It is an unspoken rule within the navy that you should be merciless during a battle, but after the battle you still have to help recruit people.
The British naturally had to abide by this rule, but the "King George V" and a group of battleships, aircraft carriers, and cruisers pretended not to see the German sailors struggling in the water, and each sent a destroyer as a routine.
However, the efficiency of the British was really slow. It would take an hour to release a lifeboat. After fishing out a person, they turned around and left immediately, regardless of how many empty seats there were on the ship or how hard the German sailors in the water begged.
The Southern African navy is still conscientious and will at least wait until the lifeboats are filled with people before returning, which is much more efficient than the British.
However, just as the two destroyers were fishing for people, the fleet suddenly sounded the battle alarm, and a southern African destroyer discovered suspected German submarine activities nearby.
Although the submarine was not verified, all southern African warships and British warships evacuated as quickly as possible, which fully shows that German submarines still pose a great threat to Allied warships.
The German sailors in the water were dumbfounded.
It cannot be said that the Allied Forces did not save people, but their efficiency was not very high.
However, this is also the tradition of the British Empire. The efficiency of the Royal Navy is not high, and everyone knows it.
As for the Southern African Navy.
Likewise, only one destroyer was dispatched. The destroyer of the Southern African Navy rescued 98 German sailors who fell into the water, while the British destroyer only rescued 13 people.
This is the difference.
When the news spread back to southern Africa, Roque felt a little regretful for not being able to force the Spaniards to take sides.
Of course, it doesn't matter. Project Barbarossa is about to be launched, and Franco will make a choice sooner or later. Roque has been waiting for decades and doesn't care about these few dozen days.
Rock was not in a hurry, for the Germans in Crete it was just like a year.
On the surface, the German army is getting closer and closer to completing the task of occupying the entire island of Crete.
On June 8, after a week of fierce fighting, the German army finally broke through the 143rd Division position and took a big step towards victory.
However, the battle process made William List quite embarrassed.
In order to break through the defense line of the 143rd Division, William List sent three troops one after another. It was not until the 17th Armored Division participated that he finally succeeded. In the process, the German army lost a total of more than 4,600 people, nearly 70 tanks were destroyed, and the Air Force lost various types of fighter aircraft.
Nearly 200 aircraft.
To this day William Lister still does not know the extent of the losses of the 143rd Division in Southern Africa.
Referring to the experience of the German and Allied forces, William List's staff estimated that the losses of the 143rd Division in Southern Africa were at least 25,000.
This is pure nonsense.
The 143rd Division is a force of the Southern African Union, with a total of 15,000 troops. Where did the 25,000 come from?
If we refer to the extent of position losses, William Lister estimated that the losses of the 143rd Division in Southern Africa would not exceed 1,500 men.
This was also unacceptable to William Lister.
Although under normal circumstances, the losses of the offensive troops will be more than those of the defensive troops, there is no way to explain such a large increase.
After all, the attacking German army had armored units.
The 143rd Division is purely infantry.
Fortunately, after a week of fighting, just when William List began to despair of breaking the 143rd Division's position, the 143rd Division took the initiative to retreat.
It cannot be said to be an active retreat.
William List was still very capable. While sending troops to attack the 143rd Division's positions head-on, William List sent troops to bypass the flanks of the 143rd Division, preparing to completely surround the 143rd Division.
As mentioned many times before, the terrain of Crete is complex. The southern African army implemented a scorched earth policy when retreating, destroying all roads and bridges in the mountainous areas, and the detouring German troops also suffered a lot.
The effect is definitely still there.
Only the Southern African Army was left fighting alone on Crete. All other Allied forces had withdrawn. The commander of the 143rd Division was very smart and took the initiative to retreat when the outflanking troops were about to reach the predetermined position, leaving the position to the Germans.
On the surface, the German army seemed to have won.
But William Lister could not feel the slightest joy of victory.
Before William List could taste the "bitterness" of victory, the German army was sniped by the southern African army on the road ahead.
This time it was the 176th Division from the Kingdom of Congo.
To William List's helplessness, the 176th Division's position was stronger than that of the 143rd Division.
After all, during the week of fierce fighting between the 143rd Division and the Germans, the 176th Division had been repairing its fortifications.
