The second wave of the British attack began. It was only then that the Italian officers and men became a little smarter, and the battleships, cruisers, and anti-aircraft artillery groups on land no longer fought on their own, but coordinated with each other to form a dense network of anti-aircraft fire. When 19 British Sailfish aircraft attacked, 1 was shot down. But the British pilots were well trained, and the remaining 18 planes nimbly navigated through a dense barrage of barrage and billowing smoke, skillfully evaded maneuvers, launched successive attacks, and again inflicted heavy damage on the Italian naval fleet, destroying the shipyard and other facilities in the harbor, and then returned safely.

On January 11, 1940, the carrier-based aviation unit of the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet made a surprise attack on the Italian naval base of Taranto and won a major victory. This campaign was the first large-scale attack on ships in the harbor since the advent of aircraft carrier-based aircraft, which highlighted the tremendous assault power of carrier-based aviation, enabled aircraft carriers to replace battleships as the main types of naval vessels, ushered in a new period of integrated naval and air operations on the sea, and made the naval battle mode of "giant ships and cannons, fleet decisive battles" a historical relic and occupied an important position in the history of world naval warfare.

In the surprise attack on Taranto, the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet dispatched only 40 planes, and at the cost of losing 2 planes and consuming 38 torpedoes and a small number of bombs, it sank and damaged 3 Italian naval battleships, 6 cruisers, and 12 destroyers in just 65 minutes. However, the Italian Navy, which was originally in an advantageous position, suffered a disastrous defeat and suffered heavy losses, and its lessons are worth discussing.

This battle shows that pre-war preparations must be carried out with great caution. A battle cannot be fought without preparation, and it is difficult to win a battle without careful preparation. Judging from the pre-war preparations for this campaign, it should be said that the Italian army still attached great importance to defense, and anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and blocking balloons were all available, constituting a complete air defense system, which seemed to be "impregnable." But it was by no means invulnerable, and in the storm of early November 1940, two-thirds of the blocking balloons, which Ricardi considered a "killer weapon", were damaged, and only 27 were still functional. In the face of such huge losses, it was not able to replenish the repair in time. In particular, the quality of the Italian army's personnel was poor, the intelligence gathering personnel could not distinguish between the true and the false, the antiaircraft artillery units lacked the ability to fight at night, and in addition they were not psychologically prepared, so defeat was inevitable.

The British army's preparations can be described as meticulous, with targeted training and modification of pilots and fighters participating in the battle, repeated aerial reconnaissance of the port of Taranto, and effective deception operations. When the conditions are not yet ripe, it is better to postpone again and again than to attack rashly, and the result is that the blow is hit. Since the end of the Second World War, the pattern of warfare has changed dramatically, but knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent remains a prerequisite for victory and the primary element of pre-war preparations. Knowing the opponent means thoroughly studying the opponent, having a clear understanding of the opponent's combat strength, the tactical means that may be used, and the main direction of the possible surprise attack, and making targeted preparations for countermeasures. Confidants require not only to know how to creatively give full play to their own strengths, but also to have a clear understanding of their own weaknesses and shortcomings, and to make corresponding improvements, to guard against arrogance, and to truly do a good job in various tasks with the attitude of walking on thin ice and approaching the abyss, and not to give the opponent any opportunity to take advantage of.

Imitation is not a substitute for innovation. Throughout the attack, the British army demonstrated a positive and innovative military concept. The commander of the British forces, General Cunningham, was keenly aware of the decisive role of aviation in naval warfare, and created a precedent for attacking enemy naval bases with aircraft carriers, and achieved significant results; In the face of the blocking balloon nets set up by the Italian army, the British pilots practiced hard and skillfully coped, and finally successfully broke through; The magnetic torpedo developed by engineers and technicians successfully broke through the anti-mine net carefully set up by the Italian army. Mussolini, on the other hand, was backward in his thinking and lacked a minimum concept of synthesis, which made the coordination of the sea and air become the separation of the sea and the air; The Italian commander not only had a rigid and conservative command style, but also regarded the interceptor balloon invented by the enemy as a sharp anti-aircraft weapon, and as a result, 21 old biplanes in the British military district were defeated. The lesson of blood warns us that victory cannot be replicated, and imitation is difficult to innovate.

An army that lacks a sense of innovation will only follow suit in peacetime, and can only be beaten passively in wartime. Military innovation, on the other hand, is a systematic project that is embodied in all aspects of army building. It is necessary to get rid of the traditional concept of "one trick is fresh and eat all over the world," and instead it is necessary to strengthen the "concept of great innovation" in system integration and top-level design, and promote the overall improvement of the combat effectiveness of the troops with comprehensive and innovative actions, and we must not simply bet on one or two new weapons and one or two fresh ideas.

