Rudolf Hess joined the Nazi Party in 1920 at the age of 26 and was the 16th member of the Nazi Party. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After the reorganization of the Nazi Party in 1925, Hess became Hitler's private secretary. In December 1932, Hess was appointed Chairman of the Political Commissar of the Central Committee of the Nazi Party by Hitler. In the same year, Hess became a member of the Nazi Party in the German Reichstag and was promoted to SS general. After Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazi Party came to the stage of state power, Hess was appointed deputy head of the Nazi Party on April 21, 1933, and on June 29 of the same year, Hess was appointed Minister of Germany, in charge of all affairs except foreign policy and the armed forces.

If you look at the speed of his political career, Lin Jun's promotion speed can really be compared with Hess, and in some respects even more prominent-such a situation can only be formed in extraordinary times, and normal situations are almost impossible.

But there was also a big difference between the two: Hess relied on prestige within the Nazi Party and Hitler, while Lin Jun relied on prestige in the army and Stalin's unconditional trust. Obviously, if you look at their prestige and power in the country, Lin Jun, the deputy commander, is much bigger and more stable than Hess, the deputy head of state, - at least Hess does not have enough foundation in the army, and Lin Jun started from the army.

Fortunately, Lin Jun has Stalin's unconditional trust, and he himself has always shown that he has no ambition for power - if it weren't for these preconditions, Lin Jun would have had a headache when he encountered such a world-class anecdote as Hess's "escape".

The higher you go, the stronger the wind, Lin Jun knows this very well - he often says that he is not mature enough, and it will take at least another 20 years to consider the problem comprehensively. No matter what Stalin thought of himself, a beloved general who did not like to seize power, the old man was always happy to hear such words.

No one likes to have an overly anxious successor: now Stalin is in a hurry, and this successor is too slow!

Just after the conversation with Stalin, Lin Jun took the car back to his home in downtown Moscow, but he did not expect Andlupuv to be there.

In the study, Lin Jun told his best brother about Hess.

Andlupuf was born and died with Lin Jun several times, and there is nothing between the two that cannot be discussed, and this eldest brother can still give Lin Jun ideas. "Andrey, even if you let go in the army, the party still let Comrade Stalin consolidate your position for you!"

The words of the air force general were in one sentence: Stalin trusted Lin Jun, the Soviet Union needed a military god, and Lin Jun was the best candidate. If he behaves calmly in the party, this will not squeeze Stalin's authority, and the old man will trust Lin Jun even more.

In fact, both of them were overly worried, Stalin didn't think about Lin Jun and Hess together at all, her trust in Lin Jun has long been as solid as a rock: "How can my genius love be compared to that madman of the Nazis?!" ”

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The "little storm" caused by the Hess incident in the Kremlin lasted only a few days, because the intelligence indicated that the Germans were about to invade Crete, and the only way the Germans could do so was to be airborne - the British Mediterranean Fleet could not allow the Germans to travel comfortably from the sea to Crete, and Hitler's marshals and generals had no choice.

The Soviet Union has the largest airborne troops in the world, and it was also the first in the world to be formed: the Soviet Union, with the efforts of the founder of the paratroopers, Onid Minov, on August 2, 1930, the United States parachuted a paratrooper detachment for the first time during military exercises, which also became the Soviet Airborne Forces Day, which was also the world's first airborne detachment. During the 1935 exercises, 2,500 paratroopers made an airborne landing, which surprised Western observers invited by Stalin.

Now the largest airborne force formation in the Soviet Union is the corps, like the Fourth Airborne Corps, which was formed last month in the Western Special Military District. Lin Jun knows that "historically" the Soviet Union has also used airborne troops to carry out airborne operations many times, but the scale is not very large, and the application is not very successful, and many excellent airborne troops are more used as elite infantry.

The Crete Airborne Campaign was the first large-scale airborne campaign in the history of world warfare, and the Yeye was the only landing campaign in World War II in which airborne operations were the main mode of operation, and this is of great reference value to military strategists all over the world -- in one respect, if the Soviet Union wants to gallop across the world's seven oceans, the Soviet military commanders still have to learn how to conduct large-scale landing battles.

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Crete is located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and chokes the southern Aegean Sea. The island is 100 kilometers away from the Greek mainland, the island is long and narrow from east to west, with continuous mountains, steep south coast, gentle terrain on the north coast, and a road through the whole island; There were airfields in Malemman, Rethymnon, Heraklion and other places, which served as strategic points for the British army to defend the outposts of the Suez Canal Zone and control the eastern Mediterranean. The German seizure of the island was strategically important for seizing sea supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, as well as eliminating the threat of the "lower belly".

