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Chapter 564 Chinese Leopard PK German Leopard

The "Big Bad Wolf Fleet" of the Imperial Chinese Navy stayed at the base in Ireland for several months, mainly because Germany strongly protested against the Chinese Empire's export of a large number of advanced weapons and equipment and strategic materials to Britain, France and other Allied countries, especially after the first large-scale bombing of the Romanian oil industry by the Allied air force, Sino-German relations became quite tense. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ╔╗

After Germany and the Allied powers received a request from the Imperial Chinese Navy to visit their major port cities and naval bases, Allied leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini refused to allow the Imperial Chinese Navy to visit on the grounds that "the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea were in a state of war and were inconvenient to receive."

For the Imperial Chinese Navy, this circumnavigation voyage was intended to greatly enhance the deterrent power of the Imperial Navy, and if it was rejected by Germany and Italy in this way, it would be a major blow to the Chinese Empire. Therefore, after discussing with Wang Guoming, Li Dingxin decided to stay at the Irish naval base for the time being, waiting for the imperial government to put pressure on Germany and Italy to resolve the matter.

During this time, neither the Allied camp nor the Entente camp wanted to be crushed by the Imperial Chinese Navy. While the Imperial Chinese Navy flexes its muscles against them, they also want to show the Chinese Empire their naval power in response.

Thus, during the few months that the Imperial Chinese Navy stayed in Europe, the German and Italian navies fought many fierce battles with the British and French navies in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Atlantic, and the Baltic Sea, and more than 30 naval battles of various sizes before and after.

In the Mediterranean, at the same time that Italy refused to allow the Chinese Empire to visit Rome. The Battle of Pontastillo broke out between the Italian and British navies. It was the largest naval battle in the Mediterranean since the outbreak of World War II, and the first time the Italian Navy had challenged the British Navy. At the same time, it was also a demonstration by Germany instructing the Italian Navy to express its maritime power in the Mediterranean Sea of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

For the Central Powers, Germany had expanded its naval tentacles deep into the Mediterranean after its merger with Austria-Hungary. But the Mediterranean Fleet of the German Navy was not large, and even inferior to the Greek Navy. This is mainly due to the fact that the naval strength of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire was too weak, and the naval bases in the Mediterranean seriously lacked the supporting infrastructure of various large warships, resulting in the inability of the capital ships of the German High Seas Fleet to be deployed in the Mediterranean. Although Mussolini repeatedly expressed his willingness to provide the Italian military port to the German Navy, Hitler did not trust him too much and therefore never agreed.

With the outbreak of World War II, the main force of the German Navy was pinned down by the British Navy in the North Sea and the North Atlantic. The Chinese Empire controlled the eastern and western exits of the Mediterranean and various choke points. At one point, Hitler planned to send a fleet into the Mediterranean to cooperate with the Italian Navy in launching a campaign in North Africa to occupy the French and British colonies in North Africa. However, due to the constant tension between Germany and the Chinese Empire, the German Navy believed that if the main fleet entered the Mediterranean, once it turned against the Chinese Empire, then the Chinese Empire would close the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar. ╔╗The German fleet would be locked up in the Mediterranean. And the Chinese Empire has a base on the island of Cyprus, a base on the island of Crete, and a base on the island of Corte in the Mediterranean, and it is easy to eat the German navy with the Imperial Chinese Navy. Therefore. Eventually, Hitler abandoned the decision to give the German High Seas Fleet access to the Mediterranean, and the German Navy retained only a small naval force for coastal defense in the Mediterranean, leaving Italy and Spain against Britain and France in the Mediterranean.

For the Italian Navy. Naturally, the pitiful naval power of Spain could not be counted on. Therefore, the heavy responsibility for confronting the Anglo-French navy fell on the Italian navy itself.

Fortunately, the main force of the British Navy was pinned down by the German Navy in the Atlantic and North Seas in order to protect the trade routes, and the power in the Mediterranean Sea was not strong (the British Navy abolished the Mediterranean Fleet after the Suez Canal and Gibraltar bases were taken away by the Chinese Empire), Mussolini was confident that he would stand alone against the British Navy.

After the outbreak of the Greek-Italian War, Mussolini was annoyed by the performance of the Italian army on the Greek battlefield and decided to send his navy to destroy the British and French supply routes to Greece from the sea. At the same time, the Imperial Chinese Navy was denied a visit to Rome. It is also expressing strong protest to the Chinese Empire against the advanced weapons and equipment it exports to Greece.

