Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, the focal points of the Italo-Turkish war, were deserts in North Africa with limited economic value but strategic importance. They confront Sicily and control the narrower seas of the central Mediterranean www.biquge.info. In 1881, in the process of dividing up the Ottoman Empire's Portay government's possession of North Africa, Algeria and ****** became French protectorates, so the titular possessions of the Ottoman Empire in North Africa were also owned by Western colonists, and France was preparing to annex the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica on this ground. This attempt was opposed by the European powers, especially Italy, which had long wanted to establish a colony in North Africa. To this end, Italy has actively engaged in political and diplomatic activities, reaching agreements and tacit understandings with the great powers, which have led to the recognition of Italian interests in North Africa. In order to annex the provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, between 1880 and 1911, Italy continued to emigrate and send merchants to the two places, buy land, and actively expand its power; Sending naval officers to change into fishermen's clothes and carry out coastal surveys in the name of fishing for sponges off the coast of Tripolitania; He instructed Italian Catholic priests to go deep into the interior to collect intelligence in the name of missionary work.

After the Berlin Peace Conference of 1878, Italy received French consent on the issues of Tripoli, Tania, and Cyrenaica, and in 1902, France and Italy provided for free intervention in Morocco and Libya in secret treaties.

Having learned the lessons of the fiasco in Ethiopia in 1896, Italy kept spying on the timing of its choice. When the Second Moroccan Crisis occurred, Italy decided that it might lose the opportunity if it did not act, so it preemptively launched an armed invasion before the Ottoman Empire could reinforce North Africa, citing the injustice being inflicted on Italians in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.

After the Italian landings in Tripoli, the Ottoman government, which was dominated by the Young Turks and the Joint Progressive Committee, was determined to defend its North African territory, and after plans to send reinforcements from the mainland were thwarted, they organized local Arabs and Bedouins to fight against Italian aggression. With superior men and weapons, the Italians won the first battle, but the war developed contrary to the wishes of the Italians. The Italian invasion of North Africa also aroused strong opposition from the Arab countries, and the guerrillas and volunteers from ******, Algeria, Egypt and other Arab countries fought against the Italians, causing heavy losses to the Italian army. By the spring of 1912, the Italian army had barely held the occupied coastal strip, but had never been able to penetrate far inland.

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Under the reflection of the full moon, the clear night sky was like a flawless curtain, and the undulating sea was like a sprinkled silk with broken silver. Such a peaceful, beautiful, natural and harmonious atmosphere was not destroyed by the appearance of a group of ignorant black shadows, they moved far away, and the faint clouds of smoke drifted slowly, neither hearing the noise nor emitting a single light.

On the other side of the sea, a group of light gray speedboats are chopping the waves. The silhouettes of their targets are already in sight, but their small, muscular figures are not easily noticed. In the glass cockpit, the energetic faces showed handsome coldness in the silver moonlight, they calmly piloted these war weapons as sharp as a blade, and the rigorous training day after day made them familiar with the manipulation skills and tactical cooperation, and finally had a chance to try their skills, their eyes flashed, their eyebrows were steady, and they listened to the smooth roar of machinery resounding in their ears, allowing the clear waves to wash the clear hatch.

At the front of the group of geese marching in formation, two "Sea Assassins" with two front and rear two-seater designs and four torpedo tubes are like dual-core processors running at high speed, and the pilots are not only responsible for the operation of their respective speedboats, but also carefully consider what kind of routine to use to attack the target. As the distance was closer, they could already tell that they had adopted the usual single column at sea—large and majestic ships at the front of the queue, followed by medium and small ships. However, the darkness provided cover for the Assassins' whereabouts, and also made it more difficult to determine the distance and direction of the ship with the naked eye. As it was about to enter the range of gunfire, the pilot, which was one half ahead of its companions, issued a command with a rear signal light at the tail: C tactic, 1 detachment decapitated, 2 detachment decapitated.

