German paratroopers and airborne troops are different.
Paratroopers are still light infantry in terms of arms. They land by parachuting or riding gliders, seize important facilities such as bridges or airports, and open channels for the arrival of follow-up troops.
Due to technical limitations, paratroopers cannot carry heavy weapons, so they lack the ability to attack difficult situations and sustain combat capabilities.
After the paratroopers complete control of the airport, airborne troops equipped with heavy weapons will arrive one after another on transport planes.
As early as the 1939 Polish campaign, the German army began to dispatch paratroopers to launch raids on airports in Poland.
During the Battle of Norway, the German paratroopers were dispatched again, but this time they suffered an unprecedented failure. After the start of "Operation Sickle", the German paratroopers were able to regroup.
During the Battle of the Netherlands, the German 7th Airborne Division dispatched nearly 2,000 paratroopers to launch a surprise attack on the Netherlands. Due to the high efficiency of the paratroopers, it even caused some trouble for the advancement of the German ground forces.
The continuous victories earned the German paratroopers the nickname "Green Devil".
Mustache was convinced of the combat effectiveness of the German paratroopers, and the attack on Crete was still dominated by the German 7th Airborne Division.
This should be the largest airborne operation since the outbreak of World War II. The total number of paratroopers and airborne troops dispatched by Germany totaled approximately 22,000.
Compared with the Dutch campaign, the scale of German troops dispatched increased tenfold, which cannot be said to be ignored.
The key to the problem is that there are nearly 80,000 Allied troops defending Crete. The Southern African troops alone have 3 divisions with a total strength of nearly 50,000. They also possess a large amount of heavy equipment. The "Green Devil" is about to face a huge enemy.
test.
As Anthony Jones expected in advance, the 7th Airborne Division's main target was the airport.
Heraklion, which the 35th Division was responsible for defending, became the key target of the 7th Airborne Division's attack.
In Heraklion, the Victoria Hubei County Infantry Regiment was responsible for defending the airport. The soldiers of this regiment mainly came from the north of Lake Victoria, and were all composed of whites and Chinese.
"If we are not allowed to resist, will our first war end in defeat?" The regiment leader Chen Ye was in a bad mood. He understood the command's intention, but was unwilling to accept it.
The North County Infantry Regiment has a total strength of 1,500 and is fully equipped. All soldiers are equipped with Nyasaland rifles. In addition to artillery, the heavy weapons also have an anti-aircraft battalion. The high-level dual-purpose machine guns are enough to cause fatal damage to German transport vehicles with weak defenses.
threaten.
The equipment of the German paratroopers is indeed better than that of the German infantry units, but not as good as that of the southern African infantry units.
The MP38 has good performance, but due to its high cost, it is not equipped on a large scale. The MP40, which was produced last year, is cheaper, but due to limited production, not many paratroopers are equipped with it.
The MG34 and MG42 are excellent automatic weapons, but they were not developed for paratroopers. The FG42 developed specifically for paratroopers has not yet appeared.
In another time and space, it was after the Battle of Crete that Germany began to realize that existing weapons were not suitable for paratroopers, so it developed the FG42 paratrooper-type machine gun.
"It's not that we are not allowed to resist. We must at least mean it before we abandon the airport." Kelly Nickel, deputy leader of the group, has a headache. How to "mean it" just right is the biggest problem.
In order to allow more German troops to land at Heraklion Airport, the airport must be completely abandoned.
The combat effectiveness of the Southern African troops has long been known. If they just give up without resisting at all, the Germans will realize that this is a trap.
It doesn't work if you resist too fiercely.
With the combat effectiveness of the Beijun Infantry Regiment, if it went all out, the German 7th Airborne Division would probably not be able to defeat it.
The 7th Airborne Division did not leave much time for Chen Ye and Kelly to discuss. At 12 noon on the 22nd, the first batch of German transport planes arrived above the Heraklion Airport, and German paratroopers arrived as scheduled.
The air defense force at the airport still caused some trouble for German transport planes.
However, their overall shooting skills were poor. Most of the German paratroopers successfully parachuted out, and only two German transport planes were shot down.
The scene of thousands of paratroopers parachuting at the same time is quite spectacular.
