Chapter 751： Battle of Crete (7)

After breaking through on Lloris's side, other places are not bad. Led by the tanks, they launched attack after attack against the defenders' positions that were plowed by artillery fire.

With the continuous transportation of landing ships, more and more Romanian soldiers landed on the beach, and not only the infantry brought, but also armored vehicles, tanks, and self-propelled artillery were on the shore.

In the face of more and more sustained attacks with increasing intensity, the Greek army could no longer defend it, and the first-line position was directly broken. This allowed Romania to finally gain a depth of nearly 5 kilometers and bid farewell to the situation of staying on the beach.

The Romanian army, now landing, is ready to attack Heraklion, ready to seize its port to obtain more support and equipment.

The failure of the beachhead landing blockade made the faces of the three top commanders of the defenders who watched the battle look very ugly. After nearly a day of fierce fighting, the enemy still has not been blocked, and no one can maintain a good mood.

"Now, what shall we do?"

In order to resolve everyone's embarrassment, Admiral Tsoraglu took the initiative to raise questions.

"What else can we do, prepare to defend Heraklion, we can't let the Romanians get the port, otherwise this battle will not be fought."

At the thought of the casualty report just sent, Admiral Papagos felt distressed. In the blocking battle, the Greek army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, while the landing Romanian army is estimated to be about 5,000 casualties. Two of his own divisions lost their combat effectiveness, in exchange for the other's division to lose combat effectiveness.

This is still the most difficult landing battle. If it is replaced by other battles, it is even more difficult to fight. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the Romanians occupying the sea and air superiority.

The support from the sea caused all the grenade on the three battleships to be burned out and needed to go back to replenish the ammunition. Today, the air force also dispatched 3,000 sorties to support the battle. Basic air support will take up half of the credit.

"Let my people defend. They know very well about city warfare and believe they can hold the enemy more effectively."

It is very rare that Major-General White took the initiative to ask for it, which attracted the attention of Admiral Papagos and Admiral Tsolaglu. In fact, this is nothing, mainly because Major White will start from a practical point of view. The Greek army suffered more than 10,000 casualties and the loss was not small, and he also needed to share some of the pressure.

Besides, Admiral Papagos has not many troops available now because of the scattered defenses, so he also needs to show his role as an ally. Although there are some personal contradictions with Admiral Papagos, now is not the time to argue about it.

"Well then, your army will take over the defense of Heraklion, and I will leave an infantry regiment formed by the locals to assist you."

Admiral Papagos is not nonsense, he made the arrangements directly.

Although Admiral Papagos didn't say anything, he gave enough respect in his tone. This also completely let go of Admiral Tsolaglu's worries.

While the defenders were preparing for tomorrow's battle, Lieutenant General Holt, who was in charge of the landing battle on the ship, also watched the casualties count as sinking. With nearly five thousand casualties, this landing warrior Marine First Division completely lost its combat effectiveness. Now he only has one Marine Second Division left in his hands. Although there are other units to cooperate, they have no marine division specialty in the landing battle, and they can't even swim in the whole division.

This is not the time for him to sigh for this. There will be another battle in the Second Marine Division tomorrow. I hope it will not be as tragic as today.

Today's battle is over in this way, and both sides are preparing for tomorrow's battle. Only the ship on the sea is like a small bee, constantly transporting materials and people to the shore.

The overnight transportation allowed the landing officers and soldiers to be replenished, and more importantly, a large amount of equipment was also transported ashore during this time. Officers and soldiers who have obtained enough equipment will inevitably have a positive impact on the next battle.

At dawn the next day, the battle between the two sides started, and the landing Romanian officers and soldiers began to attack Heraklion. With support from the sea and air, these Romanian soldiers quickly approached its walls.

Yes, as the largest port and largest city in Crete, Heraklion still has a city wall. The wall can be traced back to the war between the Republic of Venice and the Ottomans, and then it was reinforced by the Ottomans. The original intention was to control the pearl of the Eastern Mediterranean from the enemy.

Only after the first Balkan War, Crete returned to Greece.

And now, Romania intends to change the ownership of the island again.

"Woo~"

As the screaming approached, a group of defenders immediately fled in fright.

"boom!"

