"We need artillery support, we need artillery support!" An Italian Navy lieutenant with a mustache hid behind an X-shaped steel frame, his legs curled up in front of him, clutching a walkie-talkie in his hand and screaming at the other end. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

On the beach next to the lieutenant, bullets rained and blood splattered. Thousands of Italian soldiers were pinned down on a beachhead with a radius of no more than two or three square kilometers. Countless artillery fire and bullets rained down on these Italians.

This is Angelo Beach, fifteen kilometers east of Valletta Harbour. Here is the landing site chosen by the Italians. What the Italians, who were full of confidence before the war, did not expect that as soon as their first wave of landing craft lowered the hatch, a dense rain of bullets rained down frantically. The intensity of its firepower was such that the Italians almost ran out of blood.

The previous long period of naval artillery bombardment and aerial bombardment did not seem to have done much to defend the position. A large number of permanent fortifications concealed numerous MG42s and artillery pieces. When the chainsaw sounded, chains of tracer bullets were like whips that threw the Italian soldiers pouring out of the landing craft to the ground. The soldiers were punched with many holes in blood and fell to the beach in wailing.

Foggy Italian soldiers threw themselves on the sand or hid directly behind obstacles. A few brave soldiers tried to rush to the defensive positions, but they were knocked down by a dense rain of bullets. The beach was littered with soaked corpses and screaming and wailing wounded.

As a marine, this offensive force is also considered elite among the Italian army. However, their constant counterattacks and charges were unable to move an inch under the onslaught of the defenders hiding in the fortifications.

The water that constantly lapped the shore was already stained red with the blood of numerous Italian soldiers. There were many corpses floating on the surface of the sea, and many Italian soldiers with heavy equipment on their backs sank directly to the bottom of the sea.

The Italians had already discovered during their pre-war reconnaissance that the Ming defenders had built a large number of fortifications here. In order to avoid the metal obstacles that could stop the landing craft, the Italian army commander deliberately chose to attack at low tide. However, despite the successful ascent to the beachhead, the road to the fortifications of the defenders became a road of death. Not long after the start of the war, the Italian army had already lost thousands of men!

In this situation, the Italian commanders, having no choice, decided to continue the intensified attack, and soon sent a second attack wave.

In just two hours, the Italians threw all the more than 5,000 marines in their hands to the beachhead. And call for air support and naval support.

A large number of German fighters again came to the beachhead and launched a fierce bombardment on the defenders, but the effect was not ideal. The defenders had strong anti-aircraft fire, and most of the garrison was hiding in fortified bunkers. The effect of aerial bombardment was not as good as expected.

Subsequently, the Italian fleet, consisting of one heavy cruiser, three light cruisers and eleven destroyers, arrived near the coastline to provide close artillery support to the attacking forces.

Naval warships, even light destroyers, are equipped with 105 mm and 155 mm guns. To the class of heavy cruisers, they were armed with even heavy guns of 203 mm caliber. For the Navy, these may be light artillery, but for land targets, they are already a great heavy firepower.

Close fire support of the Italian Navy played a certain effect. Many of the defenders' fortifications were overturned by large-caliber artillery, and many of the artillery positions in the rear of the defenders were blown up by air and sea attacks.

After the defenders' firepower waned, the Italian army, which had been stubbornly suppressed, was finally able to begin to advance. After leaving behind numerous wounded and corpses along the way, they finally made their way to the front of the defenders' core position.

By this time, though, the Italians were exhausted. They had suffered heavy casualties, most of their heavy equipment had been lost, their organization was in disarray, and everywhere they were wounded wailing and shouting for the medics. The Italians no longer had the strength to continue the attack.

By the afternoon, the Germans had taken over the attack. About two regiments of German infantry, departing from southern Sicily, landed on Angelo Beach before dark. The addition of the new forces allowed the landing force to strengthen the defenses of the beachhead. But they still lack heavy weapons.

At night, the operation of the airborne troops continued throughout the island, and the constant flashes of artillery fire and the sound of heavy gunfire resounded throughout the island. Angelo Beach, on the other hand, was momentarily silent.

Thousands of German and Italian soldiers huddled in a small area and endured artillery fire. They kept reinforcing their makeshift positions, knowing that a counterattack by the defenders was coming.

At night, neither side wants air support. As for the navy, the Italian naval fleet, which had already fired thousands of shells during the day, had already left the waters near Malta by this time. The navy of the Italians, or rather, the navy of the entire combined European fleet, had a hard time dealing with the elusive Ming submarine forces. At their technological level, it was difficult to find the technologically advanced Daming submarines.

It is still the early stage of the war, and all countries did not expect that Daming would be so advanced in submarine technology. Whether it's silencing technology, sonar reflection wave surface technology, or submersible technology. The submarines carefully built by Zhang Cheng are at the forefront of the world.

In the waters near Malta, many ships of various countries have been sunk by the elusive Ming submarine. In this case, the fleet, which provided fire support to the ground forces in a small area close to the coast, naturally could not stay any longer.

Having lost air and sea support, the only support available to the landed German troops was an armored unit consisting of about forty No. 4 tanks and some artillery. Other than that, they have nothing.

The counterattack of the Ming defenders came as scheduled. At about one o'clock in the morning of the 10th, the artillery of about ten artillery batteries launched a fierce artillery attack on the beachhead of Angelo Beach. During the more than 20-minute firepower, the Ming artillery fired thousands of shells at the beachhead, blowing up the already small beachhead.

As the Ming artillery began to shift from rapid fire attacks to fire suppression. The Ming counterattack force, with the heavy tank battalion of the 2nd Panzer Division as the core, soon appeared in front of the Germans and Italians.

"Move forward at a constant pace, don't rush too fast. Each train group maintains a formation. Covering infantry pay attention to follow. Lin Shuo pressed his throat intercom and loudly ordered his tank platoon to pay attention to maintaining formation and not giving the enemy a chance to take advantage of it.

After the Battle of Tobruk, the armored forces, which were the core of the army, were quickly replenished with priority. Lin Shuo's Heavy Tank Battalion of the 2nd Armored Division was valued by Zhang Cheng for its outstanding performance, and he quickly recovered from the wounds he had suffered in Tobruk. Battle-damaged tanks and crews were replenished.

During the Battle of Tobruk, German soldiers bravely damaged several Tiger tanks that were considered indestructible with anti-tank mines and explosives. In particular, the German Panzer detachment took a detour from behind the Tiger and fired at close range, which inflicted heavy damage on the heavy tank battalion. In this case, the heavy tank battalion, having learned its lesson, no longer rushed forward desperately, but pressed close to the accompanying infantry, receiving fire support and protection from the infantry units.

"Enemy tanks!" Lin Shuo, who was lying on the periscope, suddenly shouted loudly.

The scientific and technological strength of the Ming Dynasty is very strong, but it has not yet reached the point where it can allow the armored troops to conduct night battles smoothly. Night combat equipment is still under development. The reason why Lin Shuo was able to spot enemy tanks was mainly because there were flares with parachutes hanging everywhere over the battlefield at this moment. The battlefield, which was not very large, was now brightly illuminated by a dense set of flares.

Lin Shuo did not know whether it was a German tank or an Italian tank. However, for the Ming armored forces, whoever comes is the same, just destroy them.

"One o'clock direction, three hundred meters, armor-piercing shells!" As Lin Shuo shouted, the gunner immediately began to adjust the turret angle. After a slight turn, the young gunner's voice answered smoothly, "Ready." ”

According to the combat manual compiled by Zhang Cheng, the vehicle crew should load its artillery with a shell before entering the battlefield so that it can be fired at any time. As for whether to load high-explosive shells or armor-piercing shells, this requires the commander to judge for himself based on the battle he is about to participate in.

Lin Shuo, who has been fighting on the front-line battlefield since the start of the war, is the ace commander who ranks fifth in the destruction record among the entire Ming armored forces. He has an innate instinct for the battlefield. Most of the heavy tank battalion crews chose to load high-explosive shells during this sortie, as everyone believed that it was an attack on infantry. However, Lin Shuo chose armor-piercing bullets. Most people did not expect that the Germans would send armored units to the beach so quickly.

Lin Shuo's decision allowed him to take the lead in achieving the first record of this battle with his comrades.

"Parking! Fire! With Lin Shuo's roar, the tiger style, which was originally not fast, suddenly stopped. After the turret was fine-tuned, the muzzle of the black hole suddenly erupted with dazzling light, and an 88 mm armor-piercing projectile came out of its chamber at a speed unattainable by the naked eye, flew for hundreds of meters, and then smashed into the frontal armor of the No. 4 tank.

The front armor of Tank IV could not withstand the gouge of 88 mm armor-piercing shells in any case. The front armor was pierced without any suspense, and the armor-piercing bullet penetrated into the hull and burst open, destroying the tank in an instant.

Looking at the target tank that was blazing, Lin Shuo nodded with satisfaction. He added another record for the destruction of his vehicle.

At this time, dozens of German tanks, under the cover of a large number of infantry, rushed towards the Tigers. The Germans knew very well that if they could not defeat the defenders' armored forces, then no one would want to hold their positions tonight. They will be driven out of the sea! (To be continued.) )