It had been raining for the past few days. The sky was as blue and clear as if it had been washed by water. The white umbrella flowers slowly fell against the background of white clouds. Even the paratroopers in green and gray uniforms became romantic.
Of course, for the soldiers of the ground air defense force, they really tried their best to restrain the desire to shoot at the paratroopers.
Before the paratroopers even landed, the ground air defense troops had already dispersed.
When they "dispersed", of course they did not forget to blow up the dual-purpose machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to prevent the German paratroopers who lacked heavy weapons from taking advantage of them.
The defenseless paratroopers in the sky were very happy.
Is this the legendary invincible southern African army?
Doesn’t it look as magical as the legend says?
It's normal. After all, Southern Africa is too rich. The second generation of officials or farmers have lived in a greenhouse since childhood. How can they be compared with the new generation of young people in Germany who have thrived in the wind and rain since childhood?
These southern Africans were really wasteful. Some anti-aircraft guns were blown up without even emptying a magazine. There were mountains of ammunition on the position. Unfortunately, the calibers were different and the German paratroopers could not use them.
Other supplies were also piled up. There were all kinds of aircraft parts in the warehouse, and there were even several "Cheetahs" that looked complete, which made the paratroopers feel like a treasure.
Since southern Africa entered the war, Germany's BF109 has suffered too much from the "Cheetah" in southern Africa.
So far, nearly half of the Luftwaffe's losses have been caused by the "Cheetah".
Think about how long it took southern Africa to enter the war.
You know how deeply the Germans resent the "Cheetah".
The Germans have always dreamed of obtaining a complete "Cheetah", but unfortunately they have never been able to do so.
Immediately, paratroopers entered the "Cheetah" cabin to inspect.
However, I was surprised to find that these "Cheetahs" were just empty shells, without even ejection seats. They were purely cosmetic.
The aircraft parts in the warehouse are not from the Cheetah, but from the British Spitfire fighter jets.
This is amazing. The British did not deploy Spitfires on Crete at all.
However, in the tense environment, although it was unexpected, no one thought whether it was a trap, because after the paratroopers took control of the airport, more transport planes followed, and the airborne troops carrying heavy weapons arrived, which finally relieved the situation.
The pressure on the paratroopers.
It's not like the airport security forces did nothing during this period.
After the airport was captured by paratroopers, the airport guard immediately organized a counterattack in an attempt to recapture the airport.
By the standards of German paratroopers, the counterattack by the airport guards was extremely unprofessional.
The training of German paratroopers is very strict. In addition to extremely rigorous physical training, paratroopers also need to receive other training related to combat. In addition to learning how to use G98 rifles and Ka carbines proficiently, they also need to learn pistols.
, submachine guns, mortars, and how to use landmines require so many training items that many paratroopers don't even bother to drink water.
Strict training, of course, has excellent results.
The personal technical and tactical abilities of the vast majority of German paratroopers have reached a very high level, much higher than that of ordinary German infantry units. They can be called the pinnacle of European infantry in this era.
Since you are at the top, your vision will naturally be much higher.
The counterattack of the airport guard force was indeed unprofessional. They clearly had armored vehicles, but they did not use them at all during the counterattack. The tactics of the counterattack force were even the "line up and shoot" tactics used when the last world war broke out, and they were composed of ordinary infantry.
The skirmisher line was still crooked, and some soldiers even threw away their rifles and ran away while advancing.
The soldiers who turned around and ran away were immediately shot by the officers in the queue to enforce battlefield discipline.
The effect of killing chickens and scaring monkeys was very good. Although other soldiers were trembling with fear, they still managed to move forward with rifles with bayonets attached, but the speed was obviously much slower.
At this time, the German paratroopers who had just landed had not even assembled, let alone built defensive positions, and the unit structure had not been restored. Hundreds of German paratroopers barely formed a line of defense under the command of Captain Mark.
Let alone tanks at this time, if armored vehicles participate in the attack, it will be a disaster for the paratroopers who lack the ability to counterattack.
What Captain Mark didn't expect was that when the MG42 machine gun nicknamed the "Tearer" started roaring, the attacking airport defense force quickly collapsed. Almost all the soldiers turned around and ran away. Many soldiers threw away their rifles in order to run faster.
Throw them all away.
officer?
