Just when Menekie was getting more and more headaches the more he thought about it, Zando suddenly said: "General Meneki, then why don't we use paratroopers to carry out airborne and offensive operations?" Menekie frowned, glared at him a little unpleasantly, and said: "The paratroopers are the most elite troops of the Third Reich, and every paratrooper is a valuable asset. In such unfavorable terrain and combat conditions, the use of paratroopers is undoubtedly to send the strongest elite of the Third Reich to death in vain! ”

Meneki's men were hungry for victory, and were eager to quickly conquer the other islands of Malay in order to pull out the thorn in their eye. But he knew that the current geographical location and operational conditions were simply not suitable for paratrooper airborne. In the history of modern warfare, there is a special type of troops, they come suddenly like heavenly soldiers and generals, and they have the potential to change the situation of war, they are paratroopers.

Through the use of transport aircraft, well-trained detachments are put into assigned places to accomplish special tasks, which makes paratroopers an important part of the armies of various countries. Paratroopers began to appear in World War I, but due to the limitations of technology at the time, they were not used on a large scale. It was not until World War II that paratroopers became an important part of the German blitzkrieg and were used by many countries to develop rapidly.

Not every ordinary soldier can parachute, parachuting requires professional training, and the quality of individual soldiers is undoubted, and becoming a qualified paratrooper is largely a special soldier or death squad. On the battlefield, a commander will not let these elites travel to local positions, they often have special missions, such as ending the enemy's important supply points, cutting off supply lines, or even directly destroying the opponent's headquarters.

Therefore, in the face of this threat, each country will not allow such an enemy to exist in its own position, and will do everything possible to eliminate this threatening team. Although the paratroopers are a huge threat after a successful landing, they are a live target in the air. According to incomplete statistics, the death rate of paratroopers in World War II was as high as more than 80%. Many paratroopers were wiped out in the sky before they landed, and even the elite were powerless to parry when hung in the air.

Not only that, once the paratrooper parachute point is exposed, then even if he is not sacrificed in the air, he will be surrounded by enemy ground forces after a successful parachute jump, hence the saying that paratroopers are born surrounded. In particular, the airborne landing itself in the current era is very dangerous, even in the state of leaving the war, under the best weather conditions, the death rate of the airborne is more than 10%!

In the event of harsh climatic conditions, the death rate of the airborne will even exceed 30%! That is, in bad conditions, almost a third of the paratroopers would have been killed just by parachuting. In this case, Menekie was naturally reluctant to needlessly consume the most elite paratrooper units.

"So what do we do? With such a hard landing operation, I am afraid that our losses will be quite heavy, and it will be difficult to break through the Allied defenses! Seeing Meneki's refusal to use the most elite paratrooper troops, Zando's head suddenly became big. In fact, he didn't care how many people would die in the attack, the key was to just attack and land on the beach from the southeast corner of Majia Island, which was too difficult!

In between words, "Hurry up, hurry up!" Those dogs are attacking again, and this time we're trying to sink his big guy! "On Maother Island, in a 234-mm shore artillery battery, more than a dozen Chinese artillerymen are nervously making final preparations for battle. At the same time, more than a dozen shore defense guns hidden in various positions were also doing the same thing, preparing to wait for the Italian destroyers to enter the best firing range before firing a salvo.

The British defenders on the islands of Malay had a strong shore artillery force, initially consisting of 4 380 mm shore guns, 4 234 mm shore guns, 6 152 mm shore guns, and 10 140 mm shore guns, which were covertly deployed in several positions. However, under the intermittent naval and air bombardment carried out by the German-Italian coalition forces for half a year, most of the coastal defense guns have been destroyed, and only two 234-mm shore guns, four 152-mm shore guns, and six 140-mm shore guns are still in use.

After landing on the island, Yu Xueli and others not only urgently reinforced the remaining ten or so artillery batteries that had been seriously damaged, but also took the initiative to ask Ying to take over one 234-mm shore gun and two 152-mm shore guns from the British army. In the last battle, although they were not able to sink the Italian battleships and cruisers that were bombarded head-on, they also caused a lot of pressure and damage to the Italian fleet.

Gozo Island, located 5 kilometers northwest of Malta, was still in the hands of the British at this time, and there were three 380-mm shore defense guns and more than a dozen shore defense guns on the island that could play a role. However, since the Italian fleet was attacking in a direction far from the effective range of the Gozo shore defense guns, they could only sigh at this moment. "Ready, fire!" When the Italian cruiser was within 3,000 meters of the coast, the 234-mm shore guns under the control of the Burmese artillery opened fire.

