At about 6 o'clock in the morning, a thunderous roar suddenly broke out over the German artillery position, and the dazzling flames of the red purple, orange and red guns expanded instantly, like begonia flowers, blooming all over the mountains. Countless shells broke through the air, meteors roared towards the target like a dense rain, and in the blink of an eye, the deafening explosion drowned out the four fields!

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! "Loud explosions, rushing air waves, high temperature shock waves, rocks, grass and trees burst into pieces, and large clouds of gunpowder smoke soon spread across the surface of Gibraltar. The British defenders cowered in their underground bunkers, feeling as if they were in the middle of a tsunami storm: they had never expected to withstand such fierce fire, and the sound of violent explosions in their ears was like a dense drum beat, and there was no pause for a moment!

A 283-millimeter cannonball fell into the sky like a comet, and suddenly slammed into a bunker fortification with a thunderous momentum, and the orange-purple dazzling light was like a red chrysanthemum. The concrete bunker in front of it was as if it had been smashed by a heavy hammer, all of which cracked, and the twisted and broken shrapnel burst into the sky inch by inch. A moment later, another 283-millimeter bomb burst through the wind and exploded a fortress-like fortification into thousands of pieces. In the billowing smoke, several British soldiers ran out of the hole in a frenzy, but after a few moments, they staggered to the ground in the flames, never moving again.

"The slender Bertha really works." In the front-line artillery observation post, German Army Lieutenant General Dieter said with a smile on his face as he operated the artillery mirror. After two hours of shelling, four British fortifications had been confirmed to have been destroyed, and three of them were killed by direct fire from 283-mm shells, which were far from being as penetrating and lethal as 155-mm shells. Unless it was a particularly strong and large fortress, the shells of this caliber were all land fortification openers, and the former had been pulled out by the Stuka bombers!

Beside him, the commander of the 1st Mountain Division, Quebler, also looked relaxed, apparently very satisfied with what Dieter called "slender Bertha". This weapon is a heavy train gun developed by Krupp, the military code name K5, the first gun was completed and put into service in 1936, and about 8 have been produced so far. The total weight of this type of train gun system is 218 tons, and the length of the barrel reaches an astonishing 76 times the caliber, which allows it to shoot 243kg shells at an ultra-high muzzle velocity of 1120m/s, and the ultimate range at the maximum elevation angle is more than 61km, which is almost twice that of the Navy's battleships!

The Soviet 180mm L60 naval gun theoretically had a muzzle velocity of 1 km/s, but the K5 train gun had an excellently made bore body, and it was by no means a garbage scrap with a mere 10-round life. Coupled with the well-designed backseat shock absorber and bomb delivery facilities, the accuracy and rate of fire of the K5 have become the absolute leader in the train gun family. In the past, the large-caliber train guns transferred from the naval guns to the army were generally due to the limitation of the gun mount, and the accuracy was not satisfactory, but the K5 perfectly solved this problem and truly made full use of the infinite and stable shooting platform of the earth.

This time, the Germans deployed a total of 4 K5 guns aimed at the Gibraltar Peninsula, and under the double calibration of observation balloons and reconnaissance aircraft, almost no bullets missed, and each round of firing could achieve the ideal suppression. This, combined with the dense coverage of a large amount of French artillery fire, plunged the entire northern position of Gibraltar into a hellish storm of fire. By the early afternoon, the ground fortifications that the Germans had detected in the area before the war had been swept away: the barbed wire fence was shattered, large sections of the trenches had collapsed, and the pillboxes were only broken and broken, and the mutilated dead bodies could be seen looming in the process.

"Order the artillery unit to extend the fire to the middle of Gibraltar in one hour." Dieter retracted his gaze with satisfaction and said to the adjutant next to him. At present, the effect of artillery preparation has exceeded his expectations, whether it is the K5 train gun that he relies on as a sharp weapon, or those French heavy guns with an experimental nature, their accuracy and power are exceptional. Although Dieter was convinced that there were certainly underground bunkers in the northern sector of Gibraltar that had not been destroyed, it was clearly not the time to fight these hidden marmots, and he needed to maximize the suppressive power of the heavy artillery group and prioritize all the ground targets that had been discovered.

"This time the southern plains of Gibraltar are the Italian Navy in charge of fire suppression, why haven't they arrived yet?" Quebler looked at the sparkling sea to the southeast, and his brow furrowed with some displeasure. According to the plan, the Italian fleet was supposed to join the shelling operation at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and now almost half an hour has passed, and there is still no ghost at sea.

