Major Kleiman soon sent a platoon to take over the high ground where the airborne point could be held, and then the main force of the troops continued to move towards the airfield of Iraq.

Airborne operations are fast, and the reason goes without saying, the vast majority of paratroopers are airborne in the middle of the enemy, that is, they are surrounded by the enemy at the beginning of the operation, and if they do not take advantage of the fact that the enemy's reinforcements have not yet arrived to quickly launch an attack on the target, the paratroopers are likely to never reach the target, although this target is close at hand.

"Well done, second lieutenant!" Major Kleiman, protected by several guards carrying submachine guns, walked up to Qin Chuan and said, "If that group of Greek soldiers is allowed to occupy there and suppress us, maybe we will never be able to get out of that farmland." I can't imagine that our reconnaissance plane actually ignored that high ground ......"

"Can't blame them for that, sir!" Qin Chuan replied: "That highland is covered with vegetation, and when you look down from the air, it is almost connected to the rest of the place, it is difficult for them to find anything!" ”

"You're right!" Major Kleiman said: "But their mistake almost ruined all of us and even the whole plan, and these fools flying in the air should be held responsible!" ”

With that, Major Kleiman looked into the air, where dozens of warplanes and bombers were flying towards the airfield and bombing them.

Qin Chuan felt that what Major Kleiman said was also right...... If the 1st Infantry Battalion had been wiped out in the farmland, the Irak airfield would have been completely in the hands of the British, so that British fighters, bombers, and transports would be able to take off and land freely on Crete, and the entire German and Italian plan for Crete would have gone bankrupt.

Therefore, there is no reason or excuse for war, and there is no such thing as "extenuating circumstances", because any small mistake can lead to a complete loss.

But what Qin Chuan and Major Kleiman didn't expect was that the German and Italian forces were not only wrong in terms of intelligence, but also wrong in their judgment of the defense of the Irak airfield......

Everyone, including Qin Chuan, thought that the defense of the Greek troops was the weakest.

It is normal to think so, because at this time Greece has surrendered, and the Greek soldiers seem to have no reason to continue fighting, and secondly, the Greek soldiers are poorly equipped, as mentioned before, they use rifles that the British army captured from the Italian soldiers. Rommel even cautiously obtained data from the Italian army on the performance of this rifle and other Italian weapons that the Greek soldiers might have equipped and analyzed, and the result was that the German paratrooper battalion could easily defeat the Greek battalion.

Again, it was the poorly trained Greek soldiers...... Most of the Greek soldiers on Crete were improvised militias formed by the British army, and a considerable number of them were refugees who had fled from the main Greek island.

Thereupon......

Without thinking about it, Rommel set the main direction of attack of the 1st Infantry Battalion at the Greek battalion's station, that is, east of the Irak airfield.

But it was only when the Germans came into fire with the Greek battalion that it became clear that this was not the case.

The Greek battalion was very heavy in firepower and organized its defenses in a very orderly manner, they set up mortars behind the wall and fired shells at the Germans, and rifles and machine guns fired through holes in the wall.

Of course, what is more important is that these Greek soldiers fought bravely.

The German offensive was carried out under the cover of air power...... Since most of the British fighters were on the island of Malta, the Germans temporarily gained air superiority.

Rommel's original idea was that the 1st Infantry Battalion, under the cover of air power, would quickly tear through the defenses of the Greek infantry battalion and break into the airfield, and then it would be able to use the airfield buildings to defend and control the airfield.

There was nothing wrong with this idea, because the paratroopers had to find a defensive position in their favor, otherwise there would be no heavy weapons, no tanks, no fortifications...... As soon as the enemy came up and surrounded him, he was only annihilated.

The problem was that the Greek battalion, which was originally considered unmentionable, was like a steel plate, and German fighters and bombers bombarded the Greek battalion and the wall indiscriminately, while the Germans launched a fierce charge, but they were beaten back several times...... Greek soldiers were always able to crawl out of the broken walls and set up their rifles to organize defenses.

"They don't look like militias that haven't been fighting!" Major Kleiman shouted angrily: "Our intelligence has gone wrong again! ”

Major Kleiman was right, these Greek soldiers were actually veterans of the Greek campaign, they had defeated the Italian army in Greece and even fought the German army, and it was only after the surrender of Greece that they fled to Crete and armed themselves in the hope that one day they could fight back and liberate Greece.

For such a force, and they also occupied favorable terrain, it was certainly difficult for the Germans, who did not have tanks and lacked heavy weapons, to break through their lines.

In fact...... The weakest defense of the airfield was precisely the British army, the British 14th Infantry Division was stationed in Crete as a reserve, if the German army attacked in any other direction, although the British troops in these directions were better equipped than the Greek army and even had tanks and armored vehicles, but they were afraid that they would have collapsed long ago under the indiscriminate bombardment of German fighters and bombers.

And it was with such a delay that the British troops from other directions were outflanked.

"Major!" The scout reported under artillery fire: "The British came from the north and south, with two companies each, armed with tanks and armored vehicles!" ”

"Block them!" Major Kleiman gritted his teeth and ordered.

The situation was clearly developing against the German side, especially at a time when German fighters and bombers were in a state of scarcity...... As mentioned earlier, German fighters and bombers had a short range, flying only a few minutes in the air after reaching Crete, 300 kilometers away, so it was difficult to provide continuous fire support to the German army.

On the other side, Colonel Smith, a British colonel in charge of the defense of Irac, was sure of the battle.

"What are the Germans doing?" After Colonel Smith put down the binoculars, he was a little puzzled and said, "They want to break through our line with this little force?" ”

This made Colonel Smith feel insulted...... The Germans also didn't take the British 14th Infantry Division too seriously, only one battalion of infantry dared to challenge the airfield defended by three battalions, and the British still had more than ten tanks in their hands.

"I'll give them a good look!" Colonel Smith said to himself, and then ordered: "Order the artillery, aim their anti-tank guns...... Blow up their anti-tank guns, they are just minced meat under the tracks of our tanks, understand? ”

"Yes, Colonel!" The staff officer immediately conveyed Colonel Smith's order.