While the Second Task Force led by Major General Fernandez was wreaking havoc off the coast of Crete, the First Task Force commanded by Vice Admiral Midrafael in the inland sea had already arrived at Heraklion.
Off the coast of Crete's largest port.
Along the way, thousands of Romanian fighter planes from the Cyclades Islands, Athens, and the Peloponnese Peninsula had already raided the island.
As for the more than 200 fighter planes supported by Britain and Greece on the island, almost all of them have been consumed. The only ones left suffered heavy losses in the previous reinforcements of the B-12 fleet. Now there are only ten
Many of them are placed in a secret airport and cannot be used unless absolutely necessary.
Now that the threat from the air has been eliminated, the First Task Force can bombard Crete unscrupulously. Unfortunately, Greece has no coastal defense facilities on the island, and its largest coastal defense artillery is the Balkan War
In order to defend against the Ottoman 240mm caliber.
How could this kind of pre-World War I coastal defense artillery have a chance to threaten the First Task Force? Not to mention that before this, the Romanian Air Force had already taken special care of it. Several 1000KG ground-penetrating bombs destroyed the old coastal defense artillery.
It was scrapped early.
Of course, Romania's ground-penetrating bombs cannot be compared with those of later generations. They only designed a delayed explosion device for air-dropped bombs, and the warhead was also designed to have a sharp shape and be extremely strong. After this kind of bomb was designed, its main target
It is to penetrate the solid tops of each fort.
So far, it seems to be working quite well, with sufficient destructive power and penetrating power.
Now that the worries have been relieved, don't blame the task force for practicing bombardment.
Across a distance of more than 20 kilometers, greetings from battleships began to visit the largest port in Crete.
"Woo~"
The sound of a 406-caliber artillery shell flying by a train frightened everyone. The officers and soldiers of the defenders kept praying that the artillery shell would not hit them or fall nearby.
"boom!"
I saw a puff of smoke rising from the city, and several houses disappeared in an instant. The power of the 406-caliber cannon was fully demonstrated.
Of course, this was just a cannonball that went to the wrong location, and under the correction of the reconnaissance plane in the sky, the next cannonball landed in a military camp.
The strong military camp immediately fell down in pieces, and the bricks and tiles fired struck again, causing many garrison officers and soldiers to suffer disaster.
In fact, not only the military camps were under bombardment, but also warehouses, fortifications, airports, oil depots, assembly points and other facilities were within the range of naval gunfire. Although the speed of the bombardment was not fast, the huge power made it impossible for these facilities to resist for a single round under its attack.
All of them suffered a brutal blow.
This also made the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, General Papagos, and the top commander of the British army, Major General White, who were hiding outside the city, look extremely ugly.
"This won't work. The morale of our soldiers will disappear rapidly under such a blow. We must reduce the garrison in the city."
As the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, General Papagos could no longer bear it. He decided to reduce the number of troops stationed in the city.
However, his words immediately aroused the opposition of Major General White. "Your Excellency, General, now is not a good time to withdraw. Under the current situation, we cannot easily reduce the defensive forces everywhere, otherwise we are very likely to be attacked by the enemy.
Take the opportunity to attack the shore."
However, Major General White's words did not calm down the Greek commander-in-chief. "But our soldiers are bleeding and dying, and I can't watch them being sacrificed like this in vain."
"Your soldiers are dying and bleeding, but my soldiers are not bleeding and dying? They are squatting in the same trench as you, holding the same weapons in their hands."
Seeing that the two were about to quarrel over this, General Tsoraglu, as the Chief of General Staff of the Greek Army, quickly stepped forward to smooth things over. "Both of you, this unnecessary quarrel at this time will only bring harm to the war situation. We should put aside our prejudices and
Let’s face this difficulty together.”
In fact, Admiral Cuolaglu knew that this quarrel was just a further manifestation of the differences in previous tactical deployments. In the previous military deployment meeting, Admiral Papagos believed that Romania currently controls the sea, so it will have strategic initiative
power, and they can only assemble their troops and form a fist, attacking wherever they land.
Major General White of the British Army believed that Admiral Papagos's idea was out of touch with reality. It looked good, but it was difficult to implement. Not to mention the road conditions in Crete, the absolute superiority from Romania's sea and air
, which will make Admiral Papagos’ idea come to nothing. It is simply unrealistic to gather forces on a large scale. This will be defeated by the enemy’s superior navy and air force.
The best way is to turn the three cities of Chania, Heracleion and Rethymnon, which are currently convenient for landing, into fortresses and rely on their urban terrain and enemy attrition to delay the enemy's footsteps.
Faced with Major General White's idea, General Papagos scolded him as wanting to drain the last drop of Greek blood. Such an arrangement would not only be ineffective, but would also be defeated by the enemy one by one due to scattered deployment.
Then the two got into an argument about this, so that no one was convinced by the other. The final result was He Xini, part of the garrison stationed in the three cities, and then the remaining troops were left as mobile forces, ready to reinforce the city under attack at any time.
.
Of course, at a deeper level, there is also the struggle for the command of the Greek-British coalition forces stationed in Crete. Admiral Papagos believes that this is Greek territory, and since the British troops are reinforcements, they should listen to him.
Major General White believes that at present, the Greek military supplies on the island are basically provided by the United Kingdom, and we have also sent military reinforcements. However, Admiral Papagos's performance in the Greek campaign was unsatisfactory, so he should listen to
Own opinions from advanced military concepts.
Therefore, the two people showed that they could not understand each other in all aspects. This made General Tsoraglu, the chief of staff, suffer. He had to not only bring the two of them together, but also give them both the
acceptable opinions.
The result of his persuasion was usually the same as now. The two looked at each other and both snorted from their nostrils to end the discussion.
Seeing this familiar scene, General Cuolaglu had a hint of bitterness in his expression. Can such a combination stop or delay the Romanian army? He lacked confidence in this.
It's just that with such a scene in my own country, I have to delay it even if I can't. Everything is for the sake of my motherland, Greece.
The Romanian fleet outside the port is still there, and the defenders in Heraklion are still struggling. In the outer sea, a huge fleet is sailing towards Crete, and everything is so natural.