Officers run earlier and faster than soldiers
"We are lucky. It seems that the people guarding the airport are Indians." Captain Mark is still very sensible. If it were the Southern African National Defense Force, then even if the performance was poor, it would not be this bad.
"God bless, I hope our luck will continue to be good." Colonel Hans von Miller, who airborne with the 7th Airborne Division, was very satisfied with the performance of the paratroopers.
At least I'm satisfied so far.
Soon a transport plane carrying airborne troops landed at the airport. The arrival of heavy weapons gave the airport initial defensive capabilities, and Colonel Miller felt at ease.
But more severe tests also followed.
The reaction speed of the Crete defense forces was still very fast. Two hours later, a troop wearing iron gray military uniforms arrived near the airport, which is the signature color of the Southern African Defense Forces.
In fact, you don't need to look at the color of the military uniforms to clearly determine the affiliation of this army. After all, only the Southern African army among the Allied forces is equipped with "Leopard" tanks with a combat weight of up to 41 tons.
This also makes the "Leopard" tank truly enter the ranks of heavy tanks according to current European standards.
Compared with the chaotic Indian army, the southern African army is very professional.
Before the offensive began, the southern African army followed custom and carried out a fire attack on the airport.
As mentioned many times before, the Southern African army is equipped with too many artillery. Not to mention small-caliber mortars, large-caliber artillery with a caliber of 120 mm and above is the most powerful weapon against infantry.
The German paratroopers had just landed and had no time to build defensive positions. Such a short time was only enough to dig a foxhole, not even a communication trench.
Large-caliber artillery does not rely on shrapnel to cause damage, but relies on impact to break.
If a 120mm caliber artillery shell falls, if there is no barrier, everyone in an area about half the size of a football field will be killed or injured.
The artillerymen in Southern Africa are obviously very familiar with the airport. I don't know how many firing cards have been produced. The impact point of the artillery shells is extremely accurate. Dozens of large-caliber artillery fire at the same time, and the entire airport can be scanned in two or three rounds.
Casualties among the paratroopers defending the perimeter of the airport runway soared rapidly.
"Attack, attack, we need to attack, otherwise sooner or later we will be bombed to death by the damn Southern Africans on the runway of the airport." Colonel Miller has completely lost his relaxed and happy mood now. Damn the wealthy Southern Africans, if
If the German paratroopers do not leave their foxholes and take the initiative to attack the waiting Southern African troops, then the Southern Africans will really use artillery shells to kill all the German paratroopers and airborne troops.
As for artillery shells, there are plenty of them in southern Africa.
If you can exchange artillery shells for Germany's well-trained elite paratroopers, then it is very cost-effective to exchange one for each.
But the current situation is nothing like exchanging one for another.
Just now, under Colonel Miller's nose, a group of German airborne troops who had just gotten off a transport plane were directly hit by a large-caliber artillery shell.
About a platoon of airborne troops were all killed in the huge explosion. The soldiers at the center of the explosion were directly torn to pieces, leaving no bones. About ten seconds later, blood began to rain from the sky, as well as various broken limbs and limbs.
When Colonel Miller looked up, the sky turned red.
"Where is our artillery? Where is our artillery?" Captain Mark's voice was filled with tears. His men suffered heavy losses. It is estimated that a company of troops cannot even gather a platoon.
Paratroopers don't have artillery, but airborne troops do.
"Doesn't it take time for the artillery to deploy? The southern Africans will not give us time to successfully set up the artillery positions." Colonel Miller was worried. In just a short while, it was estimated that thousands of German paratroopers had been killed or injured.
Since Germany began to form paratrooper units in 1936, this should be the day with the heaviest losses for German paratroopers.
Germany only began to form paratroopers after being inspired by Russia.
From 1931 to 1935, Goering watched the performances of the Russian airborne troops several times, thus strengthening his determination to develop the German airborne troops.
By 1941, Göring spent all his efforts to establish the current German airborne force.
After today, it is not known how many German airborne troops will be left who have undergone rigorous training for several years.
Maybe
Colonel Miller did not dare to think further.
Just when Colonel Miller and Captain Mark organized the attack.
About a kilometer away, southern African soldiers relied on tanks and armored vehicles to build a solid line of defense, waiting for the German paratroopers to come and die.
This line of defense must have been built too quickly.
