Naqoura, located in the Palestinian region, is a key point connecting Palestine to Lebanon, and it is located at a checkpoint from the Lebanese coastal plain to Palestine, so the 2nd Regiment of the 9th Highland Division of the British Army is stationed at this point.

Don't underestimate the 9th Division, which is from the Scottish Highlands, and the quality of its soldiers is one of the best in the UK. In addition, the division was formed by some officers and soldiers of the 51st Highland Division, so it is also the absolute main force in the sequence of the British army in the Middle East.

And placing an elite unit in Naqoura shows the importance it attaches to it. Since the regiment was stationed in Naqoura, it has built a lot of fortifications, although it is not impregnable, but trying to capture this place will inevitably make the attacker pay a lot of price.

The ensuing change of situation made the garrison feel fortified, and on the third day after the fortifications were built, a Romanian army drove here, and they looked at the officers and men of the 2nd Regiment who were entrenched here, and wisely chose to evacuate, which caused a burst of cheers from the defenders. Although they are soldiers and have an obligation to fight the enemy, they are willing to be in the middle of a battlefield where bullets and bullets are raining.

However, although the Romanians retreated temporarily, their superior navy and air force would not retreat, and a shell would fly from the sea, reminding them that war was always looming over them.

Of course, the attack from the battleship, but only the occasional greeting. Then the plane from Romania is like a vulture in the sky, which can be seen at any time.

Since some time ago, Romanian warplanes have been flying over their heads every day, completely ignoring their presence. And from time to time a few bombs are thrown away and gone, which is really a headache.

Since then, they have one more task in Naqoura, which is to keep informed of the passing of enemy aircraft. In order to make it easier to prepare the troops in the rear for air defense.

Therefore, the regiment has another task, that is, to observe the appearance of enemy aircraft in the sky at any time from a high place, and to report to the higher authorities as soon as there is a discovery.

Of course, for observers, it is more difficult, they are very tired to observe enemy planes in the sun, and they basically need to change people to observe in an hour.

Of course, their hard work was worth it, and after the establishment of the observation posts, the rate of losses caused by the Romanian air raids dropped a lot.

However, although the British army has made various responses, its fundamental air disadvantage still cannot be changed, and the suppression of fighter performance is an unsolvable problem for the British Air Force in the Middle East.

For this reason, Admiral Longmore, who is the commander of the Middle East Air Force, sent several telegrams in succession, informing him of the current difficulties of the Middle East Air Force and asking for more new fighters to support, otherwise the fall of Suez will become a high probability event.

True, in the admiral's opinion, the current situation of the British in Egypt is very bad, and although the commander-in-chief of the Middle East, Admiral Wavell, is trying his best to gather supplies and troops everywhere, but in the face of the Romanian attack, it is still impossible to reach.

The reason is very simple, that is, the naval and air forces, the British army in the Middle East is at an absolute disadvantage. Among them, the air force under his command can compete with it except for the Spitfire, and none of the others can fight. Can you not make this admiral angry, his stick boys, driving the fighters behind the enemy to meet the battle, causing these stick guys to be replaced all over again.

That's why he asked the native to breathe fire for him, he didn't want gladiators, hurricanes, P40, he just wanted fire.

It's just that his wish is destined not to come true, because at the moment Britain needs Spitfire everywhere, and on the French front, only Spitfire can compete with BF109. As for the French side, it can only use models with backward performance to deal with the German BF109 fleet. On the Italian front, the fighters equipped with it can still fight back and forth with the Italian fighters.

Since it is everywhere, what is the production speed of the Spitfire?

A realistic figure is about 150 aircraft produced per month, which is very impressive in peacetime. But now it's wartime, and every day fighters are shot down and consumed. So this number is not enough. You must know that the HF201 fighters, which are most urgently needed in Romania at the moment, produce more than 200 units per month, and even the RF20 fighters have more than a hundred. Not to mention that the Spitfire also had to deal with the German BF109 fighters.

The British have identified this problem and are building and renovating factories to produce more Spitfires. It's just that it takes time to renovate and build factories, and neither Germany nor Romania is willing to give Britain that time.

This forced a handful of Spitfires to take on more missions, leaving their pilots with constant fatigue, which in turn put Spitfires at a disadvantage when fighting the enemy. Such a circular scene has made many people of insight see the current exhaustion of the British Air Force, and Admiral Longmore is one of them.

So what is there to solve this problem, there is only one way, and that is to burst production capacity. Continue to let the current pilots die like this. It will not be relieved until the Spitfire capacity explodes. This is the result of the backward production capacity of new equipment, and there is no other way to go.

As for the procurement of fighters from other countries, they can only be considered mitigation means. And he doesn't have a high evaluation of the P40 from the United States, and his performance is mediocre in all aspects, so he can only be regarded as a second choice in desperation.

Of course, as the commander of the Air Force, Longmore did not only ask for Spitfires from the mainland, he actually did a lot of responses. For example, the fighters are dispersed, and after learning the route of the incoming aircraft group, arrange the fighters to constantly harass the opponent, among which the Spitfire is the first to lead the enemy escort fighters away, and then the Hurricane, Gladiator, and P40 deal with the enemy's bombers.

I have to say that the response is still very effective, and several good results have been achieved. However, the Romanian Air Force, as its opponent, was not stupid, and after several such tactics in a row, it escorted more fighters, and at the same time drove away the enemy who came to harass it, no longer entangled with the enemy too much, and it had to ensure that there were fighters to escort the bomber group at all times.

So this also led to the fact that the harassment of the British army was no longer smooth, and its losses were increasing. In the final analysis, Romania had a large range of fighters, and it also had an advantage over the British army in terms of the number of aircraft.

Romania currently has more than 600 warplanes on the island of Cyprus and Lebanon, including more than 300 fighters, while the British have only about 500 aircraft in the region. In addition, the quality of the fighters is not comparable, and the Romanian fighters here are its main fighters. And Britain can only compete with nearly a hundred Spitfires, which is still taken out by the local gritted teeth when Romania is approaching Suez.

Since the quantity and quality are not comparable, it is impossible for Rummore to deal with the Romanian Air Force, no matter how he tries to deal with it. So the British air disadvantage in the region can no longer be avoided.

Now that there is superiority in the sea and air, then Romania will certainly not ignore it, and next, a battle relying on the superiority of the sea and air is about to begin.