On the night of December 17, the airports on Crete were all brightly lit. There were no fighter planes of any kind in the airports now, and they were all unified RY58 transport aircraft.
This fat transport plane has already filled the airport, and around these planes, officers and soldiers of the 1st Parachute Division are climbing onto the plane one by one with the help of their companions. It is difficult to walk because they are packed like rice dumplings.
, so they could only help each other board the plane.
"Next."
Captain Krull stood on the hatch and pulled his soldier up with his hands.
"Lal, walk backwards."
The soldier who was pulled up and called Lal slowly walked backwards, and his gun belt accidentally bumped into a soldier who was sitting in the cabin and resting.
"Hey, Lar, be careful."
"I'm sorry, this thing can only be tied to my leg like this."
"Can't you tie it tighter? Look at the butt of the gun raised so high."
The comrade pointed at Lal's untied rifle and said loudly.
The conversation between the two caught the attention of Captain Krul. "Everyone, calm down and sit down."
The words from the company commander made the two of them stop talking and left.
After seeing the two separated, Captain Krul continued to pull other soldiers up.
In fact, there were not many people. The transport plane numbered 6214 could only carry 24 people. After everyone was pulled aboard, Krul closed the cabin door.
After all the paratroopers at the airport boarded the plane, Major General Narkov, the commander of the 1st Parachute Division, also boarded a transport plane.
Major General Narkov has full confidence in the paratroopers he has trained. However, it is his first time on the battlefield. He is still a little worried. Otherwise, he would not have gone to the battlefield in person. You must know that he is called a Romanian paratrooper.
father.
As the first major general to study paratrooper combat, Major General Narkov began studying paratroopers in 1923, when he was still a major. His research interested the Chief of General Staff very much, and he established Romania's first paratroopers in 1926.
For this team, which had less than 200 people at the time, he devoted all his efforts, organizing parachute jumps, summarizing the advantages and disadvantages, supplementing tactics, etc., and basically he was the only one to make plans.
He still remembers the most dangerous time at that time. After he skydived, he discovered that two ropes of his parachute were tangled together, which caused him to fall much faster than normal. But in the face of such a crisis, he remained calm and pointed in one direction.
The dagger cut off a rope to change the direction of the landing, and finally fell into the river, saving his life.
After Major General Narkov boarded the plane, RY58 transport planes left the airport with the paratroopers. Each transport plane had a special large red tail light on its tail, which was specially prepared for night navigation.
Yes, it can remind other aircraft of its position.
So as the transport planes took off one after another, the flashing lights in the sky were very beautiful. Lieutenant Colonel Elsted, the navigator who was not leading the team at the front, definitely didn't think so.
He was piloting and complaining. "Damn it, this is a night flight of more than 300 aircraft at a time. It will cost you your life."
Navigation is also a technical job, and it is the most lacking technical job in the military. In this era without satellite guidance, it can only be determined by human experience, and in this regard, Elsted is also one of the best. But again
Even Elsted, who is outstanding, has no experience in piloting more than 300 aircraft at night at one time.
In the past, he had only piloted more than fifty aircraft at night, because there were few pilots who could fly at night, and this time, the number of more than 300 aircraft was too many.
This is not about herding sheep. One is herding, and one herd is also herding. Moreover, even if one is herding sheep, there is a big difference between one shepherd and a herd.
But now he can only rush the duck and bite the bullet.
Captain Krul has no idea about the hard work of the navigator. He is currently looking at the scenery outside the cabin window and meditating. What else can he think about before going to the battlefield? It is nothing more than various intertwined emotions. Man is a society
Animals have more or less family ties, friendship, and love. No one is hard-hearted and will not avoid interacting with them. And now Krul is thinking about his family and friends.
"Captain, do you think we can come back safely?"
A soldier in the cabin asked loudly. The noise in the plane made it necessary to speak loudly to each other. It was obvious that the soldier's words interrupted Krul's thoughts.
Who does this soldier's words represent? For the officers and soldiers of the Parachute Division, this is their first combat. No matter how well they have been trained before, they will still be afraid of going to the battlefield. Of course Krul also knows that this is
It was inevitable, so he answered the paratrooper's question.
"I don't know, but this is war. We only have to do our job well and leave the rest to God."
Krull's words are neither sensational nor pretentious. They are simply his thoughts and I believe they are also the thoughts of the vast majority of people.
Sure enough, his words drew everyone's attention.
"How about we drink to God?"
"no problem."
"Can."
Quickly, a soldier took out two bottles of brandy, and each person held a small metal cup and poured wine into them. This is also equipped, each plane has two bottles of brandy. There are not many, it is mainly used to relieve their emotions.
As the company commander, Krul raised his wine glass and said a toast. "Let us worship God and bless Romania."
"To God, bless Romania."
The strong liquid entered the throat, causing two or three non-drinking soldiers to choke.
The other soldiers looked at each other and burst into laughter. A burst of laughter immediately came from the cabin, which also brought everyone closer to each other.
The straight line from Crete to Cyprus is only over 500 kilometers, and it only takes two hours at the speed of the RY58 transport aircraft to reach Cyprus.
And when they were approaching the island of Cyprus, they saw a light show. Led by the heavy cruiser Cortenoo, a total of 6 warships turned on their lights to guide them. Although this might lead to enemy attacks,
Although the submarines did not pay attention to them, these warships worked hard enough to allow them to complete their missions.
After flying past these warships, the transport aircraft formation began to become less dense, and they became more dispersed. The tail lights were also turned off, which also meant that they were about to enter the airdrop zone. The red light in the cabin also turned on. This
It means that they need to be ready. After the green light is also on, they can skydive.
"Ross, Piccolo, you two open the hatch. Everyone else is ready."
Krul also quickly directed everyone to make preparations at this time.
The cabin door opened with a "swish" sound, and the cold wind blew in, making everyone couldn't help but wrinkle their foreheads.
Krul couldn't care about this at this time. He stood at the front and shouted to everyone.
"stand up."
As he shouted, everyone stood up. At this time, Krul continued to shout while making inspection gestures. "Start self-examination."
Following his words, everyone checked their equipment again. At this time, no one would be impatient to check it one more time, because it was about their lives.
After everyone has checked one side, they start counting to him from behind.
"no problem."
"no problem."
"..."
After 23 calls, he continued to issue orders. "Start inspection."
So the last row started, and they checked the equipment of their comrades. This inspection was mainly to prevent invisible back problems such as possible looseness.
"no problem."
"no problem."
"..."
While they were preparing, the transport aircraft group also entered the island of Cyprus. Something was different as soon as they entered the island of Cyprus. They immediately felt the atmosphere of the battlefield. In the dark night, they could see the chain of fire from anti-aircraft weapons everywhere, and on the ground
From time to time, explosions of fire were shown, and it was obvious that bombers were conducting night bombings on the island.
In fact, the night bombing of Cyprus Island started from the first day. The time and scale of the daily bombing are not fixed. Although this will make the bombing effect worse, it can cover their airborne landing. It can also help them attract air defense.
firepower,
After flying in the air for a few minutes, the green light in the cabin buzzed and then turned on.
"Use the buckle."
Everyone hangs the buckle on the skydiving pole in the cabin.
"Skydive in sequence!"
Following Krul's words, soldiers jumped off the transport plane that had slowed down one after another.
After they left the cabin, they quickly opened their parachutes. Nowadays, parachutes are basically required to be opened thirty seconds after jumping out of the cabin, because they generally only have 5-8 skydiving records and do not have much experience in skydiving.
In order to ensure a low accident rate, it is stipulated that the parachute must be opened within 30 seconds.
And they were lucky enough to be the first batch of skydivers. Because there were so many people parachuting this time, in order to gather them together faster, they adopted the method of repeated airdrops. It was just like making a sandwich, they were the first layer, but
Much more complicated than a sandwich.
The dark sky made it impossible for Krul, who was parachuting, to see the situation on the ground clearly. The earth was like a lurking giant beast, showing a quiet feeling. There was only the sound of wind blowing in his ears, and air defenses were farther away.
The roar of cannons can be faintly heard.
In mid-air, he was as helpless as his hands and feet were tied, and at this time he kept chanting, "Don't get hung by the tree, go ahead and don't get hung by the tree."
That's right, for a paratrooper, besides the enemy appearing in front of him, being hung up on a tree is the most dangerous thing.
Because the branches may cause him to fall and injure his hands and feet, or even worse, he may be seriously injured. In addition, if he is caught by a tree, he will not be able to touch the ground at all, and will be hung in the air forever. The parachute rope may be quite strong, I think.
It's impossible to cut without using a knife.
Maybe his prayers were heard by God, and by the time he could see the ground clearly, there was nothing but grass below. This was the paratrooper's favorite landing spot, and there was no better choice than it.
As soon as Krul hit the ground, he immediately fell to the ground and held on to the parachute in his hands.
"Finally landed on the ground."
With a lot of peace of mind, he immediately began to recover the parachute. Parachutes are not cheap, and they had been told during the drill that if the situation was not serious, they would recover the parachute first.
However, there are currently no gunshots around, which explains the situation very well.
Of course it's not just him, the paratroopers who have landed in this area are busy recovering parachutes.
On this night, the airdrop of the 1st Paratrooper Division went very smoothly. Except for a small number of paratroopers due to various reasons, most of the paratroopers landed at the designated location.
The size of nearly five thousand paratroopers is enough for them to turn the island of Cyprus upside down.
