Chapter 523: Malta

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The dense strategic bombers suddenly appeared over the Mediterranean, which was obviously a disaster for the British defenders on the Mediterranean. The contention in the British homeland has come to an end. The large number of German bombers did not have a clear strategic goal. Therefore, ensuring the absolute security of the supply line of the North African army has become a matter for the German Air Force.
A large number of medium-sized bombers appeared over the Mediterranean Sea. Their main bombing area was Malta. This is an important base for the British Air Force in the Mediterranean, and it is also the main base where Britain can threaten the Italian North Africa route. The German and Italian Air Forces bombed here day and night to ensure that large-scale British airpower would not appear here.
Although the scale of the bombing was not small, the German garrison, which the British defenders expected to land, did not arrive. As the situation on the North African battlefield plummeted, Malta ’s strategic use became smaller and smaller.
The British government has not heard of the German airborne troops for a long time. Many departments speculate that the German airborne troops suffered huge losses in the British airborne operations and have been ordered by the head of state to be used with caution.
However, today, at this moment, accompanied by the roar of the engine of the ju-52 transport aircraft, Borol familiarly opened the door of the aircraft and stared at his command with a loud voice: "Jump!"
Paratroopers one after another jumped on the plane. Their parachutes lined up in the sky, and in their distance, many straight lines were scattered on the sky, and they looked beautiful.
Along with the roaring wind, Borol's feet came with a huge impact, and he was familiar with this state, proving that he was touching the ground again alive. He quickly unfastened his parachute safety buckle, and then climbed out of the parachute over his head like a tent.
With sparse gunfire coming from all around, Borol squatted on the edge of a bush with his assault rifle and waited for his troops to gather. Soon he had gathered more than 70 paratroopers around him. An airborne mission is not as difficult as imagined, and the enemy's counterattack firepower is not strong, so they can calmly gather their troops in the wilderness and then move towards the target in close proximity.
A glider landed on the ground not far away. This glider is not an ordinary paratrooper glider, but another new type of aircraft for greater load.
Borol saw that the glider was a bit unstable when he landed, so he quickly took his men to help. They established a temporary defensive position nearby, and after setting up the cover firepower, they began to help unload the cargo from this huge glider.
The pilot of the glider is helping an army soldier on the co-pilot jump out of the tall cockpit. They saw Borol and others who came to help, obviously relieved, and thanked Boror and others.
"Thank you for your help! To be honest, if you only rely on a few of us, it will take a lot of effort to unload this huge guy." The co-pilot soldier pointed to the glider's cargo bay and said to Borol.
Borol frowned, looking at the huge glider a little shocked. From a distance, it seems that it is not yet so huge. Observing from a close distance, this glider is bigger than the ju-52 transport aircraft.
"What's so big?" He pointed to the pilot behind the transport glider. The pilot patted the plane's body proudly and replied proudly: "It's a tank!"
Yes, tank! In Boror's surprised eyes, the German soldiers opened the rear door of the glider with difficulty, and saw a tank fixed by wire ropes on the aircraft skeleton-the new weapon of the German paratroopers, "No. 1 Paratrooper Chariot".
This tank was designed after simplifying the armor on the chassis of the No. 1 tank and canceling the turret. Although the front armor of this tank can only block 7.92 mm caliber machine gun bullets fired from a long distance, it does give The German paratroopers provided a self-support weapon support system.
Although the 75mm short-barreled artillery above has some difficulty in dealing with armored targets, it can complete combat missions such as fire support and cover infantry, and can also be used as an anti-tank weapon at a crisis point-this multi-purpose tank is practicing China has indeed proved its own actual combat value.
The only drawback is that there are only 3 soldiers on this tank. The radio operation is to be handed over to the loader, and the captain also takes care of the artillery control-this problem has obviously proved to be very deadly, at least because of the engagement of regular armored forces. The time directly affected the firing speed and the command and dispatch.
But fortunately, it is a qualitative leap for the German paratroopers to solve the problem. It also makes this German paratrooper more and more like a regular infantry team, rather than the traditional air-dropped light infantry.