The fleeing defenders felt their feet tremble, and the reinforced concrete fortress behind them exploded like a grumpy powder keg. The scattered rubble was like bullets, hitting a few unlucky guys who couldn't even make a scream, and then fell straight to the ground. At this time, the other defenders did not dare to step forward, so they had to find a place to hide as much as possible. Zero One Reading Network

A 500KG aerial bomb is so powerful that it makes the defending British defenders feel the battle is difficult.

"Attention, the enemy is coming up!"

With a shout, everyone focused on the incoming Romanian army. If you can't hold Heraklion, then this battle will fail to achieve their goals.

With the appearance of the Romanian army with mixed tanks and armored vehicles, all the British defenders on the scene knew that the next bitter battle would begin.

Just when everyone was attracted by the battle, a communications officer suddenly broke into the command post.

"Just got the news that the enemy fleet appeared in Rethymnon, and the enemy landing fleet is already approaching its coast. The commander of the garrison, Major General Hollik, appealed to us for help."

"what?"

The three people present could not help but called out at the same time.

No way, the news is so shocking, they can't help but be surprised. Because according to knowledge, in this case, it must be an offensive against Heraklion and compete for the largest port city. Romania suddenly put on a landing look off the coast of Rethymnon. What does this mean?

No matter what you think, Admiral Papagos, as the supreme commander, will naturally not let this telegram fall behind, so I saw that he reached out and took the telegram and read it carefully. In fact, the telegram is very short. It is the time and size of the enemy's appearance, and the size of the troops that are landing, and then the telegram for help.

Although the message was short, Admiral Papagos dared not neglect, and saw that he passed it to the other two after reading it. He waited for everyone to finish reading before he spoke. "What do you think about this?"

Facing the words of Admiral Papagos, Admiral Tsolaglu said after thinking about it. "At present, judging from the scale of the enemy’s landing, it is not ruled out that the enemy wants to contain our troops, but if we don’t care about it, then the opponent will have the possibility of increasing troops. After all, there is only one 49th division defending in Rethymnon, and its combat effectiveness is weak. We can't help but guard."

Admiral Tsoraglu sounded like he hadn't said, but only the other two knew it. It was just hard to make a decision. That's right, the total strength of the British and Greek armies in Crete has been insufficient, and the total force is only a little over 90,000.

It sounds like a lot. After deducting the troops to defend the ports of the whole island, the troops they can use are only a little over 50,000. In the landing battle in Heraklion, 10,000 had already been lost, and the two divisions lost their combat effectiveness. As for the defensive forces, those who understand military common sense know the use of weaker combat forces.

Rethymnon is located in front of Heraklion and Chania, and his distance between the two is forty to fifty kilometers and in previous estimates, this is the least likely to be attacked by the enemy The port, because although it has the longest beach on the island, the port of Rethymnon is also the weakest among the three places. It is not conducive to its offloading equipment, and it is very detrimental to the Romanian army, which relies heavily on its equipment.

Although the analysis was plausible, the problem now is that the enemy has landed. And they landed with soldiers they couldn't tell, which embarrassed the three of them.

In the final analysis, the Romanians are bullying them for lack of coastal defense, relying on their sea and air superiority to attack the short-soldier defenders.

"So what should we do now?"

As Major General White, the commander of the British army, he can't sit still now. Of course, he hopes that the other party understands the current situation and makes the right choice.

Admiral Tsoraglu, the chief of staff, suggested it. "How about sending 17th Division reinforcements?"

"No!"

"No!"

The answers from White and Papagos unanimously rejected the suggestion.

Papagos: "A unit of the 17th Division is not good enough."

Major General White: "Now transfer troops, what about Heraklion!"

In fact, this is a matter of choosing between early death and late death. In fact, according to the military common sense of the three people, do you know that Crete is a place of death. And they still choose to stick to the reason. On the one hand, this is the final territory, and they can't just let others go. On the other hand, nature is its unique geographical location.

The different answers of the two also represent different ideas, but neither of them caused a dispute this time. At the same time, the fighting from Heraklion became fierce, and even a Romanian army squeezed into the city with superior firepower.

At this time, the three of them no longer care about Rethymnon's battle, and immediately focused their attention on the battle here.