One hour before the British Mediterranean fleet began shelling Benghazi, 250-kilogram German bombs had already fallen on radar stations and airfields on the island of Malta.

Because they had bombed Malta many times before, the German and Italian air forces were very familiar with the situation on the island, and the sortie was an old bird that took off from an aircraft carrier and could drop bombs on the target almost with their eyes closed.

The island's Sea Spitfire fighters had suffered heavy losses in the past few months of operations, with only six Sea Spitfires taking to the skies on January 15, and they were besieged by 12 Fokker Zeros and 24 MC.200 fighters flying from Sicily. No matter how superior the performance of the six "Sea Spitfires" was, they could not withstand enemy planes six times their size, and they were all shot down in less than 10 minutes. And the losses of the German and Italian side were only 2 MC.200 fighters.

At the same time, 120 Fiat CR.42 Eagle fighters, also flying from Sicily, began to attack targets in several ports on the island of Malta.

Although this biplane looks a bit old, it is actually a new aircraft that was only tested in early 1939. Although a two-wing aerodynamic layout was adopted, the air combat performance was not satisfactory. However, its agility at low altitudes was excellent (as was the case with biplanes in the 30s), and with increased firepower (4 12.7mm machine guns installed) and 200 kg of bombs, it became a very good attack aircraft, almost comparable to the Hs123.

As a result, they quickly eliminated the torpedo boats and gunboats in the four bays of Valletta, Bilzebuja, St. Paul's Bay, and Melliha, which could have caused problems for the Italian troops that had landed, and blew up several exposed anti-aircraft artillery positions, with their own losses of only six shot down.

At 7:15 a.m., the first wave of air raids on the island of Malta ended. Admiral Campioni, commander of the Italian fleet on the battleship "Veneto", received the report of the air raid and said with a smile to the chief of staff of the fleet, Rear Admiral Baroni: "The plane is almost done, and now it is time for our battleship." After a few hours of bombardment, and then send the Blackshirts to land, you can finally take it down, right? ”

Responsible for the landing were 2 regiments of the newly formed 3rd Division of the Black Shirts. Hersmann originally wanted to transfer a Marine Brigade from Germany for a landing operation, but Mussolini was very enthusiastic to send a blackshirt division to Hersmann (he probably thought it would be a bit difficult to get the Germans to hand over the bloody and sweaty Malta to Italy), so Hersmann complied with Mussolini's wishes.

"Sir," just as Rear Admiral Baroni was about to say a few words at the right time, the fleet's communications staff officer suddenly reported, "Benghazi's urgent telegram, at least 8 British battleships have appeared off Benghazi, and the port of Benghazi has been heavily shelled!" Marshal Graziani asked us to immediately send a fleet to the rescue of ......"

"8 British battleships shelling Benghazi?" Admiral Compioni had known that the British fleet was out of Alexandria, but he did not expect that they would actually bombard Benghazi.

"They don't want Malta anymore?" He asked uncertainly.

"I think I'm going to give up Malta, right?" "The results of the first wave of air raids show that the British resistance in Malta is weaker than we expected. Only six fighters took to the skies to resist, and the anti-aircraft fire on the ground was not very heavy, which means that there are no aircraft on the island, and there may not be much ammunition for anti-aircraft guns. ”

Since the Luftwaffe in Sicily was not vegetarian, the reinforcement of the British army to Malta became very difficult. During the day, they did not dare to act at all, so they could only bring in something at night with destroyers, and sometimes even use submarines to resupply them (the same method was used by the Italians to resupply Tubruc). However, only 6 fighters could be taken off to resist, which was still unexpected by the Italians.

This shows that the island of Malta, which has plagued them for most of the year, is likely to be an outcast! If Malta is an outcast, it will be difficult to use it to attract reinforcements from the British fleet that is shelling Benghazi......

……

"The aircraft carriers of the British are also in the waters near Benghazi?"

In Rome, in the Medici villa, Marshal Hersmann, who had just gotten up for breakfast, also received a battle report from the front.

"Because of the blockage of the 'Sea Spitfire', our Fw-200C can't get close." Admiral Jeshunek reported with a frown.

"At least 1 aircraft carrier," Hersman said, "is it enough?" ”

"It's a bit far," says Jeshunek, "and the nearest airport is about 680 to 700 kilometers away." ”

The "nearest airport" he refers to certainly does not include airports in North Africa. There are no torpedo bombers deployed there, and all S.M.79 aircraft in North Africa are horizontal bombers, which are used to support ground operations.

