By the time Istanbul received the telegram that Italy had landed on Crete, it was actually already too late.
With the assistance of the Italian Navy, the 1st Marine Division and the Praetorian Guards landed on the island yesterday from Chania, Heraklion and Siddia respectively.
The Italian soldiers who have landed at three places are still fighting with the defenders. The fighting between the two armies has caused a large number of local people to flee their hometowns, but this does not affect the determination of the two armies to fight.
"Pull quickly, hurry up!"
Cosentz, who was sitting in a small boat, was ordering the soldiers to row hard. They were almost approaching the beach. And around their boat were officers and soldiers from his battalion. They were rowing hard like the boat Cosentz was riding.
of rowing.
Yes, this is the ship currently used by the Italian 1st Marine Division to land. Various human-rowed wooden boats are the vehicles they ride on. This kind of wooden boat can transport 20-30 fully armed soldiers and their equipment at a time. Although it is used
The manpower is a bit slow, but currently marines from various countries are landing in this way, so everyone has no choice.
In front of them, many officers and soldiers had landed on the beach. Under the leadership of commanders at all levels, those officers and soldiers quickly left the beach with weapons in hand. They were the second battalion of friendly forces.
Behind them, a large number of transport ships were hung with landing ropes, and densely packed officers and soldiers were climbing off the ships and boarding the waiting boats.
As for the places further away, there were warships patrolling. Among them, tall battleships were firing close to the port. Their deafening cannons could be heard even from such a distance.
But this has nothing to do with Cosentz. He just wants to get ashore quickly, because the period before setting foot on land is the most dangerous moment for himself and the soldiers. Although this area has long been occupied and cleared, this
He just doesn't like this state of affairs. Janine Blois
I heard that the regiment that landed yesterday fought here for a long time with the defending Ottoman troops and suffered a lot of casualties, but there are no traces of the battle now.
Without letting Cosentz think about it, the soldiers who were rowing hard had already rowed the boat to the beach. Cosentz jumped out of the boat in one step, stretched out his hand to pull the cable, and stopped the boat with the soldiers. When the officers, soldiers and equipment were all off,
After getting on the ship, they worked together to push the ship back. Those crew members on the ship who were members of the navy? Will continue to pick up the next ship.
Are there any other ships docking that have the same actions as Cosentz? After unloading soldiers and equipment, they are eager to return to the transport ship to pick up the next batch of officers and soldiers.
Sure, this seems fast? But the round trip basically takes an hour? This is all because the speed of human-powered paddling is too slow.
Of course, this doesn't matter what Cosentz has to do, he still has important things to do.
After the first battalion was reorganized, Cosentz immediately led them towards Heraklion, because they needed to help the friendly forces capture the largest port city in Crete.
In the city? A tough battle is raging.
"Is there an enemy approaching? Fire."
An Ottoman officer was in a building. After discovering that intentional officers and soldiers were approaching, he immediately shouted loudly. Under his order, the Ottoman officers and soldiers used their rifles from windows, behind doors, etc. to point at the incoming attackers.
The Italian troops kept firing.
Fierce hail of bullets? The defeated soldiers and officers could only seek shelters to hide, and were so crushed that they could not even lift their heads.
Captain Hall, who was observing the battle from the sidelines, saw this scene and knew that the attack had failed again, so he threw the military hat on his head to the ground angrily.
"Company commander, company commander!"
But at this time, someone suddenly called him, and Hall, who was upset by the failure of the attack, raised his head after hearing the voice calling him. Was this the messenger in the camp calling him? And when he
Behind him were two men dressed as ordinary people.
"What's up?"
When the battalion commander called him, he asked impatiently.
"Captain Hall? These are the locals the battalion commander asked me to send. They are very familiar with this area? The battalion commander said? If there are any difficulties that cannot be entered? You can seek help from the locals."
Scenes like this are not unfamiliar on the island of Crete. This is the result of many years of Italian work. In order to achieve their goals, local prominent figures have given directions to the Italian army and informed the deployment of the Ottoman army.
The people boldly took up arms and attacked the Ottoman defenders directly. Therefore, Crete and Italy were the home games.
While the messenger was talking, the two locals kept nodding and bowing to Hall.
Seeing their performance, Hall looked puzzled.
"But none of us understand Greek!"
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, one of them said, "We know some Latin, which we learned when doing business with businessmen from your country."
The man's words made Hall's eyes widen. He gave him a pillow just because he wanted to doze off. Then he took the other person to the corner and pointed to a tall independent building at the intersection outside.
"Have you seen that building? Is there any way to get around to the back?"
The man saw the building he was pointing at and said, "Oh, that's Mr. Cáceres's construction company you're talking about. It might be a bit far to go around because it needs to go through two blocks.
"
As soon as he heard what the other party said, Hall knew that there was a way out. The other party was indeed a local snake, and he could immediately tell a close match.
And when he was about to let the other person lead the way, another man gave him another surprise.
"I know a route that doesn't require walking so far."
As soon as he heard what the other party said, Hall immediately wanted to ask how to get there. Unexpectedly, the man who showed the way just now immediately counterattacked the other party. "What do you know? You smuggling gophers are not doing business."
"Don't think that you are clean. Even the poor know that you like to be short on weight."
Being told about his bad qualities, the profiteer named Blois immediately said something like a machine gun in Greek. Judging from the red face of the smuggler opposite, it must not be a good thing. Of course, this person
He was not a vegetarian either. He immediately burst out with amazing fighting power at the same speaking speed.
So a smuggler and a profiteer had a machine-gun quarrel, leaving Hall and his soldiers stunned.
Seeing that the two people were getting more and more noisy, Hall, who felt his head was swollen by the noise, immediately took out his pistol and stood between the two people. "Okay, stop it."
Perhaps it was Hall's identity or the gun in his hand that finally calmed down the quarrel between the two.
After Hall waited for the two to calm down, he pointed at the smuggler and said, "You just said you knew a shorter route, now you can say it."
"Yes, sir. Because of my usual business, I know some unobtrusive small passages..."
In the smuggler's story, he finally knew what this road was. It was a sewer, but it could go straight to the building that gave him a headache.
"Then you lead the way for us and leave now."
Hall pointed at the smuggler and spoke out his choice.
"As ordered, please follow me, sir."
Situations like Hall's can be seen everywhere on the island. In order to give Crete a chance to become independent, the locals have put in a lot of effort, and leading the way is just child's play.
