Chapter 764： Fierce Battle (Part 1)

Major General Dowding Hughes is in a very bad mood now, with a gloomy expression, making everyone passing by him cautiously.

There is no other way, I blame the moles who came to the island, it is really the next news that disappointed him too much. The three airports of Paphos, Larnaca, and Nicosia were captured by the enemy in one night. Only Limassol Airport was not able to be captured by these Romanians because of its large number of troops and the number of troops stationed nearby. .

It's just that during the attacks on all parties, Major General Dowding Hughes discovered an important problem, that is, he had made some mistakes in the scale of the airdrop. This is not the two or three hundred people I thought, but thousands of them. They occupied the airport and fought fiercely with the reinforcements.

"We can't go on like this, we need to resolve these paratroopers as soon as possible, otherwise we will be overwhelmed."

"I know, regardless of how many people need to be sent, how long will it take? Among them, the enemy landing fleet is coming during this period. What should we do?"

Then Major General Dowding Hughes and Chief of Staff Brigadier General Ross had a dispute, mainly due to differences in the size of the troops sent. The chief of staff hopes to send 20,000 people with heavy firepower to extinguish it in one fell swoop.

But for Major General Dowding Hughes, this is simply unrealistic. Because they lack air supremacy, large-scale army gatherings are bound to be violently bombed by the other side. The situation he said could not be realized at all, but the scale of the coastal defenders would be reduced.

It's just that neither of the two sides is convinced by the other, which also makes Major General Dowding Hughes feel very uncomfortable, but both of them believe that it is necessary to increase their troops to regain the airport as soon as possible.

"Then send the troops of the three regiments first, and let them take the airport back first. I feel that these paratroopers are going to make trouble."

In the end, the two decided to send three regiments to regain the airport. If the reinforcements that had been discharged before were added, the strength had reached more than 10,000, and they were still carrying a fully-filled infantry regiment. In order to enhance its attack power, they also equipped them with armored vehicles and tanks respectively.

These are all decisions made to recapture the airport as soon as possible, but it is only now that it is decided whether it is too late.

Without letting them wait any longer, in the morning sun, the first wave of support fighters taking off from the aircraft carrier arrived.

"Wow~"

In the face of the support fighters, the paratroopers, who fought very hard in the defensive battle below, cheered even more.

Even Captain Cruel, who has always been steady, cheered for this. Because the previous fight was too uncomfortable, they had three companies with more than 400 people, and they needed to block the enemy's attack by more than 1,000 people. And without fortifications, it is even more difficult to fight.

Take his third company as an example. After capturing the airport, there were 124 people in the third company that were capable of fighting, but after reinforcements came and a battle with the offensive British army, there were now only 89 people.

This was more than an hour’s battle, and the loss of the third company was so great. In addition to the enemy’s absolute strength and equipment advantages, there was also no defense at all. There was no single pit. This is not to let The enemy blows up.

This is also a situation where there is no alternative, because the remaining soldiers are busy repairing the runway to ensure that the airport can take off and land transport aircraft. And this is also the number one priority, which is higher than the others.

With three companies desperately blocking, finally waited for the first wave of air support.

"boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom!"

An artillery that was still raiding before was destroyed by bombing from the air, and the ammunition placed aside was also detonated, causing a second explosion, which in turn caused an even more chain reaction.

"Da da da!"

A fighter jet strafed past at low altitude, just to make all the British soldiers scurry. No one has the mind to attack anymore. Their morale is rapidly disintegrating under the air attack. If they want to reorganize their attack, at least they have to wait after the air attack.

This annoyed Colonel Bernie, who was about to make a breakthrough, but now he had nothing to do. There are not many anti-aircraft weapons on the island, and there are too many places that need to be guarded, which is not enough.

It is impossible for one's own troops to attack with the bombing, which would cause the troops to collapse. Because this is not a few planes, but 20 or 30 planes, a wise choice is not difficult to make, but I feel a little unwilling.

In fact, Colonel Bernie didn't know, and he didn't even have a chance behind him. After the British army retreated, the paratroopers defending here are now busy doing one thing, that is, digging foxholes so that they 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, it is a matter of their own lives and no one wants to relax.

So after the British army retreated, the defensive paratroopers became even more busy. They used their own engineers to shovel the gravelly ground and digging incessantly.

As they kept digging, a new batch of transport planes came again, and another batch of bombers followed them. They came to the airport under the protection of the HF201 fighter.

"What, the Romanian transport plane landed at the airport, so hurry up and attack, it will be more difficult to fight afterwards. I know your difficulties under the air supremacy of the other side, but if you refuse to execute the order, then I will truthfully report to General Wavell and London. which performed."

After the angrily Dowding Hughes put down the phone, his whole body was immediately wilted. It was only then that he realized that the Romanian paratroopers now seemed unable to encircle and suppress. Romanians can use the plane to transport people and materials non-stop, especially after the air power on their island is exhausted, it will make the other party lawless.

"To rescue from Egypt and tell them the current situation on the island means that we need an aerial interception."

Dowding Hughes intends to do it again, hoping that Egypt can mobilize air power to prevent the opponent from attacking itself from the air and give itself time to solve the paratroopers entrenched in the airport.

In the three airports, transport aircraft from Crete are stopping one by one on the runway.

At Nicosia Airport, the door of a transport plane that had just stopped was opened.

"Come down, hurry up."

An officer shouted and gestured into the cabin. Inside the cabin was the landing regiment of the First Paratrooper Division. With their own equipment, they quickly jumped out through the cabin door.

At the rear of the cabin, more than a dozen officers and men pushing the pallet truck are unloading a 37mm anti-tank gun that the paratroopers urgently need. They put a rope around the anti-tank gun, and lowered it along the inclined plane formed by the cart, and then resisted the ammunition that was transported together. The whole process took less than five minutes.

The transport plane that unloaded the materials immediately turned its nose and rushed into the sky again.

A transport plane like this with weapons and personnel is easy to handle, and it takes almost five minutes to unload it. Only the plane loaded with ammunition is difficult to deal with. It takes them eight or nine minutes to unload one.

It's just that such a smooth situation lasted less than two or three hours.

"boom!"

An artillery shell landed on the side of the runway, making the paratroopers unloading supplies a little frightened. Few people can do it if they die, and they are carrying ammunition. As long as a shell hits everyone, they can't run away.

"Move all the ammunition away!"

The officers who were in command of the movement, the convened officers gave orders to the soldiers, but no one came forward this time. In this situation, the officer was angry, and saw that he stepped forward and picked up a box of ammunition and planned to put it elsewhere.

"boom!"

This was another shell that fell to the airport, but he turned a deaf ear to it and didn't shake his hand carrying the ammunition box.

His performance inspired other officers and soldiers, and everyone came forward carrying the piled ammunition and followed.

"boom!"

A big pit was suddenly blown up in front of a landing transport plane, which made the pilot too late to react.

"Snapped!"

The front landing gear was directly broken, and the RY58 transport aircraft, which lacked the front landing gear, was directly planted. As a result, the transport plane, which was supposed to run in a straight line, directly slid up diagonally, sparking sparks in the friction between the metal body and the ground.

"Quickly get out of the way."

Faced with this situation, several paratroopers pushing the cart quickly wanted to hide on both sides.

The sound of "click, babble, babble" made the transport plane slide for hundreds of meters in this posture, and the transport crew in the cabin fell to the sky with all four feet upside down.

After marking all the way out of the runway, the transport plane stopped, so that the driver who was holding on to the handbrake heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the personnel that I installed were not ammunition, otherwise there would be no future.

It's just that the scene in the cabin is not good at all. Everyone was thrown with black and swollen faces, and a few even broke their arms.

When the transport plane stopped, the crowd cracked up, and they came to rescue with fire extinguishers, stretchers and other items.

"What is 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 artillery at the airport that is being shelled. These cannons are located 6 kilometers outside of Nicosia. This is the British 140mm howitzer that is firing. This is its main howitzer. Its maximum range: 14800-16460 meters, the range is good, but it is too heavy, and the weight of nearly 6 tons is also very heavy It's just been discovered, then it will be difficult for it to survive. Although its camouflage was good, the smoke and dust after the fire was completely exposed in front of the air-surveilled aircraft.

For this artillery position composed of four 140mm howitzers, the bombers would not be polite at all. Even if there are six 2-pounder guns next to it, they still can't stop the bombers from coming.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The precision bombing from Stuka turned 4 140mm howitzers into scrap iron, and incidentally also lost 5 of the exposed air defense firepower.

That's right, in the battle between air defense weapons and fighter jets, aircraft has always had an absolute advantage, not to mention the huge gap in numbers between the two.

After solving this threat, the airport has returned to normal, and a large number of transport planes are still passing through the airport non-stop, bringing people and materials over.

This gives the paratroopers defending the vicinity of the airport a chance to push the front even further away from the airport with the help of the air force.