Chapter 785： Beirut falls

The huge muzzle was aimed at the landing site, and the officer in charge of the command confirmed that he was correct and picked up the phone to give orders. "Fire."

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The successive firing of the main gun was like a burst of fireworks, showing the power of industrial crystallization. A series of loud noises caused the warship that had been in service for more than ten years to shift several meters, and the number of the bow was impressively written as the Mircha.

"Boom, boom, boom~"

Driven by the Mircea, more than a dozen other medium and large warships continuously bombarded the defending positions. And in front of them stood densely packed transport ships, and landing crafts like bees constantly transported the officers and soldiers on board to the beach. At first glance, there were at least two to thirty thousand people.

That's right, there are indeed this number of officers and soldiers who landed. Most of the landing units composed of the First Marine Division, the Third Division, and the Eighth Division have already been landed. The only downside is that they can't land on the land with heavy equipment. Although the landing craft is constantly being transferred, the unloading of many equipment is very troublesome, and the time for landing operations is very precious, and it is impossible to wait for these equipment to land.

However, although the landing force lacks heavy equipment, the sea and air support is not much at all. In addition to the naval gun support, the Romanian air force also has a lot of superior air force. In the current battle, more and more people have realized the importance of the air force in combat on the ground.

So now the Air Force’s mission is getting heavier and heavier, of which the ground has the most demand. This has also led to an increasing demand for the Air Force’s ground attack fighters. Of course, Admiral Ankerdra, who is the leader of the Air Force, will certainly not meet this situation, but the heavy bomber he values ​​is currently not in urgent need. Because no matter how you look at it, the RU80 bomber that can perform strategic bombing missions has no suitable target.

The main reason is that Britain and France are far away from Romania, and the two air forces forcefully sent bombers to perform their missions. Therefore, the current mission of the Romanian Air Force is mainly to seize airspace and carry out ground-to-sea attacks against Britain and France in the Mediterranean.

This landing in the Middle East will naturally not lack the support of the Air Force. The newly formed Middle East Air Force has already deployed three wing aircraft on the island of Cyprus. Their first task is to help the army capture the port city of Beirut. To allow the Romanian army to continuously board the land of the Middle East.

In the face of Romania's huge sea and air superiority, the defending officers and soldiers faced great defensive pressure.

"Hurry up and fire, don't let them rush over."

A French company commander on a defensive position is directing his soldiers to fight back against the offensive Romanian officers and soldiers.

The garrison soldiers on the position operated their weapons and desperately opened fire on the incoming Luo army officers and soldiers. The firepower erupted from the position from the Bethier 1892 rifle, MAS36 rifle, FM2429 light machine gun and other weapons, let the Romanian army's offensive be neglected.

Although the French army in World War II was not highly evaluated in later generations, its performance in the defensive battle was remarkable. After all, World War I gave the French army enough experience in positional warfare.

It's just that the French officer who was a company commander was not happy at all when he saw this place, he hurriedly shouted. "Be careful of shelling."

That's right, this is a lesson learned by the defenders with blood. Sure enough, after the French officer yelled, a rapid slap and shelling sounded, and the French troops on the position immediately immersed their heads to avoid the incoming shelling.

"Boom, boom, boom."

Several mortar shells exploded around the fortifications, the nearest being only a few meters away. The first round of launch has this accuracy, which fully shows the training level of the Romanian army, because the experience of the gunner is the most important for mortars.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

With the continuous shelling, more and more shells gradually fell into the position, and French casualties also appeared. In the face of this situation, the French army also has its own counterattacks, but in terms of firepower, there is a certain gap compared with the offensive Luo army. This gave the veterans who fought on the Western Front in World War I a feeling of facing the Germans.

This feeling is not wrong. After all, Romania has basically come from the target German army, but only in the past few years has gradually disagreeed with the German army in equipment, but it is highly consistent in tactics. However, the only difference is that the Romanian army has more artillery equipment, mainly because of the more artillery that threatens the Soviet army.

The positions that were attacked by artillery and infantry finally withstood the attack after the loss of nearly 20 men. It's just that the officer who led the team looked at the sparse soldiers behind him a little bit weeping, but he was guarding this position with a full company, but now there is not even half of the position panting.

After only half a day of fighting, he lost half of his people, which reminded him of the Flesh Mill of World War I. In fact, this is completely incomparable, but the illusion caused by the defensive French army's excessive casualties, and the number of French soldiers in Beirut, how can they afford the title of Flesh Mill.

When we pull up the perspective and watch the entire battlefield situation, we can find that the French army's position has been smashed and many places have changed hands, and this naturally made the French 31st division commander Major General Alnike unable to sit still. Now, he doesn't have much options, so he can only ask Commander Mendelek for help.

"Your Excellency Commander, we are under too much defensive pressure and urgently need reinforcements."

On the other side of the phone, Mendelek, the city defense commander, quietly listened to Major General Alnwick’s call for help. He naturally knew about the crisis situation in the stall position, but he had no maneuvering force at hand what he could do.

Not to mention that Beirut has gathered most of the French army in the area, but there are only more than 60,000 in total. Even if the British army has sent reinforcements from a brigade (after discovering the Romanian landing fleet, the Beirut French army immediately asked for help, and the British-Indian 21 brigade stationed in Haifa, Palestine, immediately rushed over. It is not unpleasant), but Beirut's strength is also Less than 40,000.

Moreover, these people have to be scattered everywhere to defend, which also leads to knowing that beachhead defense is the most advantageous, but there is still only one division's defense. (Don’t ask why you want to keep your stalls, no one can watch the continuous safe landing of the enemy)

Regarding this situation, Lieutenant General Mendelek had expected it a long time ago, and in his plan, there was no idea of ​​a decisive battle on the beach.

In his plan, the beachhead is just a means for delaying opponents. His purpose was not to block the Romanian army on the beach, but to delay the opponent's actions and gain time for reinforcements from the British army.

After all, the defending army in Beirut is less than 40,000, and there is no capital to confront the offensive Romanian army.

Although he planned to abandon the stall position, it did not mean that he was willing to give up like this in half a day. According to his original idea, the stall had to be held for at least two days, and now let alone two days and one day, he did not hold it.

It's just that the current situation makes him have to consider making a choice, whether to defend for a while and delay the withdrawal of the troops until the evening, or organize a retreat now.

Of course, according to his idea, it is best to retreat in the dark. This can ensure the smooth withdrawal of the troops and complete his new vision, which is the best of both worlds.

It's just that this method requires the stalled troops to hold on for a long time. This is also the point that Mendelek is most worried about. If the position is broken, the defeated troops will not be able to continue to use it for a short time, which is very detrimental to Beirut's city defense.

But if we want to withdraw now, we need to consider the chaos and losses caused by the withdrawal. Retreating before the battle has always been a technical job, and it is the most difficult one. How many people, both at home and abroad, have stumbled here in ancient and modern times. Although the modern army makes this choice no longer so terrible, the chain reaction it may cause still requires every commander to carefully consider.

As a city defense commander, Mendelek was no exception, and after some consideration, he made a decision to let him defend until night fell. In order to prevent the possibility of being defeated, he gritted his teeth and drew out two battalions to provide reinforcements for the 31st division.

Mendelek’s decision was a disaster for the defenders. Although he had dispatched two battalions, the French army on the beach could not withstand the attack from the Romanian army at four or five in the afternoon. At that time, the position was broken by the Luo army, and the defending army was defeated, completely unable to organize again.

The soldiers of the Luo army who landed also knew how to judge the situation ~ www.novelhall.com ~ immediately followed the defeated troops into the city, which made Mendelek regret it.

It's just that everything is too late. The Luo army who invaded the city penetrated it like a nail, and after defeating three French attacks at night, it finally gained a firm foothold. And there followed a steady stream of landing troops, fighting with the French army in Beirut. Among them, the Luo army, which was equipped with submachine guns and flamethrowers and other sharp weapons in street fighting, used the advantage of numbers to gradually expel the French army from various locations.

By the third day, the French army had been expelled from Beirut, and the British reinforcements it expected were still caught in the national uprisings in Palestine and Jordan.

There are not enough statistics for this uprising led by the Holy Family, but at least 300,000 people responded in the subsequent report. Under the suggestion of Romania, these Arabs did not fight with the British army. Instead, they used their familiarity with the local situation to continuously destroy the roads and harass the British army, so that their attempts to strengthen Beirut completely failed.

Facing the fall of Beirut, General Wavell, the supreme commander of the British Army in the Middle East, knew that the next situation was difficult.

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