The huge muzzle of the gun was aimed at the land, and the officer in charge of the command took the phone and gave the order after making sure that it was correct. "Fire."

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The successive shots of the main guns were like a salute, showing the power of industrial crystallization, and a series of loud noises made the battleship, which had been in service for more than ten years, shift several meters, and on the bow number, the Mircea was impressively written.

"Boom, boom, boom~"

Led by the Mircea, more than a dozen other medium and large warships kept bombarding the defenders' positions. In front of them stood a dense mass of transport ships, and the landing craft like little bees kept transporting the officers and men on board to the beach, and at first glance there were at least 20,000 or 30,000 people.

Most of the landing troops, consisting of the 1st, 3rd, and 8th Marine Divisions, have already been brought ashore, and the only bad thing is that they have not been able to land their heavy equipment. Although the landing craft are constantly being transferred, the unloading of many pieces of equipment is very cumbersome, and the time of landing operations is very precious, and it is impossible to wait for these equipment to come ashore.

However, although the landing force lacked heavy equipment, there was no shortage of naval and air support, and in addition to naval artillery support, Romania's superior air force was also quite a lot. At present, in the midst of combat, more and more people have realized the importance of the Air Force to ground combat.

So now the tasks of the Air Force are also getting heavier and heavier, of which the ground needs the most. And this has led to an increasing demand for ground attack fighters in the Air Force. Of course, Admiral Ankedra, who is the leader of the Air Force, will certainly not meet this situation, but the heavy bomber he values is not urgently needed at the moment. Because no matter how you look at it, the RU80 bomber capable of carrying out strategic bombing missions has no suitable targets.

The main reason is that Britain and France are far away from Romania, and the two air forces have effectively sent bombers to carry out missions, so the current mission of the Romanian air force is mainly to seize airspace and carry out ground-to-sea attacks against Britain and France in the Mediterranean.

At present, the newly formed Middle East Air Force has deployed three wings of aircraft on the island of Cyprus, and their first task now is naturally to help the army seize the port city of Beirut, so that the Romanian army can continue to land on the Middle East land.

In the face of Romania's huge superiority in the sea and air, the defensive pressure on the defending officers and soldiers was very great.

"Hurry up and open fire, don't let them rush over."

A French company commander defending the position was directing his soldiers to desperately counterattack the attacking Luo officers and soldiers.

The defenders on the position operated their weapons and desperately opened fire on the incoming Luo officers and soldiers. Bettier 1892 rifles, MAS36 rifles, FM2429 light machine guns and other weapons burst out from the position, making the Romanian army's offensive a failure.

Although the French army in World War II was not highly evaluated in later generations, its performance in defensive warfare was remarkable, after all, the First World War gave the French army enough experience in positional warfare.

It's just that the French officer, who was the company commander, was not happy at all when he saw this, and he hurriedly shouted. "Watch out for shelling."

That's right, this is a lesson that the defenders have learned in blood, and sure enough, after the French officer shouted, a rapid slapping and artillery fire rang out, and the French troops in the position immediately buried their heads in hiding from the incoming shelling.

"Boom, boom, boom."

Several mortar shells exploded around the fortifications, the nearest being only a few meters away. The fact that the first round of firing had this mark speaks volumes about the level of training of the Romanian army, since mortars are the most important test of gunners' experience.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

As the shelling continued, more and more shells gradually fell into the positions, and the French casualties appeared. In the face of this situation, the French army also has its own means of counterattack, but there is a certain gap in firepower compared with the attacking Luo army. This made veterans who fought on the Western Front of World War I feel like they are facing the German army.

This feeling is not wrong, after all, Romania has basically come to the target German army before, but in recent years, it has gradually diverged from the German army in terms of equipment, but it is highly consistent in tactics. However, the only difference is that the Romanian army has more artillery equipment, mainly because its biggest threat to the Soviet army is more artillery.

The positions, which had been subjected to artillery bombardment and infantry attacks, finally withstood the attack after losing nearly twenty men. It's just that the officer leading the team looked at the sparse soldiers behind him and wanted to cry without tears, but he led a full company to defend this position, but now there was not even half of the panting on the position.

It had only been half a day of fighting, and half of his men had been lost, which reminded him of the flesh mill of the First World War. In fact, this is completely incomparable, just the illusion of excessive casualties of the French army on the defensive, and how many French troops are in Beirut, where can they afford the title of flesh mill.

