"Alex, what does that proverb come about? Well, a reliable ally is better than a thousand troops on the battlefield! More than 30 years ago, with the help of the German army, we defeated the formidable Russians, and now we are using the power of the new United Kingdom to fight against the mighty Italian navy...... How frustrating it is that our allies have always been reliable, while we ourselves have always been unreliable! ”

The speaker was Admiral Eugen Hudček, commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, who stood side by side with the Chief of Staff of the fleet, Rear Admiral Alex Klein, aboard the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the USS Franz Joseph I. Through the clean portholes www.biquge.info they looked south, in the direction of the Strait of Otranto, where the main Italian fleet was located. If smoke and the shadow of a ship appeared at the end of the sea level in that direction, the battle that would determine the fate of Austria-Hungary would begin.

At this moment, the main fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which consisted of six battleships, including the "Franz-Joseph I", the "Archduke Karl", the "Prince Schwarzenberg", the "Count Herzendorf", the "Tegerhof", and the "Prince Eugen", as well as three heavy cruisers, seven light cruisers, 19 destroyers, and 11 submarine hunters, was waiting for the mouth of the Bay of Kotor in the southeastern Adriatic Sea. It is about 220 kilometers from the Strait of Otranto and 200 kilometers from Bari on the opposite bank, and is within the attack range of the Italian naval aviation and the land-based aviation units of the Italian Air Force. From early morning to now, Italian fighters have made more than 700 sorties in an attempt to deal a heavy blow to the Austro-Hungarian navy before the two fleets go head-to-head, while the Austro-Hungarian army has already mobilized a large number of fighter units to Serbia and Montenegro (which were independent states before the outbreak of World War I, and were occupied by Austria-Hungary during World War I and became a direct territory of the Empire). Under the full command of Admiral Eugen-Hudček, the Austro-Hungarian Navy and Air Force successfully pinned down the Italian aviation at the mouth of the Kotor Bay, creating favorable conditions for the new British naval aviation to raid the main Italian fleet.

Rear Admiral Klein was ten years younger than Hudček, but he was already in his mid-teens, and he saw many things more thoroughly: "If our administration had half the efficiency of the Germans, the economy and industry would not have lost its vitality, the government finances would not have dried up, and social contradictions would not continue to intensify." Aside from the terrible bureaucracy, we have developed almost all of our conditions better than those of Italy and Ireland, but for the past thirty years or so we have not been able to keep up with Italy's development, and we have been left far behind by the Irish. In a sense, the reason why we want to fight this war is completely forced by the corruption and incompetence of the internal affairs officials, and even if we win on the battlefield and win more land and interests for the empire, some problems will still erupt sooner or later! ”

Hudček sighed: "This kind of complaint, let's just talk about it in private." Some time ago, the Sailors Council was still making all kinds of fuss about the issue of in-service salaries and reinstatement, and His Majesty the Emperor's inspection of the fleet could not fundamentally solve the morale problem, so it was important not to mention these in front of the junior officers and sailors. ”

Klein nodded, "I understand." ”

Hudček took out a gold pocket watch from his jacket pocket and looked at it: "It's been forty minutes since the previous round of bombardment by the Italian army ended. ”

"It looks like they were blown up by the new United Kingdom Navy warplanes." "His Majesty Joachim I of the House of Hohenzollern is truly an extraordinary man, and many nations have avoided war and conflict, but he has made the Irish army involved in wars that have nothing to do with him, so as to train a group of elite soldiers in a hundred battles. Their combat effectiveness is probably far inferior to that of us and the Italians! ”

As soon as the fleet commander put his pocket watch in his pocket, the communications officer sent a secret telegram. When he got the telegram, he and Chief of Staff Klein only glanced at each other, and then looked at each other for a few seconds.

"That genius commander's thoughts are really beyond the guesses and incomprehensible of ordinary people." The commander of the fleet lamented.

Klein said: "It seems that we are going to fight the Italians on our own strength next!" ”

Without consulting the chief of staff of the fleet, the commander of the fleet decisively instructed the communications officer: "Notify the Kotor base with a light code signal and implement the 2-2 plan in general!" Remember, don't make a mistake about the 2-2 plan! ”

During Hudchak's battle order, Klein did not say a word, and when the communications officer left, he whispered: "Compared with our fighter pilots, bomber pilots lack the necessary live-fire drills, and we have always lacked new bombers, and the means of attacking ships are too simple......

