This page from Der Adler's French-language wartime edition documents an unglamorous but essential side of the German war effort: Wehrmacht signal troops (Nachrichtentruppe) manually installing a military telephone line across the rugged mountains of Crete following the island's capture in May 1941. Soldiers hauled heavy wooden poles up rocky slopes by hand and climbed completed lines using spiked boots to string insulators and wire. The feature illustrates the physical labor behind maintaining battlefield communications in newly occupied, mountainous Mediterranean territory. Project: 218709