The 12 high-speed warships immediately split into two, the two pilot boats each led 5 boats to speed forward, the roar of the engines suddenly increased, and the sharp bow of the boat stepped on the invisible beat and jumped on the surface of the sea, and the wind swept by, leaving 12 deep white water marks on the sea.

An unusual humming sound finally woke the sentries on the mast, and the whimpering sirens quickly spread throughout the fleet. After a while, searchlights lit up on the leading flagships, they were like mythical one-eyed monsters, their huge eyes spewing dazzling light, and the pillars of light could be clearly discerned from the crests of the waves thousands of kilometers away.

A searchlight provided a visual guide to the fleet's defenses, while also revealing the exact orientation of the ships. On the surface of the sea, dangerous assassins with low silhouettes are racing wildly, and the drivers pull down their sunglasses that were originally buttoned on their leather hats, even if the bright light pierces them, they can still perform a hundred steps with their excellent training skills!

The searchlights moving back and forth soon spotted the Assassins at sea, but the fleet's defensive artillery fire was only a few minutes later, which was not long enough to be crucial in such a quick victory. By the time the first round of inaccurate artillery fire fell to the surface, the speedboat detachment that had gone straight to the front of the fleet had already reached a close distance. On the "Thunder" that took the lead, the pilot had already seen the eye-catching emblem on the bow of the target ship in the scope, and his sensory intuition was matched with empirical judgment, and he did not hurriedly throw the torpedo, but lightly swung the steering wheel to avoid the waves stirred up by the shells in front of him, and then quickly turned back to the direction, aimed at the bow of the ship, skillfully pulled open the firing safety cover, and decisively pressed the launch button.

Four 450-mm torpedoes jumped into the water like a swimmer at the sound of a starting gun, and rushed forward as fast as they could. From "Lightning" to "Thunder", the high-speed warship designed by Natsuki took a light and high-speed route, so the torpedo weapons carried were also as lightweight as possible, the custom torpedo is 450 mm caliber, the total weight is 605 kg, and the warhead is loaded with 150 kg of TNT.

When the torpedo is fired, the pilot boat pilot uses the built-in rear-view mirror to look behind the situation -- the experience accumulated in a large number of training exercises allows each qualified crew member to judge the behavior of his companion in order to avoid collision accidents under any circumstances, and then play a tactical role with ease.

As soon as the torpedo entered the water, the young and handsome pilot steered the boat sharply to the right, and the torpedo boat moving at high speed immediately drew a full arc on the surging sea, it was like a dexterous petrel, easily bypassing the water column stirred up by the cannonballs, and there was a very strange scene during this period: the torpedo fired by the friendly boat dragged the white water marks straight forward, it did not dodge, and went straight to the underwater torpedo, and the result was that the two were safe, which shows that the two are perfectly technical settings......

In the process of turning, the backseat crew of the "Thunder" and "Sailfish" all opened fire with their turn-tube machine guns, and a series of bullets fiercely whipped the deck and side of the enemy warship; under the flickering light, some crew members running on the side of the deck and in the open combat position were faintly seen, and the defensive firepower on the ship was suddenly weakened a lot. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the boats that had finished firing the torpedoes were evacuated at high speed in S maneuver, leaving behind their maximum loads, and their tachymeter readings easily exceeded 50 knots.

In the pilot's rearview mirror, the enemy fleet leader of the great ship was trying to turn, but its bow deflection angle was less than 30 degrees, and a dazzling light flame jumped on its side, and before the explosion sounded, a second flash of light flashed near the stern, and the rumbling sound came like a drumbeat, and the monotonous flames continued to beat around the seemingly huge battleship, and suddenly, a large ball of dazzling red light rose from its foredeck, and the huge turret was actually pushed into the air. The terrifying explosion eventually reached twice the height of the mast, and countless flashes of flame flew in all directions, making it a veritable fireworks display......

