Reborn as a police officer in South Africa

In the early morning of the 23rd, less than 20 hours before the Battle of Crete broke out, the remaining paratroopers and airborne troops evacuated Heraklion Airport in three groups and disappeared into the boundless darkness.

In addition to nearly 1,800 wounded soldiers, there were also nearly 1,400 bodies of paratroopers and airborne troops left at the airport.

When Schmitz and Hoffman made statistics last night, there were still nearly 2,000 wounded soldiers.

In just a few hours, nearly 200 wounded soldiers died wailing in endless pain, which clearly shows the brutality of the battle.

Before the paratroopers evacuated, some wounded soldiers committed suicide because they were unwilling to accept the fate of being abandoned.

There were also wounded soldiers who were injured but could still move independently. They mainly requested to be evacuated together with the paratroopers.

These wounded soldiers actually knew that after leaving Heraklion, most of them would not be able to receive effective treatment, which would worsen their injuries and even leave them with lifelong disabilities.

But they still insisted on leaving with the troops, preferring to face an unknown fate rather than become prisoners of the Allied forces.

Even the southern African army is known for treating prisoners well.

After daybreak, Major General Schmitz rode an all-terrain off-road vehicle captured at the airport and came to the southern African army position to surrender.

All-terrain off-road vehicles are not omnipotent. They can only be used around airports with relatively good traffic conditions. If they leave the airport, they will be unable to move in the mud after heavy rain.

"You made a wise choice. You are a qualified soldier and have done everything you can." Lieutenant Colonel Liu Xin, commander of the 177th Regiment of the 35th Division, had a good attitude toward Major General Schmitz. Faced with such a desperate situation,

Still able to persist to this day, the paratroopers are indeed the elite of the German army.

"We have too many wounded soldiers who are in urgent need of medical treatment -" Major General Schmitz's expression was numb. As a prisoner, and a prisoner who surrendered voluntarily, this will leave a stain on Major General Schmitz that will be difficult to erase for the rest of his life.

Mustache will not ask Major General Schmitz why he surrendered. He only focuses on the results.

"No problem. Soldiers who surrender will receive treatment commensurate with their status." Lieutenant Colonel Liu Xin promised happily. This is very important.

The world war is ongoing, and soldiers in southern Africa may also become prisoners of the German army.

In Southern Africa, if the battle lasts until the last moment, even if everyone is killed, it will not change the outcome of the battle. Southern African soldiers are also allowed to surrender. They can still receive hero-like treatment after returning to Southern Africa.

This is normal, and sometimes becoming a prisoner is unavoidable. For example, those soldiers who were stunned by shells during battle had to accept the fate of becoming prisoners.

If prisoners are treated across the board, it will be unfair to those soldiers who have to become prisoners.

Although the probability of Southern African soldiers becoming prisoners is very low, Roque still did so.

The purpose of Southern Africa treating prisoners of war well is so that Southern African soldiers can receive treatment commensurate with their status after being captured.

With Schmitz's surrender, Heraklion Airport returned to the control of the 35th Division.

After a day of fierce fighting, the airport was in dilapidated condition, the terminal building and other facilities were almost completely destroyed, the runway was full of craters, and only a small section of the runway was still barely usable.

The engineering force immediately took action to repair the airport runway to accommodate the take-off and landing of southern African transport aircraft.

After the war, many supplies needed to be replenished, and there were serious shortages of ammunition, medicine, and food.

No one expected that the first thing to land at the airport was not a Southern African transport plane, but two German transport planes.

In yesterday's fierce battle, the communication equipment of the paratroopers and space forces was destroyed and they were unable to contact the German headquarters. Therefore, the German headquarters still does not know that the paratroopers and airborne troops parachuted at Heraklion Airport have surrendered.

When paratroopers and airborne troops airborne, they did not carry much supplies with them, only enough for a few days of combat.

Last night, while Germany was trying to transport troops to Crete via sea routes, the air force was also trying to find ways to provide assistance to the German troops airborne at Heraklion Airport.

These two transport planes took great risks, broke through the layers of defenses of the Southern African Air Force, and only appeared in Heraklion after paying countless heavy prices.

According to incomplete statistics, on the first day of the Battle of Crete, the German army lost more than 170 aircraft, including nearly 80 transport aircraft.

So the Battle of Crete was not just a feast for the Southern African Army.

For southern African pilots, the Battle of Crete was also a hunting ground for military glory.

The pilots of the two transport planes never expected that when the cabin door opened, what they saw was the black muzzle of the southern African soldiers' guns.

"Put down your weapons, raise your hands and surrender -" a southern African second lieutenant shouted in German.

In southern Africa, German is not a common language, but southern Africans are not unfamiliar with German. After all, there are many Germans living in southern Africa.

After the war broke out, the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa conducted some simple German training for officers and soldiers. These two sentences are the key points, and every southern African soldier knows them.

And he's very skilled.

Fred, the pilot of transport plane No. 11305, was so surprised that he didn't react for a moment and his head was in a daze.

The deputy next to him reacted quickly, but as soon as his hand touched the holster, he was shot down by a sergeant with sharp eyes and quick hands.

Boom!

In the early morning, when the fog had not yet dispersed, the sound of gunshots was particularly clear.

Fred felt as if someone had poured a bowl of hot water on his head, and the entire cabin was blood red.

Fred knew what was splashed on his face, and he didn't even have the courage to look at the deputy's miserable condition.

When the German troops at Heraklion Airport surrendered to the Southern African Army, the defenders at Marama Airport were engaged in a bitter battle.

The German airborne landing at Heraklion Airport had completely failed, the airborne landing at Rethymnon Airport had been a complete victory, and only Marama Airport was still undecided.

Responsible for guarding Marama Airport is the Australian 3rd Division.

This is a unit with outstanding merits. In the first stage of the North African campaign, it captured Italian soldiers three times its own strength. In the final stage of the Greek campaign, it took on the important task of covering the retreat of the main force of the British army, although it suffered heavy losses.

, still completed the task well.

It can be said that the Australian 3rd Division has been fighting without a day's rest since arriving in Europe.

After months of continuous fighting, the strength of the Australian 3rd Division was severely weakened. When the European War broke out, more than half of the officers and soldiers who arrived with the 3rd Division to fight in Europe had been killed or injured.

Before the Battle of Crete broke out, the Australian Third Division added a regiment of New Zealand troops, bringing the total strength to 12,000.

When the Battle of Crete broke out, Marama Airport, which could take off and land fighter jets, became the second most important target of the German army. Nearly 1,800 German paratroopers parachuted into Marama Airport.

The Australian Third Division is still very effective and withstood the crazy attacks of German paratroopers. Now that Marama Airport is under the control of the Australian Third Division.

On the night of the 22nd, the German command dispatched the Fifth Mountain Division to reinforce Crete.

Heraklion Airport is located in eastern Crete.

Marama Airport is located in western Crete.

Crete is about 260 kilometers long from east to west, with Rethymnon between the two airports. The Mediterranean Fleet and the Cyprus Squadron sent destroyer fleets respectively to organize German sailing ships to forcefully cross the strait, but the results were obviously different.

The Mediterranean Fleet sent a small number of destroyers and no air support.

The Cyprus Squadron dispatched many warships, not to mention light cruisers, and there was also the cooperation of the Southern African Air Force in the sky. The effect was very significant. Throughout the night of the 22nd, not a single German sailing ship successfully arrived at Crete.

The Mediterranean Fleet lacked the help of the air force and suffered frantic sniper attacks from German aircraft.

In fact, on the evening of the 22nd, the destroyer HMS Bloodhound aboard Lord Louis Mountbatten was attacked by six German bombers at the same time and was tragically sunk.

Lord Louis Mountbatten was lucky enough to be picked up by other warships. Other soldiers were not so lucky. About 80 soldiers were buried at the bottom of the sea with the "Hound Dog".

At night, the destroyer "Valiant" was damaged first and lost part of its power, but it could still continue to fight.

By 11 o'clock in the evening, the destroyer "Kelly" was attacked in turn by 12 German bombers. When it sank, there were still 350 British soldiers on board who needed to be evacuated to Alexandria.

While blocking German reinforcements, the First Destroyer Squadron also had to undertake the task of evacuating British troops to Egypt.

The British army did not notify the southern African army of this situation.

This is also a British tradition.

No matter which country they cooperate with in fighting, the British will not go all out and must keep a secret secret.

Formerly French.

Now it's southern Africa's turn.