Mussolini cheered up the Italian navy by saying: "We are going to show our strength by winning a great battle at sea and letting a certain country (the Chinese Empire) know that they have helped the wrong person (Greece)!" ”

In Libya in North Africa, Mussolini, in order to redeem his defeat on the French battlefield, ordered the troops of Marshal Graziani of the Italian army to attack the colony of French Algeria.

However, the Italian army in North Africa was just as bad, met with stubborn resistance from the French, and was also unable to attack for a long time. Soon, due to the ill-preparation of the Italian army.

Beginning on August 6, the Italians organized for the first time a large-scale convoy of transport ships carrying large quantities of much-needed military supplies and personnel to the Libyan port of Benghazi. Due to the importance of this transport mission, the Italian Navy sent a powerful fleet to escort the transport fleet, under the unified command of Vice Admiral Campioni. The specific establishment consisted of 2 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 32 destroyers, and 1 torpedo boat.

At the same time, the British were carrying out their transport plans. The British convoy sent supplies to Greece to support Greece's war against Italy. The convoy was escorted by 3 British fleets under the command of Vice Admiral Cunningham, with a total of 3 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 5 light cruisers, and 16 destroyers. It was divided into three fleets, A, B, and C, under the command of Vice Admiral Tovey, Vice Admiral Cunningham, and Vice Admiral Verax, respectively.

Cunningham hoped to find an opportunity to fight the Italian fleet. Thus, a large-scale naval engagement with a transport mission as an introduction is about to begin. ╔╗

At that time, the Circumnavigation Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy was resting at the base in Crete, loading ships with all kinds of munitions ready to be sold to belligerent countries in Europe. Admiral Li Dingxin, who received the information, also wanted to get to the bottom of the British Navy and the Italian Navy to see what kind of strength and combat effectiveness they had, so he sent a naval observation fleet. Led by Wang Guoming, with the help of the Imperial Air Force reconnaissance planes, the British and Italian navies were estimated to be the likely place of engagement. and go to the nearby sea to wait.

On 7 August, Cunningham led a fleet from Marseille, France. And the Italian fleet received information about the departure of the British fleet from various sources at the very beginning, and Vice Admiral Campioni at one point ordered the convoy to change course for this purpose. On the afternoon of 8 August, Vice Admiral Campioni, based on aerial reconnaissance (3 BBs and 8 DDs of the British fleet), ordered the fleet to meet the British fleet in order to prevent a possible British artillery bombardment of Benghazi.

Soon after, however, he discovered a fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy cruising around there, as a result of the recent export of advanced weaponry to Greece by the Imperial Chinese Empire. Considered by the Italian military to be the main cause of the Italian army's defeat, relations between China and Italy were very tense. Mussolini's refusal to allow the Imperial Chinese Navy to visit Italy made the tensions even more public. This made Vice Admiral Campiño unable to discern the intentions of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and after reporting to the Italian naval headquarters, Mussolini soon ordered Campioni not to engage the British Navy first, and to wait for the outcome of the negotiations between the Italian government and the Chinese Imperial Government.

That's it. Fighting did not break out at the site of the first possible engagement between the British and Italian navies, and the Italian navy missed a good opportunity.

Soon. After the Italian government negotiated with the Chinese Imperial Government, it was learned that the Chinese Imperial fleet was only trying to observe the battle between the British and Italian navies, and the Chinese Imperial Navy once again stated its strict neutrality. That's why Mussolini was reassured.

On the evening of 8 August, the covering fleet of the Italian Navy returned home. By this time, the British had already known that they had almost been attacked by the Italian navy, and they were on alert, and like the Italians, the British began to look for each other.

Two o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th. The headquarters of the Italian Navy ordered Campioni to go to the sea 65 miles southeast of Pontastillo on the Calabrian Peninsula in Italy to wait for the British fleet, which was expected to appear there. In addition, due to the proximity of the possible battle site to the military port of Taranto, the two Italian Veneto-class battleships could also be considered for battle, but they were abandoned because there were no extra destroyers to escort them.

Meanwhile, at noon on July 9, Cunningham led the LinkedIn fleet 90 miles east of the Italian fleet.

The Italian Air Force reconnaissance planes discovered the British fleet, and soon the Italian Air Force attacked in a formation of more than a dozen fighters and bombers, and the British destroyer Imperial and the light cruiser Gloucester were heavily damaged by the Italian Air Force, suffering more than 20 casualties.

