officer was thought more suitable for a land battle. Institutional prejudice and disrupted continuity defeated individually reasonable planning.