Chapter 967: 99 Lives

In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, two white torpedo tracks suddenly "emerged" from under the sea surface in the direction of the starboard side of the submarine hunter ship "North Tipperelli" of the New United Kingdom Navy. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 infoPreviously, in order to make the most of the sonar equipment, the "North Tipperary" has reduced its speed to 8 knots. In the face of the torpedo fired by the Italian submarine, it made an emergency turn and intercepted it with open fire, but these two tactics did not work. Seeing the white track approaching rapidly, the officers and men of the new United Kingdom Navy on the "North Tipperelli" were still lucky, thinking that the Italians should have fired two torpedoes for exercises, after all, they also used rocket-type deep bombs for exercises at the beginning......

In an instant, a violent explosion engulfed the stern of the North Tipperary. The power of an ordinary torpedo is enough for this submarine hunter ship of less than 1,000 tons, not to mention that there are 3 fused barrel deep bombs on the aft deck, and 18 powerful barrel deep bombs are stored in the anti-submarine ammunition magazine at the lower part of the stern. As was always the case with the battle, the ensuing detonation of ammunition nearly tore the second half of the North Tipperary to shreds, and the remaining hull tilted rapidly in an upside-down motion, and within two minutes the bow was lifted from the foaming sea.

The intimidating actions led to the murder, and the commander of the "Archimedes" should have confessed his mistake and taken timely remedial measures, but he did not have the courage and responsibility. After the incident, instead of surfacing to rescue the drowning man, the Italian submarine quietly turned around and tried to escape the sea by submarine.

Seeing that its own ship had exploded and sunk, the destroyer "Connaught" of the new United Kingdom Navy, which was watching the situation from a distance, rushed to the scene of the accident, and the "Fenian" squadron also heard the news and urgently dispatched two warships and a number of seaplanes to arrive, so that the rescue work at sea was completed in less than an hour and a half. During this period, the "Archimedes", which was in a state of deep submersion, sailed only 6 nautical miles.

As soon as the rescue work was over, the "Connaught" immediately went into search and tracking down the perpetrators. The furious "Red Dragon" soon found traces of the Italian submarine north of the area where the incident occurred, and the ironclad facts and bloody scenes made it attack without reservation. After only four rounds of attacks, sonar crews were able to capture the sound of the explosion of the deep bomb through passive sonar, and then the debris and oil trails on the surface of the sea also corroborated the sonar observations.

Although the new British sailors aboard the Connaught were eager to blow up the tragic Italian submarine to pieces, in order to obtain direct evidence that the Italians could not deny, they temporarily halted the attack and waited for the damaged Italian submarine to rise to the surface on its own. I don't know if it was caused by the submarine losing control, or if the Italians made up their minds to resist to the end, that guy actually dived to the bottom of the sea more than 100 meters deep and did not move for a long time. The Connaught then reported the situation to its superiors, and left it to the big men who controlled the situation to decide whether to continue the attack or to stay patiently in the future.

In this era, the new United Kingdom had a very different approach to decision-making than the Kingdom of Italy. After the sinking of the "North Tipperelli", before the last surviving sailor could be rescued, the new United Kingdom, in the name of the Ministry of Defence, issued an urgent announcement informing it of the sinking of its ship by an Italian submarine attack in the eastern Mediterranean. What mission was the "Archimedes" sent to...... One side is already familiar with the guidance and control of international public opinion, and the other side is slow to respond or even at a loss.

In the vast and empty eastern Mediterranean, the "Connaught" wandered the waters where the Italian submarine was located together with the submarine hunter "Offalai". Four hours after the sinking of the North Tipperelli, the two ships received a clear order from their flagship to attack the Italian submarine lying on the seabed. Powerful cartridge depth charges were dropped one by one, landing on the bottom of the sea, causing a series of violent explosions. About 10 minutes later, the broken tables, rotten chair legs, bottles and cans and other daily objects surfaced on the surface with a large amount of oil and debris, and the two ships suspended their attacks. After another ten minutes or so, three men in black diving suits appeared on the surface of the sea one after another, and when the crew of the "Connaught" scooped them up, these three guys were already dying. After they regained consciousness, the officers and men of the New United Kingdom Navy learned from them that the "Archimedes" had been damaged, and that the three men had escaped from the torpedo tubes, and that the remaining 51 people on board were in danger of not surviving.

As night fell, the "Connaught" and "Offalae" salvaged a large number of objects from the sea, and after identification and analysis, it was basically confirmed that the Italian submarine "Archimedes" had been sunk here. As a result, the new United Kingdom Navy submarine hunter "North Tipperelli" had a crew of 87 and 48 killed, and the Italian Navy submarine "Archimedes" had a crew of 54 and 51 killed, bringing the total number of casualties on both sides to 99.

