On a clear moonlit night, the silver moonlight quietly sprinkled over the Smolarda airbase in Sardinia, and only a handful of lights could be seen in the entire military airfield, and the sentinels with guns watched vigilantly from the gates, and the curved domed hangars were basically closed doors and windows, and only when people entered and exited, could they see through the half-open sliding doors......

"I really don't understand, are those high-minded guys in the staff thinking with their ass? Let us fly directly to Sicily, but let the technicians come by boat, and in the more than ten hours between them, was the war temporarily stopped? Or did they negotiate with the enemy and put a truce for more than ten hours? ”

The complaining blonde man, dressed in the uniform of a pilot of the Royal Italian Air Force, looked funny and embarrassed with a wrench in his hand and two pinned to his belt, and his face was covered in oil. At this time, the object of his service was an aircraft without propellers, because it was in a state of overhaul and maintenance, many covers of the fuselage were opened, revealing dense pipelines, although there were three maintenance workers next to it, but the serious work was obviously done by this pilot.

Standing on the side was an older air force officer, his clothes were spotless, a pair of black gloves pinned to his waist, and he said with relief: "To talk about foresight, our staff is indeed a little worse than that of belligerent countries like Germany and Ireland, but it is not completely useless. Come to think of it, if it weren't for the insistence of the General Staff, our plans to equip jets would have been postponed until this year. They are good at everything, but they are too expensive, one is equivalent to three or four Maqui-205s, and just two squadrons have made parliamentarians complain on various occasions. ”

The blonde pilot snorted, "MC-205? If they are the best use, why rush to bring us in? Some people are just short-sighted! ”

The officer clasped his hands in front of his chest and shrugged his shoulders disapprovingly: "Of course, the ace weapon will not appear as soon as the war starts, but will be used at the most critical time." ”

"You can load the bullet into the ammo box on the right, and remember, the bayonet must be secure!" The blonde pilot gave a careful admonition to one of the maintenance workers before responding to the officer's words:

"It's only been three days since the start of the war, and it's already a critical moment?"

"This battle is much more difficult than we expected!" The officer bared his teeth and said, "How could Joachim I, the king of extraordinary wisdom and terrifying ability, have his eyes on such an insignificant country as ours? ”

The blonde pilot buried his head in overhauling an oil circuit and instructed another maintenance worker to tighten the screws on the cover plate, and then responded: "Yes, how can a country as economically developed and militarily powerful as the new United Kingdom be equipped with only a few dozen jets, and the replacement of naval carrier-based aircraft has not yet begun?" ”

"This may just be a psychological tactic – people think they are making slow progress in the field of practical jet production, but they are already ready for the mass production of jets, and the war against Italy is an excellent reason for them to reactivate their military machine," the officer mused. Once their jets arrive on the battlefield, we don't have a good day. ”

Hearing this, the blonde pilot couldn't help but stop what he was doing, and turned to look at the other party: "Hey? Calderoni, whom I know, is supposed to be an optimistic guy by nature, why is he pessimistic today? ”

The officer in front of him, wearing the logo of a major in the Royal Italian Air Force, squeezed out a smile from the corner of his mouth: "Maybe it's just because I drank a cup of coffee that tasted bad in the afternoon tea, and I have been in a low mood since then." ”

"That's probably the most insincere explanation I've heard this year." The blonde pilot wiped his hands with a rag, "Wait for me for another quarter of an hour, and when I'm done with this, let's go and drink two martinis together, and keep you from all your worries." ”

The officer laughed: "Since our ace pilot is willing to appreciate face, who cares about that damn war prohibition?" Gentlemen, after work go to Mr. Asti's secret bar for a drink and put it on my account. ”

The three maintenance workers responded in unison: "Thank you, Mr. Major Calderoni! ”

The officer waved his hand, and as the blonde pilot busied, he once again looked at the new jet. It is painted in tactical camouflage with green spots on a yellow background, and the tail is a striking white cross and the family logo of the Italian royal family, which is not unlike the piston fighters in service with the Royal Italian Air Force, the biggest difference is its outline - an erected oval air intake in front of the nose. Six 12.7 mm aircraft machine guns are positioned on either side of the air intakes to provide dense and ferocious firepower......

