The artillery shell can penetrate the warship and explode inside, thereby detonating the ammunition depot of the warship, and the rocket will not have this ability, but the advantage of the rocket launched by the aircraft is still very obvious, that is, the accuracy and saturation attack.

In the middle of the night on 22 February 1941, the 1st Italian Cruiser Detachment, accompanied by the 9th Destroyer Detachment, escorted the large convoy to the port of Tobruk.

The commander of the Italian fleet, Nokia, was still very good, he formulated the strength of the British Mediterranean fleet, he sent two groups of reconnaissance planes, each with two seaplanes, and four aircraft cruising non-stop in the airspace around the Italian fleet.

The 1st Italian cruiser detachment consisted of 3 Zara-class heavy cruisers, namely "Zara", "Fum" and "Bora".

The 9th destroyer detachment consisted of 4 Oriani-class destroyers, namely "Oriani", "Giobetti", "Alfieri" and "Karducci".

This is the only remaining naval strength of the Italian Navy, the strength of the Italian Navy in the early stage is not weak, but because of their negligence, they were succeeded by the British sneak attack on Taranto.

On the morning of February 24, the sea fog in the northern waters of Libya was filled, and by about 11 o'clock, the dense fog had cleared, and the Italian fleet escorted the transport ship to appear in the scheduled assembly area on time.

According to the plan, a large number of German aircraft should arrive at this time to conduct an escort exercise in order to facilitate mutual identification and cooperation in future coordinated operations.

But after waiting for a long time, the Italians did not wait for the German planes, and the Italian fleet still does not know that it is a decoy, this pig teammate has always been a pit teammate in the past, and this time it should be his turn.

German planes were still on the airfield in Tobruk, and the German air force was waiting for the British fleet to fight the Italian fleet.

That was the best time for the Luftwaffe to attack, didn't Montgomery want to sneak attack? Rommel intended to give back to him in his own way.

The Italian Navy waited for a British Sunderland reconnaissance plane at 12:20 p.m.

Admiral Nokia, believing that the whereabouts of the fleet had been revealed, immediately asked Rommel to cancel the planned exercises.

After all, an ally of Germany and Italy, Rommel was already secretly pitting Italy, a pig teammate, and now he could not directly refuse the request of the Italian fleet.

Rommel ordered the Italian fleet to abandon the plan for the exercise and immediately accelerate its voyage in the direction of Tobruk, making sure to do the best possible within the combat radius of the German shore-based aircraft.

The German aircraft had short legs, and the combat radius of the BF109 was only 350 kilometers, while the Italian fleet was more than 500 kilometers from Tobruk, and of course the British fleet was more than 200 kilometers from the Italian fleet.

The Italian convoy was discovered by British reconnaissance planes, and Admiral Nokia had no choice but to speed up and escape in the direction of Tobruk with the entire convoy, but the uneasiness in his heart became stronger and stronger.

On the 24th, the Italian fleet sailed to a distance of four hundred and fifty kilometers from Tobruk. At 6:43, the Italian RO43 reconnaissance aircraft spotted the British cruiser.

For the safety of the convoy, the Italian convoy had to immediately speed up to 30 knots towards the British, and Admiral Nokia sent Rommel a telegram requesting reinforcements from the air force.

At 8 o'clock, the Italian leading destroyer detachment visually spotted the enemy ship, opened fire 12 minutes later, and the destroyer detachment began to retreat to lure the British cruiser fleet into pursuit.

At this time, the cruiser detachment had been in the north, ready to sneak up on the British fleet at the right opportunity without taking part in the battle.

As a result of the British Air Force attack at 10:58, the Italian fleet had to retreat again along a 300-degree course.

At 15:30 p.m., the hapless Italians began to run their bad luck when the flagship "Veneto" (the only battleship in the fleet) was hit by a mine in an air raid.

Nokia believed that only the destroyer fleet of the British could pursue him at night, and that the other threat was air raids the next day, so he decided to have the entire fleet join up to protect the "Veneto".

The cruiser and destroyer detachments were separated and were closely aligned on the starboard side of the "Veneto".

At dusk, the Italians spotted 8 British planes hovering in the rear of the fleet, which had taken off from the aircraft carrier "Dreadnought".

However, the British pilots did not attack immediately, and they waited in circles for the light to be darker before attacking, so that it would be difficult for the Italians to see the planes clearly.

The last rays of light were also swallowed up by the night, and Nokia ordered the fleet to make a sudden turn in order to confuse the British pilots.

Ten minutes later, the British group of 8 torpedo planes flew over the fleet, which immediately counterattacked with dense anti-aircraft fire, a blazing net of 100-mm, 90-mm and 37-mm anti-aircraft guns.

Forcing the British aircraft to abandon the intention of a group attack at a distance of 3000 yards, they first withdrew from the battle, and then spread out in formation outside the fire net, attacking independently by individual aircraft, in order to disperse the anti-aircraft fire of the fleet.

However, the destroyer detachments began to cast thick smoke screens and turned on searchlights, covering the British planes with intense and dazzling beams.

All this made the British pilots dizzy, so the first 7 aircraft got nothing.

The last to enter the attack route was British Lieutenant Williams, as most of the British aircraft had begun to evacuate and the fleet's anti-aircraft fire was relatively sparse.

He broke through the defenses at a height close to the surface of the sea and approached the right flotilla. He chose the nearest big ship, which was none other than the "Bola". At 19:45, the torpedo was thrown and rushed towards the "Bora".

The darkness of the night did affect the visual effect of the Italians, and the captain of the "Bora" discovered that it was too late when the British plane dropped the bomb.

Although Admiral Nokia, hailed as an outstanding commander, urgently ordered the rudder to be turned, the torpedo plane, which flew so low, threw the mine too close.

The huge body of the "Bora" did not turn easily, and one minute later everyone watched as the torpedo hit the part between the starboard main engine room and the boiler room.

It was a fatal blow, the huge explosion caused flesh and blood to fly in the main engine room and boiler room, the main engine stopped running, and the power equipment of the whole ship was paralyzed.

Soon, raging sea water rushed into the three fireproof chambers, filling them up. The main engine stalled and the "Bora" lost power, the huge hull slowly stopped, unable to move like a dead fish, and the failure of the electrical equipment made the warship lose its ability to save itself.

At this point, the captain had to give the order to abandon the ship, and nearly 800 Italian officers and men scrambled to jump into the sea to survive, and only 257 people, including the deputy captain, remained on the "Bora", waiting for rescue from both his own men and the British.

Interestingly, under normal circumstances, the personnel on the shipwrecked ship either became panicked and fled for their lives, or they made a last-ditch effort to save the ship.

The performance of the Italian sailors was laughable, and the discipline of the sailors who remained on the ship was gone.

They screamed and rushed into the officers' cabins, smashed open the officers' lockers, threw things everywhere, took out bottles of fine wine from them, and poured them into their mouths.

Soon, most of them became drunk, some talking nonsense, some humming decadent tunes. Oh! Lovely Italian naval soldiers, the British Navy likes opponents like you, so loving. (To be continued.) )