"680-700 kilometers can also be obtained," Hersman thought for a moment, and then asked, "What about 2 aircraft carriers?" Can they move eastward? ”

"They are responsible for bombing Malta," Admiral Jeshunek said, "and it is better not to move the aircraft carriers and let the shore-based aviation attack, and if the results are not good, let the aircraft carriers and part of the main fleet move eastward tonight, and then launch an air strike tomorrow morning." ”

Naturally, in the "Iron Hammer" plan, there are plans to use aircraft carriers to launch air strikes and even use the main fleet to fight artillery battles. However, this was only done after the use of shore-based aircraft to weaken the British fleet.

Hersman walked over to a table with a large map of the Eastern Mediterranean, watched as the staff officers placed a model symbolizing the British fleet on the sea near Benghazi, and asked in a low voice, "So did the order for the shore-based aircraft to take off?" ”

"It was given 20 minutes ago," said Jeshunek, "and in 25 minutes at most, the first wave will be in formation." ”

"Tell me about a couple of attack waves."

"The first attack wave consisted of our Ju88 and the Italian S.M.79, of which the Ju88 had 4 squadrons with a total of 48 aircraft, the S.M. 79 was also 4 squadrons with 48 aircraft, and there were 2 squadrons with a total of 32 Fokker Zeros as escorts. A large fleet of 128 aircraft in total......"

Such a fleet was much smaller than the attack on Sparka Bay on 3/09/39 because the aircraft participating in the air raids were scattered across a number of small and medium-sized military airfields along the coast of Sicily, the Calabrian Peninsula and the Gulf of Taranto, rather than concentrated on a few large military airfields. Therefore, it was time-consuming to concentrate all the planes, so it was divided into 3 attack waves.

The second attack wave consisted of 5 squadrons of Ju88 and 8 squadrons of S.M.79, a total of 156 aircraft, formed 1 hour after the formation of the first attack wave.

The third attack wave consisted of 9 slower squadrons of He-115 and 1 squadron of Fokker Zeros, a total of 124 aircraft, which will be completed in formation one hour after the second attack wave is formed.

Three attack waves will dispatch a total of 408 aircraft, and the attack power is very powerful! However, there is also a fly in the ointment, that is, the trump card in the hands of Hersman, the three fighter squadrons equipped with Fw-190s cannot be dispatched because the range is not reachable. As a result, the escort force of the attack aircraft group was somewhat insufficient, and the second attack wave was not escorted by fighters at all.

Hersman crossed his arms and said to himself: "There are 408 planes in total, including 360 bombers and torpedo planes, and they can finally inflict heavy damage on the British fleet, right?" ”

……

"The enemy bomber group must be on the way, right?"

Listening to the deafening sound of artillery outside, Admiral Cunningham, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, suddenly said to himself, "There will definitely be an attack on an unprecedented scale...... I'm afraid there will be hundreds of planes! ”

"Admiral, do you want Fleet B to attack from point X?" Major General Krachley asked.

Point X is a place where German Fw-200C reconnaissance aircraft will hardly go, which is located in the Aegean Sea north of Crete. Since the British deployed fighter jets on both Crete and the Peloponnese, as well as radar stations on Crete, it was very dangerous for the Fw-200C to fly into the Aegean Sea.

But the B fleet, which was hiding there, could hardly reach the Italian fleet near Malta. To attack, it is necessary to go west through the Strait of Kithera into the Mediterranean. But once in the Mediterranean, it is a matter of time before the B fleet is exposed. If the Fw-200C had discovered Fleet B, then the powerful shore-based aviation of the Germans and Italians would have attacked, sinking the precious "Ark Royal" and "Radiance"!

Therefore, once the B fleet strikes from point X, it must release its aircraft in the shortest possible time, and then flee to the east, avoiding the opposing shore-based aviation.

Therefore, it is likely that there will only be one chance to strike! Moreover, these two aircraft carriers do not have carrier-based aircraft with superior performance such as Fokker Zero and Fokker 99, so they can only rely on the combination of "Guanbi Yan" and "Big Mackerel" to attack. Therefore, the Italian fleet had to be lured out of the protection of the German shore-based fighters, and a bunch of bombed and smoked battleships were undoubtedly the bait that attracted the Italian fleet the most!

"Fleet B continues to lurk!" Cunningham shook his head and said, "Because now is not the time...... We have to seduce the Italian fleet as much as possible. ”

"Then," said Major General Krachley, "we should now stop the shelling, put up anti-aircraft formations, and wait for the enemy's air strikes." ”

"Okay, so be it." Cunningham smiled, "We're in an air defense formation off the coast of Benghazi, and I'd like to see how much stronger the Germans are than the Italians?" (To be continued.) )