And unlike the 143rd Division, which still had insufficient time to build a complete defense system, the 176th Division's defense system also included the mountainous areas on its flanks. In this special terrain, the German army would have to pay a huge price if it wanted to make a detour.
Armored troops cannot be deployed in mountainous areas.
It is very difficult for an army to defend itself on the plains, and a complete defense system is needed to cause sufficient damage to the attacking army.
In some special locations in the mountainous area, only one machine gun needs to be deployed. It is really impossible for one man to open the barrier. As long as there are enough bullets, it can hit the enemy until the end of the world.
The best way at this time is actually confrontation, which is how the trench warfare of World War I came about.
However, William List did not have much time to spend time with the southern Africans. The Barbarossa Plan was about to be launched, and Mustache's dissatisfaction with William List was accumulating.
Therefore, the Germans could only attack with all their might.
I have to say that it is still difficult to deal with the Germans who are trying their best.
There is a saying that the Germans are indeed the best in Europe in terms of the military's mastery of tactics in this era.
With his previous experience, William Lister went all out in the next battle.
At the beginning of the war with Europe, the German army's combat effectiveness reached a new level. At least in terms of infantry-artillery coordination and infantry-tank coordination, the German army had reached a state of perfection.
To be precise, after the tanks were added, the German army simply stepped on the explosive point to launch an attack on the 176th Division's position. This caused the tunnel dug by the 176th Division to be completely useless. If they continued to wait for the shell impact point to extend to the rear position as before,
, here we are entering the position. I am afraid that the German tracks have already reached the top of the trench before the troops have entered the position.
What can be said, aside from weapons and equipment, the southern African army is not inferior to the Germans in terms of courage.
On the first day of the battle, the German army relied on nearly perfect infantry-artillery coordination and infantry-tank coordination to successfully break into the position of the 199th Regiment of the 176th Division in the first attack.
The Southern African officers who were caught off guard did not flinch. They led their troops in a brutal hand-to-hand battle with the Germans, and finally drove the Germans out of their positions after paying a heavy price. The German losses in this battle were more than a thousand people.
The 199th Regiment also suffered nearly 800 casualties.
A standard kill of 1,000 enemies results in 800 losses to oneself.
The 199th Regiment was crippled on the first day of fighting.
The Southern African army just woke up from a dream. When the German army organized the second attack, it was bombarded by the Southern African Air Force and Southern African artillery.
In terms of artillery, the southern African army has greater strength than the Germans.
Both sides have mortars, but when it comes to large-caliber artillery, the Southern African army has an absolute advantage.
What's more, southern Africa is also equipped with rocket launchers. This weapon, which is not a new weapon, has caused the Germans to suffer a lot.
After the end of the last world war, many new weapons appeared in southern Africa, and rocket launchers were one of them.
Early rocket launchers were not very accurate and powerful, and were not taken seriously by the Southern African military.
After Robert Goddard came to southern Africa, rocket launchers in southern Africa have made great progress.
With Robert Goddard's technology, the only task for Southern African engineers is to make the rocket bigger, with more explosives, and to fly farther.
After Nikola Tesla joined, Southern Africa has even begun to study guided rockets in recent years, but the technology is not mature enough, so it has not been used in war.
Even this is enough for the Germans to drink a pot.
The biggest advantage of rocket launchers compared to artillery is mobility.
This is very important for all heavy firepower.
Not only rockets, but also the machine guns of the Southern African Army are required to fire one shot at a time. They cannot stay in one shooting position for too long, otherwise they will be hit by concentrated fire from various mortars.
The same goes for artillery positions.
The Germans' proficiency in the use of artillery is not inferior to that of the Southern African army. After the southern African artillery positions opened fire, the "scientists" in the German artillery were able to quickly calculate the locations of the southern African army's artillery positions and then organize
Artillery fire counterattack.
Of course, the same is true for the Southern African army. After more and more optical instruments are put into use, the Southern African army also has strong fire countermeasure capabilities. The German artillery positions also have to change places frequently, otherwise they will be annihilated.
Rocket launchers don't have this problem.
The rocket launcher installed on the chassis of the car truly realizes hit and run. When the mortar is used, it is also equipped with a ranging device. The rocket launcher is launched in just a few minutes. German scientists have not yet calculated the position of the rocket launcher.
, the rocket launcher had already fled.
As for the Air Force.
