Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2204
German paratroopers are not the same as airborne troops.

Paratroopers are still light infantry in terms of arms. They land by parachuting or taking a glider, and seize important facilities such as bridges or airports to open channels for the arrival of follow-up troops.

Limited by technical conditions, paratroopers cannot carry heavy weapons, so they lack the ability to attack fortified and sustained operations.

After the paratroopers have completed control of the airport, the airborne troops equipped with heavy weapons will arrive in transport planes one after another.

As early as 1939 during the Polish campaign, the German army began to dispatch paratroopers to launch raids on airports in Poland.

During the Norwegian campaign, the German paratroopers were sent out again, but this time they suffered an unprecedented failure. After the "Sickle Operation" began, the German paratroopers were able to regroup.

During the Battle of the Netherlands, the German Seventh Airborne Division dispatched nearly 2000 paratroopers to launch a surprise attack on the Netherlands. Due to the high efficiency of the paratroopers, it even caused some trouble for the advance of the German ground troops.

Successive victories earned the German paratroopers the nickname "Green Devils".

Mustache is convinced of the combat effectiveness of the German paratroopers, and the attack on Crete is still dominated by the German Seventh Airborne Division.

This should be the largest airborne operation since the outbreak of World War II. The combined paratroopers and airborne troops dispatched by Germany have a total strength of about 2.2.

Compared with the Dutch campaign, the scale of German dispatches has increased tenfold, which is not to be underestimated.

The crux of the matter is that there are nearly 3 Allied troops defending Crete, and the southern African army alone has 5 divisions, with a total strength of nearly [-] troops and a large amount of heavy equipment. The "Green Devil" is about to face a huge test.

As Anthony Jones had predicted in advance, the [-]th Airborne Division's goal was still to focus on the airport.

Heraklion, where the 35th Division was in charge of defense, became the key target of the [-]th Airborne Division's attack.

In Heraklion, the North Victoria County Infantry Regiment is responsible for defending the airport. The soldiers of this regiment are mainly from the north of Lake Victoria, and they are all composed of whites and Chinese.

"Don't resist—is it the first time we participated in the war, will we end up in defeat?" Chen Ye, the head of the regiment, was in a bad mood. He understood the headquarters' intentions, but he was unwilling to accept it.

The North County Infantry Regiment has a total strength of 1500 people, all of which are fully equipped. The soldiers are all equipped with Nyasaland rifles. In addition to heavy weapons, they also have an air defense battalion. The high-level dual-purpose machine gun is enough to form a fatal attack on the weak German transport aircraft. threaten.

The equipment of the German paratroopers is indeed better than that of the German infantry, but not so good compared with the southern African infantry.

The performance of the MP38 is good, but because of the high cost, there is no large-scale equipment. The MP40, which was produced last year, has a lower cost, but it is limited by the output, and not many paratroopers are equipped with it.

The MG34 and MG42 are excellent automatic weapons, but they were not developed for paratroopers. The FG42 developed for paratroopers has not yet appeared.

In another time and space, it was after the Battle of Crete that Germany began to realize that existing weapons were not suitable for paratroopers, so it developed the FG42 paratrooper machine gun.

"It's not that we are not allowed to resist. We must at least have a sense before we can give up the airport." Kelly Nickel, the deputy head of the group, had a headache. How to "mean" just right is the biggest problem.

In order to allow more German troops to land at Heraklion Airport, the airport must be completely abandoned.

The combat effectiveness of the southern African troops has long been famous. If they give up without resisting at all, it will make the Germans realize that this is a trap.

Not too much resistance.

With the fighting power of the North County Infantry Regiment, if they go all out, the German Seventh Airborne Division will probably not be able to beat it.

The Seventh Airborne Division did not leave much time for Chen Ye and Kelly to discuss. At 22 noon on the 12nd, the first batch of German transport planes arrived above Heraklion Airport, and the German paratroopers arrived as scheduled.

The air defense force at the airport still caused some trouble for the German transport plane.

However, their overall shooting skills were not good. Most of the German paratroopers successfully parachuted, and only two German transport planes were shot down.

The scene of thousands of paratroopers parachuting at the same time is still very spectacular.