The fleet commander reached out and patted Klein on the shoulder: "I know, Alex, our navy is in a difficult situation, but with the current situation in the country, if we can't win this battle and show a convincing performance, then the development of the navy is even less optimistic!" ”

Today's Austro-Hungarian army, there are many sober and dedicated middle and senior officers like Hudček, and if it weren't for their tireless efforts, this vast and decaying country would have collapsed long ago. Prior to the invasion of Albania, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a coastline entirely on the Adriatic Sea, a large bay of more than 130,000 square kilometers in the northern Mediterranean Sea connected to the outside world by the Strait of Otranto. As a huge country with equal emphasis on industry and agriculture, the economic rise and fall of Austria-Hungary depended largely on the prosperity and decline of foreign trade, and Italy's Salento Peninsula was like a latch into the Strait of Otranto, which allowed Italy to easily imprison Austria-Hungary from the sea, and the relationship between the two was the same as that of Britain and Germany during the rise of the Second German Reich, which was a geostrategic guardian and prisoner. Guards need to be on the lookout for prisoners escaping, who are constantly eager to break out of their cages, and although the two countries have not faced each other on the battlefield since the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, there have been many disputes, several times of sabre-rattling, and danger of fighting each other.

In the First World War, the two camps of the Central Powers and the Entente fought fiercely, and Austria-Hungary took advantage of the situation to send troops to occupy Albania and gain control of the land on the east coast of the Otlangtuo Strait, which slightly improved its maritime strategic situation. Later, in order to further obtain a good port on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, Austria-Hungary set its sights on the Kingdom of Greece, which was not strong enough to resist the Austro-Hungarian army, but the containment of the Tsarist army and the obstruction of the Italian government made the Austro-Hungarian invasion plan repeatedly postponed until the end of the war. As soon as the war ended, Italy signed an insurance treaty with Greece and helped the Greeks build a strong defensive line to the north, thus curbing Austria-Hungary's ambitions to expand its territory southward, a situation that remained unchanged for more than three decades.

Until 1949, the Austro-Hungarian Navy still used the ports of Pula and Fum in the northeastern Adriatic Sea as its main naval bases, and although they had very good natural conditions in the Gulf of Kotor and Vlora Bay in the southeastern Adriatic Sea, they were afraid of the deterrence of the Italian Navy, and usually only stationed a small number of reconnaissance and alert ships. In fact, with the development of aviation technology, the Adriatic Sea, which is 800 kilometers long from north to south and 300 kilometers wide from east to west, is no longer as "vast" as it once was - warplanes stationed on the east coast of Italy monitor the entire Adriatic Sea, and every move of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is under the control of the Italians. Of course, this strategic disadvantage was not always without merit, and in the war between Austria-Hungary and the new United Kingdom against Italy, the main fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had just been dispatched, and the main Italian naval force had already deployed a front in the Strait of Otranto, and the result was exactly what the other side wanted. Taking advantage of the fierce battle between the Italian air force and naval aviation and the Austro-Hungarian air force, the new United Kingdom task force cruising in the eastern Mediterranean launched a long-distance raid, inflicting heavy damage on the Italian fleet with three successive waves of air attacks -- the two aircraft carriers integrated into the Italian main fleet, including the Victor-class aircraft carrier "Count Cavour", which had been built with technical drawings and related equipment purchased from the Irish, were both sunk by radio-guided bombs, and more than 2,000 crew members and pilots were killed on the spot, This meant that half of the Italian Navy's combat aircraft carriers were wiped out, and the main fleet on the Adriatic front had to rely on land-based aviation to provide air cover.

In accordance with the orders of Admiral Hudček, commander of the fleet and commander-in-chief of the front, the Austro-Hungarian naval and air force aviation units deployed in southern Serbia and southeastern Montennia immediately dispatched more than 120 bombers from nine squadrons and swooped down on the Italian fleet entering the Strait of Otranto under the cover of more than 150 fighters from 11 squadrons. Nearly 300 fighters could form a spectacular scene that would cover the sky and the sun if they attacked one after another, but these combat planes were deployed at eight airfields far away from each other, and in addition the naval and air force officers had limited coordination and command capabilities, and the communication support of radio equipment was also up and down, and only half of the fighters arrived at the designated positions at the designated time, so that many squadrons of bombers flew to the Otranto Strait without fighter escort.

During the air attack on the main Italian fleet by the carrier-based aircraft unit of the new United Kingdom Navy, the Italian fighters did almost nothing, resulting in the loss of two expensive aircraft carriers and a considerable number of flight personnel in the navy, and the morale of the fleet was severely damaged, and the Italian military and political leaders were outraged. Under the strict orders of the General Staff of the Italian Army, the fighters of the Italian Navy and Air Force deployed at the eastern airfields and ports flew to the Strait of Otranto in turn to cover the withdrawal of the main fleet to the Taranto base for rest and replenishment. Just as Klein, chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, feared, the Italian fighters in service were more advanced and the pilots were more experienced, and the Austrian aviation unit did not have an advantage in both weapons and personnel, and the air attack at this time was destined to pay more than gain......

(End of chapter)