Imperial Overlord

The huge German flag laid on the top of the building is a kind of identification mark to the sky. In this era, the Luftwaffe ruled the sky, so avoiding accidental injuries was the first thing to pay attention to.

Similarly, tanks and armored vehicles are covered with national flags or painted with obvious identification marks.

This way, when the German army is advancing fast, the Stuka or other bombers used by the Air Force to block the enemy will be mistaken for the retreating enemy.

Similar identification friend or foe systems were used by both the Axis powers and allies back then. For example, in 1944, the Americans painted black and white identification marks on the wings of aircraft.

Of course, in '44, German ground troops won't be laying flags on top of tanks... instead, they'll cover them with branches, carefully camouflaging their precious vehicles.

On the island of Malta for 40 years, German paratroopers spread a huge national flag on the roof against their friendly bombers.

The eye-catching **** is set off within a white circle, surrounded by bright red colors. As soon as it sees this, the Air Force will avoid and no longer attack nearby locations.

Lyman raised his head with a cigarette in his mouth, looking at the sky silently.

He landed on the island from there, and there are still many planes there, accompanying him and bless him.

"I heard that the general is here." The squad leader came over and enjoyed a rare peaceful time. They had only had time to rest since they landed on the ground.

Many soldiers are sharing the captured canned food and the food they carry. The rations of paratroopers are very general, mainly considering the size and relative quality.

After all, it is very dangerous to carry a lot of cans and instant noodles to parachute at this time. If the mass is too large, it may affect the parachute and increase the burden of landing on the paratroopers.

Therefore, the late lunch of the German paratroopers is not rich, and most people only have something like potatoes diluted with water to satisfy their hunger.

"The general is here? General Stedent?" Holding the cigarette in his hand, Lyman looked at his squad leader and asked.

His face was smudged by the fire of war, even so, it didn't cover up the pits and pits on his face.

He had freckles since he was a child, but he still did not let those marks disappear when he grew up. It's just that now he has the stubble around his mouth that has no chance to be repaired, which makes Lehman look like a mature man.

"Yes, most of the tasks in the future will be handed over to a newly formed airborne division and the Italians." The squad leader nodded, and by the way said something that was good news for them.

"What? The next battle is going to be handed over to the two newly arrived airborne regiments?" Lyman finally had a smile on his face when he heard that the battle seemed to be over.

Leiman, who has experienced too many battles, no longer has any good feelings for battles. For someone like him, the current fierce battle is actually just one task after another that must be completed.

He once put his palm on the national flag and swore to God that he would be loyal to the head of state and to be loyal to the country.

So he came out from his hometown, went to the training camp... and then went to the Netherlands, to Belgium, to Malta.

And he and anyone in the paratroopers know that this is far from their entire journey, and they will go to more places and keep running like this.

As an old paratrooper, his chest has been hung with the commemorative medal of airborne in the Netherlands. When fighting bravely in Belgium, he and the squad leader won the enviable second-class Iron Cross.

Right there, he was promoted to First Class and became the only big-headed soldier in the entire paratrooper squad who could smoke with the squad leader.

"You're right, our mission is to rest here, and then follow the army to Zebuji." The squad leader took a deep breath and turned all the cigarettes in his mouth into ashes.

Then he comfortably exhaled a puff of smoke from his nostrils, and nodded very comfortably, as if enjoying the thrill of overdrawing his life.

During the war years, people seemed to prefer smoking and drinking. Because a lot of people know that they don't have to wait for lung cancer or alcoholic liver to kill them before a bullet will shatter their heads.

Here death is easier than life, and death comes without warning. So you don't need to prepare anything, you just need to live and enjoy it, and that's it.

"That's right! Anyway, I can at least get a medal for the brave landing in Malta this time. For me, that's enough." Lehmann was very satisfied that he didn't have to go to the front line. For the first time, he didn't ask his squad leader for cigarettes.

With only one third of his cigarettes left in his mouth, he watched the **** of the British prisoners go away, and cheered in his heart that he had lived another day.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Although the sky was still bright, there was not much time left for the German paratroopers to enjoy their air support.

