At 7:30, the German army captured the bridge. The 3rd Battalion happened to land at the preset position of the 22nd and 23rd Battalions of the New Zealand Army. All officers and 2/3 of the soldiers were killed in battle and completely lost their combat effectiveness. The 2nd and 4th Battalions landed near the airport and were unable to gather into established units after landing, and the situation was passive. Colonel Meindel, the commander of the Western Battle Group, was seriously injured when landing. Because the 3rd Battalion lost its combat effectiveness, it had to change its plan and first attack the commanding height 107 near the airport, and then seize the airport. The German paratroopers suffered a lot of losses, but there was no progress.

The first batch of airborne troops also had the 3rd Paratrooper Regiment of the Central Battle Group landing in the Galatus region near Chania, led by Major General Sussman, the commander of the 7th Airborne Division. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the glider on Sussman and the division headquarters crashed, and all the members of the division headquarters were killed. The 3rd Paratrooper Regiment landed too much, and was subjected to intensive firepower during landing, causing great losses.

Among them, the 3rd Battalion landed in the defense area of ​​the 4th Brigade of the New Zealand Army and was almost wiped out. The 1st and 2nd Battalions were forced to build fortifications on the spot and switch to defense under the attack of British troops. Due to the interruption of communications of the German army, Studente did not know that the first attack wave was seriously frustrated, so he organized the second attack wave as planned and carried out airborne attacks on Resimnon and Eraklin.

The transport planes transporting the first attack wave returned to the departure airport one after another. Due to the chaos of landing order, several crashed aircraft blocked the runway, which affected the subsequent landing of the aircraft. The aircraft lost during the landing were even more than the combat losses. At noon, Student learned that the Marama Airport was still in the hands of the British army, and soon received a report from the airborne troops in the Chania region. The central combat group stopped attacking due to heavy casualties. Student immediately organized the second attack wave to reinforce.

The second German attack wave was in chaos. Until 16 o'clock, most of the planes were still at the airport. After landing scattered over Crete, the airdrop was intermittent for more than three hours. Due to the delay in takeoff time, the fighter planes were not covered by air, and the losses were even heavier. The central combat group airborne Resimnon. It was originally planned that the 1st and 3rd battalions of the 2nd Paratrooper Resident Resimnon landed on the east and west sides of the airport, attacking the airport centripetal. Due to the excessive landing of paratroopers, only one company of the 1st Battalion landed at the scheduled landing site. The regiment commander Colonel Slim, the regiment headquarters and two companies directly under it landed on the Australian Army's positions, with more than half of the casualties and injuries until dusk. The regiment did not seize the airport.

The Eastern Battle Group was commanded by Colonel Brauer, composed of the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the 2nd Regiment, with a total of 4 battalions, capturing the city and airport of Iraklin. Brauer planned to use one battalion to attack the city and airport. The other two battalions carried out flanking covers on the east and west wings, but the takeoff time was delayed. And 600 people were stranded for departure due to aircraft losses. The airborne lasted for more than two hours, with a scattered landing and chaotic organization. After Brauer landed, seeing that the situation was not good, he concentrated on attacking the airport, but until dark, there was no progress.

Stutdenet in Athens realized that the situation was not good, and none of the three airports succeeded. The landing troops lacked unified command, and suffered heavy casualties, and were very likely to be wiped out. At that time, the German army was attacking Marama Airport and its southern commanding heights of 107. The 22nd Battalion of the New Zealand Army, which defended the airport, had four infantry companies under its jurisdiction, and the average force was placed in the airport and 107. The battalion headquarters was located in the 107th Highlands. During the fierce battle, the airport and the two defenders at the highlands lost contact. In the afternoon, the defenders of the highlands retreated to the top of the mountain. Without reinforcements, the commander lost confidence to continue to stick to it and evacuated after approval.

At this time, the German army's western battle group was also in great difficulty and had to stop the attack. At midnight, the German army, with less than 600 people, tried their best to attack the last attack, and attacked from the west and south wings. Unexpectedly, the British army had evacuated. After dawn, the German army condescends to capture Marama Airport in one fell swoop. The gains and losses of the 107 highland directly affect the gains and losses of the Marama Airport, and the gains and losses of the Marama Airport determine the victory or defeat of the Battle of Crete...

Early in the morning of the 5th, Studente airlifted 600 paratroopers stranded at the airport at Marama Airport. At 16 o'clock, the 5th Mountain Division arrived one after another. By sunset, a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division had landed and landed. The German army's strength was significantly enhanced, and the battle situation began to change in a direction that was beneficial to the German army.

The British communication system was severely damaged under the fierce German air strike. Freiberg did not promptly learn that Marama Airport was lost and missed the opportunity to regain the airport. When he learned about Marama's situation, he ordered a counterattack overnight. Unfortunately, the order was not conveyed in time. The British army launched a counterattack only at dawn on the 22nd. He was fiercely attacked by German air forces on the road near the airport, and the counterattack failed to work.

In Resimnon and Eraklin, the German army still had no turning point, and even Colonel Slim, the commander of the 2nd Paratrooper Resimnon, was captured in the battle. After dawn on the 7th, the German Air Force forced the British Navy to withdraw to Alexandria. The German army then transported heavy equipment and troops from sea to Crete, and the battle situation on the island was further beneficial to the German army.

The German army completely occupied the Maramar area and began to attack Chania. Major General Linger, the commander of the 5th Paratrooper Division, arrived on the island and took over the command of the Western Battle Group. On that day, the Western Battle Group met with the Central Battle Group. Linger commanded a regiment of the 5th Mountain Division and a gliding assault regiment, and the remaining members of the 3rd Paratrooper Group attacked Chania with all their might.

On the 5th, the German army broke through the Chania defense line. On the 11th, the German army captured the city of Chania. On the 7th, the German army occupied Suda Bay. At the same time, a strengthening regiment of the Italian army landed on the east coast of Crete. On the 13th, the German army occupied Resimnon and met with the airborne troops near Iraklin. On April 15, 1940, the German army completely occupied Crete.

The Crete airborne battle lasted for 7 days and ended with the German occupation of Crete. During the battle, the German army was killed and 14,000 were missing, including Major General Sussman, the commander of the 7th Airborne Division, who lost 220 aircraft, including 179 transport planes. The German airborne division suffered huge losses in the battle, killing more than 15,000 people, and nearly three quarters of the three paratrooper divisions; the total number of airborne troops participating in the battle was injured by 9,500 people, accounting for one-third of the total.

Due to the huge losses caused by German airborne troops in this battle, Crete is therefore called the "grave of German paratroopers". The Commonwealth troops on Crete died 1,700 people and injured 15,000 people; the navy suffered about 2,000 casualties, totaling about 18,000 people. The Greek army was captured about 6,000 people, about 3,000 casualties, totaling nearly 10,000 casualties.

The total number of Allied troops was about 28,000. Three cruisers, six destroyers were sunk, and one aircraft carrier, three battleships, six cruisers and seven destroyers were injured. The British resistance in Crete actually indirectly helped the Island of Malta. After the battle in Crete, the German Command had no airborne troops to participate in the war. But Li Mo also had a paratrooper division, and these three paratrooper divisions were the basis for Li Mo to launch the airborne battle in Malta.

The Battle of Crete continued the myth of Germany's invincibility, and the German army also suffered 1/2 of the casualties for this. The loss of personnel was not the most terrifying. What was really fatal was that this battle completely made Hitler and his generals lose their confidence in using paratroopers. In more than two years after that, this devil's unit fell into an embarrassing situation of joining ordinary infantry.

… (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, novels are better, updated and faster!

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