In the excited eyes of the soldiers, the tank was out of the cabin. There were originally two soldiers on the tank. The co-pilot was obviously the captain of the tank. He nodded his thanks to Borol and jumped on. With his own weapon, he began to cooperate with Borol ’s infantry.
Picking up the telescope, Borol carefully observed the surroundings. His attack target was a marked anti-aircraft position. Because the opponent ’s defensive firepower is very weak, the Borol ’s paratrooper company has never been assembled so smoothly. 120 paratroopers soon found more than 100 people. For the purpose of this attack, it is a low threat. Second-level combat objectives.
Without the slightest hesitation, under the cover of a paratrooper tank, the Borol company began an attack on their target. The opponent had only one squad of guards near the anti-aircraft position. As a result, the German army was at their machine gun position. After the g42 machine gun was suppressed, the opponent immediately became inactive.
After the German paratroopers approached the grenade range, they quickly captured the machine gun position of the British guard class-first two grenades, and then several soldiers rushed up and shot at the wounded soldiers in the trench, very basic Offensive tutorial.
Then Borol took his soldiers into the anti-aircraft positions deployed by the British army and found that there were actually only four poor Bofors 40 anti-aircraft guns. He pouted his lips and waved to call the radio correspondent.
Grabbing the radio intercom that the correspondent was carrying, Borol started calling the battalion not far away: "Commander, I am a company of Borol, I have captured the previously planned target and killed 12 A British soldier, about 50 captives ... Yes, those large-caliber anti-aircraft guns not speculated by the reconnaissance forces are Bofors 40, yes, they are indeed Bofors 40 anti-aircraft guns. "
The British defense can be said to be very weak. There is only one pitiful British foreign division on the island of Malta. They have only a small number of anti-aircraft guns and machine guns. There are only 4 tanks on the island-and 13,000. Compared with the German paratroopers and 50 No. 1 paratrooper tanks, these defensive forces are negligible.
However, the British defenders still had no plans to surrender. These British soldiers hid tenacious resistance in the towns, but they were annihilated by the Germans one after another because of their great disparity. What is even more distressing is that the Malta airport, which has just been repaired, has not been damaged by the defenders.
The fighting continued from morning to noon. Although the British defenders in some areas caused a lot of trouble to the German paratroopers, the German movement on the island of Malta was generally smooth. They quickly controlled the vast majority of the area and compressed the British into a relatively narrow marginal area.
In the afternoon, the Germans captured a port here. The Italian transport ship arrived an hour later and began to unload cars and a large amount of ammunition. The attack seemed extremely smooth, and the entire operation did not encounter fierce resistance from the guards. As the freighter arrived here, there was General Studen, the commander of the German paratroopers.
When he learned that most of the area had been controlled by German paratroopers, he let go of his suspended heart. Obviously, the defenders here have not been strengthened because of the time, and the large-scale loss of paratroopers worried by the heads of state did not appear. It is obvious that the Germans rushed ahead of time and completed this important airborne operation.
Airborne Malta is the most important action plan for the German army to support Rommel in North Africa. With this successful raid, the transportation routes of Germany and Italy in North Africa will be safer. Ships from many ports can be bypassed Arrive at Tunisi.
A few hours later, the defenders accepted the order of the British government in the north and laid down their weapons to surrender to the Germans. This is also a microcosm of the fighting of the British troops at that time: when they fought, they were often based on the orders of the British government in Iceland. If they were lucky, they would become the heroes of the British people. After losing, they were ordered by the British in the north. The government naturally laid down its arms to accept the German surrender.
Studente was very satisfied with the performance of his airborne troops. These paratroopers once again became the vanguard of the German attack force. They airborne the island of Malta alone, and occupied this important island with less cost.
Moreover, their efforts were not in vain, on the contrary, they were immediate—the month Rommel received the amount of materials that could be transported one month and fifteen days before, which is equivalent to increasing the speed of Rommel supply by one third at once . For this matter, Rommel personally wrote to Airborne Commander Student, praising his men for being the most brave soldiers, which was also the highest praise given to paratroopers by an armored commander.