After a brief radio exchange between the German High Seas Fleet and the Nagumo Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet turned around and slaughtered the empty port of Aden, and the huge fleet disappeared into the night.

At 2:40 a.m. the next day, the sea northeast of the port of Aden.

Under the blowing of the sea breeze, the figures of two warships suddenly flashed on the slightly undulating sea.

The two warships drove about a nautical mile from the coastline, slowing down one after another, and the larger warship even stopped directly on the surface of the sea.

Three motorboats were lowered to the surface of the water one after another, and more than twenty figures quickly climbed down the rope ladder to climb down the battleship and board the motorboat.

After catching the boxes that had been hoisted from the battleship and placing them on the motorboats, the three motorboats immediately set off and sailed abruptly towards the northern coast.

After seeing off the assault team, the two warships set sail again and headed southwest.

The three motorboats reached the coast unimpeded, and the assault team landed smoothly.

Jumping out of the motorboat, the assault team carried the boxes and marched along the coastal road to the port of Aden in the southwest.

More than half an hour later, in the bright moonlight, the outline of a city appeared in front of the assault team.

The commandos stopped and lowered the boxes.

Lifting the lid of the box, opening the moisture-proof tarpaulin, a high-power radio station appeared in the box.

The radio hand quickly put on the headphones, pulled out the antenna, sat down on a rock and began to fiddle with the radio, and the rest of the team scattered around him, pulling up a cordon.

Five or six minutes later, an airwave flew into the Eide airfield in south-central Eritrea, shortly after. The engine roared at the airport.

Sixty Ju-52 Junkers transport planes roared off the ground, regrouped in the air, and flew mightily to the southeast.

An hour and a half later. A faint roar appeared in the sky northwest of the port of Aden.

Guided by the commando radio waves, the JU-52 fleet accurately arrived at the airdrop site.

The commandos looked up, and a flock of "big birds" appeared in the night sky, rapidly approaching them.

The group soon arrived over the predetermined location, the hatch was wide open, a series of sturdy figures jumped out of the cabin, and hundreds of white parachutes soon appeared in the sky.

Airdrop complete. The ju-52 group turned and left, and the swarm of white umbrella flowers quickly disappeared into the night sky.

Ten minutes later. A group of figures appeared in the sand to the north of the commando and quickly ran towards the commando.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the paratroopers set off again and pounced on the port of Aden in the southwest. The assault team remained in place, directing the subsequent airborne troops with radio waves.

By 7 a.m., the entire 2nd Parachute Regiment of the German 7th Parachute Division, as well as the division's engineer battalion, had been airborne, cutting off the port from the port north of the port of Aden.

The earth-shattering roar had already awakened the remnants of the British army in the port, and the German paratroopers had just approached the British outlying positions when they were strafed by British machine guns, and the German paratroopers immediately returned fire, and the sound of gunfire suddenly broke the silence of the port of Aden.

Mortar-shell unique whistling sound. The clatter of German and British machine guns and the crisp sound of ping-pong when the rifles opened fire were heard one after another.

The exchange of fire between the two sides did not last long. The German paratroopers took the initiative to retreat, widening the distance between them and the British, and the sound of gunfire gradually thinned out.

On the sea, the German High Seas Fleet's heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the battleship Tirpitz swaggered towards the port of Aden, and behind them was the much larger Nagumo Fleet of the Japanese Navy.

Drive to a position about five nautical miles south of the port of Aden. Two warships crossed the massive hull, the gun turrets in the bow and stern slowly turning. Huge gun ports were pointed at the same time in the direction of the port of Aden.

Under the guidance of the paratroopers, the eight 203-mm guns of the Admiral Hippel were the first to open fire, and the shells spun and flew over the sea, over the city, and plunged headlong into the British positions.

When the smoke cleared, the British positions, which had just been invincible and arrogantly confronted the German paratroopers, were in shambles.

The machine-gun bunkers were reduced to craters, the continuous trenches were also severed by huge craters, the barbed wire was shattered, the fractures were twisted into twisted shapes and hung down to the ground, and the wooden stakes were turned into igniting torches.

Parts of torn steel helmets and guns, torn strips of cloth from military uniforms, and the flesh and blood of British soldiers were mixed all over the position.

Four Aradao seaplanes soon appeared over the British positions, and the pilots circled while waving to the German paratroopers on the ground, and then coldly reported the coordinates of the remaining British positions to the battleship's operational command room.

The operational command room then communicated these coordinates to the turret, and the Tirpitz 380-mm guns Admiral Hipper's 203-mm guns immediately targeted the remaining British positions.

Under this asymmetrical and ferocious blow, the morale of the British troops outside the port of Aden plummeted, and when the Type 99 dive bombers from the Japanese aircraft carriers appeared above them, the morale of the British troops quickly collapsed, and they hastily abandoned their positions and fled into the port, bringing panic to the British troops in the port.

The German paratroopers then charged into the port of Aden, and street fighting ensued.

In order to improve efficiency, whenever a building encountered British resistance, the German paratroopers summoned battleship artillery, or summoned Japanese Type 99 dive bombers, directly bombed the building into a pile of rubble, and buried the recalcitrant British troops inside.

Amid the raging of large-caliber naval guns and aerial bombs, smoke and dust billowed from the port of Aden, explosions continued to sound, and buildings collapsed one after another, becoming victims of the war.

Endless black smoke and flames filled the sky over the port of Aden, and a third of the city soon fell into the hands of German paratroopers.

On the sea, inside the aircraft carrier Akagi, Nagumo ordered the communication room to directly shout to the British troops in the port in clear code according to the original plan, urging the defenders to surrender.

On the battleship Tirpitz, the German Navy was doing the same work of persuasion to surrender.

Under the double attack of heavy firepower and psychological offensive, the lonely port defenders finally could not bear it.

After the commander of the harbor garrison, Colonel Hyde, sent a final farewell telegram to Admiral Wavell, who was stationed in Oman. A white flag was raised on the roof of his headquarters.

At 11:20 p.m. on 24 May, the vanguard of German paratroopers entered the headquarters of Colonel Heide, and the port of Aden was declared to have changed hands.

Nagumo fleet. The battleship Hiei, which had been damaged in the battle with the Indian Ocean Fleet, and a number of light ships entered the port of Aden to rest.

The main force of the fleet followed the Tirpitz and the Admiral Hippel to turn the bow and sail eastward, chasing the main force of the German High Seas Fleet towards the Persian Gulf.

Almost at the same time, on the southeastern coast of the Red Sea, in the port city of Hodeidah, in western Yemen, there was also a lot of fighting.

With the support of naval guns from the fleet's artillery, the main force of the Italian Marine Regiment of San Marco successfully landed in the field on the north shore of the port.

After regrouping the whole team. The assault on the port of Hodeidah began immediately.

On the sea, the fleet, led by the battleships Veneto and Littorio, turned their guns. Countless large-caliber and oversized shells were bombarded into the harbor.

In the sky, a group of bombers from Eritrea was not far behind, turning all the British positions exposed outside the port of Hodeidah into mottled craters.

When the St. Mark's Marine Regiment arrived at the port of Hodeidah on foot, the British outlying positions were almost gone.

Facing attacks from three directions: sea, land, and sky. The British troops in the port of Hodeidah did no better than the British troops in the port of Aden.

Less than half an hour after the surrender of the port of Aden, two battalions of British defenders in the port of Hodeidah gave up resistance and surrendered to the Italian army

Muscat Port, the capital of Oman, is located at the key point of the Persian Gulf leading to the Indian Ocean, surrounded by mountains on three sides, bordering the Arabian Sea in the southeast and the Gulf of Oman in the northeast. Strategic position is very important.

After the transfer from Iraq to Oman, Admiral Wavell did not hesitate to choose this place as the new headquarters of the British forces in the Middle East.

However, the tranquility of Muscat Harbour has long since been lost.

The main streets of the harbor were filled with hurried British soldiers, as well as Indian soldiers in red or green turbans.

They walk on different streets. The destination is highly unified, and that is the Muscat Port Terminal, which can be used for escape.

In a three-story mansion in the southwest corner of the docks, north of Muscat Harbor, the staff officers of the Middle East Corps Command were in disarray.

Piles of important documents were thrown into the brazier and reduced to ashes in the flames.

Black smoke and paper ashes drifted through the room, and a choking smell filled the room.

Both officers and soldiers. They all packed their bags.

Utilities such as typewriters, telephones, and other valuable facilities have long since been dismantled and boxed. They were then thrown onto trucks and taken to the docks.

Wavell walked down the stairs with heavy steps, through the panicked crowd in the hall on the first floor, his lieutenant and orderly followed him with his suitcase, hoping that he would be able to walk faster.

Wavell had just reached the main entrance when a captain intercepted his way.

"This is a telegram from Colonel Wood of Hodeidah, who and his men are under attack by the overwhelming superior fire of the Italians, who cannot support it, and are about to surrender to the Italians."

Wavell swept the telegram with his remaining right eye, then crumpled it into a ball of paper and threw it to the ground.

"Order the radio to pack up and follow me to the docks." Wavell said.

The captain officer was pardoned, and strode away to carry out the order.

Looking at the captain officer who was almost detached from the air, Wavell had mixed feelings.

The British Empire was defeated again, and so quickly and so badly.

From the morning of May 22, the bad news came one after another.

First, the Indian Ocean Fleet was attacked by the Japanese Navy, then reconnaissance planes discovered that the German-Italian combined fleet was heading south, and then the worst news was that Japan declared war on Britain.

Yesterday, the Indian Ocean Fleet was completely destroyed. Today, in the middle of the morning, the ports of Aden and Hodeidah have been lost.

Without the protection of the Indian Ocean Fleet, the British army in the Middle East led by itself became a rat trapped in a bellows, and the Germans could ravage it as much as they wanted.

Fortunately, the painful reality woke up the Prime Minister, and his report on his retreat was approved shortly after it was reported to London.

If their judgment is correct, the Axis navies must be marching towards the port of Muscat at this moment, which can be reached in two days at most, and then cut off the sea passage of British forces in the Middle East.

Wavell got into the car and remembered the order given to him by London that he must use these two days to withdraw as many troops as possible and return to India.

He couldn't help but sneer, even if he could withdraw all his troops to India.

The German and Italian fleets, as well as the Japanese squadron, advanced eastward from the Gulf of Aden.

The main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet will advance westward from the Strait of Malacca, and a huge pincer offensive will be formed, encircling the entire territory of India.

What is the Prime Minister's brain? Anyone with a modicum of military common sense can see that Britain has lost the war.

The longer the war lasted, the more heavy the British losses became.

Some of the junior soldiers and officers had already begun to ridicule Churchill as a spy for the Germans who had infiltrated Britain in order to join forces with the Germans and lose all the colonies that Britain had conquered for hundreds of years.

Idiot Churchill, why didn't he accept the peace talks of the Germans? Why accept the Americans' sowing discord and fight this war without limits?

Those waste legislators, why don't they just knock Churchill out of power, and why let him continue to plague Britain?

In Wavell's heart, all kinds of negative emotions came and went, and his face was also gloomy as if it were the sea.

The car quickly drove into the dock and stopped at the pier.

Escorted by an adjutant and orderly, Wavell rushed through the crowd and up the gangway to the USS Beauty.

Walking into the first-class cabin, the adjutant and orderly were busy placing their luggage, while Wavell stood outside the cabin, holding on to the railing and looking out towards Muscat Harbor.

Wisps of black smoke rose from the southern part of the harbor, and faint gunfire could be heard from time to time.

Those damned German paratroopers are definitely storming the city.

Like ghosts, they silently appeared in the western part of the port of Muscat, seized the airport outside the port in one fell swoop, and then cut off the port of Muscat from the interior, blocking the escape of British troops from the interior.

He can only withdraw to India with the British troops in the port, is it two thousand or two thousand five hundred? In short, no more than 3,000 men will be captured, which means that at least 30,000 troops will be captured, and the glorious history of the Prime Minister's invincibility will add another glorious stroke.

The sound of gunfire gradually extended in the direction of the Muscat port docks, and black smoke rose from more and more streets in the port.

At the urging of countless fleeing soldiers, the Mitaku finally sounded its piercing whistle and slowly sailed away from the dock and headed east.

Two days later, on the afternoon of 26 May, when the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen sailed into the port of Muscat, the flaming swastika was already flying high over the harbor.

Wavell's former headquarters has become the temporary command of the German Middle East Corps.

In the office on the second floor, Chen Dao had just walked into the house when Rommel greeted him and said with a smile: "You're late, this is already my jurisdiction." ”

Chen Dao asked in surprise: "How did you get here from Iraq in three days?" That's more than a thousand kilometers. ”

"When I heard that the paratroopers occupied this place, I came by plane." Rommel said.

"People who don't get sick are so happy." Chen Dao sighed.

"You came just in time, tomorrow is the surrender ceremony of the British army, you also come to participate, the number of prisoners is not much, I estimate it at thirty or forty thousand." Rommel warmly invited.

"Who was the commander of the British? Wavell? ”

"That one-eyed dragon ran away early, and a lieutenant general surnamed Hart stayed behind for him, and then he was captured by us."

"Sure enough, it's a step too late, I have to continue to set off early tomorrow morning, no, I will leave tonight, and I can't participate in your surrender ceremony." Chen Dao said.

"Why? Where are you going? ”

"Go to East Africa, block the sea lanes of the British army in East Africa, and catch that guy named Montgomery."

"Montgomery? This surname sounds familiar, didn't we bury a Montgomery alive in France? Could it be another British general with the same surname? Rommel asked.

"I don't know, I have an enmity with an Englishman surnamed Montgomery, and I must not let him go."

"Do you want to bury another Montgomery alive?"

"Your suggestion is good, I'll consider it." (To be continued)