In the dark of night, the heavy cruisers "Farr" and "Melton", flying the battle flags of the new United Kingdom Navy, sailed together in the open waters west of Sardinia. On this night, they joined forces to shell the Italian land-based radar station in northwestern Sardinia, destroying the main facilities of the radar station with a fierce bombardment that lasted for half an hour, which could not only blow the morale of the Italian army, but also force the Italian army top brass to invest more troops on the western front, thereby reducing the pressure on the Austro-Hungarian army on the eastern front.

The officers and men did not relax their vigilance with relief, but paid close attention to the enemy's movements behind them through the reconnaissance reports provided by their own carrier-based radar early warning planes.

"Uh, they're heading for Cape Kacha?"

In the battle bridge of the heavy cruiser "Farr", the captain, Colonel Molloy, repeatedly touched his chin that had just grown stubble.

Those who know him well know that this is his habitual action of thinking about problems.

"I don't think the Italians are stupid enough to think that after we destroy the Cape Caccia radar station, they will continue to hang around there, right?" Major Doherty, who accompanied him on board as a special observer, expressed his opinion.

"If it's not a mistake of judgment, it's deliberately avoiding a battle - with four light cruisers against one heavy cruiser and one light cruiser, no one will think it's an easy battle to deal with, right?" Colonel Molloy also expressed an affirmative tone in a rhetorical tone. The reason why they learned that the enemy's four ships were light cruisers was not entirely due to the ship's radar early warning aircraft, but largely due to espionage and professional analysis based on espionage information - although the Bironkelly fleet carefully concealed its whereabouts along the way and rarely contacted the outside world, in the Italian naval command, the information about this fleet was not locked in a safe, and the Austro-Hungarian spy officers skillfully obtained the information, and the Austrian staff shared the information with the allies at the first time.

"That's a shame!" Major Doherty stirred the hot coffee in the steel cup with a small spoon unhurriedly, "I thought there would be a good naval battle tonight, and it seems that I can go straight to sleep now." ”

"Perhaps, we can slow down a little, and in that case, they might catch up with us, but ...... I doubt the enemy will have the courage to come. Colonel Molloy teased.

"As far as I know, most Italians are peace-loving. They are content with the status quo, enjoy life, and are not willing to get involved in any kind of war. Doherty continued to stir his coffee, but he didn't take a sip.

Colonel Moroy crossed his hands on his hips and said, "So, the Italian ambition to conquer the world has been exhausted during the ancient Roman Empire?" ”

"It doesn't have to go back more than a thousand years." Doherty elaborated unhurriedly, "The lack of martial spirit of the Italians probably has a lot to do with their achievements in the arts and commerce." Moreover, the city-state system of the Holy Roman Empire made the Italians as a nation no longer as cohesive as they once were - most Italians had a strong sense of region, with northerners looking down on southerners and southerners hating northerners, which led to factionalism and contradictions within the army. ”

Colonel Molloy rubbed his chin: "The people and the army are reluctant to fight, but the rulers are happy to expand everywhere. ”

"Therefore, the Italian army has always performed unsatisfactorily on the battlefield, and they have to have a great advantage to win a difficult victory." With that, Doherty handed the coffee cup to his colleague beside him.

Molloy rolled up his sleeves and looked at his watch, then said to Doherty, "Have a good night's sleep!" Major! ”

Doherty smiled and saluted, "See you in the morning!" Dear Commander! ”

Molloy also gave a military salute: "See you in the morning!" Dear Special Observers! ”

Doherty left the combat bridge, and another special observer who was traveling with him, a young naval lieutenant, was there unhurried and unhurried drinking the coffee that Doherty had left behind.

At this time, Molloy also instructed the adjutant to refill himself with a cup of coffee.

"Colonel, aren't you going to rest for a while?"

Molloy shook his head: "Ten years of rare opportunities, but you can't miss it because of a drowsiness." ”

The young lieutenant didn't know why, but Molloy was reluctant to say anything more about his inquiry.

Perhaps Molloy had a hunch, but not long after, the accompanying light cruiser "Melton" suddenly reduced its speed, and then sent a light signal: The leakage of our ship is aggravated, and it needs to be slowed down for emergency repair, which is expected to be completed within two hours.

Looking out the porthole at the pitch-black sea, Molloy muttered, "Providence so." ”

An hour later, the repair work of the "Melton" was still in full swing. Judging from the feedback from their carrier-based early warning planes, the Italians seem to have found that the two ships did not break away at full speed, but stayed in the sea area more than three hours away from Sardinia.