The Germans are now massively concentrating transport planes for the upcoming airborne operation, and according to Lin Jun's prediction, the Germans must concentrate at least 500 or more "Junkers" to ensure sufficient airborne capacity.

How many troops did the Germans have prepared? The German army participating in the war was the 7th Airborne Division, the Airborne Assault Regiment and the 5th Mountain Infantry Division of the 11th Air Force of the Air Force, with a total of 22,000 men, more than 500 transport aircraft, and 80 ******, supported by the 8th Army of the Fourth Air Force of the Air Force (430 bombers and 180 fighters) and the Navy's Southeast Fleet. The commander-in-chief of the campaign was Air Force General Alexander Lehr, commander of the 4th Air Force.

The German ground assault forces were organized into three clusters, Western, Central and Eastern, under the command of the commander of the 11th Air Army, Studenter. The Junkers-52 can carry 12 to 16 heavily armed German soldiers each, and more than 500 are still insufficient, and the airborne troops are parachuting in two batches to transport heavy weapons and some reinforcements from the sea: the first group, the western cluster will seize the Malemai airfield to ensure the landing of follow-up troops; The Central Cluster seized the Cretan capitals of Chania and Souda and paralyzed the main ports of Crete. In the second group, another part of the central cluster will occupy Rethymnon and its airfield, and the eastern cluster will capture Heraklion and its airfield to ensure the landing of the mountain infantry division.

Even if all the planes were used in the first airborne landing, the German army that could reach Crete was still vulnerable, because the Commonwealth army defending the island was about 28,000 people, and the Greek army was 14,000! The Anglo-Greek commander was the commander of the New Zealand division, Major General Freiberg, an experienced veteran: in World War I, Freiberg became a battalion commander at the age of 25 and a brigade commander at the age of 26, with extensive combat experience.

The whole island of Crete is divided into four defense districts: Malemmeh, Souda, Rethymnon, and Heraklion. But the Anglo-Greek forces also had troubles: the defenders, mostly troops withdrawn from Greece to the island, were exhausted, had insufficient means of communication and transport, lacked heavy weapons, and had few artillery, only 6 tanks and 35 aircraft. The only good news for the coalition was that they had the support of the British Mediterranean Fleet.

The island's defenders were fortified with the island's port and three airfields as the core: German intelligence believed that most of the troops withdrawn from Greece had been withdrawn to North Africa, underestimating the strength of the defenders.

At 2 a.m. on May 20, 1941, the German airborne guidance group parachuted in, marking the airborne area. At about 7 o'clock, the 3rd Parachute Regiment and the 1st Assault Parachute Regiment of the German 7th Airborne Division landed in the areas of Malemai and Chania after an aviation fire assault and seized the airfields in both places.

For Hitler's "green ghosts", Malemai and Chania were definitely "memorable places": the Anglo-Greek forces inflicted horrific casualties on the airborne Germans, and about a quarter of the German paratroopers were shot while still hanging from their parachutes. Many ****** and transport planes were shot down and crashed, and even the commander of the 7th Parachute Division, Sussman, was reimbursed in the planes he was flying.

After the arrival of German paratroopers on the ground, the nightmare in the air seemed to be continued - the Western Cluster Airborne Assault Regiment (3rd and 1st Assault Paratrooper Regiments. After the main force landed, they attacked the Malemai airfield and the commanding heights 107 nearby, but the defenders stubbornly resisted, and almost a quarter of the Germans fell under the fire of the Anglo-Greek forces within an hour! But the losses of the British were not small, and the combat effectiveness of the German paratroopers was not comparable to the average British infantry!

The central cluster airborne in Rethymnon was also subjected to heavy fire from the defenders, the transport aircraft formation was disbanded, and the paratroopers were too scattered.

At 3 p.m. that day, German soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 100th Regiment of the 5th Mountain Division took off from mainland Greece in Junker 52 and arrived at the Malemai airfield, which had been occupied by paratroopers, and was greeted by heavy artillery fire flying near the airfield.

The mountain infantrymen jumped from the bullet-riddled planes to the ground of the airfield, which was full of dead bodies, and they were greeted by a dense barrage of machine-gun bullets from the British -- the commander of the 5th Mountain Division had to sigh that his troops had "entered the gates of hell"!

