The defense position built by the Portuguese can indeed withstand some bombardment from the firearms, but they did not consider the threat from above.
As a result, when the Portuguese army was subjected to bombing from above, not only were the majority of Portuguese soldiers unprepared, but the defensive positions that had previously provided them with a lot of protection failed to serve any purpose.
Although there were fewer shells in this round of bombing than before, the shells carried by the bombers were all large-caliber, touch-on-impact bombs, filled with a vast number of fragments of iron, steel balls, glass shards, and other sharp materials to maximize the damage.
As luck would have it, one of the bombs fell right next to the Military Commander of the Portuguese Timor, Khalif Filho, and the force of the explosion swept him away, along with his deputy officer and messenger.
