Five Hundred and Twenty-Three Malta

Dense strategic bombers suddenly appeared over the Mediterranean, which was obviously a disaster for the British defenders in the Mediterranean. The struggle for the British mainland has come to an end, and the German army's large bomber fleet has no clear strategic goals. Therefore, ensuring the absolute safety of the supply lines of the North African army has become a matter for the Luftwaffe to consider.

A large number of medium bombers appeared over the Mediterranean Sea, and 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 the UK can threaten Italy's North African routes. The German and Italian air forces bombarded the place day and night to ensure that there was no large-scale British air power here.

Although the scale of the bombing was not small, the German landing expected by the British defenders did not arrive. Seeing that the situation on the North African battlefield took a turn for the worse, Malta's strategic use became smaller and smaller.

The British government has not heard about the German airborne troops for a long time. Many departments speculate that the German airborne troops suffered huge losses in the airborne operations in the UK, and the head of state has personally ordered them to use them cautiously.

However, today, at this moment, with the roar of the engine of the ju-5 transport plane, Boroll opened the door of the plane familiarly, stared at his subordinates and ordered loudly: "Jump!"

Paratroopers jumped off the plane one after another, their parachutes lined up in a straight line in the sky, and in the distance from them, many straight lines were scattered on the sky, which looked really beautiful.

Accompanied by the whistling wind, Boroll's feet felt a huge impact. He was familiar with this state, which proved that he touched the ground again alive. He quickly unfastened his parachute safety buckle, and then climbed out of the parachute that covered his head like a tent.

Sparse gunshots came from all around, and Boroll squatted on the edge of a bush with his assault rifle, waiting for his troops to gather. Soon, more than 70 paratroopers had gathered around him. An airborne mission is not as difficult as imagined, and the enemy's counter firepower is not strong, so they can calmly gather their troops in the wilderness, and then move towards the target that is close at hand.

A glider landed on the ground not far away. At first glance, this glider is not an ordinary glider for paratroopers, but another new type of aircraft with a larger payload.

Boroll saw that the glider was a little unstable when it landed, so he hurriedly took his men to help. They established a temporary defensive position nearby and deployed covering fire before helping to unload the cargo from the huge glider.

The glider pilot is helping an Army soldier on the co-pilot jump out of the tall cockpit. When they saw Boroll and the others who came to help, they were obviously relieved and expressed their gratitude to Boroll and the others.

"Thank you for coming to help! To be honest, if you only rely on a few of us,

It's going to take a lot of effort to get this huge thing off. "The soldier on the co-pilot pointed to the cargo compartment of the glider and said to Boroll.

Boroll frowned, looking a little shocked at the huge glider. From a distance, it doesn't seem to be so huge, but a closer inspection reveals that this glider is larger than the ju-52 transport plane.

"What is so big?" He pointed to the transport glider and asked the pilot behind him. The pilot patted the body of the transport plane triumphantly, and replied proudly, "It's a tank inside!"

Yes, tanks! Under Boroll's surprised eyes, the German soldiers opened the rear hatch of the glider with difficulty, and saw a tank fixed to the frame of the aircraft by steel wire ropes - the new weapon of the German paratroopers, "Partrooper Chariot No. 1".

This tank was designed after simplifying the armor and canceling the turret on the chassis of the No. 1 tank. Although the frontal armor of this tank can only block the 7.92 mm caliber machine gun bullets fired at long distances, it does give German paratroopers offered a self-propelled weapons support system.

Although the 75mm short-barreled artillery above is a bit difficult to deal with armored targets, it can complete combat tasks such as fire support and cover infantry, and can also be used as an anti-tank weapon at a critical moment-this multi-purpose tank is in the exercise It has indeed proved its own actual combat value.

The only disadvantage is that there are only 3 soldiers on this tank, and the radio operation has to be done by the loader, while the commander takes care of the artillery control-this problem has obviously been proved to be very deadly, at least in the battle of regular armored forces. Timing directly affects the firing rate and command tone.

But at least it solved the problem of whether or not it was a qualitative leap for the German paratroopers. It also makes this German paratrooper more and more like a regular infantry team, rather than the airdropped light infantry in the traditional sense.

In the excited eyes of the soldiers, the tank drove out of the cabin. There were two soldiers on the tank. The soldier who was the co-pilot was obviously the commander of the tank. After nodding his thanks to Boroll, he jumped on the He raised his own weapon and began a coordinated operation with Boroll's infantry.

Picking up the binoculars, Boroll carefully observed the surrounding situation. His attack target was a marked anti-aircraft artillery position. Because the opponent's defensive firepower is very weak, Boroll's paratrooper company has never assembled so smoothly. The 120 paratroopers found more than 100 people very quickly, and for this offensive target, it belongs to the kind of low threat secondary combat objectives.

Without the slightest hesitation, under the cover of a paratrooper tank, Borroll's company began to attack their target. The opponent had only one squad of guards near the anti-aircraft artillery positions. After the g42 machine gun was suppressed, the opponent immediately became useless.

After the German paratroopers approached the range of the grenade, they quickly captured the machine gun position of the British guard squad—first two grenades, and then a few soldiers rushed up to shoot at the wounded soldiers in the trench, very basic Offensive Tutorial.

Then Boroll took his soldiers into the anti-aircraft gun positions set up by the British army, and found that there were actually only 4 pitiful Bofors 40 anti-aircraft guns inside. He curled his lips and waved for the radio operator.

Grabbing the radio intercom carried by the communicator, Boroll began to call the battalion headquarters not far away: "Battlemaster, I am Boroll of the 1st company. I have captured the previously planned target and killed 12 British soldiers, captured about 50 people... Yes, those are not the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns speculated by the reconnaissance troops, but Bofors 40, yes, they are indeed Bofors 40 anti-aircraft guns."

The defense of the British side can be said to be very weak. There is only one poor British foreign division stationed on the entire island of Malta. They only have a small amount of anti-aircraft guns and machine guns. There are only 4 tanks available on the entire island-and 13,000 troops. Compared with the German paratroopers and 50 No. 1 paratrooper fighting vehicles, these defensive forces are simply negligible.

However, the British defenders still had no intention of surrendering. These British soldiers hid in the towns and resisted tenaciously, but were wiped out one by one by the German army because of the disparity in strength. What is even more distressing is that the Malta airport that had just been repaired was not destroyed by the defenders, and it was almost handed over to the German airborne troops.

The battle lasted from morning to noon. Although the British defenders caused a lot of trouble for the German paratroopers in some areas, the overall German operation on the island of Malta was relatively smooth. They quickly controlled most of the area, compressing the British in a relatively narrow peripheral area.

In the afternoon, the German army captured a port here, and 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. Along with the cargo ship arrived here, there was also General Student, the commander-in-chief of the German paratroopers.

When he learned that most of the area here has been controlled by German paratroopers, he relieved his hanging heart. The defenders here have not been strengthened obviously because of time, and the large-scale loss of the paratroopers that the Führer was worried about did not occur. It is obvious that the German army was ahead of time and completed this important airborne operation.

The airborne Malta is the most important action plan for the German army to support Rommel in North Africa. With this successful raid, the transportation lines between Germany and Italy in North Africa will be safer, and ships departing from many ports no longer need to detour. Arrive in Tunis.

A few hours later, the defenders accepted orders from the British government in the north to lay down their arms and surrender to the Germans. This can also be regarded as a microcosm of the battle of the British troops at that time: when they fought, they often used the orders of the British government in Iceland as a benchmark. If they were lucky enough to win, they would become the heroes of the British people. After they lost, they would obey the orders of the northern British The government, as a matter of course, laid down its arms and accepted the German army's terms of surrender.

Student was still very satisfied with the performance of his airborne troops. These paratroopers once again became the vanguard of the German attack force. They landed on Malta alone and took this important island with relatively little cost.

Moreover, their efforts were not in vain. On the contrary, they had an immediate effect - that month Rommel received the amount of materials that could only be transported in the previous month and fifteen days, which was equivalent to increasing Rommel's supply speed by one-fifth. For this matter, Rommel personally wrote to the airborne commander Student, praising his men as the most heroic fighters, which is also the highest praise given by an armored commander to the paratroopers.