Afterwards, John figured out why Marshall was so "cooperative" with him at that time and took the initiative to provide him with an opportunity to shape his image as an "airborne tactician". Marshall was worried that he would be fooled by McNair and others to wade into the troubled waters of the Third Army.

As long as John did a little better at the seminar, Marshall would have reason to exclude him from the list of candidates for the post of director of logistics of the Third Army. After all, at present, within the Army, airborne combat personnel are much scarcer than logistics specialists. Regardless of the outcome of today's seminar, the expansion of the Airborne Forces is imperative anyway, and the difference is only in size. When the time comes, as soon as John is sent to the newly created Airborne Forces, no one can say anything.

Of course, John didn't have the time to think about the reason for this. After obtaining the permission of Chief of Staff Marshall, he began to show his "insight" on air combat tactics to many of the officers present.

"The greatest significance of airborne tactics is that it opens up a whole new way of putting forces on the battlefield. Entering the battlefield by air is more advantageous and has fewer elements of restraint than entering the battlefield by land and sea. Airborne operations can avoid enemy fortifications and make areas that appear geographically safe to become unsafe. ”

"The role of the Airborne Forces is not only to act as an assault force to seize strategic points and establish a bridgehead for the subsequent air mobility or ground advance of large forces. Its existence is more of a strategic deterrent, making the defense of the other side more difficult. They have to find ways to divide their forces to defend strategic points in the depths, thus increasing the opportunity cost of the enemy. ”

"We can't just look at airborne operations as a simple raid tactic, the airborne forces are much more important at the strategic level than at the tactical level. The Airborne Forces should be used as a strategic force, it is a strategic mobile force on the battlefield that can create fighters for the entire war situation. To put it simply, the Airborne Forces are engaged in operations in order to create fighters for other branches of the armed forces. ”

"Therefore, with regard to this airborne operation on the island of Crete, our attention should not be focused on the heavy losses of the German paratroopers, but more on the lightning victory achieved in the airborne operation. In this report, I have this description of the battle of Crete, which I think is very well summed up. With that, John read aloud the famous description of air combat in the report.

"The dramatic battle of Crete composed an epic of war. The operational thinking is bold and novel, and it has a high degree of imagination. The troops proceeded from Central Europe and drove accurately into funnel-shaped Greece. Here they change form, coordinate forces, put on wings. The battle had the tones, melodies, and harmonies of musical masters, and on May 20 and in the days that followed, this force flew through the sky. Its fighting units rushed into the skies over Crete with a thunderous crescendo, obscuring everything. For the first time in history, the Airborne Forces landed in front of the enemy and defeated them with supplies and support from the air......"

John's commanding speech shocked all the generals present from the very beginning. So far, even Germany and the Soviet Union, which were the first to form paratrooper units, have not summed up the significance of airborne tactics at such a high level. John's action of "pretending to be forced" has achieved excellent results from the beginning.

Seeing that he had managed to attract the attention of the audience, John threw a second bombshell.

Of course, the German paratroopers' operations on Crete also fully exposed the weakness of this tactic. In the future, when conducting large-scale airborne operations, we need to pay special attention to avoid making the same mistakes. ”

"First of all, we must admit that all the pre-requisite superiority of the Airborne Forces was almost "depleted" at the moment of landing. Apart from the favorable condition of being "strategically located", the Airborne Forces, which penetrate deep into the rear of the enemy, have few advantages to speak of. Moreover, this only favorable condition does not belong to the Airborne Forces themselves, but to the entire campaign cluster of the executors of the airborne operation. Therefore, the Airborne Forces, after landing, are actually a relatively weak side. ”

"Secondly, the airborne troops have problems such as the natural dispersion of land sites and the difficulty of assembly, and more importantly, they lack heavy weapons, and even more lack the ability to attack fortified positions and the ability to fight for a long time. In the limited self-sustaining time, usually 3 to 5 days, if there is no follow-up ground force, then the result can only be a hero's broken wrist and turn into a tragedy. This is amply illustrated by the encounters of the German 7th Parachute Division in the first days of the campaign. ”

"Colonel Vanderbilt, how do you think our Airborne Forces should respond to such a situation in the German 7th Parachute Division?" This time, it was General William Lee who spoke out for John. Ever since the news of the Battle of Crete came back to the United States, he had been pondering what he would have done if he had been in the position of Student (father of the German paratroopers, commander of the 11th Air Army, German commander of the Battle of Crete).