Soon, the British Navy retaliated. At 12:10 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., the aircraft carrier Eagle took off two waves of 15 Swordfish fighters to attack the Italian fleet, but none of them hit.

After receiving the news of the exchange of fire between the British and Italian navies, Wang Guoming quickly led the observation fleet to sail towards the battlering area. The observation fleet consisted of more than 600 naval officers of all levels of the empire, including the Ming-class battleship Zhu Yuanzhang, two Typhoon-class air defense heavy cruisers, and two Rainstorm-class hunting ships as escorts.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the light cruiser Neptune, of the British Navy's A fleet, was the first to spot the Italian fleet. The British fleet then began its tactical transformation and prepared for battle with the enemy fleet.

Almost at the same time, the Italian Navy also discovered the British fleet, which also unfolded its tactical transformation and entered a combat state.

At a quarter past three, the Italian fleet, which was not very confident, decided to strike first, so it opened fire first at a distance of 21 km.

"Knock knock!"

With the roaring sound of cannons, Wang Guoming and other officers and soldiers of the Imperial Navy who were observing the battle situation suddenly became enthusiastic, as if they were the ones who were fighting. The Imperial Navy has not been at war for a long time, which makes many officers and soldiers itch all over their bodies, and they can't wait to do it right away to enjoy it.

"Your Highness, who do you think will win?"

"England!"

Wang Guoming subconsciously replied, after all, the British Navy is a traditional maritime power, although they have been ruthlessly repaired by the Chinese Empire and lost to the German Navy, but their strength is still strong. It will be very difficult for the Italian Navy, as a third-rate naval power, to defeat the British Navy (the Chinese Empire is recognized as the only first-class naval power in the world, Britain and Germany are second-rate, and France, the Soviet Union, Italy, the United States, Mexico, etc. are defined as third-rate).

By this time, the light cruisers of the 4th, 7th, and 8th fleets of the Italian Navy and the destroyers of the 9th detachment had already been engaged in the battle with the British A fleet. Judging by the firepower of both sides, the firepower of the Italian fleet became more and more accurate, and the point of impact continued to approach the British battleships. Turn. However, the impact points of the shells fired by the British Navy were much more scattered, and they did not hit a single shell of the opponent for a long time.

"Oops, I didn't hit again! What a stinky hand! ”

The emperor is not in a hurry, and the eunuch is in a hurry! The officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy who were watching the battle were more anxious than the warring parties, watching the British Navy's shells move 108,000 miles away from the enemy ships. I'm really anxious for the British.

An officer suddenly pouted and said, "At this level, the recruits of the Imperial Navy can beat it." ╔╗”

Wang Guoming said: "It seems that the British Navy is really declining!" I've always regarded the British Navy as a formidable enemy, and I seem to think too highly of them. This level is not worth worrying about. ”

Although the Imperial Chinese Navy has not conducted naval battles for many years, compared with the navies of other countries around the world, the simulated military exercises of the Imperial Chinese Navy are extremely frequent, and the actual combat background is extremely high, so that the training time of the Imperial Navy is on average several times higher than that of the navies of other countries.

At this time, the Italian Navy light cruiser Garibaldi was the first to hit the British Navy light cruiser Neptune. Damaged her plane and catapult.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the commander of the British Navy's A fleet, Werther, immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and evacuate.

The officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the distance suddenly sighed and scolded the British for being cowards.

At half past three, the first round of engagement between the British and Italian navies ended. In his report to the British Admiralty, Witte claimed that his fleet had hit an Italian cruiser, but was refuted by the Italian Navy.

On the other side, the battleships and heavy cruisers of the Italian Navy turned in the direction of the battleship Weyware, the capital ship of the British Navy. Get ready to go into battle.

At 3:31, the 4th light cruiser Dabarbiano and Digiussano of the 2 light cruisers of the Italian Fleet entered the range of the battleship Battleweary, the capital ship of the British B Fleet. The battleship Warweary fired several salvos, but none of them hit. At the same time, the battleship War-Weary took off two seaplanes to help the ship with air fire control command. And the S-type maneuver tactics were carried out in order to allow the battleships of the Malaya battleship of the C Fleet behind to catch up and form a formation to fight.

At this time, the battleship Sovereign of the British Navy was still quite far from the war-weariness and did not enter the battle.

The gunnery of this generation of the British Navy really made the officers and men of the Chinese Imperial Navy complain for a while, and at the same time, it also boosted the morale of the Italian naval officers. Attack power has been further increased.

