At 4:14 a.m., when he received the flagship's order to pursue the "fugitive enemy," Colonel Marsina commanded a battle formation of four Italian light cruisers to rush through the waters of the western Mediterranean. More than two hours later, the sun rose in the east, the morning twilight dissipated, and the view on the sea returned to normal. It didn't take long for the "Duke of Aosta" to detect a number of aircraft flying from the direction of Sardinia, which made the apprehensive Colonel Macina feel a little steady: if you can't get the full support of your own aviation forces in daytime combat, it is really difficult to defeat the enemy's most elite heavy patrol with four light cruisers.

At 8.15 a.m., Colonel Macina received a coded telegram directly from the RAF Operational Command in Sardinia, informing him of the presence of two enemy cruisers by air reconnaissance planes in a sea area more than 17o kilometers west of Sardinia. With this telegram in hand, Colonel Macina suddenly realized that his situation could be described as a rare "favorable time, place, and people"; you must know that the arrogant Royal Italian Air Force rarely took the initiative to contact and assist the naval forces, and in just two hours after dawn, the Royal Italian Air Force stationed on Sardinia actually made a rare sortie of more than 30 sorties to conduct a large-scale and multi-level reconnaissance of the waters west of Sardinia, which fully demonstrated their determination to search for enemy ships and attack them.

After the change of mentality, Colonel Macina reconsidered the situation of the two ships. Excluding the intervention of external forces, the total tonnage of the four Italian light cruisers was slightly superior to that of their opponents, they had 36 high-range, high-firing 152 mm guns, their density of fire was superior to that of the enemy, and they could use their superiority in numbers and navigation to launch medium- and long-range torpedo attacks on enemy ships. The odds don't seem to be as bad as they were previously envisaged......

At 9 o'clock, Colonel Macina received a long telegram from the flagship, in which he not only transmitted all kinds of reconnaissance information from the air force, but also informed him of the good news that the fleet had successfully rendezvous with the "Aquila." Vice Admiral Billankelly hinted in a telegram that he would personally lead the fleet to follow in order to provide the necessary support for the battle formation of four light cruisers.

After a little thought, Colonel Masina issued an impassioned order to the three ships accompanying him in the name of the commander of the formation: the glory and disgrace of the kingdom and the fate of the navy are all tied to this battle, and all the kings should serve the country and die generously with the determination to move forward bravely and sacrifice their lives for righteousness!

After ten minutes of hesitation, the three light cruisers finally replied to the flag signal, the content of which made Colonel Macina full of confidence: all the officers and men swore to avenge the thousands of robes who had died in battle!

At 9:25 a.m., a flight formation of more than 50 fighters flew over the Massina formation. Seeing the crews waving their hats and cheering at these warhawks painted with the logo of the Royal Italian Air Force, Colonel Macina couldn't help but raise his head and straighten his chest, full of pride, and he even had a wonderful vision: his own air force took turns to attack, blowing up two enemy cruisers all over the body, and the combat formation under his command caught up with the enemy at the right time, beat the enemy to death with a fierce artillery fire, and then threw out a wave of torpedoes, so that the two expensive new British Navy cruisers both sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean. And then returned triumphantly......

Unfortunately, after only ten minutes, a telegram from his own flagship poured cold water on Colonel Macina and quickly calmed down his hot head - according to another Italian submarine, an aircraft carrier formation had appeared in the waters off the Balearic Islands to which Spain belonged, and if the information was true, the new United Kingdom's naval carrier-based aircraft would have been able to provide cover for the two crumbling cruisers.

The odds have plummeted!

Fortunately, the attack of the air force of this side can explore the truth and reality, and it still has plenty of room for maneuver. With this in mind, Colonel Macina ordered the ships to undergo the "final pre-war rearmament", for which the voyage was lowered by four knots, and the necessary maintenance of the ship's power system was carried out as soon as possible. Immediately afterwards, Colonel Macina ordered each ship to eject a maritime reconnaissance plane to confirm the movement of the enemy ship and the actual damage. In order to smoothly eject the water reconnaissance planes, the ships further lowered their flight to 22 knots, and it was not until all the reconnaissance planes took off that they gradually raised their flight to 25 knots.

Before the four mediocre maritime reconnaissance planes sent back valuable reports, the report of the first wave of air raids by the Royal Italian Air Force was transmitted through the "Emanuele II": more than 50 air force planes not only failed to deal with the lame enemy cruiser, but killed more than a dozen. Of course, the two enemy cruisers alone were not so capable, and those Italian fighters who took off from Sardinia were intercepted by enemy carrier-based fighters when they attacked the enemy cruisers!

