The huge German flag was placed on the roof of the building, which was a kind of identification mark for the sky. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info Luftwaffe ruled the skies in this era, so avoiding accidental injuries became the first thing to pay attention to.

Similarly, on tanks and armored vehicles, the national flag is also covered or painted with a clear identification mark.

This was done to prevent the Germans from being mistaken for a retreating enemy by the Stuka or other bombers used by the air force to intercept the enemy during their rapid advance.

Similar identification systems were used by both the Axis and the Allies, such as the black-and-white identification marks that the Americans sprayed on the wings of airplanes in '44.

Of course, in '44, the German ground forces would not have laid the flag on top of the tank...... Instead, they cover it with branches and carefully camouflage their precious vehicles.

On the island of Malta in 40 years, German paratroopers spread a huge flag on the roof against their friendly bombers.

The striking swastika is set off within a white circle, surrounded by bright red colors. As soon as this is seen, the Air Force will avoid attacking nearby positions no longer.

Lyman looked up at the sky with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

It was from there that he landed on the island, and there are still many planes there that are accompanying him and bless him.

"I heard the general has arrived." The squad leader walked over, enjoying a rare moment of peace, and they had only time to rest from the time they landed on the ground.

Many soldiers were sharing captured canned food and food they were carrying, and paratroopers' rations were very mediocre, mainly due to volume and relative quality.

After all, it is very dangerous to parachute with a lot of canned food and instant noodles on your back, and if the mass is too large, it may affect the parachute and increase the burden of landing on the paratrooper.

So, the German paratroopers' late lunches weren't really rich, and most of them had nothing but potatoes diluted with water.

"The general has arrived? General Studenter? Pinching the cigarette in his hand, Lyman looked at his squad leader and asked.

His face was stained from the flames of war, but even that didn't hide the potholes on his face.

He has had freckles since he was a child, and he still hasn't let those traces disappear when he grows up. It's just that now he has a stubble in his mouth that he hasn't had a chance to repair, which seems to give Lyman a little more of a mature man's taste.

"Yes, most of the tasks after that will be handed over to a newly formed airborne division, as well as the Italians." The squad leader nodded, and by the way, he said a situation that was good news for them.

"What? The next battle is going to be handed over to the new two airborne regiments? Lyman finally had a smile on his face when he heard that the battle seemed to be over.

Lyman, who has been through too many battles, no longer has any good feelings about fighting. The fierce battle now is actually just one task after another that must be completed for a person like him.

He once swore to God by pressing his palm on the flag that he would be loyal to the Führer and to the country.

So he came out of his hometown and went to the training camp...... Later to the Netherlands, to Belgium, to Malta.

And he and anyone in the paratrooper knew that this was far from all their journey, and that they would go to more places and keep running like this.

As a veteran paratrooper, he had a commemorative medal for parachuting into the Netherlands on his chest, and while fighting bravely in Belgium, he and his squad leader were awarded the enviable Iron Cross of the 2nd degree.

It was there that he was promoted to private of the first class and became the only soldier in the entire paratrooper squad who could smoke with the squad leader.

"You're right, our mission is to rest here, and then follow the main army to Zebdi." The squad leader took a deep breath and turned all the cigarettes in his mouth into ashes.

Then he puffed out a light smoke from his nostrils, and nodded very comfortably, as if he was enjoying the pleasure of overdrawing his life.

During the war years, people seemed to prefer to smoke and drink. Because many people know that they don't have to wait for lung cancer or alcoholic liver to kill them before a bullet breaks their heads.

It's easier to die than to live here, and death comes without warning. So you don't need to prepare anything, you just need to live and wait and enjoy, and that's it.

"Not bad! Anyway, at least this time I can get a medal for brave landing in Malta, for me, it's enough. Lyman was very satisfied with the fact that he didn't have to go to the front, and for the first time, he didn't ask his squad leader for cigarettes.

He sipped a third of his cigarette and watched the men who were escorting the British captives away in the distance, cheering in his heart that he had survived another day.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and although the sky was still bright, the German paratroopers had not much time left to enjoy their air support.