At 3:52 p.m., the Italian Navy battleship Giulio? Caesar fired the first volley of fire at a distance of 26.5 km. The shells landed less than 200 meters from the battleship HMS War-Wey, and the shells exploded, stirring up waves in the sky.

Not only the British naval officers and sailors in the battle were surprised, but even the imperial naval officers such as Wang Guoming who were watching the battle were also surprised.

"When did the third-rate Italian Navy have this level of first-round accuracy?"

In Wang Guoming's view, if the first round of firepower salvo above 26 kilometers can reach an error of less than 200 meters, his naval artillery commander needs at least one year of high-intensity training, and it is really not easy to achieve this with the training intensity of the Italian Navy. Although the artillery command of the Imperial Chinese Navy has reached the level of the accuracy of the first round of salvo within 200 meters 30 years ago, and now it can achieve the accuracy of the first round of firepower salvo within 110 meters by virtue of the advanced central fire control command radar and photoelectric aiming and ranging technology, which is many times more powerful than the Italian Navy, but Wang Guoming is still surprised by the speed of improvement of the combat effectiveness of the Italian Navy.

"Compared to the Italian Army, their navy has won back some face for Mussolini!"

The battleship Count Cavour, which arrived later, did not open fire, but followed the experience of the Battle of Jutland and waited for an exchange of fire with the battleships Malaya or Sovereign, which were less powerful in the British fleet.

At 3:53, the battleship Warweariness began to counterattack, firing the first volley of fire. Her front and rear turrets are aimed at Julio, respectively? The Caesar and the Count Cavour, but neither hit, and the impact point was nearly 300 meters away from the target. At the same time, none of the British gunnery commanders saw that the Italian fleet had only Julio? The Caesar was firing, which shows how much the combat effectiveness of the British Navy has declined.

In the meantime, Giulio? The Caesar returned fire again. After this volley of fire, shells fell between the battleship Weariness and the escort destroyers Hereward and Decoy. As a result, the destroyers hereward and decoy were simultaneously hit by a near-arrow shell, due to the explosion of a large-caliber shell, albeit a close-arrow shell. It also caused serious damage to the two destroyers, which had little protection, and were forced to withdraw from the battle sequence.

Within an hour of the engagement, two destroyers of the British Navy withdrew from the battle, while the Italian Navy was unscathed.

As the two destroyers of the British Navy withdrew from the battle, the face of the British Navy suddenly could not be hung up.

Four minutes later, the British Navy's battleship Malaya opened fire from outside range, intending to distract the Italians and buy time for the two British destroyers to withdraw from the battlefield.

From 3:55, the Italian battleship Trento fired three successive salves of fire at the battleship Weary. None of them hit. Campioni wanted to take advantage of his superiority in the number of heavy cruisers, but with the exception of the Trento, the other cruisers were entangled in the cruisers of the British A Fleet that had returned to the slaughter.

At this time, 9 Swordfish fighters that took off from the Eagle flew into the battlefield and attacked 2 Italian Navy Pola-class heavy cruisers that had been mistaken for battleships, but none of them hit.

This time. The officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy, who were watching the battle, complained again and gave the middle finger to the British naval aviation.

In the last minute at three o'clock in the afternoon. Italian ship Giulio? Caesar's seventh fire salvo, one shell hit the port side of the warweary, but unexpectedly. The shell did not explode, but was embedded in the warweariness's broadside armor.

"I just praised the fighting quality of the Italian Navy for its good quality, but it was finally a hit, but it was still a dud."

Everyone sighed for a while, and Wang Guoming also said: "This means that there is a problem in the Italian naval industry." It doesn't seem to be a cause for fear. ”

Julio? The Caesar had already caught the distance of the battleship Weary, which made the British Navy feel that the situation had become dangerous. Soon, the British Navy released smoke grenades to confuse the judgment of the Italian naval sighters.

At the same time, the battleship "Weary" quickly returned fire, and a 381-mm shell hit Giulio? The aft deck of the Caesar. A large amount of smoke from the violent explosion was sucked into the engine room, as a result of which 4 of the 8 boilers stopped working, causing Julio? The speed of the Caesar decreased from 25 to 18 knots in 2 minutes. At the same time, the ship's power supply was also cut off for 30 seconds. The hit also killed more than 20 people and injured many more.

"The distance is 22,000 meters!"

