Major General Dowding Hughes was in a very bad mood right now, with a gloomy expression on his face that made everyone who passed by him be cautious.
He had no choice but to blame the moles who came to the island. The news that followed was really disappointing to him. Paphos, Larnaca, and Nicosia were all captured by the enemy in one night. Only Li
Because of the large number of troops stationed at Marsol Airport and the large number of troops stationed nearby, it was not captured by these Romanians.
However, when all parties were attacked, Major General Dowding Hughes discovered an important problem, that is, he had made some mistakes in the scale of the airdrop. This was not the two or three hundred people he thought, but thousands of people, and they occupied the airport.
Fight fiercely with reinforcements.
"We cannot continue like this. We need to deal with these paratroopers as soon as possible, otherwise we will end up giving up."
"I know, no matter how many people need to be sent, how long will it take? The enemy landing fleet came during this period, what should we do?"
Subsequently, there was only a dispute between Major General Dowding Hughes and Chief of Staff Brigadier General Ross, mainly on the scale of dispatching troops. The Chief of Staff hoped to send 20,000 people with heavy firepower to extinguish it in one fell swoop.
But in the view of Major General Dowding Hughes, this is simply unrealistic. Because they lack air superiority, a large-scale military gathering will definitely be violently bombed by the opponent. This situation cannot be realized at all, and on the contrary, there will be fewer defenders on the coast.
scale.
It's just that neither of the two parties can convince the other now, which makes Major General Dowding Hughes feel very uncomfortable. However, both of them believe that more troops need to be added to recapture the airport as soon as possible.
"Then let's send three regiments of troops first and let them take back the airport first. I feel like these paratroopers are going to cause trouble."
In the end, the two decided to send three regiments to retake the airport. If the reinforcements that had been dispatched were added in, the number of troops would have reached over 10,000, and they would also bring a fully equipped infantry regiment. In order to enhance its attack power, they also
They are equipped with armored vehicles and tanks respectively.
These are all decisions made to recapture the airport as soon as possible, but it is just too late to decide now.
Without keeping them waiting any longer, facing the early morning sunshine, the first wave of supporting fighter jets taking off from the aircraft carrier arrived.
"Wow~"
Facing the supporting fighter planes, the paratroopers who were fighting a tough defensive battle below cheered uncontrollably.
Even Captain Krul, who has always been steady, cheered for this. Because the previous battle was too uncomfortable. They have a total of more than 400 people in three companies and need to block the enemy's attack of more than a thousand people. And there are no defenses.
Under the circumstances, it is even more difficult to fight.
Take his third company as an example. After seizing the airport, the third company had 124 combat-effective men. But after reinforcements arrived to fight the attacking British army, there were now only 89 men.
This was a battle lasting more than an hour. The third company suffered such heavy losses. In addition to the enemy's absolute superiority in strength and equipment, it was also because they had no fortifications at all. Not a single soldier was trapped. This was not a loss.
The enemy will be blasted accurately.
This is also a situation where there is no solution, because the remaining soldiers are busy repairing the runway to ensure that the airport can take off and land transport planes. And this is also the first priority, above all others.
With the desperate resistance of the three companies, the first wave of air support finally arrived.
"boom!"
"Boom, boom, boom!"
An artillery piece that was still raking was destroyed by the bombing from the air, and the ammunition placed aside was also detonated, causing a secondary explosion, which in turn caused a further chain reaction.
"Da da da!"
A fighter jet strafed over at low altitude, causing all the British soldiers to flee. Now no one had the intention to attack. Their morale was rapidly disintegrating under the air raid. If they wanted to reorganize their attack, at least they would have to wait until after the air raid.
This made Colonel Bernie, who was about to achieve a breakthrough, extremely annoyed, but now he had no choice. There were not many anti-aircraft weapons on the island, and there were too many places that needed to be guarded, so there were simply not enough.
It is impossible for our own troops to attack despite the bombing, which will collapse the troops. Because these are not just a few planes, but twenty or thirty planes, it is not difficult to make a wise choice, but I feel a little unwilling to do so.
In fact, Colonel Burney didn't know that he would have no chance later. After the British troops retreated, the paratroopers defending here were busy doing one thing, which was to dig foxholes so that they could have a place to hide.
, otherwise the terrain alone will not be able to block the next attack.
Although they are a little tired now, no one wants to relax when their own lives are at stake.
So after the British army retreated, the defending paratroopers became even busier. They used their own engineers to shovel into the gravelly land and kept digging.
While they continued to dig, a new batch of transport planes arrived, followed by another batch of bombers. They came towards the airport under the protection of HF201 fighters.
"What, the Romanian transport plane has landed at the airport, then attack quickly, otherwise it will be more difficult to attack later. I know your difficulties under the opponent's air supremacy, but if you refuse to carry out the order, then I will truthfully report your situation to General Wavell and London
Performance."
