"3 to 3, it's good that a pilot who participated in the war for the first time can have such a performance!"

The fourth captain of the "St. Patrick", Mark Moloy, was of mixed German and Irish descent and lived in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the German Empire until the age of 10. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn 1917, the Molloy family moved from Schwerin to Limerick, and in that era of martial arts, the family of merchants did not prevent Mark Molloy from starting his military career. In the autumn of 1923, at the age of 16, he was admitted to the Limerick Naval Cadet College, where he became a member of the Royal Irish Navy two years later. In the 14 years since, he has been given two opportunities for further study, and through his unremitting efforts, he has grown into an excellent naval commander.

Captain Molloy was speaking to Ezel Weizmann, who had accompanied him on board as a special liaison officer for the Zionist organization, and the young man who had served in the Luftwaffe was well aware that his words were mostly polite. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the vast majority of German pilots were rookies, and when World War II broke out in 1932, most of the Irish pilots were also fighting for the first time, but they achieved their glory against the enemy. Looking at the present, the Air Force of the Arab Kingdom is an out-and-out weak brigade, with basic "tao" equipment and "please" personnel, and several conflicts with Syria have been beaten to the ground. This time, when the performance of the fighters was almost the same, the Jewish pilots were 8 to 6, and they were prepared before the other side, and finally the tie seemed to be acceptable, and judging from the current situation of the Zionist armed forces, such a performance was far from satisfactory.

"We only have one very small airfield in Tel Aviv, and the number of anti-aircraft weapons is too small to protect the airfield, so the planes have to be scattered and hidden, using the streets or park lawns for opportunities." "The situation is very unfavorable to us," said Ezer, "and perhaps our aviation forces will be able to grow up in battle, or perhaps they will be wiped out by the enemy in less than a week - the former scenario is undoubtedly more probable." ”

Captain Molloy smiled, "The outcome of a war is not calculated by chance! ”

"As long as there is a glimmer of hope, of course we will do our best, but if we are all wiped out, you can bear to watch the brothers of the Foreign Legion being bombed and strafed by enemy planes?" ”

Captain Moroy put his hands behind his back: "To be precise, the Arab Kingdom is not our enemy, and our Foreign Legion is only helping you fight against the Arab Kingdom government forces as mercenaries. As it stands, we will not use force directly against them unless we receive an order from our superiors to enter the war, or if we are attacked by the Arab kingdom. ”

It is a soldier's duty to obey orders, Ezer knew this all too well, he turned to look at the take-off area at the stern, where the eight IR-39s had been neatly placed by the ground crew on the carrier, and the Jewish pilots had already sat in the cockpit, now just waiting for the take-off order to be given—it didn't depend on the direction of the wind or the sea conditions, nor on the mood of Captain Molloy, but on the changing tide of battle in Tel Aviv. Previously, the Jewish warplanes that took off from the "St. Patrick" and the government forces of the Arab Kingdom launched the largest air battle between the two sides, and the eight IR-39s piloted by the Jewish pilots were shot down, and the remaining five landed safely at the northern airport of Tel Aviv, and then the Tel Aviv Jewish militia command sent a telegram that two of the five warplanes were damaged and needed to be repaired, and the other three were fully fueled and ammunition and ready to take off. The problem now is that the Zionist armed forces are not sure how efficiently the Arab Kingdom air force will launch a retaliatory attack on what scale, or whether they should go all out or stay out of the way. If the Arabs were about to launch a swift and fierce air attack, the second and third waves of combat planes sent to Tel Aviv should be delayed, and if the Arab air counterattack was weak, the Jewish fighters carried by the "St. Patrick" should rush to Tel Aviv as soon as possible......

After more than two hours of restless waiting, there was finally new information from the Tel Aviv militia command: Judging from the results of the intelligence officers' inspection of the two air bases of the government forces of the Arab Kingdom in the south and north of Palestine, it seems that the Arabs have no intention of immediately launching a retaliatory attack against the air battle in Tel Aviv -- the air base near Jerusalem in the north had been bombed by Syrian warplanes earlier, and the aviation facilities had not yet been completely repaired. About half of them were bombers and transport planes, and there were about 20 fighter planes, and the Arab fighters that recently launched air strikes against the Zionist forces mainly took off from this base, and the Arab fighters who participated in the air battle in Tel Aviv that day also came from here. After the return of the surviving fighters, the Arabs strengthened the alert at the airport and sent fighter jets on patrol and alert without interruption, but there was no sign of a large-scale sortie; The base in the south, near Egypt, is relatively small, and there seems to be problems with aviation facilities and supply supplies, so only a dozen or so fighters have been deployed, and the attendance rate of fighters has been low recently, and except for one reconnaissance plane that took off that day, the entire base was as lifeless as if it had been abandoned.