The rangefinder on the Zhu Yuanzhang quickly reported, and Wang Guoming and other Imperial Navy officers immediately knew that at this distance, the British Navy's hit rate was still very high.

"The best strike range for our super warships is more than 30 kilometers, so there is no need to worry about losing out against the British."

For the Imperial Chinese Navy, the possession of powerful radar technology made it possible to achieve an optimal attack range of more than 30 kilometers for the main battleship. According to the Imperial Navy's long-distance engagement tactics, the British Navy could not pose a threat to the Imperial Navy.

Everyone nodded their heads, agreeing with Wang Guoming's opinion.

The battleship Warweary did not pursue the victory, but turned again according to the previous order, so that the battleships Malaya and Sovereign behind them could catch up quickly. Due to the steering maneuver, the battleship Warweary had to lose speed.

Just after four o'clock, although Giulio? The battleship Caesar received a single shot, but there were no major losses in combat effectiveness, and after emergency repairs, 2 boilers were restored to operation, and the speed was restored to 22 knots. Campioni ordered the destroyers to release smoke and prepare for a lightning strike under the cover of smoke, while the 2 battleships also turned away under the cover of smoke.

At 4:03 p.m., the rear turret of the battleship Warweary fired its last salvo of fire, but none of them hit. The battleship Malaya was still firing, but the shells fell only at a distance of about 2700 meters from the Italian battleship. The battleship Malaya then joined the battleship formation of the war-weary. The battle between the battleships of both sides came to an end.

After the battleship engagements of both sides ended, cruisers and destroyers on both sides continued to fight. The flexible maneuvering of the British light cruisers made it impossible for the Italian heavy cruisers to maintain continuous firing.

At 4:07, the Italian destroyer Afieri was slightly damaged by a close-range shot. And the Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano was hit three times, and the rudder was out of order for a time. In the following time, the destroyers of both sides carried out fierce lightning operations, but neither achieved the desired effect.

Because both the Italian and British navies were very cautious, both sides fought until 5 p.m., and both sides chose to retreat to end the naval battle.

On the same day, the British Navy felt very shameless, so the British aircraft carrier Eagle again sent a bomber group to attack the port of Augusta on the Italian island of Sicily, and the destroyer Pancaldo of the Italian 14th detachment was sunk.

As a result, the British government claimed that they had won the Battle of Pontastillo.

The Italian Air Force was also not to be outdone, retaliating with a tooth for a tooth. The next morning a large number of bombers were sent into the Mediterranean in search of targets, just as the British H Fleet was moving eastward to carry out the feint tactics of covering the Cunningham fleet, only to be attacked by the Italian air force. Among them, the destroyer Escort was seriously damaged in an air raid and was sunk by the Italian submarine Marconi on its return that night.

Subsequently, Mussolini claimed victory for the Italian Navy at the Battle of Pontastillo.

Both Britain and Italy declared themselves victorious, with the Chinese Empire as the only witness, and Wang Guoming thought that it was the Italian navy that had won, but declared it a draw, considering that the fleet was about to leave the Mediterranean to visit Britain.

With Greece destroyed by the Germans, the British navy had to be withdrawn from the Mediterranean, so that the Italian navy gained supremacy of the Mediterranean.

The Italian Navy, which seized sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, undoubtedly had a long face for Mussolini and the entire Italian military. At least in Hitler's eyes, the Italian Navy was okay and not as sloppy as the Italian Army. Forget it, the Italian Army was not a strong army in the first place, and what Hitler could not tolerate was that the Italian Army often made oolong mistakes.

In the past, when the Italian army fought alone, it was enough to fire at their own troops. In the Greek campaign, the Italian army was able to hit the German positions with artillery shells, which made Hitler quite speechless, and once thought that the Italian army had the intention of rebellion.

Fortunately, Mussolini hurried to Berlin to lick Hitler's shoes, and it was only after saying good things that Hitler dispelled this idea, but his trust in the Italian army was further weakened.

The Italian navy's seizure of naval supremacy in the Mediterranean allowed the Italian army and air force to conduct further military operations in North Africa.

However, the conundrum before Italy was that the real hegemon in the Mediterranean was the Imperial Chinese Navy, which had a large number of military points in the Mediterranean, and all of them were strategically located. If Mussolini wanted to carry out a successful military operation in North Africa, he had to pacify the Chinese Empire.

So, Mussolini put aside Hitler's opposition and took the initiative to invite the Imperial Chinese Navy to visit Rome. As a result, tensions between China and Italy have eased. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )