Erich Schuster and his platoon worked their way forward to northwestern portion of the runway of Malemes. The enemy started firing at them. Gefrieter Penzburger, mortally wounded, collapsed behind Schuster.
The English soldiers fired from their positions and trenches on the Fallschirmjager, who were advancing by leaps and bounds. When a twin barreled machine-gun swung in on Schuster's squad, it dove for cover. Schuster crawled on by himself in the olive tree orchard, until he had a field of fire directly on the firing antiaircraft battery.
"Bring the MG34 up here!" He called out. His order passed on, from one man to the next.
Once the machine-gun was in place, it opened fire and allowed the other squads to advance by bounds. All Six antiaircraft guns in that particular position were still firing.
"Oberfeldwebel Arpke is coming, Herr Oberjager!" One of the men next to Schuster called out as he turned to look at the rear. Schuster also turned around, and he saw Arpke advancing toward him in series of grotesque leaps. Schuster crawled a bit in Arpke's direction, when the latter was forced to take cover.
"West edge of runway is full of the enemy, Herr Oberfeldwebel!" Schuster reported to his platoon leader. "The enemy is dug in all around the battery."
"We will have to go back to the riverbed, Schuster." Arpke said. "From there we can work our way forward from the two sides with assault groups."
Groaning, Arpke grabbed at his knee. He had suffered a contusion that was leaking blood. Despite that, he supervised all the preparations and had his platoon set up defensive positions oriented to the south and east.
He issued orders: "Machine-guns and mortars: Fire on the enemy positions in front of the antiaircraft guns. Schuster and Willrich, attack the positions from the left and right and smoke out the field fortifications. Everybody else give the two assault groups covering fire!"
