Romanian Eagle

Major General Dawding Hughes is in a very bad mood now, with a gloomy expression on his face, making everyone passing by him be careful.

There was no other way, it was all to blame for the moles who came to the island. It was the next news that disappointed him too much. The three airports of Paphos, Larnaca, and Nicosia were all captured by the enemy in one night. Only the Limassol airport was not captured by these Romanians because of its large garrison and the large number of garrisoned nearby. .

It's just that when all parties were attacked, Major General Dowding Hughes found an important problem, that is, he made some mistakes in the scale of this airdrop. This is not the two or three hundred people I thought, but thousands of people, they occupy the airport and fight with the reinforcements.

"It can't go on like this. We need to solve these paratroopers as soon as possible, otherwise we will be left behind."

"I know, no matter how many people need to be dispatched, how long will it take? The enemy landing fleet came during this period, what should we do?"

Then Major General Dowding Hughes and Chief of Staff Brigadier General Ross only saw a dispute, mainly because of differences in the scale of dispatching troops. The chief of staff hoped to send 20,000 people, carrying heavy firepower, to extinguish it in one fell swoop.

But in the eyes of Major General Dawding Hughes, this is simply not realistic. Because of their lack of air supremacy, large-scale army gatherings are bound to be heavily bombed by the other side. The situation he said could not be realized at all, but it would reduce the size of the defenders on the coast.

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

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

In the end, the two decided to send three regiments of troops to retake the airport. If the reinforcements that had been dispatched before were added, the number of troops would have reached over 10,000, and they would still be carrying a full infantry regiment. In order to enhance its attack power, they also configured armored vehicles and tanks respectively.

These were all decisions made to retake the airport as soon as possible, but it was too late to decide now.

They were not allowed to wait any longer. Facing the early morning sun, the first wave of support fighters that took off from the aircraft carrier arrived.

"Wow~"

In the face of the supporting fighter planes, the paratroopers who fought hard in the defensive battle below cheered even more indifferently.

Even Captain Krull, who has always been steady, cheered for this. Because it was too uncomfortable to fight before, they had three companies of more than 400 people, and they needed to block the attack of more than 1,000 enemies.

And it is even more difficult to fight without fortifications.

Take his three companies as an example. After capturing the airport, there were 124 soldiers in the three companies with combat effectiveness, but when reinforcements came and fought a battle with the attacking British army, there were only 89 soldiers.

This is a battle for more than an hour, and the loss of the third company is so great. In addition to the absolute superiority of the enemy's troops and equipment, it is also because they have no fortifications at all. There is no single soldier. This is not to let The enemy is bombed one by one.

This is also a situation where there is no way to do it, because the remaining soldiers are busy repairing the runway to ensure that the airport can take off and land transport aircraft. And it's also the number one priority, above the rest.

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

"boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom!"

An artillery that was still looting before was destroyed by bombardment from the air, and the ammunition placed on the side was also detonated, causing a secondary explosion, which caused an even more chain reaction.

"Da da da!"

A fighter jet fired at a low altitude, which made all the British soldiers run away. No one has the heart to attack now. Their morale is rapidly disintegrating under the air strike. If they want to reorganize their attack, at least they have to wait for the air strike.

This made Colonel Bernie, who was about to get a breakthrough, extremely annoyed, but now he had no way to do it. There are not many air defense weapons on the island, and there are too many places that need to be guarded, which is not enough at all.

It is impossible for one's own troops to attack against the bombing, which will make the troops collapse. Because this is not a few planes, but twenty or thirty planes, it is not difficult to make a wise choice, but I am a little unwilling.

In fact, Colonel Bernie didn't know, and he had no chance in the future. After the British retreated, the paratroopers defending here are busy doing one thing now, which is to dig 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, no one wants to relax because of their own lives.

So after the British retreated, the paratroopers on the defense were even more busy. They used their own shovels to dig in the gravel-covered land and kept digging.

As they continued to dig, a new batch of transport planes came, and another batch of bombers came with them. They came to the airport under the protection of HF201 fighters.