Boom! The shore artillery group suddenly launched rapid fire on the cruiser "Coro" close to the coast, and with a loud bang, all the shells were frantically fired at the "Coro." Due to the large distance to the target, the hit rate of the coastal defense artillery was very high, and in a short period of time it hit 12 shells in a row. Although these shells could not penetrate the heavy armor, the anti-aircraft artillery group of the superstructure was damaged, and 7 anti-aircraft guns were incapacitated, ranging from 20 mm to 127 mm guns, and the crew members were killed and wounded, causing at least 100 casualties of the Italian navy.

Immediately after being attacked, the "Coro" returned fire, trying to accelerate out of the range of fire of the battery, but the 140-mm shore guns of other nearby batteries also began to fire at it, and the hull was shot one after another, the steering gear failed, and the speed decreased. Most fatally, the hull of the ship caught fire, and then a secondary ammunition depot was detonated. After a violent explosion caused severe damage to the hull and further ignited the fuel depot, the "Coro" was finally irretrievable.

Finally, after some struggle, the ostentatious Italian cruiser irretrievably began to capsize, and it sank to the bottom of the sea in a short time! "Great! Finally took out a big guy! "Brothers, keep working hard! Let these dog days come and go! "Verrigood!" "Ness!" A frenzied fire finally overturned a cruiser, and the Allied officers and soldiers watching the battle from the shore were all dancing with excitement.

The artillerymen did not stop in the slightest and soon set their sights on another cruiser. Correspondingly, when these hidden coastal defense guns exposed their targets again, the battleships of the Italian Navy anchored in the sea farther away, as well as the bomber groups that were bombing wildly in the sky, "discovered the New World" and locked their targets on these threatening coastal defense guns! Soon, large-caliber naval guns and heavy aerial bombs were fired at these coastal defense batteries without any money, and a moment later, earth-shattering explosions exploded wildly along the coastline of the other islands. The fierce battle of life and death broke out again!

General Headquarters of the Allied Forces in the North African Theater of Operations, Cairo, April 31. Jiang Qiang, Stilwell, Auchinleck, and Patton's senior Allied generals gathered together to discuss the current war. In the past few days, the German-Italian coalition forces have launched an unprecedented frenzied and indiscriminate bombing and amphibious operation against the other islands of Malada. The Allied soldiers of the other islands of the Horse Islands did not give up an inch of territory, and fought bloodily with the Axis forces for a week, withstanding an unknown number of frantic attacks.

After the German-Italian coalition forces attacked the other islands of Mala for two days in a row, due to the extremely stubborn resistance of the Allied forces, the German-Italian offensive was repeatedly frustrated, and the casualties were extremely heavy, they had to temporarily change their strategy and change the direction of the main attack to the two small islands of Gozo and Kemuna north of the other islands. Despite the fact that they had already been killed, the situation was stronger than people, and in the face of the unimaginable defensive strength of the other islands of Malaeus, the German-Italian forces had to face the reality again and could only retreat to the next best.

In the early morning of April 27, it began to launch an attack on Gozo Island, intending to capture one or two fulcrums in the other islands of Malaria before slowly plotting against the other islands of Malada. Gozo is the second largest island in Malta, located 5 kilometers north of the west of Malta, the island is 14 kilometers long, 7.2 kilometers wide, and covers an area of 67 square kilometers. Kemuna Island is located between the islands of Malta and Gozo. It covers an area of about 3 square kilometers. These two small islands are much smaller and less strategically important than the other islands of the Horselands.

However, the British Empire did not abandon them outright, but had already built a fairly complete system of fortifications before the outbreak of World War II, transforming them into military fortresses. It's just that compared to the main island of Mayu, the defense level of these two small islands is indeed much weaker, and the defenders are only 3,200 and 500 respectively. In the face of the indiscriminate bombardment and amphibious operations of the German-Italian coalition forces, the defenders of the British Empire on Gozo and Kemuna did not fear, but tried their best to resist.

However, after three days of bloody fighting with the German-Italian coalition forces, Gozo Island finally fell, and more than 800 British troops had no choice but to surrender after running out of ammunition and food.

There is no way, although Jiang Qiang can open and deliver the "express" safely, but Gozo Island is surrounded by German and Italian forces, especially after the coastline is gradually lost, there is no angle to operate at all. In addition, because the German-Italian forces controlled the sea and air power around the other islands, the islands of Kemuna and the islands south of Gozo could not provide direct ground support, and could only use a small number of artillery to provide air defense support and ground artillery support.

Although Gozo, the second largest island, eventually fell, the German-Italian forces paid a heavy price in the three days of bloody fighting, with more than 30 combat planes shot down and more than 4,500 soldiers killed. If we add in the number of casualties in the attack on the islands of Malaria, the number of casualties of the German-Italian forces on the islands of Malaria has exceeded 10,000.

At the same time, taking advantage of this gap, the construction of fortifications, the supply of soldiers, and the supply of materials on the other islands of Malay have been continuously strengthened. Even if Gozo falls and the German-Italian forces have an offensive fulcrum, it can only be a cattle fight in the air for the other islands of Malaysa, and in the end it will have to be implemented to an extremely difficult amphibious landing operation.

