"Cannonballs! Cannonball! Hurry up, hurry up! "On the high ground near Lucca airport outside Valletta, the commander of an 88-millimeter anti-aircraft gun emplacement, holding his military cap, turned sideways and yelled at the transports in the trenches. The sky outside the position was already full www.biquge.info of warplanes flying in the sky.

In the early morning of December 9, 1939, when the place where the sea and the sky meet, just a touch of light was revealed. Hundreds of German transport planes, under the cover of a larger number of fighters, pounced on the island of Malta for large-scale airborne operations.

The first target of the German paratroopers was Lucca, the only large official airport on the entire island of Malta. If they can capture this important airfield, they will then be able to carry out a larger airplane landing operation at this airfield. A large number of heavy equipment aircraft were landed at this airport.

The anti-aircraft forces around Lucca Airport opened fire in full force, and all the warplanes in the airfield and at several other field airfields on the island took to the air, engaged in a brutal fierce battle with the huge German fleet over Malta.

At this time, Zhang Cheng, who was in Alexandria, immediately hung up the phone to the Daming Mediterranean Fleet after receiving a large-scale attack on Malta, ordering them to immediately dispatch an aircraft carrier formation to approach the waters near Malta to provide support for the Maltese defenders.

Thousands of airborne troops of the 1st Attack Wave of the German 7th and 22nd Airborne Divisions carried out a large-scale airborne operation on hundreds of meters above the island of Malta in hundreds of sturdy JU-52 Junkers. White parachutes covered the sky.

The Germans were on the offensive strong, but the Ming garrison was not weak at all. Especially after receiving a large number of reinforcements on the night of the seventh, those hundreds of anti-aircraft guns of various calibers dealt a fatal blow to the airborne operations of the Germans.

Several transporters pushed trailers from the supply point to the anti-aircraft gun emplacement, placing boxes of shells at the ammunition point. The sweaty gunners hurriedly pried open the ammunition boxes and loaded 88mm high-explosive shells into the chambers.

"Put!" After calibrating the shooting elements, the commander lying on the gun mirror suddenly shouted.

"Boom!" After a loud bang, a high-explosive bomb with a deadly greeting shot into the sky, and in an instant, it exploded next to a three-shot Aunt Junker.

Although not yet equipped with proximity fuses, transport aircraft that reduce altitude in order to parachute are very dangerous at such altitudes. Even Aunt Juncker, who has always been known for her sturdiness, is no exception. This is an 88 mm caliber shell.

The flying shrapnel pierced the cockpit glass in an instant, killing both pilots almost simultaneously. And the flying shrapnel and shock wave will also be close to the explosion side of the engine on the wing was ignited, and the fuel line in the wing was punctured.

Aunt Junker, who was burning with flames on half of her wings, swerved sideways to the ground with a terrifying scream, and crashed into the ground with the terrified paratroopers on the plane, turning into a huge flame.

The defenders' air defense was far greater than the Germans could have imagined. The ground anti-aircraft fire was far less powerful when Malta was bombed before, and no one thought that the local air defense of the defenders would suddenly increase, which would cost the Germans dearly.

More than 100 heavy anti-aircraft guns of 88 mm and 105 mm caliber were equivalent to declaring to God to Aunt Juncker that she had just taken a shot. Add to that the more 40mm Bofors and 20mm Erlikon, and even those 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns. These anti-aircraft fires were tantamount to a massacre for the Airborne Forces.

German dive bomber units began to dive bombardment frantically towards anti-aircraft fire points at all costs, trying to make a way for the sluggish transport planes. But even a sturdy Stuka couldn't stand up to the powerful anti-aircraft fire on the ground, let alone the hundreds of Ming fighters in the sky. The entire sky over the island of Malta was covered in a rain of bullets, fires, smoke and smoke from explosions, and warplanes soaring wildly.

The German advance command, as far away as Palermo, learned that the first wave of the offensive had been blocked and that the losses were heavy, and quickly ordered the paratrooper assault units at various airfields in Sicily to immediately send reinforcements. At the same time, the Italian legions, which launched the sea-crossing attack, were strictly ordered to speed up their advance. Even the German naval convoy, which was the first to defend the ships, rushed to Malta to provide fire support to the troops with their own naval guns.

Once an offensive operation has been launched, it is absolutely impossible to give up easily. Thousands of paratroopers were thrown down, and at this time, if the long-planned offensive operation was abandoned because of excessive casualties, then the German front-line commanders should be court-martialed.

The second attack wave of the German paratroopers, which had already been prepared, quickly rushed into the blue sky and flew in the direction of Malta. It's not that the Germans don't want to throw it all at once, it's that Malta isn't big and doesn't have so many fighters stranded in the airspace.