After reading this battle report, Colonel Macina fell back into a vacillation: since the enemy ships had entered the protection zone of the air force, it was no longer of much point to continue to advance with four light cruisers and light cavalry, so it was better to change his strategy while his own ships had not suffered losses and wait for an opportunity to fight again.

As soon as this suggestion was photographed in the form of a secret telegram, the "Duke of Aosta," commanded by Colonel Macina, received a coded telegram from the Royal Italian Air Force's operational command in Sardinia, saying that it had received instructions from the General Staff and had sent its most elite fighter units to provide full air cover for this naval combat formation. It didn't take long for a group of MC.2O2 fighters to fly from Sardinia, and when they reached the fleet, they no longer went west, but took the trouble to circle around until the fuel was almost exhausted, and then turned around and flew back to Sardinia, followed by groups of MC.2O2 or G.556, and the air cover they provided did not have a second of vacancy, but could such an umbrella last the whole day? Will it be able to withstand the surprise attack of enemy naval aviation? It's hard to say the answer. However, since the actions of this naval combat formation had already attracted the attention of the General Staff, Colonel Macina knew that he must not show even the slightest cowardice. If Lieutenant General Billang Kelly could not convince the General Staff to change its combat strategy, then he would have no choice but to move on.

From then on, Colonel Macina spent almost every minute in torment, but to his annoyance and helplessness, there was no news from Lieutenant General Bionkelly. When the four water reconnaissance planes continued to return home, he naturally ordered the four light cruisers to lower their course in order to recover the reconnaissance planes that had landed on the sea.

At 11:04 a.m., Colonel Macina finally waited for a telegram from the flagship "Emanuele II", but this telegram did not allow him to end this uncertain pursuit ahead of schedule, and Vice Admiral Biokelli's wording was very vague, as if to give Colonel Massina the power to make a decision on the spot, but also implied that the retreat would be harmful to his future, and he himself was personally leading the fleet to arrive, given that only one aircraft carrier on the Italian navy was involved in the battle, it was not appropriate to have a head-on duel with the opponent at this time, Someone needs to be brave enough to stand up and divert the enemy's attention......

Colonel Macina flipped through the telegraph folder several times, and at the end, shook his head, sighed, shook his head, talked about it, and then ordered the formation to go west.

At 11:35 a.m., the "Duke of Aosta" caught the tracks of two enemy ships, but this did not excite Colonel Marsina in the slightest. Just a few minutes later, the Italian light cruiser's anti-aircraft detection radar was now approaching from the northwest, and Colonel Macina hurriedly ordered the air defense alarm to be sounded, and ordered the communications officer to send a telegram to the Royal Italian Air Force Operational Command in Sardinia and the flagship "Emanuele II": Despite the enemy's very strong and difficult situation, the "Four Knights" of the Italian Navy will fight bravely for the honor of the Kingdom of Italy and the King of Italy!

Before the operational command structures of the Italian Navy and Air Force could reply to the telegram, the battle that Colonel Macina had been fearing had already begun. On the attacking side were 12 new United Kingdom Navy fighters — not a mixed formation of fighters and attack aircraft, but all IR-44Ts, and on the defensive side were four Italian light cruisers and six Italian-made MC.2O2 fighters providing air protection for them. This seemingly evenly matched, suspenseful battle was one-sided due to the instigation of the Italian fighter pilots, who only parried for one round and fled for their lives, with their swiftness and decisiveness, which made the Italian naval officers and men who witnessed this scene jaw-dropping. The promise of the Royal Italian Air Force Operational Command in Sardinia has now become a shoddy joke.

Colonel Marsina, who has been in the Italian military circles for many years, did not pin his hopes on the Italian Air Force after all, and he ordered the officers and soldiers to transport shells with proximity fuses to various gun positions - like acoustic torpedoes, radio proximity fuses became the standard equipment of the Italian Navy in the mid-to-late 4o, and the performance is not inferior to the same type of products of several first-class military powers, but limited by complex technology and expensive cost, and strict limited equipment was carried out during the non-war period, "Duke of Aosta" A first-line light cruiser with only 12o 152 mm shells with a proximity fuse was allocated 15 for each main gun, while the 1oo mm anti-aircraft gun was equipped with 2oo and 25 for each anti-aircraft gun, which was only enough for two or three training sessions or a low-intensity live-fire exercise. The "Duke of Aosta", "Eugenio", "Duke of Abruzzi", and "Giuseppe Garibaldi" received a combat readiness supply before they set sail......

(End of chapter)

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