As soon as night came, the German paratroopers were left alone to face the British defenders, although the German paratroopers on the ground were no less than the British rear troops on the island of Malta.

According to General Student's pre-planned plan, the German paratroopers were to send 10,000 troops to Malta before sunset.

This is almost the same number as the British defenders on the island, and if you adopt a stubborn posture and hold out for a night, you should not suffer.

You know, these paratroopers, including a newly expanded paratrooper division, every soldier is a baby bump for Student, and any loss will be painful.

Compared to the United States, Germany does not have as many resources to squander. If the paratroopers were to lose too much on the island of Malta, it would have shaken the resolve of the German top brass to use the paratroopers.

This is something that has been proven by history - after the Battle of Crete, the German paratroopers were hidden in the snow and finally consumed as elite infantry in the process of filling the defensive line.

Of course, Li Leke is not the true head of the dead state, so he will not care about the loss of 18,000 people, even if the airborne troops lose half of them because of the capture of Malta, he will resolutely continue to use the other half.

But if he can not lose so much, of course Li Le likes to see it. He would put more paratroopers in Crete so that the world could really see the power of German paratroopers.

On the other side, inside the general headquarters on the British island of Malta, several British officers were confused about the scale of the German airborne landing.

"The German paratroopers should be on the scale of more than 5000 people!" A British officer, looking at the map, judged: "They are now trying to meet at Mosta." ”

Mosta was still under the control of the British Army, but unfortunately they had only a pitiful 700 men there, and they were simply unable to organize a defense in the city.

The increase was obviously unrealistic, as the British defenders had already lost more than 2,500 men after a day of fierce fighting.

Although most of them were local second-rate troops and an expeditionary force from India, they were also within the British army.

The loss of about 3,000 men reduced the number of British defenders on the island to more than 10,000, which also slowed down the British reinforcements of Mosta and Rabat.

After all, the British judged that after the paratrooper attack, the Italians would land in Valletta and other important areas the next day, so they had to make sure that they had more than 5,000 defensive troops in the key defensive areas.

In addition to the defensive positions along the coast, the British had to leave a guard force of 1000 people at the airfield.

Add to that the 2,000 men stationed in other areas, and the 900 men who have just been evacuated from the vicinity of Zebuj, and that's pretty much all the British forces are left.

Under such conditions, the British commanders did not consider it realistic to increase their forces and recapture the lost Rabat.

They preferred to protect their airfields and wait for German paratroopers to attack their heavily defended areas.

In this way, it was possible to neutralize the advantages of the Germans in combat, and make the most of their limited forces.

"It's not 5,000 people, just looking at the number of gliders of the Germans, they have more than 7,000 troops." Another British officer said to his colleagues.

His words drew sneers from the others, and the officer who spoke first denied it: "The Germans have played a trick in the Netherlands, and this is their usual trick." ”

When he landed in the Netherlands, in order to exaggerate the actual number of German airborne troops, Student airdropped many scarecrows with spontaneous combustion devices to charm the British and French forces and create more chaos.

At that time, the Anglo-French forces miscalculated the size of the German paratroopers, believing that the Germans had airdropped tens of thousands of soldiers to their rear.

The result was chaos at the front, and endless retreats. With these little tricks, the Germans drove straight into the Netherlands and won quick victories over Belgium.

"You mean, the Germans are bluffing?" The British officer, also shaken by his colleague's reminder, asked.

"It should be! The Germans should have only about 5,000 people on the island, and we can take advantage of the cover of the night. Several British officers quickly made their own decisions......

Even if the decision was wrong, the Germans received a massive replenishment of nearly 10,000 troops two hours later, as well as ammunition and food.

Moreover, the commanders of the two German paratrooper divisions in Student and the German airborne army reached the front line, and for the first time in the history of the German paratroopers such a large-scale operation, the planes used were almost all the funds that Germany and Italy could find.

For the last three hours, the Germans were not idle, they tried to attack Mosta, and they captured part of the buildings on the perimeter.

The night of the 23rd came as scheduled, the sun set below the sea level in the distance, and at the same moment, the Germans accepted the surrender of the defenders of Mosta and occupied the transport hub on the island of Malta.