The decisive battle against the Third Reich

To the surprise of the German soldiers, the Italian "Lightning Division" performed quite well.

Parachuting near the Iraqi airport was the first parachute regiment of the "Lightning Division"... At this time, the "Lightning Division" was a two-regiment system like the Italian Infantry Division, that is, two parachute regiments in the entire division plus one Parachute Artillery Regiment. (Note: Incorporated into the 3rd Parachute Infantry Regiment in July 1942)

The three battalions of the First Parachute Regiment, with a radius of ten kilometers from the center of the Iraqi airport, scattered parachutes to the surrounding areas to guard traffic arteries, such as bridges, roads, railways, etc.

This approach is undoubtedly correct. The advantage of paratroopers is that they can land at any point. The disadvantage is that they lack mobility and heavy equipment.

This is destined that paratroopers in this era must try to avoid being too concentrated to fight hard battles with the enemy... Another meaning of being concentrated and fighting head-on is that they will be suppressed by the enemy's heavy equipment every minute and suffer heavy casualties.

On the contrary, if they are broken into pieces and dispersed to all corners, with one platoon and one company on this highland guarding the road along the way, the enemy will have to clear one highland after another before they can advance.

On the other hand, the airborne division can also make sneak attacks everywhere, making the enemy's regular army unable to grasp the key points and exhausted.

So the moment the Italian "Lightning Division" landed on the ground, the external reinforcements at the Iraqi airport were blocked or partially blocked.

In fact, all of this should have been implemented at the moment the battle started, that is, the movements of the Italian "Lightning Division" were to be carried out at the same time as the parachute drop of the German 1st Infantry Battalion, so that the British traffic and reinforcements would be carried out during the first battle. In a moment it would be paralyzed and the Iraqi airport would be under siege.

Unfortunately, there were not enough Italian Caproni transport aircraft, especially since each transport aircraft could only carry 18 paratroopers... This forced the actions that should have been synchronized to be carried out in two batches.

However, this does not have much impact on the entire plan, because the German and Italian forces have basically achieved their strategic goals so far...The blockade of the Crete airport prevented the British air power from attacking the German and Italian landing forces and subsequent follow-up The airborne troops constitute an effective strike, and then the reinforcements can be put into the battlefield in batches.

Amidst a burst of gunfire, several more British fighter planes tried to forcefully land at the airport... This is an old routine of the British army. Whenever they want the plane to land safely, they will bombard the high ground with artillery fire.

But this was of no use, because the British army could not see the German troops hiding on the high ground, but the German army, which was condescending, knew the situation at the airport clearly. The German army even only needed to arrange a few artillery observers in front, and then report the coordinates That's about it for the mortar gunners in the rear... The actual blockade is even simpler than this, because there are only five runways at the Iraqi airport. The mortars only need to lock on these runways, and the British fighter planes will not be able to escape. The palm of the German army's hand.

"Yo ho!" Werner couldn't help cheering as he looked at the three fighter planes that were blown up again.

"I never thought being a paratrooper would be so enjoyable!" Werner said: "Not only do we have planes as transportation, we can also kill enemy planes one by one!"

"Enjoyable?!" the baker objected: "Are you talking about when we were hung on parachutes and used as targets by the enemy, or when we were surrounded by the enemy here and were bombarded with artillery rounds?"

"Both!" Werner replied: "Don't you think it's exciting?"

"You madman!" Yacop replied loudly while lowering his body to avoid the sand kicked up by the shells: "We don't feel excited at all, we just want to save our lives!"

"Hey, brothers!" Werner said optimistically: "It is the British who need to save their lives more now!"

Werner was right, because the Iraqi airport was blocked by German artillery fire, which had put the British army into a dead end... Fighters did not dare to reinforce Crete because there was no airport to land, which caused the British army to completely lose With air superiority, German and Italian airborne troops, supplies and even landing troops can land on Crete one after another. Over time, the balance of forces on Crete will be reversed...Germany and Italy The troops used by the army to attack Crete totaled five divisions and an infantry regiment, with a total strength of more than 60,000 people. This was not comparable to the 40,000 troops of the British and Greek coalition forces.

Therefore, Montgomery issued an order to Colonel Smith to attack Hill 3 almost every few minutes.

But Smith was helpless.

"We can't attack Hill 3 with all our strength, General!" Colonel Smith replied: "The Italians are airborne in large numbers around the airport. We don't know how many troops they have... but they are attacking us. Once we move our troops to Hill 3 No. 1, they will break through our defenses and occupy the airport!"

What Colonel Smith said was not entirely a lie, because the airborne Italian "Lightning Division" did launch an attack towards the airport, and attacked from three other directions except the south of the 1st Infantry Regiment.

But it was just a feint attack by one company, in order to share the pressure of the German 1st Infantry Regiment.

But Montgomery didn't care about that. He yelled into the microphone: "I don't care what your reasons are, you must take Hill 3, otherwise everything will be over, do you understand?"

"Yes, General!" Colonel Smith replied.

But having said that, Colonel Smith was in a dilemma after putting down the phone.

Colonel Smith knew that Montgomery was right. Highland 3 was the key. If it was not taken, Crete would soon fall.

The problem is that Colonel Smith has lost confidence in the German army... He was easily repelled by the German army even though they had such a huge advantage. Now the German army still has the advantage on the high ground, especially since they still have some weapons in their hands. A sharp weapon against tanks, so Smith really didn't know how to fight this battle. What he was thinking about was that no matter how many British troops rushed forward, they would only consume German ammunition.

If consuming German ammunition was useful, Colonel Smith might really let the soldiers go at all costs. However, German transport planes recently dropped a large amount of ammunition to Highland No. 3.

"Colonel!" the staff officer suggested, "Maybe we can let the militiamen seize Highland 3!"

"What good can the militia do?" Colonel Smith replied impatiently: "Some of them don't even have rifles!"

"But they are familiar with the terrain, aren't they?" the staff officer said, pointing to the map: "We can let them attack Highland 3 from the mountains at the rear, so that at least we will not have a blind spot against the German attack!"

Smith thought it was right, and now he had no other choice but to treat the dead horse as a live doctor.