"As I said earlier, the purpose of the Airborne Forces is to create fighters for other branches of the armed forces. Therefore, the task of the Airborne Forces should be to respond to the main forces, not to go to the final attack. The biggest failure of the Germans this time was that they mistakenly used the paratrooper as the main force of the attack. ”

"The most essential characteristics of airborne operations are surprises, maneuverability, quick and quick resolution, and great results at the minimum cost. Letting the Airborne Forces take on the main attacking figures of the campaign is precisely losing their core advantage. The use of airborne troops should be aimed at the enemy's weak underbelly and concentrate local superior forces to poke at the enemy's weakness, instead of scattering and landing at multiple points. Attacking at multiple points, paratroopers lack the ability to attack fortified positions, and once they encounter stubborn resistance, they will not only be unable to complete their goals, but also may be surrounded and destroyed. ”

"In the Battle of Crete, the German Airborne Forces attacked multiple targets at the same time, making it impossible for the troops to form a strong firepower. So on the first day not a single airfield was captured, which led to the fact that the 5th Mountain Division could not be transported to the front in time to support the airborne troops. In the absence of heavy weapons, the ensuing battle would have been much easier if they had concentrated their efforts on taking the Marama airfield first. ”

"That is, the Airborne Forces cannot be the main force of the campaign alone, right?" An army aviation colonel seemed to have spotted a loophole in John's statement: "Then why form a massive airborne force." How many elite airborne troops at the brigade level are fully capable of such tasks? ”

"Yes, since the essential characteristics of airborne operations are surprise and flexibility, isn't conducting large-scale airborne operations exactly contrary to this characteristic? The build-up of large numbers of troops and transport aircraft makes it difficult to guarantee the suddenness of the operation. Someone immediately chimed in.

John was prepared for this question. Although in later generations, the Airborne Forces did show a clear trend of "pocketization". However, this is mainly because the large-scale build-up of equipment and troops is easily learned by the other side using modern air and even space reconnaissance means, and it is almost impossible to keep it secret.

Moreover, a large group of transport planes flying in the enemy's depth or at a certain strategic point to carry out airborne landing will inevitably be attacked by all kinds of modern air defense weapons. To seize battlefield air supremacy in the hinterland of the region, even for a superior air force, there are great risks.

More importantly, the cost of modern military aircraft is simply too expensive, and the logistical pressure on the implementation of large-scale airborne landings is too great in the face of the increasing effectiveness of air defense weapons. Even the U.S. Army can't afford it.

However, it was only 1941, and not only were the means of reconnaissance insufficient, but the anti-aircraft weapons were also at an absolute disadvantage in the confrontation with air power. Therefore, during World War II, there were many large-scale airborne combat operations.

After the Battle of Crete, Hitler made a misjudgment on this issue. He believes that "the era of paratroopers is over." The paratroopers are a branch of the army that relies entirely on suddenness, but this factor of suddenness no longer exists. Therefore, he pessimistically threw the German paratroopers into the cold palace and ruined the continued development of this new method of warfare in the German army.

Historically, the British and American military top brass have made judgments diametrically opposed to Hitler's. They attached great importance to the value of airborne tactics and formed a huge airborne force. John certainly wouldn't allow history to turn back. He has already prepared a powerful counterattack weapon: "Your question is what I will talk about next, the question of the basic principles of airborne tactics. As long as the principle is followed, a large-scale airborne landing is completely feasible. ”