Not only the Battle of Crete, but also since the Southern African army entered the war, the combat capability of the Southern African Air Force has been a mystery to the German Air Force, sometimes getting stronger and sometimes weaker.
When it is strong, the Southern African Air Force can organize a major bombing of Berlin, and can make the German Air Force proactively stop the Battle of Britain and deploy almost all advanced aircraft on the German-Russian border in order to reduce losses.
When it is weak, the German Air Force can easily break through the blockade of the Southern African Air Force, otherwise the German army would not be able to carry out a parachute drop on Heraklion.
After suffering heavy losses on the first day of the battle, the Southern African Air Force was like a chicken blood, easily taking away the air superiority over the 176th Division's position. William Lister, who finally regained his confidence, suffered another setback in his already fragile mind.
received a major blow.
William Lister had long known about the air force trenches in southern Africa, but he did not expect that the trenches would reach such an extent.
In order to prevent the German attack and give the 176th Division time to reorganize its defenses, the Southern African Air Force dispatched heavy bombers to form a fire field with a width of two kilometers in front of the 176th Division's position, dropping nearly 100,000 incendiary bombs in one day and one night.
Yes, it is neither a high-explosive bomb nor an incendiary bomb, but a simple and crude incendiary bomb with many special ingredients added.
It can only be said that there is really a lot of rubber in southern Africa.
Speaking of rubber, rubber is the top priority in the trade between Spain and Germany.
So Mustache is actually not that eager to let Spain join the Axis Powers.
Once Spain joins the Axis powers, the Allies will impose a blockade on Spain, and Germany will lose Spain as an important trade channel.
For the same reason, the United States actually did not want Spain to join the Axis powers.
The bombers in southern Africa were very powerful. Just one day later, when the German army launched another offensive, the 176th Division's position had been restored to its original state and was impregnable.
This time the Germans started shelling again, and the southern African troops no longer entered the tunnels, but held their positions.
The battle finally entered a situation that both sides least wanted to see.
Just fight hard.
The officers and soldiers of the 176th Division stood firm despite the overwhelming German artillery fire and refused to give an inch.
Although the 176th Division did not have armored units, it did not lack anti-tank weapons. Therefore, the German armored units also suffered heavy losses in their attack. After losing 19 tanks on the first day, the losses on the third day were 27 tanks. On the fourth day, the losses were 27.
The loss was 31 vehicles, on the fifth day
The German offensive ceased on the fifth day.
It didn't work. The three German armored divisions that were originally going to be sent to the Eastern Front and later returned to Greece were almost exhausted.
When the European War broke out, one German armored division had 336 tanks.
With the expansion of Germany's army, the speed of German tank production has seriously failed to keep up with the speed of Germany's army expansion, so the size of the armored forces is shrinking. Currently, a German tank division only has 150-200 tanks.
There was nothing we could do about it. In 1939, Germany's steel output was only a pitiful 7.9 million tons.
In the same year, southern Africa's steel production was 61 million tons.
By 1940, after Germany annexed Poland and France, steel production surged to 26 million tons.
The steel output of Southern Africa in 1940 was 83 million tons. Germany was all over Europe, but the added value of steel production was still not as high as that of Southern Africa.
26 million actually seems like a lot.
However, while Germany is producing tanks, it also produces aircraft, warships, individual weapons essential for infantry, and various other industrial products needed for the national economy and people's livelihood.
After all this calculation, there really isn't much steel left for the Germans to use to build tanks every year.
So from last year to this year, a full year has passed, and the German armored forces have only increased from 10 divisions to 21 divisions.
This mustache is asking German ordnance companies to produce heavier tanks.
The heavier the tonnage, the more steel is required.
The "Tiger" tank in southern Africa weighs more than 50 tons, while Germany's most advanced Panzer IV tank weighs only 30 tons.
30 tons versus 50 tons. If nothing else, if the artillery caliber is not enough, it can't even penetrate the armor, so why bother?
It is said that southern Africa is also developing tanks with thicker armor and more powerful firepower.
So William List is now very worried. If he annihilates three tank divisions on Crete, how should he explain to Mustache?
I'm afraid it will be difficult to thank the world even if I die by then.
Fortunately, the 176th Division did not let William List struggle for too long. When the time came to June 15, after holding on for a week, the 176th Division took the initiative to withdraw, giving William List a reason to save face.