However, the British were not very lucky. Germany's air superiority was obviously stronger than the British imagined. This became more obvious in the next few days.

When the "Kelly" sank, the British destroyer's fuel and ammunition had been basically exhausted.

At this time, another fleet arrived in time.

This fleet is more powerful. The fleet commander is Rear Admiral Jin. The fleet includes two cruisers and four destroyers.

Taking advantage of the gap between the handover of the two fleets, about 3,000 soldiers of the German 5th Mountain Division successfully landed on the island, which brought huge help to the umbrella surrounding Marama Airport, which was in trouble.

The pressure on the Australian Third Division suddenly doubled.

When the Luftwaffe attacked the British fleet, it did not ignore the attack on Marama Airport. The Australian 3rd Division had been frantically attacked by the Luftwaffe since the war began, and also suffered heavy casualties.

The German 5th Mountain Division participated in the attack on Marama Airport in the early morning of the 23rd.

It has to be said that the mountain division plays a more powerful role than the paratroopers in mountain combat environments.

During the fierce battle on the 22nd, the paratroopers did not attack Marama Airport at all.

In the early morning of the 23rd, the Fifth Mountain Division successfully entered Marama Airport in the first attack, and the field battle finally evolved into a street battle.

Street fighting is what paratroopers are good at.

At this critical moment, the commander of the Australian 3rd Division did not insist on continuing to hold on, but ordered the troops to retreat to the coast and tried to evacuate Crete through the fleet.

So the problem arises.

The fleet led by Rear Admiral Jin only has two cruisers and four destroyers in total. Even if the bottom cabin is full of people, how many people can be crammed into it?

What's more, the British troops waiting to evacuate were not only the Australian Third Division, but also the Australian Fifth Division and New Zealand troops.

As for the Greek troops at Rethymnon.

Sorry, no Greek can board a British ship until all British troops leave Crete.

The coast near Marama Airport is a cliff nearly 400 meters high. There is only a narrow path under the cliff leading to the sea. The hydrological conditions on the shore are not good. Warships cannot dock directly and can only rely on lifeboats to transfer British troops to the beach.

On the warship.

The lifeboats of the British army are not equipped with power and have to be rowed by hand. The efficiency can be imagined.

There were German bombers in the sky, and the British warships waiting for the British infantry were like living targets for the Luftwaffe.

Starting from the morning of the 23rd, it was a busy day, and the British army only evacuated 1,500 people.

The price the British army paid for this was the sinking of the cruiser "Water Goddess", the destroyer "Kandahar", and the destroyer "Nubia".

When the "Water Lady" was sunk, there were 780 British troops on board.

Fortunately, the destroyer "Kipling" was nearby and rescued 523 of the 780 people.

As a result, the "Kipling" was in trouble. On the way back to Alexandria, it ran out of fuel and floated on the sea near Alexandria.

When discovered by other British warships, the deck of the "Kipling" was full of people from beginning to end.

It is said that the British should also be very experienced in this area.

After all, they already had experience organizing the Dunkirk evacuation.

What is frustrating is that after the first batch of British troops withdrew to Egypt, no one from top to bottom knew exactly how many British troops were waiting to evacuate on Crete.

This is also normal. The British are very good at playing the navy, but the army is really not good at it.

The British Army's communications equipment was also not very good.

After the battle, no one could tell exactly how many casualties there were. The British command estimated that there were nearly 10,000 British troops stranded on Crete.

The actual number of people is more than 15,000.

Regardless of the headaches the British have, they must take these 15,000 people away from Crete.

After the German surrender in Heraklion, in order to treat wounded German soldiers, the Cyprus Squadron sent the hospital ship "Angel" to Crete to participate in the treatment of wounded German soldiers.

Although the "Angel" is a hospital ship and the huge red cross logo on the side is extremely conspicuous, in order to ensure safety, the Cyprus Squadron still sent destroyers to escort the "Angel".

According to "International Law", hospital ships must be protected during war, and both combatants are not allowed to attack hospital ships.

This clause became ineffective after the war broke out. Strictly speaking, medical soldiers on the battlefield were also protected by "International Law," but neither warring party cared about this.

During a real battle, medical soldiers are the key targets of attack by both warring parties.

We cannot place our hopes on the discipline of the Germans.

Speaking of which, the Germans' discipline is as much a joke as the Germans' spirit of contract.

(End of chapter)

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