"Since those two Italian battleships of advanced configuration are still in a hidden position between the islands, they are still stationary." Molloy sneered to himself, "Then we'll have to practice with their light cruisers tonight." ”

In terms of tonnage, the "Farr" is enough to crush the early dreadnoughts, but the absolute weight of its main guns, power and protection systems is only 1/2 to 2/3 of those old dreadnoughts, and the remaining weight is used for communications, detection, fire control, damage management and supply, so a well-designed and well-equipped modern heavy cruiser like the "Farr" has a comprehensive combat capability far exceeding the old ships of the dreadnought era. The high-penetration main gun is fully capable of hitting the opponent outside the range of fire, and the four quadruple tube-mounted radio-guided rocket launchers can fire 16 "Kaye Arrows" in half a minute -- as the first generation of anti-ship missiles developed by the new United Kingdom, the "Kaye Arrows" adopts a combat mode with wireless guidance as the main and radar self-guidance as the supplement, and its warhead position is equipped with a camera, which transmits images back to the mother ship through radio, so that the operator can cope with the battle in various weather and sea conditions. For example, with wireless guidance throughout the whole process, the error range of the attack on sea targets of 20 km, 15 km, and 10 km is 81 meters, 65 meters, and 48 meters, which means that for ships of the destroyer level and above, firing at a distance of 20 kilometers from the enemy can guarantee a hit rate of about 75 percent, and a 10 km distance from the enemy can basically ensure a hit. If the radio signal is not smooth due to enemy interference after transmission, or if it is used at night or in extremely bad weather, it will automatically switch to radar self-guidance mode, and the attack error range is 224 meters, 159 meters, and 113 meters for sea targets at 20 kilometers, 15 kilometers, and 10 kilometers, and for ships of the cruiser level and above, firing at a distance of 20 kilometers from the enemy can still guarantee a hit rate of about 30 percent.

In terms of power, the charge of the standard version of the "Kaye Arrow" is about two-thirds of the 533 mm torpedo of the G-11 type of the Western allies.

Seeing that Colonel Moroy instructed his officers to prepare for the launch of wireless-guided anti-ship rockets, the lieutenant officer from the Naval Staff like Doherty couldn't help but ask: "Colonel, are you going to use the 'Kaye Arrow' to teach those reckless Italian cruisers a lesson?" If that's the case, of course, we can defeat them unscathed, but the enemy's capital ships will definitely defend against us, and we will lose a chance to attack the enemy by surprise, is it worth it? ”

Molloy did not lose patience with the other side's series of questions, he knew that these special observers had good theoretical literacy in tactics and tactics, but lacked grassroots command experience and actual combat experience, so the naval staff would send them to the front line of the battle without giving them any jurisdiction and decision-making power.

"Even if we take the initiative to avoid the battle, or if we exchange fire with the enemy ships with naval guns, will the Italians not be wary of our guided anti-ship rockets? This revolutionary technology, like dreadnoughts and aircraft carriers, has revolutionized the existing mode of naval warfare, and Germany, the United States, and Japan are all trying to follow suit, and the Italians will not turn a blind eye. ”

The lieutenant officer thought for a while: "Your analysis is indeed very reasonable, I was abrupt just now, I'm very sorry!" ”

Molloy waved his hand: "Whether it is the main gun with the radar fire control system, or simply using the 'Kaye Arrow', it is not difficult to deal with a few Italian light cruisers, what I am really worried about is the Italian submarine." ”

During the period when the "Melton" was slowed down and repaired, the "Farr" was always hovering in the nearby waters at a cruising speed, and at this time there were early warning planes on duty and carrier-based radars on guard, so they did not have to worry about a sudden attack by the enemy's surface ships or aviation units -- although the characteristics of night bombing could to a certain extent cover up the shortcomings of the Italian bombers' slow speed and weak defense, a complete fire control radar system and a mature radio proximity fuse could ensure that the ship's anti-aircraft fire was "unharmed day and night." As Colonel Molloy said, the biggest security concern of this twin cruiser formation was that their anti-submarine capabilities were very weak, and in the event of an encounter with an Italian submarine, the situation was very bad.

Just when the repair work of the "Melton" was nearing completion, the sonar system on the ship detected that an unknown object suspected of being a submarine was approaching several kilometers away, and as soon as the crew sounded the anti-submarine siren, the operator on duty in front of the passive sonar equipment hurriedly shouted: "A torpedo has been discovered in front of the port side!" ”