It has been raining for the past few days, the sky is as blue and clear as if washed by water, and the white umbrella flowers are slowly falling against the background of white clouds, even the paratroopers in green-gray costumes have become romantic.

Of course, for the soldiers of the ground air defense force, they really tried their best to restrain their desire to shoot at the paratroopers.

Before the paratroopers landed, the ground air defense forces had already dispersed.

When they "scattered in a crowd", of course they did not forget to blow up the high-level dual-purpose machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, so as not to give the German paratroopers who lacked heavy weapons a chance to take advantage of them.

The defenseless paratroopers in the sky are very happy.

Is this the legendary invincible southern African army?

Doesn't it look as magical as the legend says?
It’s normal. After all, southern Africa is too rich. The second generation of officials or the second generation of farmers lived in a greenhouse since they were young. How could they compare with the new generation of young people in Germany who have thrived in the wind and rain since childhood—— —

These southern Africans are really wasteful. Some anti-aircraft guns were blown up without even firing a single magazine, and ammunition piled up on the ground. Unfortunately, the caliber was different, and the German paratroopers could not use it.

Other materials are also piled up like a mountain. There are all kinds of aircraft parts in the warehouse, and there are even several "Cheetahs" that look complete, which makes the paratroopers feel like a treasure.

Since Southern Africa entered the war, Germany's BF109 suffered too much from the "Cheetah" in Southern Africa.

So far, nearly half of the German Air Force's losses have been caused by the "Cheetah".

Consider how long Southern Africa has been at war.

You know how deep the Germans' resentment towards the "Cheetah" is.

The Germans dream of getting a complete "Cheetah", but unfortunately they have not been able to do so.

Immediately, paratroopers entered the cabin of the "Cheetah" for inspection.

But unexpectedly found that these "cheetahs" are just empty shells, not even ejection seats, pure appearance.

The aircraft parts in the warehouse are not from the "Cheetah", but from the British "Spitfire" fighter jets.

This is amazing, the British did not deploy the Spitfire on Crete at all.

However, in a tense environment, although it was an accident, no one thought about whether it was a trap, because after the paratroopers took control of the airport, more transport planes followed one after another, and the airborne troops with heavy weapons arrived, which finally eased the situation. Paratroopers under pressure.

During this time, the airport guards did nothing.

After the airport was captured by paratroopers, the airport guards immediately organized a counterattack in an attempt to retake the airport.

By the standards of the German paratroopers, the counterattack by the airfield guards was extremely unprofessional.

The training of the German paratroopers is very strict. In addition to the extremely rigorous physical training, the paratroopers have to receive other training related to combat. In addition to learning how to use the G98 rifle and Kar98 carbine proficiently, they also have to learn pistols. , submachine guns, mortars, and how to use landmines, there are so many items that require training, many paratroopers don't even care about drinking water.

Strict training, of course, the effect is excellent.

The personal technical and tactical abilities of the vast majority of German paratroopers have reached a very high level, much higher than that of ordinary German infantry units, and they can be called the pinnacle of infantry in Europe in this era.

Since it is the pinnacle, then the vision is naturally much higher.

The counterattack of the airport guards is indeed unprofessional. They obviously have armored vehicles, but they don’t use them at all during the counterattack. The skirmish line was crooked, and some soldiers even threw away their rifles and turned around and ran away during the advance.

Soldiers who turned around and ran away were immediately shot by the officers in the queue to enforce battlefield discipline.

The effect of killing chickens and scaring monkeys was excellent. Although the other soldiers were trembling, they still barely moved forward with bayonet-mounted rifles, but the speed was obviously much slower.

At this time, the German paratroopers who had just landed, not to mention building a defensive position, hadn't even assembled, and the troop system had not been restored. Hundreds of German paratroopers barely formed a defense line under the command of Captain Mark.

Let alone tanks at this time, if armored vehicles participate in the attack, it will be a disaster for paratroopers who lack countermeasures.

What Captain Mark didn't expect was that when the MG42 machine gun nicknamed "Tearer" started roaring, the attacking airfield defense force quickly collapsed, and almost all soldiers turned around and ran away. Throw it all away.

officer?