Ninety-nine lives were lost in the depths of the Mediterranean, bringing untold sorrow to many families and an unprecedented impact on the situation in Europe. The impact of the sinking of the North Tipperelli and Archimedes was so profound that it was thought to be comparable to the explosion of the Maine.

The Italian heavy cruiser "Goricia", which sailed to the waters near Crete, interrupted its trip and hurriedly returned home, and the Arab Kingdom **** Ben Abdullah and his entourage returned to Italy with him. In their view, this vicious incident that caused a sensation all over the world was not only not a bad thing, but also did not facilitate Italy's full involvement in the Palestinian situation. In the face of criticism and criticism from outside public opinion, Rome's reply was neither clever nor sincere, and his specious and even contradictory justifications made them unjust.

Seeing that international public opinion was completely in favor of the new United Kingdom, with the exception of Germany and a few other countries that had not yet expressed their stance, the European and American governments had openly or implicitly expressed their neutral stance, and Austria-Hungary, which had been waiting for an opportunity, attacked Italy. They first issued an exultum diplomatically to Italy, demanding that the Italian Navy immediately remove the blockade laid in the Strait of Otranto and restore the freedom of navigation of passing ships. The Italian government, which was struggling to cope with the events of the "North Tipperelli" and "Archimedes", ignored the Austro-Hungarian Empire's foreign communications, and this played into the hands of its opponents. The main superintendent of the Austro-Hungarian navy had assembled in the port of Pula, and after the presence of Emperor Karl I of Austria, he set anchor and sailed straight for the Strait of Otranto at the southern end of the Adriatic Sea.

As the "external response" of Austria-Hungary, the new United Kingdom has assembled a combat fleet with three combat aircraft carriers as the core and complete air and anti-submarine capabilities in the eastern Mediterranean. Among them, the "Fenian" with its beveled flight deck design and steam catapult system is undoubtedly powerful, and the "Toghstad" which has just arrived in the Mediterranean Sea from the Persian Gulf and the "St. Patrick" who participated in the Philippine naval battle are all Winner-class aircraft carriers with mature technology and excellent design. The pilots of the new United Kingdom Navy are among the best in a hundred and the strict and well-established training system makes them the best among their peers.

While the reinvigorated main fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Navy sailed for the Strait of Otranto with the determination to break through the shackles, a group of brave and highly skilled pilots of the new United Kingdom Navy were performing an unprecedented feat. Previously, the "St. Patrick" was transported to the war zone for the Jews to carry fighter planes, and only more than 30 carrier-based planes were carried for the use of the ship, so the combat strength was not complete; after the new United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary reached a military agreement to jointly deal with Italy, the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft originally belonging to the "St. Patrick" drove 30 new IR-44T carrier-based fighters and 18 IK-43 carrier-based bombers from the southern Wales base and arrived at the Brenthal Air Base in Bavaria after a flight of more than two hours. After refueling here, they crossed the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the base in Tirana, the southernmost point of the country, and after a short rest, embarked on the final leg of the 3,000-kilometer voyage, where all 48 aircraft landed safely on the "St. Patrick" under sail.

The significance of this move is not only to verify the mechanical reliability of the carrier-based aircraft of the new United Kingdom Navy and to prove the excellence of the pilots of the new United Kingdom Navy, but more importantly, the authorities of the new United Kingdom have successfully tested the position of the German top and the military through the opening of the Brenthal Air Base by Germany - the Germans have broken the shackles of the British at sea through two world wars, broken through their own geographical constraints, and certainly do not want another overly powerful country to appear in the British Isles, Even if it is a hardcore ally at this stage, it is important for those in power in the new United Kingdom to know whether the Austrian protest will touch the German psychological cordon and thus determine the next move. Now it seems that the German top leaders and military generals are indeed very angry about the consistent practice of the Italians, and if they directly send troops, it will be a matter of minutes to kill the Italians, but Germany, as the military leader of the Allied Powers and the "alliance leader" of the League of Nations, will not gain more than it will gain in terms of diplomacy, politics, and even military strategy in the use of force against Italy. Now that Italy and the new United Kingdom have suffered a tragedy of 99 lives, and Italy and Austria-Hungary have a long-standing feud, the three countries have a "nest fight", so that the Italians will suffer a little loss, and remember it for a long time, which does not seem to be a bad thing in the eyes of the Germans.

(End of chapter)