After receiving the information, Ezel Weizman immediately decided to fly the second wave of fighters on standby to Tel Aviv, and telegraphed the Tel Aviv militia command, asking them to do everything possible to strengthen the air defense of the airfield, and at the same time extract a part of the 50-kilogram aerial bombs suitable for the IR-39 from the ammunition depot.

Now that the Jews had made their decision, Captain Molloy did not hesitate to order the carrier to adjust course so that the eight fighters on the flight deck could take off without a hitch. Although the "St. Patrick" is only an aircraft carrier with a traditional layout, and the take-off efficiency of the carrier-based aircraft is only about 60 percent of that of the "Fenian", with the tacit cooperation of all the crew, it took less than 10 minutes from the captain's order to the last IR-39 to take off. After this, the aviation ground crew quickly lifted the last four IR-39s and four IK-40s from the upper hangar to the flight deck.

Shortly after the takeoff of the second wave of Jewish fighters, at an altitude of 6,000 meters above sea level, the carrier-based radar early warning aircraft of the "Fenian" slowly but elegantly adjusted the direction of flight. Soon after it returned to level flight, the airborne radar operator noticed something unusual on the screen in front of him, and after initial confirmation, he reported to the mothership: "Hive, Hive, Sentinel 1 report!" There is an abnormal echo at a distance of 23 degrees north-west and a distance of 60 kilometers, and after adjusting the working band, the echo still exists, and it may be a submarine that has just surfaced! ”

With communication unimpeded, the "Fenian" quickly replied that "keep watch and report at any time". At this time, neither the carrier-based aircraft pilot nor the staff officer on the aircraft carrier was too nervous or let down their vigilance, but maintained a calm and cautious state of mind.

Reports of the discovery of suspected submarine targets quickly reached Colonel Ian Flynn, who, after consulting Admiral Gavin Bynier, who was the commander of the task force, ordered the communications officer to signal the wingman North Tipperary to "conduct combat reconnaissance in the designated direction."

The North Tipperary is the smallest warship in the Mediterranean Task Force of the New United Kingdom Navy, it belongs to the Irish Navy's finalized Munster-class submarine hunters, with a standard displacement of only 755 tons, equipped with two single-mounted 127-mm naval guns, two twin 40-mm machine guns, two sets of quadruple rocket depth launchers and a set of barrel depth bomb launch slides, which can carry 192 rocket depth bombs and 24 barrel depth bombs. Limited by tonnage and activity radius, this class of submarine hunters is usually used for offshore anti-submarine and base vigilance, and this time it was incorporated into the task force to sail to the Mediterranean, and after sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, the sea conditions were mostly calm, and the shortcomings of weak seaworthiness were not to be worried.

Before the "North Tipperelli" rushed forward at a top speed of 28 knots to find out, two IR-44T carrier-based fighters acting as air guards for the "Fenian" arrived at the scene, and the pilots found a submarine flying the Italian Navy flag on the sea, which carried medium-caliber deck guns on the foredeck, two machine guns in the rear of the command module, and no on-board radar antenna - inferred from the silhouette, it should be a thousand-ton submarine built in the 30s.

Having identified the submarine by the flag it was flying, the pilots of the new United Kingdom Navy did not hesitate to report the situation to the mother ship. The two IR-44Ts were not too close to the Italian submarine until they received a reply from the mothership, and the Italian crews who were ventilating outside the cabin appeared careless. After a while, the two new United Kingdom Navy carrier-based planes began to purposefully demonstrate their excellent handling to the Italian crews, and as they took turns diving down and flying low, the Italian crews nervously ran to control their guns, and when they could see the shamrock logo under the wings of the opponent, they waved their fists one by one. For many years, Italy, Ireland and later the new United Kingdom, were in the same military camp, but they did not get along, competing more than cooperating in trade, military and other fields, and having diplomatic problems. Today, the two European countries are in fact at odds with the new United Kingdom supporting the Palestinian Jews in their repression and the Kingdom of Italy supporting the Arab kingdom in their repression of the Jews.

After learning that the target was an Italian submarine, the submarine hunter "North Tipperelli", which belongs to the Mediterranean Task Force of the New United Kingdom Navy, drove to the designated position with all its might, and on the sea not far behind it, the powerful Red Dragon-class destroyer "Connaught" adjusted course and followed. In terms of anti-submarine warfare capabilities alone, the "North Tipperary" is no worse than the "Connaught", which costs several times more than itself, but when it comes to the ability to deal with complex situations, the Munster-class submarine hunters are much worse than the all-rounders such as the Red Dragon-class destroyers.

(End of chapter)