Due to the casualties of the commanders of the 7th Airborne Division and the Airborne Assault Regiment, the paratroopers in the airborne area lost their unified command. At 16 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the main force of the Second Parachute Regiment of the Second Airborne Forces of the Central Cluster landed in the Rethymnon area, and suffered more than 400 casualties on the same day, but failed to seize the airfield as planned; The eastern group, dominated by the 1st Parachute Regiment, failed to take off on time due to the slow refueling and reduced number of aircraft, and there was an interval between the air attack of the bombers responsible for support, and the parachute landing in Heraklion began at 17 o'clock, and all landed at about 19 o'clock: the defenders were fully prepared, and the German paratroopers could not assemble under the attack of the defenders, and the formation was chaotic, the losses were serious, and they were unable to seize the airfield.

According to the plan, the rest of the troops of the 100th Regiment of the 5th Mountain Division were supposed to go to Crete on the **** ships they had collected, and in addition to the intact 3rd Battalion, there were artillery, baggage, ammunition, mules, horses, and some paratroopers and army infantry personnel. They boarded the ship and set off on the night of the 20th, but met the British Mediterranean fleet in the early morning of the 21st, and the fleet had to withdraw to Greece.

At midnight that day, the sailing fleet went to Crete again, and unfortunately, they met the British fleet again on the north shore of Crete: the British reconnaissance planes had already discovered the German fleet, and the British waited patiently until it was dark before setting off to hunt for food!

After nightfall, the cruisers and destroyers of the British Mediterranean Fleet spotted the German convoy: the British, illuminated by searchlights, blew up the tiny Greek fishing boats one by one with their naval guns.

The Italian corvettes were unable to parry, so they had to hide far away, allowing the British Navy to carry out wanton slaughter against the unresisting German transport fleet. The German fleet was forced to return to Greece after losing 12 sailing ships and 3 small cargo ships.

Ringel, the commander of the 5th Mountain Division, thought his 3rd Battalion was fully reimbursed, but the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea and life jackets kept most of the Germans alive - only over 300 of the 2,331 men carried by the entire fleet were dead or missing. After a night in the sea, the Germans were fished up by Italian rescue ships after dawn.

On the morning of the 22nd, the 2nd Battalion of the 85th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Mountain Division set out from Milos, mainland Greece, with heavy weapons, to Malemai, Crete. Their luck was not very good either, and the flotilla did not go far before they met 4 cruisers and three destroyers of the British Mediterranean Fleet. To make matters worse, a British fleet consisting of the battleships "War-Wey" and "Warrior", 1 cruiser and 9 destroyers was approaching the direction of the German fleet in the Strait of Titilasi, northwest of Crete.

Upon receiving the report from the reconnaissance plane, the German transport fleet immediately turned around and fled north. The cobbled together German fleet had a limited speed, while the British fleet pursued at high speed, in hot pursuit. This time, the Italians were not as "unjust" as they had been last night, and the escort ships risked their lives to release smoke in the middle to cover the withdrawal of the German fleet.

Today, the Germans were not unprepared, and the JU-87 and JU88 bombers of the Luftwaffe finally appeared, which not only dispersed the British fleet, but also sent the cruisers "Fiji" and "Gloucester" and two destroyers into the Mediterranean.

The German mountain infantry was not afraid of the hardest battles, but was extremely vulnerable in the open sea: as long as the threat of the British Mediterranean Fleet remained, the commander of the 5th Mountain Division, Ringel, was adamantly opposed to allowing his soldiers to cross the treacherous sea to Crete on those sailing ships of several hundred tons.

The plan to support Kotlin from the sea was thus in vain, and the headquarters of the 5th Mountain Division and the rest of his personnel had to be thrown into Crete by the same empty method as the paratroopers.

On 24 May, the western part of Crete was completely under German control; On the 27th, the defenders of Chania, the largest city on the island, surrendered; On the 30th, the 5th Mountain Division captured Rethymnon and rescued the 2nd Parachute Regiment, which had been trapped for 10 days.

On May 31, the British, already convinced that they could not hold Crete, began to retreat to the sea from Horasfaquion and Jerapapetra in the south of Crete. The British succeeded in withdrawing 12,000 men, and at least more than 5,000 defenders were left on the beach by the British captains, who feared the Luftwaffe, and had to surrender to the Germans.

The Battle of Crete came to an end in the eyes of the world, and the Germans controlled the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean shipping lanes, ensuring stability in southeastern Europe.

"The Germans have swept away all obstacles, and the next battlefield of the contest will be the vast Eastern European Plain!" Both the Soviet Red Army and the Red Navy were waiting for orders from the Kremlin. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )