"Sir, call from Malta. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In the headquarters of the North African Theater of Alexandria Daming, where the lights were bright and people were coming and going, Xiao Hongbao, who was holding the rank of major, strode to Zhang Cheng, who closed his eyes and recuperated, and handed out the telegram in his hand.

"Huh?" Zhang Cheng, who was leaning on the back of the chair, raised his eyelids and looked at Xiao Hongbao beside him, and took the telegram casually to take a quick look.

"Not bad." After reading the telegram, the corners of Zhang Cheng's mouth curled slightly, revealing a faint smile. The Malta garrison command telegraphed that the German and Italian forces that had launched a sea-crossing attack on Malta had suffered a crushing defeat on the beachhead. The enemy suffered heavy losses, and all the landing forces were eliminated.

Zhang Cheng took a sip of the coffee cup on the table next to him, and stood up with a smile. Shaking the telegram in his hand, he looked at the many officers in the command and shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is a call from Malta." They have repelled the enemy's attack across the sea! ”

"Hooray!" The officers in the command headquarters immediately erupted in a burst of earth-shattering cheers, and everyone turned their eyes to Zhang Cheng with reverence.

Previously, when the whole world believed that the Germans were about to launch a large-scale attack on Crete, Zhang Cheng was the only one who insisted that the Germans were aiming at Malta. And under pressure from all sides, a large number of reinforcements were sent to Malta. Zhang Cheng's persistence and foresight finally won the respect of all the officers at this moment.

"Ordering the Mediterranean Fleet to strengthen its support for Malta is really not going to be able to send reinforcements by submarine. Malta cannot be lost in any way. It's all here when we counterattack. Zhang Cheng took a deep breath and ordered loudly, "Everyone sit down and get ready." When the fighting in Malta is over, it will be our turn to strike back in Libya! ”

"Yes!" Many officers saluted Zhang Cheng in unison.

In times of war, the only way to make the soldiers admire you from the bottom of their hearts is to win, and to win. Only a commander who can lead his troops to constant victories will truly earn the respect of his soldiers. It has nothing to do with origin.

Seeing that the many officers with smiles on their faces began to get busy in good spirits, Zhang Cheng nodded with satisfaction. He handed the telegram to Xiao Hongbao and asked him to send it to the archives for archiving. Zhang Cheng took his coffee cup and turned around and walked towards his lounge.

After Malta is temporarily safe, Zhang Cheng will start the long-planned Libyan strategy operation. He now needs to get some rest before heading to the front lines to direct the assault on Libya.

When he returned to his luxurious lounge, Zhang Cheng saw a petite figure falling asleep on the sofa. There was a cup of ginseng tea on the table next to it, but it had completely cooled down. Zhang Cheng's body paused slightly, and then he leaned forward and hugged the sleeping girl.

"You're back?" Zhang Cheng's movements were very light, but the girl was still awakened. Looking up, he glanced at it in a daze and found that it was Zhang Cheng, shrunk back and leaned into Zhang Cheng's arms and whispered.

"Don't wait for me if it's too late." Zhang Cheng patted the girl's shoulder and spoke softly.

"Oh." The girl closed her eyes and replied casually, as if she hadn't woken up at all.

Zhang Cheng shook his head, turned around and walked to his lounge with the girl in his arms.

......

'Tutu~~~' The roar of an engine sounded at the corner of the road not far away, and several German paratroopers with tired expressions quickly burrowed into the bushes next to the road like frightened deer.

In the faint light of the sky, several paratroopers soon saw a tracked armored vehicle with an MG42 at the head, three trucks carrying infantry in the middle, and a motorcade of armored vehicles armed with twin 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns driving off the road with bright headlights.

"Whew~~~" After seeing the convoy drive by, George. Feng. Major Norman breathed a sigh of relief. Turning his head to look at the several airborne soldiers beside him, he nodded, and several of them quickly picked up their weapons and rushed across the road quickly, running towards the beach in the distance in the faint light of the early morning.

Major Norman was one of the commanders of the elite GSG-9 special forces in Germany, loved war and Germany, and was willing to fight to the death for Germany to open up the land under the sun. This time he offered to join the airborne operation against Malta.

It was thought that there might be stubborn resistance, but in the end the Germans would still emerge victorious and take Malta without a hitch. But to everyone's surprise, the level of tenacity and resistance of the Maltese defenders was far beyond anyone's imagination. The German attack was repulsed.

The original plan of the Germans was to bomb Crete violently to draw the attention of the Ming Dynasty. Then use the navy to completely cut off the supply lines of the Maltese defenders. A large-scale attack was launched.

The Germans prepared more than 10,000 elite airborne troops from two airborne divisions to attack Malta. At the same time, the Germans had a battle group consisting of three infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, an armored regiment and logistics units as a supplementary force.

The main force that was supposed to attack Malta was the Italians. An elite Marine Corps, a whole reinforced infantry corps and logistics units. The total strength of the entire German-Italian army was close to 100,000. Equipped with nearly 200 tanks, hundreds of artillery pieces and powerful sea and air support. Thousands of German-Italian fighters provided them with air support.

On paper, the strength was enough to take Malta, but in practice the situation shocked everyone. The Maltese defenders fought extremely stubbornly, the Airborne Forces did not achieve the results they had planned, and the entire formation was disrupted, not to mention the heavy losses. Under the attack of the armored detachment of the defenders of the island, the German airborne troops were almost completely annihilated.

The landing force of the Italians and the reinforcements that the Germans subsequently threw in were also crushed on the beach. The entire attack operation was a complete failure. In this case, there was a fierce quarrel among the Germans and Italians. There was serious disagreement over whether to go on the offensive or not.

The Germans also had paratroopers on the island, and they could not easily abandon their troops in any way. But the Italians had no strength to attack. The ships used for the landing were specially made and had been depleted in the previous attack waves. Now if you want to attack again, you can't even find a ship. Moreover, the defenders were strong, and the Italians were reluctant to continue to fill the hole in Malta. They wanted to be able to pause for a moment and wait until they were ready again before attacking.

The Germans could not wait. Not to mention the paratroopers on the island, Rommel was in dire need of reinforcements. In order to open up the situation in North Africa, it is necessary to take this choke point anyway.

The Germans forced a second wave of attacks, planning to flush the small boats they had collected directly onto the beachhead and run aground. At the same time, it increased the support of air and sea forces, and even did not hesitate to break out a decisive battle with the Ming Mediterranean Fleet for this purpose.

The German paratroopers received an order before boarding the plane to capture the Lucca airfield and then go to Angelo Beach to meet the landing force. Now there is no way to do it at the Lucca airport, the garrison is too strong for the paratroopers to do anything. Therefore, the paratroopers who were still fighting could only attack in the direction of Angelo Beach, trying to meet up with the landing force that had already been repulsed.

On the morning of the 11th, when the sky was just dawning, under the cover of hundreds of warplanes and a large number of naval warships, the Germans once again launched a new offensive against Angelo Beach. They washed up the small boat with troops on hand and ran aground on the beach. A large number of soldiers jumped directly from the bow of the ship into the sea and attacked the defenders.

At the same time, the remaining German paratroopers who had come to the vicinity of Angelo Beach also made a last-ditch attempt to make contact with the attacking force.

The Maltese defenders put up a fierce resistance, and the most brutal and fierce battles broke out on both sides, both in the sky and on land. The main force of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Ming Navy also came to the waters near Malta and sent carrier-based aircraft to launch air strikes against the German and Italian fleets shelling Malta.

Several warships of the combined German-Italian fleet were sunk in the air raids. The small fleet of the Italian Navy was almost completely annihilated, and the German High Seas Fleet suffered considerable losses. However, the German counterattack also dealt a heavy blow to the Ming Mediterranean fleet. The sea and air battles that lasted for an afternoon on both sides caused staggering losses.

'Click~~~' Major Norman leaped up from a crater, his submachine gun spewing deadly tongues of fire, running and shooting through a bush, hiding behind a ruin.

The German paratroopers who followed him did not have this kind of good luck, and the MG42 muzzle in a bunker not far away moved over and lowered the German paratroopers to the ground with a dense chain of bullets.

Major Norman glanced sideways at the paratroopers who were lying on the ground not far away, coughing up blood. Frowning, he quickly replaced the magazine, and without looking back, he quickly ran down the ruins towards Angelo Beach, which was almost completely covered by the flames of war and gunsmoke.

Major Norman knew very well that if he did not get to the beach to meet the landing force before the battle was over, he would not be able to leave.

The Maltese garrison was stronger than anyone could have imagined, and the day's massive landing had failed to work, and the success of the landing operation launched again today was unlikely. In order not to end up swimming back to Sicily, Major Norman had to rush to the beach before the battle was over.

As Major Norman had predicted, the Germans' desperate counterattack ultimately yielded little fruit. The Ming defenders stubbornly held their positions against the three-dimensional attacks of the sea, land and air, and brought a large number of casualties to the German landing force with dense artillery and machine gun positions. Especially when the Ming Mediterranean Fleet began to approach Malta for a decisive battle with the German Navy, forcing the German Navy to retreat. The Germans, who had no choice but to retreat.

"I'll be back!" On a small, crowded fishing boat, Major Norman squinted his eyes and whispered as he looked at Malta, which was getting farther and farther behind him, shrouded in gunsmoke. (To be continued.) )