At about 8 o'clock in the morning, the heavy cruiser "Goricia", which was docked next to the inner harbor of the Taranto naval base in Italy, was about to set sail. At the gangway of the www.biquge.info boarding ship, Ben Abdullah, the **** of the Arab Kingdom, wearing a white robe and a wool cloak and a black hoop turban, stood opposite to the Italian **** Umberto, who was wearing a dark blue marshal uniform and a cylindrical military cap. When they said goodbye, the two hugged each other tightly like brothers. Prior to the visit of the delegation of the Arab Kingdom led by Ben-Abdullah to Italy, the two had never had such in-depth contact and exchange, although they had crossed paths. After more than a week of getting along, the two shared similar interests and talked about everything, and forged a deep friendship that transcended borders, races, and ages.

As a matter of fact, in the face of the Arabs' efforts to tackle key problems with all their might, the Italian military and political circles from top to bottom have a favorable impression of the Arab Kingdom, and in addition the Arabs took the initiative to open their arms in the field of oil resources, which the Italians had coveted for a long time, the two sides reached a package agreement with astonishing efficiency on Italy's military assistance to the Arab Kingdom and the complete opening of the Arab Kingdom to Italy for oil exploration and commercial exploitation.

On the surface, the cooperation between Italy and the Arab kingdom was contrary to the memorandum signed by the Western allies in 1940 on the division of spheres of influence in the Middle East, and indirectly infringed on the vested interests of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Thus, Italy and the Arab Kingdom were finally able to sign the package agreement in the form of a secret treaty......

A long whistle sounded, and Ben Abdullah**** and 67 members of the delegation of the Arab Kingdom boarded the "Gorichia" and stood on the broadside deck and waved goodbye to the Italians who had come to see them off. In this era, intercontinental air transport was well developed, but the Arabs neither liked nor trusted aviation aircraft, and they visited Italy on the 9,700-ton old cruiser "Riyadh", the flagship of the Arab Kingdom Navy. This ship is the St. Louis-class protective cruiser "Charleston" ordered by the US Navy at the beginning of this century, which was decommissioned in 1940 and resold to the Navy of the Arab Kingdom. Although the ship went to the New York shipyard for eight months of modernization before it was delivered, this did not change its complete backwardness - after the completion of the transformation, its maximum speed with no load was only 24 knots, and at most 22 knots when fully loaded, and the hull construction was outdated, the armor protection was weak, most of the 152 mm main guns were still placed in the broadside gun profile, and the modified 76 mm high-level dual-purpose guns and the newly installed 40 mm machine guns were quite numerous, but the layout was poor. Not conducive to air defense operations.

Due to the poor maintenance capabilities of the navy of the Arab Kingdom, the "Riyadh" actually broke down twice during the voyage of more than 1,000 nautical miles from the port of Jeddah to Italy, and had to be docked for overhaul after arriving in Italy. The old ship was already in poor condition, and the work efficiency of the Italians was consistent and procrastinating, and the two were combined, and by the time Ben Abdullah **** and the visiting delegation were ready to embark on the return journey, the completion of the "Riyadh" maintenance plan was less than 40%. Under the direct intervention of the Italian **** Umberto, who served as the regent, the Italian Navy decided to send ships to escort the Arab Kingdom delegation home, the original idea was to use an active battleship, but it was rumored that Italy and the Arab Kingdom had concluded a secret treaty, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was putting pressure on the Arab Kingdom in a two-pronged way of diplomatic consultation and military pressure, and in the face of the changes in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the Italian Navy had to gather the main fleet to deal with it, and the escort task had to be carried out by the heavy cruisers that could still withdraw for the time being.

"Goricia" belongs to the Italian Navy's Zara-class heavy cruiser, although its design and construction did not fully comply with the limits of the Merrick International Naval Treaty, but it was still affected to a certain extent, both armament and power are decent, unlike the Trento class that was built later, and the caliber of the main gun directly jumped to 280 mm. In this time and space, the Italian Navy's number one imaginary enemy was still the Austro-Hungarian Navy, not the French Navy, and the Zara class was positioned as the "core ship of the reconnaissance fleet", requiring the ability to take on the main combat mission in the absence of battleships. Due to the relatively balanced performance and mature technology of the main equipment, the Zara class ships have been highly praised by the officers and men of the Italian Navy after they were put into service, and have also shown strong tactical value in several joint exercises of the Western allies.

From Taranto to Jeddah Port, it is more than 1,600 nautical miles in a straight line, and it can be reached in four days and four nights by maintaining a cruising speed of 16 knots. Although the war in the Palestinian area is raging, it has basically no impact on the shipping lines of the Mediterranean, and the-for-tat actions between Italy and Austria-Hungary are also commonplace, and the possibility of a real big fight is extremely low, so the Italian Navy arranged for the "Goricia" to sail with a single ship, and was not equipped with wingmen for cover, and in order to make room for the Arabs to live, this Italian heavy cruiser with a crew of 780 people gave 20% of the officers and crew a holiday, and only retained the basic posts required for the normal operation of the warship. War materiel, such as ammunition and medicines, is provided at only one-third of wartime requirements in order to ensure an adequate supply of food and fresh water......