After the angry Dowding Hughes put down the phone, he immediately became depressed. Because it was only then that he realized that the Romanian paratroopers seemed unable to encircle and suppress them. The Romanians could use planes to transport people and supplies non-stop.
Arriving there, especially after the air power on your own island is exhausted, makes the other party lawless.
"Rescue Egypt, inform them of the current situation on the island, and say we need an air interception."
Dowding Hughes planned to take another chance, hoping that Egypt could mobilize air power to prevent the opponent from attacking him from the air and give him time to deal with the paratroopers entrenched at the airport.
At the three airports, transport planes from Crete were parking on the runways one by one.
At Nicosia Airport, the door of a transport plane that had just stopped was opened.
"Come down, come on."
An officer shouted and gestured to the cabin. Inside the cabin was the airborne regiment of the 1st Parachute Division. They quickly jumped out through the hatch with their own equipment.
At the rear of the cabin, a dozen officers and soldiers were pushing a pallet and were unloading a 37mm anti-tank gun that was urgently needed by the paratroopers. They tied a rope to the anti-tank gun and followed the slope formed by the pallet.
It was put down, and then the ammunition transported along with it was also put down. The whole process took less than five minutes.
The transport plane that had unloaded the supplies immediately turned around and soared into the sky again.
Transport aircraft carrying weapons and personnel like this are easy to handle, and can be unloaded in basically five minutes. Only aircraft carrying ammunition and supplies are more difficult to handle, and it takes them eight or nine minutes to unload one aircraft.
However, this smooth situation only lasted less than two or three hours.
"boom!"
A shell fell on the side of the runway, which frightened the paratroopers who were unloading supplies. Not many of them could do it as if they were dead, and what they were transporting was ammunition. As long as a shell hit them, everyone would not be able to run away.
"Get all the ammunition out of the way!"
The officer who was directing the transportation summoned and issued orders to the soldiers, but this time no one came forward. Seeing this situation, the officer became angry, and he stepped forward to pick up a box of ammunition and planned to put it away.
Elsewhere.
"boom!"
This was another artillery shell falling at the edge of the airport, but he turned a deaf ear to it, and the hand holding the ammunition box did not even shake.
His performance inspired other officers and soldiers, and everyone stepped forward to carry the piled ammunition and followed suit.
"boom!"
A large crater was suddenly blown in front of a landing transport plane, leaving the pilot with no time to react.
"Snapped!"
The front landing gear was directly broken, and the RY58 transport plane, which was missing the front landing gear, fell directly. As a result, the transport aircraft that was supposed to run in a straight line slid diagonally, and the metal fuselage sparkled in the friction with the ground.
.
"Get out of the way."
Facing this situation, several paratroopers who were pushing carts quickly tried to hide to the left and right.
The friction sound of "squeak, squeak, squeak" caused the transport plane to slide in this posture for hundreds of meters, and the transport personnel in the cabin fell to pieces, with their feet in the air.
After clearing the runway all the way, the transport plane stopped, and the pilot who firmly held the handbrake breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the personnel he loaded were not ammunition, otherwise there would be no future.
However, the scene inside the cabin was not good at all. Everyone was bruised and swollen from the fall, and some even broke their arms.
After the transport plane stopped, a crowd of people rushed forward, carrying fire extinguishers, stretchers and other items and rushed to the rescue.
"What's going on? Why is there shelling?"
Major Sartu, who was the temporary commander of the airport, immediately complained. "Let the aviation station contact the fleet immediately. They need to protect the safety of the airport."
In fact, the fleet has discovered the cannons at the airport that are shelling. These cannons are located 6 kilometers outside Nicosia. This is the British 140mm howitzer firing. This is its main howitzer. Its maximum range: 14,800-16,460 meters.
Not bad, but it’s just too heavy. The weight of nearly 6 tons is quite substantial.
But once it is discovered, it will be difficult for it to continue to survive. Although it is well disguised, the smoke and dust after it is fired are completely exposed to the surveillance aircraft in the air.
For this artillery position consisting of four 140mm howitzers, the bombers would not be polite at all. Even if there were six 2-pounder cannons next to it, they still could not stop the bombers from coming.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
The precise bombing from the Stuka turned four 140mm howitzers into scrap metal, and incidentally also caused the loss of five exposed anti-aircraft firepower.
Yes, in the duel between air defense weapons and fighter aircraft, aircraft have always had the absolute advantage, not to mention the huge gap in numbers between the two.
After this threat was resolved, the airport returned to normal, and a large number of transport planes were still passing through the airport, transporting people and materials.
This gives the paratroopers defending the perimeter of the airport an opportunity to push the front line further away from the airport with the help of the air force.