Before the G.58 was installed, the fastest fighter of the Royal Italian Air Force was the MC.205 nicknamed the Hound Dog, and the ultimate speed in level flight was 642 kilometers per hour, and the G.58 crossed two gears at once, reaching a speed of 950 kilometers per hour, such a huge speed difference made the G.58 form an overwhelming advantage over the MC.205 and the G.55 of the same grade in the training exercise, and even set a score difference of 1 to 21, so that in the concept of the Italian military leadership, a jet is worth twenty piston machines, and the strategic value of a jet squadron is equivalent to several piston wings……

Complaining to complaining, as an Italian ace pilot, the blonde-haired Fabio Tedesco still completed the overhaul and maintenance of the aircraft with the help of three workers who only knew how to repair piston fighters, so that he could devote himself to the next battle in an ideal state. That night, Tedesco and his former best friend, Calderoni, who had been injured in a flight accident and disabled, had a drink and agreed to have a drink on the day the war ended.

The next day, the fourth day of the war, in the early morning, Tedesco was awakened from his sleep by the terrible sound of the battle siren, and at first he thought it was a sudden attack by enemy planes, so he rushed to the hangar without caring about his clothes, and when he figured out the situation, he inevitably complained: the battle alarm was indeed related to the enemy situation, but the enemy was still hundreds of kilometers away, and it was only two surface warships, and no trace of the enemy's aircraft carriers and air forces was found.

Tedesco had a false alarm, then returned to his room to get dressed and then went to the combat duty room to receive his mission. In view of the fact that the two enemy ships spotted early in the morning were high-powered and fast cruisers, the Italian General Staff ordered the naval and air forces deployed in Sardinia to strike together, with the primary objective of sinking the two warships and at the same time alerting the sea between Sardinia and the Balearic Islands and the coast of North Africa.

Tedesco's 21st Wing, 65th Battalion, Squadron 151A, was one of the first two units of the Royal Italian Air Force to be equipped with jet fighters, and the squadron's emblem is a stout arm holding a hammer, meaning "smash the enemy's head" - during World War II, the squadron fought in the Azores and shot down four enemy planes without a single casualty. The arrival of the 151A Squadron undoubtedly gave the colleagues here a great boost of confidence, but due to the small combat radius and short time in the air of the G.58, it was not arranged in the attack sequence this time, but all personnel were on standby at the airfield to deal with the enemy aviation that may appear on the battlefield at any time.

After the battle arrangement meeting, Major Calderoni dragged a lame leg to Tedesco and hugged him: "Good luck, my brother! ”

"It seems like it's a little early to get good luck!" Tedesco quipped, "Maybe we've been at the airport all day doing nothing?" ”

Major Calderoni lowered his voice and said: "I have a bad premonition that the enemy is likely to adopt a combat strategy of pressing forward urgently, completely disrupting our deployment with continuous sorties, so that we cannot carry out military mobilization in a step-by-step manner. ”

Tedesco thought for a moment: "Yes, the timing of the appearance of the enemy's two cruisers is a bit strange, and we must be more careful in the face of this enemy." ”

Calderoni continued to lower his voice: "I have reminded General de la Roca, who agrees with me and has reported to the General Staff, and only God knows whether our efforts will bear fruit now. ”

Tedesco nodded solemnly, said goodbye to Calderoni, and returned to the hangar where the landline was parked, where two professional ground technicians were conducting a technical inspection of the G.58 according to standard procedures - these jets were not only expensive to build, but also much more cumbersome to maintain than piston aircraft, and the slightest negligence could cause a catastrophe, so flight operators and ground maintenance personnel were required to be sufficiently skilled and responsible.

"Good morning, gentlemen! How long have you been here? Tedesco greeted the technicians as he had done before, only to find that they were both tired.

The taller technician replied, "Good morning, Captain!" Our boat docked at 4:20 and it took about a quarter of an hour to get here, so ......"

"I'll do this arithmetic problem." Tedesco waved his hand and said, "Looks like you're seasick, and the sea is very stormy?" ”

The man continued: "The voyage was fairly smooth, but the problem was that twenty or thirty of us were crammed into the sailors' quarters of a torpedo boat, which smelled terrible, and that we could only carry a few improvised tools with us, and all the accessories were still in Rome. ”

"I've heard that all the repair parts will arrive here within two days, and if necessary, they will use transport planes to ship them by air." After that, Tedesco muttered to himself, "Since we can transport parts by transport plane, why don't we use transport planes to transport our service personnel?" In this way, everyone will suffer less. ”

The two technicians glanced at each other and could only smile helplessly.

"How's it going?" Tedesco means one's own landline.

The shorter technician replied with a blank look: "It took us more than an hour to examine it in all directions, and as it stands, everything is normal." If possible, it is best to wait for the circuit testing equipment to arrive before we conduct a thorough inspection. ”

Tedesco shrugged and said, "It depends on whether the Irish give us this condition." ”