The officers ran earlier and faster than the soldiers—

"We are lucky. It seems that the guards at the airport are Indians—" Captain Mark is still very rational. If it is the Southern African National Defense Force, then no matter how poor their performance is, it will not be so bad.

"God bless, I hope our luck will continue to be good—" Colonel Hans von Müller, who was airborne with the [-]th Airborne Division, was very satisfied with the performance of the paratroopers.

Satisfied so far at least.

Soon, a transport plane carrying airborne troops landed at the airport. The arrival of heavy weapons made the airport initially capable of defense, and Colonel Miller felt a little relieved.

But more serious tests also followed.

The response speed of the defense forces of Crete was still very fast. Two hours later, a force in iron gray military uniforms arrived near the airport, which is the iconic color of the Southern African Defense Forces.

In fact, you don’t need to look at the color of the military uniform to clearly determine the belonging of this army. After all, only the southern African army among the Allied forces is equipped with the "Leopard" tank with a combat weight of up to 41 tons.

This also makes the "Leopard" tank, according to the current European standards, really enter the ranks of heavy tanks.

Compared with the messy Indian army, the southern African army is very professional.

Before the offensive began, the southern African army, according to the habit, first attacked the airport with firepower.

As mentioned many times before, the southern African army is equipped with too many artillery, not to mention small-caliber mortars, but large-caliber artillery with a caliber of 120mm and above is the big killer for infantry.

The German paratroopers had just landed and had no time to build a defensive position. Such a short time was only enough to dig a foxhole, not even a traffic trench.

Large-caliber artillery does not rely on shrapnel to cause damage, but on impact.

A 120mm caliber shell fell, and if there was no gap, everyone in the area about half the size of a football field would either be killed or injured.

The artillerymen in southern Africa are obviously familiar with the airport. I don’t know how many shooting range cards have been made. The landing points of the shells are extremely accurate. Dozens of large-caliber artillery fire at the same time, and they can sweep the entire airport in two or three rounds.

Casualties among the paratroopers defending the runway soared rapidly.

"Attack, attack, we need to attack, otherwise we will be killed by the damn southern Africans on the runway of the airport sooner or later-" Colonel Miller has completely lost his relaxed and happy mood now, damn the rich and powerful southern Africans However, if the German paratroopers did not leave the foxholes and took the initiative to launch an attack on the southern African troops that were waiting, then the southern Africans would really use shells to kill all the German paratroopers and airborne troops.

As for shells, southern Africa is plentiful.

If shells can be exchanged for Germany's well-trained elite paratroopers, then it is very cost-effective to exchange one shell for another.

But the current situation is not one for another.

Just now, under the eyes of Colonel Miller, a group of German airborne soldiers who had just disembarked from a transport plane were directly hit by a large-caliber shell.

About one platoon of airborne soldiers were all killed in the huge explosion. The soldiers at the center of the explosion were directly torn apart, leaving no bones left. About ten seconds later, the sky began to rain blood, as well as various broken limbs and arms.

When Colonel Miller looked up, the sky turned red.

"Where's our artillery? Where's our artillery?" Captain Mark's voice was already crying. His subordinates suffered heavy losses. It is estimated that a company's troops can't even make up a platoon.

The paratroopers don't have artillery, the airborne troops do.

"Doesn't it take time for the artillery to deploy? The southern Africans will not give us time to successfully set up artillery positions—" Colonel Miller was in a state of anxiety, and it was estimated that thousands of German paratroopers had been killed or injured in just a short while.

Since Germany began to form a paratrooper force in 1936, this should be the heaviest day for German paratroopers to lose.

Germany only began to form paratroopers after being inspired by Russia.

From 1931 to 1935, Goering watched the performances of the Russian Airborne Forces several times, which strengthened his determination to develop the German Airborne Forces.

By 1941, Goering exhausted his efforts and formed the current German Airborne Forces.

After today, the German Airborne Forces, which have undergone rigorous training for several years, do not know how many people will be left.

Can't do it—

Colonel Miller dared not think further.

Just when Colonel Miller and Captain Mark organized the attack.

About a kilometer away, soldiers in southern Africa, relying on tanks and armored vehicles, have built a solid line of defense, waiting for the German paratroopers to die.

This line of defense was constructed too quickly.

(End of this chapter)