Once the night comes, the German paratroopers will face the British defenders alone - although the German paratroopers on the ground are no less than the British rear army on the island of Malta.

According to General Student's pre-plan, the German paratroopers will drop 10,000 troops to Malta before sunset that day.

This is almost as many as the British defenders on the island. If they adopt a stubborn posture and last for one night, they should not suffer.

You must know that these paratroopers, including the newly expanded paratrooper division, each soldier is a baby bump of Student, and any loss will make people hurt.

Compared with the United States, Germany does not have so many resources to squander. If the loss of paratroopers on the island of Malta is too great, it will shake the determination of the German top management to use paratroopers.

This has been proven by history - after the Battle of Crete, the German paratroopers were hidden in the snow, and finally, as elite infantry, were consumed in the process of filling the defense line.

Of course, Li Le is not the real head of state who died, so he would not take into account the loss of 18,000 people. Even if the airborne troops lost half of the capture of Malta, he would resolutely continue to use the other half.

But if he could not lose so much, of course Li Le would love to hear it. He will put more paratroopers in Crete, so that the whole world can really see the power of German paratroopers.

On the other side, in the headquarters of the British island of Malta, several British officers were at a loss as to the scale of the German airborne.

"The German paratroopers should have a scale of more than 5,000!" A British officer judged by looking at the map: "They are now trying to meet at Mosta."

Mostar is still under the control of the British Army, but unfortunately they only have a poor 700 people there, and they cannot organize defenses in the city at all.

The increase in troops was obviously unrealistic, because the British defenders had lost more than 2,500 men in one day of fierce fighting.

Although most of them are local second-rate troops and expeditionary troops from India, they are, after all, part of the British army.

The loss of about 3,000 people reduced the number of British defenders on the island to more than 10,000, which also delayed the speed of British reinforcements in Mosta and Rabat.

After all, after the British judged that the paratroopers attacked, the Italians would land in important areas such as Valletta the next day, so they had to ensure that they had more than 5,000 defensive troops in key defensive areas.

In addition to the defensive positions along the coast, the British had to leave a guard force of 1,000 men at the airport.

Counting the 2,000 garrisoned in other areas and the 900 who had just retreated near Zebbug, this was almost all the remaining British troops.

Under such conditions of force, the British commander thought it unrealistic to increase troops and retake the lost Rabat.

They preferred to protect their airfields and wait for German paratroopers to attack their heavily defended areas.

In this way, the advantage of the Germans' good combat skills can be offset, and the limited force can be brought into full play.

"It's not 5,000. Just looking at the number of German gliders, their strength is more than 7,000." Another British officer said to his colleagues~www.readwn.com~ His words caused others to laugh , The officer who spoke first denied: "It's just a trick that the Germans played in the Netherlands. This is their usual trick."

When airborne in the Netherlands, in order to exaggerate the actual number of German airborne troops, Student dropped many scarecrows with spontaneous combustion devices to charm the British and French forces and create more chaos.

At that time, the Anglo-French coalition miscalculated the size of the German paratroopers, believing that the Germans had dropped tens of thousands of soldiers to their rear.

The result was chaos on the front lines, and endless retreats. With these little tricks, the Germans drove straight ahead and won quick wins in the Netherlands and Belgium.

"You mean, the Germans are bluffing?" The British officer was also shaken by his colleague's reminder and asked.

"It should be! The size of the Germans on the island should only be about 5,000 people. We can use the cover of the night." Several British officers quickly made their own decisions...

Even though this decision was wrong, the Germans received a large-scale replenishment after two hours, with a force of nearly 10,000 men, ammunition and food supplements.

In addition, Student and the commanders of the two German paratrooper divisions arrived at the front line. For the first time in the history of German paratroopers, such a large-scale operation used almost all the assets that Germany and Italy could find.

In the last three hours, the Germans were not idle. They tried to attack Mosta and captured some of the outer buildings.

The night of the 23rd came as scheduled, the sun fell below the sea level in the distance, and at the same time, the German army accepted the surrender of the defenders of Mosta and occupied the transportation hub on the island of Malta.