If we pull up the perspective and look at the entire battlefield situation, we can find that the French positions have been shattered, and many sections have changed hands, which naturally makes the commander of the 31st French Division, Major General Alnick, unable to sit still, and he has no choice but to ask the commander Mendelek for help.

"Your Excellency, our defense is under too much pressure and we urgently need reinforcements."

On the other end of the phone, Mendelek, as the commander of the city's defense, quietly listened to Major General Alnick's call for help. He naturally knew about the crisis situation in the stall position, but he didn't have any mobile forces at hand, what could he do.

Don't look at the fact that Beirut has gathered most of the French troops in the area, but the total is only more than 60,000 people. Even if the British had already sent a brigade of reinforcements (after discovering the Romanian landing fleet, the French army in Beirut immediately called for help, and the Anglo-Indian 21st Brigade stationed in Haifa, Palestine, immediately rushed over), but the strength of Beirut was less than 40,000.

Moreover, these people had to disperse to defend in various places, which also led to the fact that they knew that the beachhead defense was the most advantageous advantage, but there was still only one division to defend it. (Don't ask why you have to defend the stall position, no one can watch the enemy land safely and continuously)

In fact, this situation was expected by Lieutenant General Mendelek a long time ago, and in his plan, there was no idea of a decisive battle on the beachhead.

In his plans, the beachhead was nothing more than a means to delay the adversary. His aim was not to keep the Romanian army on the beach, but to delay the movement of the opposing side and gain time for reinforcements from the British.

After all, the defenders in Beirut had less than 40,000 troops, and there was no capital to confront the attacking Romanian army.

Although he has the intention of giving up the stall position, it does not mean that he is willing to see half a day just give up, according to his original idea, the stall needs to be held for at least two days, and now let alone two days and one day has not been held.

It's just that the current situation makes him have to consider making a trade-off, whether to hold on for a while longer, delay until the evening to withdraw the troops, or organize a retreat now.

Of course, according to his thoughts, it is best to retreat at night. This would ensure the smooth withdrawal of the troops and the fulfillment of his new vision, which was the best of both worlds.

It's just that this method needs to let the stall troops hold for another half a day before it can work, which is also the point that Mendelek is most worried about. If the position is breached, then the defeated troops will not be able to continue to use it for a short time, which is very detrimental to the city defense of Beirut.

But to withdraw now, then it is necessary to think about the chaos and losses caused by the retreat. Retreating before the battle has always been a technical job, and it is the most difficult one, how many people in ancient and modern China and abroad have planted their heels here. Although the modern army has made this choice less scary, the possible knock-on effects are still for every commander to consider carefully.

As the commander of the city's defenses, Mendelek was no exception, and after some consideration, he made the decision to let him defend until nightfall. In order to prevent the possibility of being defeated, he gritted his teeth and drew two battalions to provide reinforcements for the 31st Division.

Montleck's decision to look ahead was a complete disaster for the defenders, and although he had sent two battalions of troops, the French on the beachhead were unable to withstand the attack from the Romanians, and at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the position was broken by the Romanians, and the defenders were greatly defeated, and they were completely unable to organize again.

The Luo officers and soldiers who landed also knew how to judge the situation and immediately followed the defeated army into the city, which made Mendelek regret it.

It's just that it was too late, and the Luo army that attacked the city was stuck in it like nails, and after crushing three French attacks during the night, it finally gained a firm foothold. This was followed by a steady stream of landing forces fighting with the French in the city of Beirut. Among them, the Luo army, which was equipped with submachine guns and flamethrowers and other sharp weapons in street combat, took advantage of the advantage of numbers to gradually drive the French army out of various locations.

By the third day, the French had been driven out of Beirut, and the British reinforcements they were expecting were still mired in the Palestinian and Jordanian national uprisings.

There are not enough statistics on this uprising led by the Holy Descent family, but at least 300,000 people responded in subsequent reports. At Romania's suggestion, these Arabs did not fight the British, but used their familiarity with the situation to constantly destroy roads and harass the British, making their attempts to reinforce Beirut completely ruined.

Faced with the fall of Beirut, Admiral Wavell, as the supreme commander of the British forces in the Middle East, knew that the next situation was difficult.