Just as half of the night sky was reddened by the violent explosion, six lightweight speedboats were approaching the fleet from the tail. On the destroyer behind the palace, the officers and sailors were all frightened by these ghostly high-speed warships, under the guidance of searchlights, they used all kinds of weapons that could be used on the ship to shoot desperately, and this disorderly combat mode quickly cut off the ammunition supply to their rear main guns, the fire of small-caliber rapid-fire guns approached the target several times, but they were also quickly muted for the same reason, and some people were frightened by the waves stirred up by the speedboats, and shouted "torpedoes" in panic, and the commander hurriedly ordered to turn to evade, But unknowingly, the rudder oars swung and exposed the spacious side section to the other party. A moment later, two torpedoes flew in, bringing the ship in one fell swoop with a displacement of 800 tons and a draft of 2. The 8-meter Italian destroyer was scrapped.

The head and tail were attacked, the front and back were difficult to care, the Italian fleet that was originally marching in a neat queue soon became a mess, the sirens of the torpedo attack came and went, just because of the waves on the sea, the ships made difficult evasion actions, and the searchlights were moving around without a head, and before the real torpedoes hit again, two battleships had already hit by mistake, and the shells that hit the hull immediately caused a new round of panic, and the four "lightning" speedboats that were waiting for the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos to fire torpedoes at one of the battleships with the largest side profile, and then retreated in the chaos... …

At dawn, two seaplanes with very different shapes and livery appeared in the waters of central and eastern Aeolia. The Italian fleet had departed from the night attack, and a large number of debris and corpses were still floating on the surface of the sea, as if two fleets of equal size had been engaged in a thrilling battle. Seaplanes painted with the Italian flag were the first to land on the surface, and the pilots in white scarves looked at the devastated sea with incredulous eyes and scooped up an Italian naval flag from the water. Later, another seaplane without any signs flew into the area, and the pilot took aerial photographs, but did not land on the surface.

A few hours later, the Ottoman Empire officially issued a war report, claiming that a torpedo boat unit of the 2nd Fleet of the Ottoman Navy had attacked the Italian fleet blockading the Aeolian Sea at night, sinking four Italian warships, killing and wounding 1,000 Italian officers and men, and not a single of its own ships were damaged. The news of the battle was in an uproar, and people at first thought that the Ottoman Empire was making a big move, but the silence of the Italian side made them realize that this was a naval battle of extraordinary significance. A few days later, the passive Italian government issued a vague statement informing it that its navy had been attacked by torpedoes and mines from the Ottoman side in the Aeolian waters, that the damaged warship had been towed to the port for emergency repairs, that the wounded had been properly housed, and that the families of the dead would receive generous pensions. However, before that, there was news from within the Italian Navy that the night raid by the Ottoman Navy had caused 1. The 30,000-ton old battleship "Benato-Bryn" and the 800-ton destroyer "Whirlwind" sank, and the "Queen Margaret", the same class as the "Benato-Brin", suffered heavy damage, killing more than 900 soldiers, and the Italian fleet lost a quarter of its main combat strength overnight.

The Ottoman Navy, which had always been sick and weak, suddenly became mighty, and the Italians, of course, knew that there was a reason for the incident, but because there was no direct evidence, they had no choice but to euphemistically protest to the German side, and to their surprise, Admiral Müller, chief of the German Navy's cabinet, openly admitted at a reception that the Ottoman Navy's victory mainly depended on the "Thunder" high-speed torpedo boats purchased from Germany before the war, and introduced the main performance of this high-speed warship in public. Become the hottest combat ship in the international arms market. The Friedrich shipyard raised the price of this two-seater, four-barreled "reloaded high-speed torpedo boat" equipped with four Daimler engines by 30 percent, but it still received a number of foreign orders within a month, and the German Navy also took the opportunity to announce that it would install 200 "Thunder" ships within three years, making the short-range torpedo boat boom that had cooled down in the past two years heat up again. As Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire each placed additional orders for this type of torpedo boat from Germany, the Italian Navy had to order high-speed torpedo boats from its own shipyards.

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