But it is clear that in the face of the increasingly strong islands of the Maham, even if the German-Italian coalition forces want to fight to the death at any cost, it is not a simple matter. At the same time, although Gozo has 67 square kilometers and has a lot of room to operate, it is also not easy for the German-Italian forces to build an airfield on it and turn it into a forward base for attack. Because this is a big project in itself, the cost of manpower, material and financial resources is not insignificant, and they are constantly covered by long-range artillery fire on the islands of Kemuna and other islands of Mahammad.

If they had known that it would be like this, I believe they would have sent paratroopers to raid at the beginning of the war. Malta is known as the Eye of the Mediterranean, itself a strategic location, at the beginning of the war, Malta only a few hundred British troops, if the use of paratroopers, can basically be said to be nine out of ten.

Unfortunately, the Germans had no plan to fight in the Mediterranean at that time, and the Italians had no strategic view of the overall situation. However, at that time, the British army had already increased its troops in Malta, and at that time there were tens of thousands of troops on the island, with a large number of anti-aircraft guns and aircraft, and a strong navy, and the German army could not capture Malta from the air or sea.

Now he is even more favored by Jiang Qiang, and it is destined that the other islands of Malay will once again become one of the biggest defeats of Rommel's North African Army. While the other islands of the horse were engaged in a life-and-death battle, Rommel's army on the North African continent was not idle, and after a long period of war preparations, it launched a large-scale attack on the Allied camp in the early hours of this morning. The Battle of El Alamein has officially begun! There is no doubt that the first wave of the German-Italian offensive will not be ground troops, but a huge group of combat aircraft.

In the first wave of the offensive alone, the German-Italian coalition dispatched 100 bombers and 400 escort fighters, and the allies, with more than 1,600 fighters of various types, naturally did not sit idly by and let the German-Italian combat aircraft group run rampant, bombing their own positions and defensive lines. After the radar station detected the enemy's situation, in just 20 minutes, more than 700 fighters of various types took to the air one after another to meet the enemy, half of which were Mustang fighters piloted by Huben Air Force pilots.

Taking advantage of the opportunity for the air force to charge, the German-Italian forces concentrated on using thousands of artillery pieces and began to carpet saturation bombing the minefields of the Allied camp. Due to the unprecedented strengthening of Rommel Afrika Korps in the current time and space, the Allied camp has been in a passive defensive state until Yang Fan led the Chinese Expeditionary Force to the North African theater of operations.

Therefore, in order to block the attack of Rommel's Afrika Korps, the British and American forces spared no effort to lay mines in the desert area in front of their own defense line. Behind them, the British and American coalition forces planted more than 1 million mines in the vast desert area hundreds of kilometers long and dozens of kilometers wide. They consist mainly of anti-tank mines, mixed with anti-personnel infantry mines, which, as long as they pass through a minefield, do not allow either a person or a vehicle to run until a safe passage is cleared.

Therefore, if Rommel wants to break through head-on, he must first clear a safe passage, otherwise these hundreds of thousands of mines alone will be enough for them to drink. In the face of such a vast minefield, it is obvious that it is very unrealistic to send engineering units to clear them one by one, which is not only extremely inefficient, but also extremely vulnerable to attacks by local air forces and heavy casualties.

Therefore, in order to open up a safe passage, the German-Italian forces not only concentrated a large number of artillery units, but also used more than a dozen newly developed Vs.Kfz.617 minesweepers. World War II was the largest global military conflict in human history. Both warring sides have used all their means to do whatever it takes. Many powerful and terrifying weapons have been created, such as missiles, atomic bombs, and landmines.

The lethality of a mine may not be comparable to that of missiles and atomic bombs, but it has a simple structure, low cost, and can be mass-produced. For example, during World War II, the number of box mines made by the Soviet Union, that is, PMD blasting anti-infantry mines, exceeded tens of millions, because the number was huge, and a large number of German soldiers were really killed and injured. Of course, everything in the world is always mutually reinforcing.

The Soviet Union had mines, and Germany, of course, had to develop demining equipment to deal with them. Among them is a minesweeper, with a strange appearance and "big shoes" on wheels, which is specially responsible for "walking" in minefields in order to step on mines, and it is the German Vs.Kfz.617 minesweeper. Ｖs. The Kfz.614 minesweeper relied on its own weight to crush mines, for which the designers specially designed the two huge wheels in front of it as minesweepers, and the outer edges were equipped with movable rims similar to tracks.

The rim of the wheel is equipped with a 10-width steel guard, and when it is activated, the outer edge of the minesweeper roller rotates. As the vehicle is driven, the steel guards in turn crush the ground, detonating the mines underground. This minesweeper is 6.5 meters long, 3.17 meters wide, 2.28 meters high, weighs about 55 tons, uses a 300 hp engine, and travels at a speed of 15-20 km/h.

The car is divided into four parts, which are the cab, the fighting compartment, the transmission compartment and the engine compartment. The cab is at the very front of the vehicle, and the fighting compartment is in the middle of the vehicle, where two MG34 machine guns are installed to deal with enemy infantry. The transmission compartment was under the fighting compartment and was divided into two on the left and right, which were responsible for transmitting power to two huge wheels. The engine compartment is at the rear of the vehicle.

The entire car was welded from low-hardness armor with a thickness of 20-40 mm, which was already quite capable of withstanding the explosion of mines. And the bottom of the car is additionally reinforced, making it the thickest part of the car. The design of the Vs.Kfz.617 minesweeper was feasible, but it was not practical during the war.

Because of its bulky body, slow speed, and relatively clumsy steering, it must have been the most vulnerable target on the battlefield, and Germany eventually recognized this, so it was not mass-produced. But this is a later story, the Vs.Kfz.617 minesweeper is still a new type of equipment, which is being used in various battlefields to deal with the minefields of the Allied camp.

For this frontal offensive battle, the German-Italian coalition army really made a bloody investment, more than 1,000 cannons fired at all power, and bombarded shells in a piece of desert land without money, constantly extending the firepower forward. At the end of more than two hours of shelling, about 300 shells were fired from each gun. During that time, more than 300 tons of shells fell on enemy positions.

Later, there was a legend about the shelling that the ears of the Italian and German gunners were bleeding from the deafening sound of the shelling, and that a large number of gunners had severe hearing loss and even deafness in both ears. "Attention to all units, we must fight steadily, in this battle we will no longer focus on how many German fighters to shoot down, the most important thing is to be familiar with the opponent and understand the opponent's fighter performance! We must make good use of the range advantage and not be too impatient! ”

Located in an airspace 300 kilometers northwest of Cairo, at this time, Huang Deyong, commander of the Huben Air Force Flight Regiment, was leading the pilots of his headquarters to intercept the bomber group in the airspace here, and it was natural to encounter the German escort fighter group. "Roger!" "Understood!" The pilots gladly accepted the order on the communication channel, they were all veteran fighter pilots who had experienced a hundred battles, and before coming to the North African battlefield, they had already fought hard with the Japanese Air Force many times, and they were no longer hairy boys with strong blood.

"Excellent! Be careful, everyone! Enter the battle now! After the friendly prompt of the communication channel, Huang Deyong began to enter the combat state without distraction, gently pushed the throttle valve to increase the speed to the extreme, and drove his beloved P-51D Mustang fighter to kill a new German fw190 fighter in the direction of twelve o'clock. At present, the main fighter of the German army is the BF109 fighter, and the FW190 fighter is a multi-role fighter that has just been in service for a short time.

BF109 fighter because of the advantages of Mercedes-Benz liquid-cooled engine, excellent high-altitude performance, early because of light weight, combat performance is also good, the most obvious disadvantage is the range and bomb tragedy. The FW190 fighter has strong bomb loading and ground attack capabilities, so it has poor combativeness, but thanks to the BMW engine, the acceleration and climb at medium and low altitudes is very good, and the top speed can reach 760 km/h.

The fw190 fighter is the only fighter that the German army can compete with the US P51 in World War II, but the comprehensive performance is still inferior to the P51. The most obvious advantage of the fw190 fighter over the P51 fighter was in firepower, the fire of 4 20-mm guns could pose a lethal threat to heavy bombers. This is the original design intention of the FW190 fighter, but for the same lack of heavy armor like the bomber, the advantage of firepower between the two fighters can not reflect much advantage in the combat between fighters.

One of the big advantages of the P51 Mustang fighter is its long endurance, which can perfectly escort long-range bombers. The P51 Mustang even used aerial safari tactics to hunt down German fighters and push the Luftwaffe into a corner. Before this, Huang Deyong had a clear understanding of the appearance and performance of the two current German fighters, and naturally he would not pick up soft persimmons, but took the lead and directly killed the latest FW190 fighter of the German army.

"Kill!" "German, I'll see how good you are today!" The other fighter pilots also showed no weakness, and they rushed towards the BF109 fighter or FW190 fighter in front of them. "Damn the Germans, don't let me die yet!"

After a few seconds of sprinting and adjustment, Huang Deyong quickly adjusted the nose pointing, firmly put the crosshair on the nose of the BF109 fighter, and then pressed the fire control switch without hesitation. A crisp gunfire hit the eardrums, and clusters of blue light were seen in the field of vision blasting out towards the German fighters. At this moment, a flash of fire flashed in Huang Desheng's retina, and it was obvious that the German fighter pilot's hand speed was not slow, and he opened fire almost at the same time.