What surprised the German soldiers was that the Italian "Lightning Division" performed quite well.

The first parachute regiment of the "Lightning Division" was parachute near Irak Airport... At this time, the "Lightning Division" was in two regiments like the Italian infantry division, that is, the entire division had two parachute regiments plus one parachute artillery regiment. (Note: It was incorporated into the Third Parachute Regiment in July 1942)

The three battalions of the First Parachute Regiment are located at the radius of ten kilometers centered on the Irak Airport, and the parachutes are scattered to the surrounding areas to guard major traffic roads, such as bridges, roads, railways, etc.

This approach is undoubtedly correct. The advantage of paratroopers is that they can airborne to any point, and the disadvantage is that they lack mobility and do not have heavy equipment.

This destined that paratroopers of this era should try to avoid too concentrated on fighting tough battles with the enemy... Another meaning of concentrated on fighting head-on is that they are suppressed by the enemy's heavy equipment every minute and suffer heavy casualties.

On the contrary, if the whole is broken into pieces and scattered to every corner, the high ground is arranged one by one, and the other is guarding the road along the way, the enemy will have to clear one by one to advance.

On the other hand, the airborne division can also attack everywhere, causing the enemy's regular army to be unable to grasp the key points and run away.

So the moment the Italian "Lightning Division" landed on the ground, external reinforcements at Irak Airport were blocked or partially blocked.

In fact, all this should have been implemented at the moment of the battle, that is, the actions of the Italian "Lightning Division" must be carried out simultaneously with the parachute of the German First Infantry Battalion, so that the British traffic and reinforcements will be paralyzed at the first time and the Irak Airport will be besieged.

Unfortunately, the Italian Caproni transport racks were insufficient, especially each transport plane could only carry 18 paratroopers... This forced the actions that should have been synchronized to be carried out in two batches.

However, this did not have much impact on the entire plan, because the German and Italian troops have basically achieved their strategic goals so far... Blocking the Cretan airport makes it impossible for British air forces to attack Germany. The Italian landing troops and subsequent airborne troops will cause effective strikes, and then reinforcements can be put into the battlefield in batches.

Amid the sound of artillery, several British fighter jets tried to land forcibly at the airport... This is the old routine of the British army. Whenever they hope that the plane will land safely, they will use artillery fire to rush towards the high ground.

But this did not work, because the British army could not see the German army hiding on the high ground, while the condescending German army knew the situation at the airport very clearly. The German army even needed to arrange a few artillery observers in front and then report the coordinates to the mortar gunners in the rear... The actual blockade was simpler than this, because there were only five runways at Irak Airport, and the mortars only needed to lock these runways, so British fighter jets could not escape the palm of the German army.

"Yoho!" Looking at the three fighter planes that were bombed again, Werner couldn't help but cheer.

"I never thought it would be so satisfying to be a paratrooper!" Werner said: "We not only have planes as vehicles, but also can kill enemy planes one by one!"

"Exciting?!" the baker opposed: "Are you talking about when we are hung on a parachute and being beaten by the enemy as a target, or are we surrounded by the enemy here and bombarded with rounds of cannons?"

"Both!" Werner replied: "Don't you find this exciting?"

"You crazy man!" Yakopp lowered his body and avoided the sand caused by the shells and replied loudly: "We don't feel it exciting at all, we just want to save our lives!"

"Hey, brothers!" Werner said optimistically: "The British guys need to save their lives now!"

Werner was right, because the artillery blockade of Irak Airport was already stuck by the German artillery fire, the British army had fallen into a deadlock... The fighter planes did not dare to reinforce Crete because there was no airport to land, which completely lost the British air superiority. Therefore, German and Italian airborne troops, materials and even landing troops could land on Crete in batches one after another. Over time, the comparison of troops on Crete would reverse... The German and Italian troops used to attack Crete had a total of five divisions and an infantry regiment, with a total force of more than 60,000, which was not comparable to the 40,000 troops of the British and Greek coalition.

So, Montgomery issued an order almost every few minutes to Colonel Smith attack the No. 3 Heights.

But Smith was helpless.

"We cannot attack Height 3 with all our might, General!" Colonel Smith replied: "The Italians were airborne around the airport in large numbers. We don't know how many troops they have... but they are attacking us. Once we transfer our troops to Height 3, they will break through our defense and occupy the airport!"

Colonel Smith was not entirely lies, because the Italian "Lightning Division" that was airborne did attack on the airport, and launched an attack in three other directions except the south of the First Infantry Regiment.

It was just a feint attack from a company to share the pressure of the German First Infantry Regiment.

But Montgomery didn't care about that. He shouted at the microphone: "I don't care what reason you have. You must take down Height No. 3, otherwise everything will be over, do you understand?"

"Yes, General!" Colonel Smith replied.

But that being said, Colonel Smith was in a dilemma after putting down the phone.

Colonel Smith knew that Montgomery was right, Highland No. 3 was the key, and if it was not taken down, Crete would soon fall.

The problem is that Colonel Smith has lost confidence by the Germans... He was easily repelled by the Germans before when he had such a big advantage. Now the Germans still have an advantage on the high ground, especially since they have powerful weapons to deal with tanks, so Smith really doesn't know how to fight this battle. What he thought in his mind was that no matter how many British troops rushed forward, they just consumed German ammunition.

If it was useful to consume German ammunition, Colonel Smith might have really let the soldiers go at all costs, but the German transport plane dropped a large amount of ammunition on Highland No. 3 not long ago.

"Colin!" advised the staff officer: "Perhaps we can let the militia seize the No. 3 Highland!"

"What can militia do?" Colonel Smith replied impatiently: "Some of them don't even have rifles!"

"But they are familiar with the terrain, aren't they?" the staff officer pointed to the map and said: "We can have them attack Height No. 3 from the mountain behind, so that at least there are no blind spots in our attack against the Germans!"
Chapter completed!