The commander must have the ability to see through the clouds. In order to achieve the suddenness of the air attack, the British army adopted a variety of measures to conceal its operational intentions, interfering with and confusing the judgment of the Italian command organs, so that the British fleet sailed on the sea for three days and nights, not only was it not intercepted by the Italian army, but the military port of Taranto did not even enter a high-level state of alert. What is even more ironic is that on the day of the air raid, the Italian army also dispatched 88 planes to participate in the air raid on North Africa, but did not dispatch planes to protect the naval fleet, which was not strong in protective capabilities, so that its already limited air defense force could not be fully utilized.

In the high-tech battlefield of the future, the war situation is complex and ever-changing, and the warring sides will use a variety of means to create illusions, confuse the public, and look for various opportunities to carry out surprise attacks. In this regard, battlefield commanders must not take this lightly, must be good at predicting the opponent's possible moves from the perspective of the overall situation, be good at judging the opponent's true movements from the clues, make good use of empathy to speculate on the enemy's commander's operational intentions, and not be deceived by illusions, so as to make rational and objective judgments.

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When Zhang Jun heard that the British fleet had successfully attacked the Italian Navy's garrison with two aircraft carriers, he was angry and laughing, because Zhang Jun had already sent a three-point telegram to Mussolini, telling him to be careful about Taranto's fleet, and every time Mussolini swore that Taranto's defense was impregnable, and even a British fly would not want to fly in, and as a result, 60% of the capital ships of the Italian Navy were buried in Taranto's cemetery. This is what Mussolini said about the solidity and the fact that not a single fly can fly into Taranto, and that it is better to believe in the Italian oath than to believe that the sow will also go up the tree.

This is not over, Mussolini was unwilling to fail, and personally sent a telegram to Hitler, asking Hitler to send an air force to support the Italian Navy, Mussolini planned to organize all the remaining Italian naval ships to form a broken fleet, to attack the British Mediterranean supply line, and Hitler actually agreed.

Of course, Hitler agreed, as long as Italy was willing to go to the British desperately, Hitler absolutely raised his hands in favor, but after the fiasco of the "Sea Lion Plan" Hitler, there was also an air force transferred to reinforce Italy, and Germany at this time had nearly 4,000 aircraft, while the two SS air armies were originally 3,000 aircraft, and now there are 1,500 planes, and the Wehrmacht has to guard against air raids on the British mainland, leaving 1,000 planes in France, and less than 2,000 planes on the Soviet front. However, Hitler still transferred 130 **-29 bombers to Zhang Jun, including 20 air tankers and 6 **-29 air early warning planes, which is a very powerful air force.

Since Mussolini is a fool who wants to find Britain desperately for face, Zhang Jun has no opinion, of course, the specific plan was formulated by Italy, Zhang Jun also has an Italian battle plan, and Zhang Jun is in charge of the air force part of this fleet.

In order to open up the situation in the Mediterranean, Zhang Jun must also annihilate the main force of the British Mediterranean Fleet, and the remnants of Italy's fleet are the best bait, this is not that Zhang Jun does not regard allies as allies, this is Mussolini's own plan proposed by the idiot, but don't blame Zhang Jun for using the Italian Navy as a bait, and Britain will definitely choose to meet the initiative of the Italian Navy in order to protect its supply lines.

For this reason, Zhang Jun made special changes to his "six masters", that is, the German-made "six rocket launchers" removed the brackets and tires and other equipment, and only kept six launch tubes, the total weight of such a set of "six rocket launchers" is only 260 kilograms, and the "six masters" can just hang two "six rocket launchers" under the wings, each rocket weighs 31 kilograms and has a range of 8 kilometers. Anything that isn't very thick will be destroyed by these rockets.

The British warship that lost its anti-aircraft fire is the target of other aircraft, and even the **-29 strategic bomber can bomb at low altitude, but it is a pity that the ju87, a precision bomber, has not been modified for air refueling, because his propeller is in the nose, and it is really not good to modify the air refueling system. Therefore, the air raid plan arranged by Zhang Jun was mainly completed by **-29 and the "Sixth Master". What the effect will be, you can only know after playing. Using **-29 low-altitude flight to bomb warships, the effect is really hard to say, and at the same time**-29 is also dangerous, if the "sixth master" carries 150 mm rocket artillery so that all the anti-aircraft weapons of the British fleet become scrap metal, which **-29 can basically send the British fleet to the bottom of the sea unscathed, if the British warships do not lose their anti-aircraft firepower, which **-29 will be miserable, anyway, Zhang Jun also put a bet on the "sixth master".

The 150 rocket weighs 31 kilograms and has a range of 8 kilometers, the "Sixth Master" only needs to dive into the British ** ship to 5 six kilometers away to launch, the air defense weapons on the warship are difficult to threaten the "Sixth Master" at such a distance, and the power of the German 150 rocket is equivalent to a 155 mm caliber shell, the British warship has no way to blow out the hole except for the armor of the battleship, and the warship below the cruiser cannot bear this power, but the rocket is not like the shell that can explode after penetrating the armor, and it can only explode on contact, Therefore, it can only pose a lethal threat to the deck or superstructure of the British warship, and the shells 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 rockets fired by aircraft is also very obvious.

…… (To be continued.) )