"General Kübler, are you the first day you know the Italians? If these lovely fellows were a little more reliable, they wouldn't be afraid of even 6 second-rate French divisions who were dissatisfied! Dieter shrugged his shoulders and said, "Wait, the High Command will try to communicate with the Romans." It is said that this time it was the Navy's Admiral Brom who coordinated within the Italian army, and hopefully his background would make the Italians diligent. ”

Kübler was about to ask another question when the phone on the wooden table behind him suddenly screeched. An adjutant picked up the microphone and listened for a moment, and his eyes quickly appeared a little happy, and then he reported to Dieter: "General, the communication office has just received a telegram from the Italian Navy that the shelling fleet is only 15 nautical miles from Gibraltar. ”

"General Brom is still trustworthy." Dieter's eyes lit up, and his mind couldn't help but think of the Norwegian campaign in January of this year. In that thrilling cross-sea battle, it was Jonas who accurately judged the target of the British fleet's actions, so that the landing force was saved from the devastating blow of the enemy fleet and set foot on Norwegian soil without any damage. As the commander of the mountain troops participating in the war at the time, Dieter was very grateful to Jonas who saved his soldiers, and he gave the most important support to his own capture of Gibraltar.

The sea was clear and the waves were rolling, and four steel giants with wide shoulders and waists lined up in a single column, surrounded by 12 destroyers, approached diagonally towards the Strait of Gibraltar. The flag of the Royal Italian Navy flutters high at the top of the mast, and there is an indescribable power and majesty. However, although the bridges of the four capital ships are brand new and full of neat and beautiful modern atmosphere, the gun-type secondary guns on both sides reveal their actual age, at least 20 years old.

On the bridge of the flagship "Durio", Jonas, dressed in military uniform, silently watched the Italian officers and men prepare for the bombardment. The battle alarm bells that rang throughout the ship obviously frightened many recruits who had just joined the army, and they blindly followed their companions to their posts in a panic, and many operations were obviously deformed due to their hectic; Under the fierce roar of the non-commissioned officer next to them, these people stumbled and completed the relevant homework. It took a full 8 minutes for the five turrets under the ship to begin to rotate slowly, but after another 2 minutes, the command to complete the firing still did not reach the command center.

"Ahem, General Brom, the number of recruits on this ship is a bit too much, and it makes you laugh." Rear Admiral Aerys, the commander of the detachment, looked embarrassed, and said to the young man in front of him with some lack of confidence.

As a veteran officer in the industry, Aerys felt that these bastards under his command were too unpleasant. However, the young general in front of him was obviously aware of all this, and his numb and depressed eyes made Aerys's face feverish and embarrassed. At first, Aerys was counting on the aviation general's inability to understand artillery, but it turned out that he was clearly overthinking. No matter how young the qualifications are, they also became a first-line second lieutenant in 1927, where is there a gap in the understanding of the key field of gunnery?

Jonas tried to laugh, but his expression wasn't really natural. According to his plan, four Caraciono-class battleships were used to carry out the task of ground suppression: these ships were in service for 3 to 5 years, when the personnel and equipment were at their most proficient, and the 381-mm heavy guns could also deliver the most ideal blow to the target.

However, the Italian Navy was unwilling to let this elite force do the odd work of ground attack, and only pulled out four old battleships with an average age of 25 years. If it's just like this, it's nothing, the key is that the quality of the personnel on a few old ships is really not flattering - due to the rapid expansion of the Italian fleet in recent years, a large number of experienced veterans have transferred to the new warships, and many of the recruits left behind have not even completed their basic training!

“…… I only hope that the destroyer fleet will perform the anti-submarine mission well, and at the same time the shells will fall on the Gibraltar peninsula. At present, our ground forces have not launched an offensive, and your artillery shells will not be scattered 7 kilometers away from the target, right? At this point, Jonas was powerless to change anything, so he could only say in anticipation.

"You can rest assured. After all, this is an attack on a stationary target, so there is no difference between the line-of-sight distance and the shooting distance, and it will be extremely easy to calculate the variable distance. If this can hit your army with shells, I will shoot the person in charge of the fire control mast on the spot! Faced with Jonas's completely hopeless minimum demand, Iriston was disgraced, and immediately shouted assurances, "Besides, the people on the destroyer are veterans, and they will put up a tight cordon." ”

After a few conversations, the preparations for the bombardment of the Durio were finally completed. The 13 305mm guns were raised high, like giants' arms pointing straight to the sky, and under the guidance of the latest data given by the central fire control room, they were constantly making subtle adjustments. The firepower configuration of this type of battleship is quite distinctive, with 3 triple and 2 twin main guns mixed on the central axis of the hull, showing the unique temperament of the Italians from the world. In terms of the number of main guns, since the "holy relic" Agincourt, these four Italian battleships are the leader, although they are no longer capable of modern naval warfare, but in the field of shore bombardment, they can still give full play to their blazing residual heat.

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