By the time the Italian heavy cruiser Goricia slowly departed Taranto, the curtain had come down on the largest aerial encounter between the Zionist forces and the forces of the Arab Kingdom. The Jews fought 8 Italian-made C-39 fighters against the Arabs with 4 Italian-made C-200 fighters and 2 American-made P-40s, as a result of which both sides lost 3 each. At first glance, the two sides were evenly divided, but the pilots of the three downed Jewish warplanes all survived, while the Arabs lost three pilots - one killed on the spot and two captured by the Zionist forces. After the interrogation of the two prisoners, it was learned that the pilots on the downed fighter plane were all Italian nationals, both had served in the Italian Air Force, and were currently employed by the Air Force of the Arab Kingdom in a free capacity to help them train pilots. According to the confessions of the two people, most of the Arab pilots did not yet have the ability to take to the skies to fight, and the Arab military offered them favorable conditions in order to fly their planes into the war, and the foreign pilots employed by the Air Force of the Arab Kingdom agreed to fight for the Arabs except for a few who were unwilling to accept them.

This important information was soon transmitted back to Limerick through the New United Kingdom's Special Liaison Service in Tel Aviv and communicated to the national task force arriving in the eastern Mediterranean. According to the captured Italian pilots, there are nearly 100 foreign pilots currently serving in the Air Force of the Kingdom of the Arab Kingdom, and with the exception of the best of the Arab pilots, there are 7-8 squadrons of the Air Force of the Kingdom of the Kingdom of Arabia that are capable of combat.

At the behest of King Joachim I, the new United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, Her Tracy, hastened to summon the Italian ambassador to the new United Kingdom and suggested that the Italian government recall Italians employed by the Arab Air Force on the grounds that the lives of Italian pilots could not be guaranteed. Subject to assurances from the Italian Government, the new United Kingdom will help it to rescue the two captured pilots through unofficial means.

The Italian ambassador was unimpressed by Her-Tracy's so-called proposals, saying that he would truthfully relay them to his own government, but that given that the Italian pilots were hired by the Arab Air Force in their personal capacity, it would be difficult for the Italian government to take coercive measures to return to Italy in a non-wartime situation. At the same time, the ambassador reminded that there are many more Irish than Italians staying in Palestine, and that a significant number of them have some form of employment relationship with the Zionist armed forces, and that the safety of their lives is also not guaranteed. Out of friendship among the Allied States and international humanitarian considerations, Italy is ready to assist the new United Kingdom in evacuating its citizens in Palestine free of charge. As for the Irish Foreign Legion, which had gone to fight in an unofficial capacity in Palestine, the Italian ambassador said that he personally felt that the existence of such a phenomenon was contrary to the Hague International Convention and that the new United Kingdom should amend the legal provisions to close the legal loopholes in which its own personnel illegally participated in the war.

Since the two sides have their own opinions and obvious differences, the result of this meeting is naturally unhappy. After testing the tone of the Italians, the new United Kingdom immediately contacted Austria-Hungary through diplomatic channels and expressed its willingness to join forces to hold Italy hostage. Emperor Karl I and his Imperial Staff were worried about how to counter their opponents in the face of their naval and air forces, and they had long known that the new United Kingdom was in close cooperation with the Zionist organization, but Vienna had made several overtures to Limerick without a clear reply. Now that the powerful new United Kingdom has finally taken a stand, of course they can't ask for it.

The Austro-Crarian Empire, which has survived for a long time, has not only failed to make further progress in its comprehensive national strength, but has been on a downward trend since the thirties, both in terms of economy, foreign trade and military industry, and the Italians have been left behind in both economic and foreign trade and military industry, and it is difficult to win in a head-on confrontation, while the new United Kingdom, which was united by Ireland and Wales, has a territory of 105,000 square kilometers, a total population of nearly 13 million, a gross national income of more than 36 billion marks in 1948, and a steel output of 8.44 million tons and a power generation of 28.9 billion kilowatt-hours that year, grain output of 3.22 million tons, the global industrial share reached 6.9%, and the value of gold foreign exchange reserves exceeded 5 billion marks for the first time, reaching 5.16 billion marks...... In terms of these figures, the new United Kingdom under Joachim I is worthy of the title of successor to the mantle of the old United Kingdom, and in addition to the fact that it is one of only three current nuclear weapons possessors, its influence in the world has surpassed that of the traditional powers such as Austria-Hungary, Japan, Italy, and Spain, and has become a world-class power. Even though the new United Kingdom could only devote some of its military strength to southern Europe and the Mediterranean, its high level of military technology in the sea and air fields was enough to make up for the gap in the strength of Austria-Hungary.

(End of chapter)