To hover in the sky is to wait for the target to be hit. Moreover, the plan of the Germans was to make a landing after the first attack wave occupied the airfield, but they did not expect the defenders' anti-aircraft fire to be so powerful.

Thousands of paratroopers were thrown onto the island of Malta, and most of them landed on the ground without any problems. After all, it is not easy to shoot from the ground to the sky and hit accurately. Especially paratroopers with small targets. However, the landing area of the German paratroopers was very scattered and almost completely disrupted.

At this time, the defenders on the ground quickly dispatched their own armored forces to sweep. The strongest armoured force of the defenders was definitely the heavy tank battalion supported by the 2nd Panzer Division. However, in addition to this unit, which was armed with heavy tanks, the defenders also had a large number of armored vehicles. This is especially true for armored vehicles equipped with twin or quadruple anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns.

Search squads of armoured vehicles and trucks swept through the island. The German paratroopers, armed only with light firepower, simply could not stop these armored vehicles. The light weapons in their hands are not against these armored vehicles. In the face of the ferocious firepower of the splashing water, the elite German paratroopers were knocked down in pieces.

In fact, Zhang Cheng had long ordered the island to make preparations for anti-airborne landing. Almost all the tall trees on the island have been cut down, and useless villages have been razed. The entire area was divided into small blocks for defense. In addition to being equipped with air defense, each area has one or several armored squads designed to deal with those paratroopers.

The defenders were well fed, both in terms of men, weaponry, and logistical supplies, enough for them to fight a fierce battle on a massive scale. In this case, the attacking German paratroopers, although extremely elite, did not achieve the desired results and suffered heavy losses, which is predictable.

The island of Malta is only more than 90 kilometers away from the nearest place in Sicily, Italy, and the highest point above sea level is only more than 250 meters. The air is hot and humid, the coastline is tortuous, and the bay is deep and hidden.

The Ming defenders built a regular large airfield on the island, several field airfields, and a seaplane airfield. Through continuous replenishment, the number of fighters has been maintained at more than 200. These air forces played a decisive role in the time of a large-scale German attack.

The large number of anti-aircraft firepower and more than 200 warplanes made it impossible for the German army to grasp air supremacy, and conducting a large-scale airborne operation without air supremacy meant that the risk of defeat was extremely high. More than 200 fighters fought desperately, and nearly two-thirds of their own battle losses were lost in the fierce battle all day, but they successfully sniped the German airborne operation with ground anti-aircraft fire.

Moreover, Daming also built a submarine base on the island of Malta, which is equipped with more than a dozen small inshore submarines with a displacement of only a few hundred tons. These submarines may not have the ability to fight in the ocean, but they have no problem operating in the waters around Malta.

They have already sunk at least dozens of supply ships from Italy to North Africa, and the threat is enormous. During the day, when the sky and the shore are in full swing, they may not be of much help. But at night, the German and Italian ships in the waters around Malta were all under the threat of submarines.

The Germans did not have to attack Malta in the first place. They could actually bypass Malta and send the transport ship to Tunisia for disembarkation, and then by rail and land transport to the Libyan front.

However, Tunisia was already part of the French sphere of influence, and the volume of land transport was limited. It's not a bustling place after all, just an old-fashioned railway line. In the case of trucks, the resources consumed are unusually large.

On top of that, Rommel's German Afrika Korps had been upgraded to the German African Army. Vowed revenge, Rommel, who had seized Egypt and the Suez Canal, constantly urged the German High Command to provide him with a large amount of support.

In such a situation, the best way to open the sea route to Libya and even Egypt without hindrance is to first capture Malta and then Crete.

While the German airborne troops were fighting bravely, a battle group of Italian brigade-sized marines was already conducting an amphibious landing operation on the island of Malta under the cover of warships. The landing site they chose was on a beach fifteen kilometers east of Port Valletta. More than 5,000 Italian marines rushed to the coastline in small landing craft.

The island of Malta is not very large, and there are very few places suitable for large-scale landings. This is a good thing for the defenders, as the places they need to defend are smaller.

On the beach, known locally as Angelo, chosen by the Italians, the defenders placed an entire infantry regiment for defense. They were also supported by fire from four heavy artillery batteries.

From the beginning of the war, the construction of fortifications began here. The beaches were mined, and steel barriers were placed under the water. A number of concealed firing points were built behind the beach, and a large number of MG42 machine-gun fire teams were placed here.

Although there are no heavy coastal guns, this beach is sure to bleed the Italians here. (To be continued.) )