"What, the Romanian transport plane landed at the airport, then hurry up to attack, otherwise it will be more difficult to fight later. I know your difficulties under the other side's air superiority, 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 Dodding Hughes put down the phone, the whole person immediately slumped a lot. Because it was only at this time that he reacted, the Romanian paratroopers now seem to be unable to encircle and suppress them. The Romanians can always use planes to transport people and materials to arrive, especially after the air power on their own island is exhausted, which makes the other side lawless.

"Rescue to the Egyptian side, inform them of the current situation on the island, and say we need an air interception."

Dowding Hughes intends to take another shot, hoping that Egypt can mobilize air power to prevent the other party from hitting itself from the air, and give himself time to solve the paratroopers entrenched in the airport.

At the three airports, transport planes from Crete are parked on the runway one by one.

At Nicosia Airport, the doors of a transport plane that had just been parked were opened.

"Come down, hurry up."

An officer shouted and gestured into the cabin. Inside the cabin was the airborne regiment of the 1st Parachute Division. They brought their own equipment and quickly jumped out through the hatch.

At the rear of the cabin, more than a dozen officers and soldiers were pushing trolleys and were unloading a 37mm anti-tank gun urgently needed by the paratroopers. They put the rope around the anti-tank gun, lowered it along the slope of the trolley, and then resisted the ammunition that was transported together. The whole process took less than five minutes.

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

Such a transport plane with weapons and personnel is easy to handle, and it is basically unloaded in five minutes. Only the planes loaded with ammunition materials are difficult to handle. It takes them eight or nine minutes to unload one.

But this smooth situation only lasted for less than two or three hours.

"boom!"

A shell landed on the side of the runway, terrifying the paratroopers who were unloading supplies. Few people can do it, and they are carrying ammunition. As long as a shell hits everyone, they can't run.

"Remove all the ammunition!"

The officer who was in command of the transport was summoned to give orders to the soldiers, but no one came forward this time. The officer who saw this situation was very angry, and saw that he stepped forward to carry a box of ammunition and planned to put it elsewhere.

"boom!"

It was another shell that landed on the side of the airport, but he turned a deaf ear to it and didn't even shake his hand carrying the ammunition box.

His performance inspired the other officers and soldiers, and everyone came forward with the ammunition piled up.

"boom!"

A large crater was suddenly blown up in front of a landing transport plane, making it impossible for the pilot to react.

"Snapped!"

The front landing gear was directly broken, and the RY58 transport aircraft without the front landing gear fell directly. As a result, the transport plane, which was supposed to run in a straight line, slid diagonally, and the metal fuselage flashed sparks in the friction with the ground.

"Get out of the way."

Faced with this situation, several paratroopers who were pushing scooters quickly wanted to hide on the left and right sides.

The friction sound of "呲, 呲, 呲" caused the transport plane to glide for hundreds of meters in this posture, and the transport personnel in the cabin even fell to pieces, with their feet in the sky.

After the runway was drawn all the way, the transport plane stopped, so the driver who held the handbrake tightly was relieved. Fortunately, the personnel loaded by themselves are not ammunition, otherwise there will be no future.

It's just that the scene in the cabin was not good at all. Everyone was bruised and bruised, and even a few people broke their arms.

After the transport plane came to a stop, the crowd rushed up, carrying fire extinguishers, stretchers and other items to the rescue.

"What's going on here, why the shelling."

Major Salto, the interim commander of the airport, immediately complained. "Let the aviation station contact the fleet immediately, they need to protect the security of the airport."

In fact, the fleet has discovered the artillery of the airfield being shelled. These cannons are located 6 kilometers outside the city of Nicosia. This is the British 140mm howitzer firing, which 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 full of weight.

It is only found that it is difficult to let it continue to survive. Although its camouflage was good, the smoke and dust after firing were completely exposed in front of the aerial surveillance aircraft.

For this artillery position composed of four 140mm howitzers, the bomber would not be polite at all. Even if there are 6 2-pounder guns next to it, it still cannot stop the bombers from coming.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The precision bombing from Stuka turned 4 140mm howitzers into scrap metal, and by the way also lost 5 exposed anti-aircraft firepower.

That's right, the showdown between air defense weapons and fighter aircraft has always been the absolute advantage of aircraft, not to mention the huge gap 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, delivering personnel and materials.

This gave the paratroopers defending the airfield an opportunity to push the front line further away from the airfield with the help of the Air Force.