At 8 a.m. on July 23, David Beatty, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, was enjoying coffee from Staff Officer Zach Dillon in the bridge of the flagship HMS Hood. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Unlike the original British Mediterranean Fleet, this Mediterranean Fleet was a temporary formation, which was only formed for the purpose of fighting against Sardinia, and after this station, this establishment will be abolished.

David Beatty was the British Admiral, and 53 is a bit young for a marshal, but it is not surprising to put it on David Beatty.

David Beatty, a veteran of the British Navy, served as deputy commander of the Nile Fleet at the age of 25, later participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, distinguished himself in the last world war, and was able to accept the surrender of the German fleet on behalf of Great Britain, and was promoted to field marshal after the war, when he was not even fifty years old.

David Betty was the undisputed first man in the British Navy after John Jericho's retirement, a hot-tempered, combative, and of course "driven and courageous" to describe it in a nice adjective.

In the last World War, David Betty's boss, John Jellico, refused to allow David Betty to hold a higher position, on the grounds that the more ships David Betty was given, the more daring David Betty would be.

This judgment was correct, David Betty was indeed very bold, so even in the absence of air protection, David Betty resolutely ordered the fleet to move in the direction of Sardinia.

"Sir, in two hours we will be in position." Zach Dillon had a serious expression and looked at David Betty with anticipation.

"Don't worry little Zach, the planes of the Lanfangs can't break through our anti-aircraft fire, they can only bark miserably like puppies, watching us destroy all the airports in Sardinia and turn them into bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean." David Betty was confident that once he decided something, he couldn't change it, and then David Betty shouted, "Full speed ahead, let's kick Lan Fang's ass hard." ”

"Whew-" A neat response sounded from the bridge, and the "Hood" began to speed up and move at full speed in the direction of Sardinia.

"I have to say, the Lanfang people still have some merits, at least their coffee is really good-" David Betty only then picked up the coffee sent by Zach Dillon, put it under his nose and sniffed it, and then looked intoxicated: "Tom, won't you have a cup?" ”

"Oh, I'm going to keep my spirits, and I'll have a drink with you when we set foot in Sardinia." The captain of the "Hood", Rear Admiral Tomkinson, had a resolute gaze.

The battleship "Hood" is the most advanced battleship in Britain, just commissioned four years ago, Tomkinson is the first captain of the "Hood", maybe after this battle, Tomkinson will be promoted, so Tomkinson will never accept any form of defeat.

British admirals can be said to be the proudest group of people in the world, although the current British national strength is weakened, has actually given up the position of the world boss, but in the hearts of British admirals, the fleet of the British Empire is still the invincible armada, perhaps when seeing the American battleships frequently launched, and the British Navy has not had fresh blood for a long time, the British admirals will have a sour heart, but these British admirals firmly believe that even in the face of the U.S. Navy, which is composed of all cutting-edge warshipsThe British Navy will not fall behind either, because the British Navy has a proud tradition and has enough good officers, which money cannot buy.

When thinking so, these British admirals must not have realized that it was precisely because the British Empire had money that Britain was able to build an invincible fleet that dominated the world, and now that Britain has lost its economic advantage, it is only a handful of how long it can maintain its naval superiority.

Of course, the British admirals will certainly not think about this problem, perhaps in the eyes of many British admirals, only boring politicians and copper-smelling businessmen will consider this problem, in Britain, the admiral is responsible for the project is to show the British Navy "handsome", just like the admirals on the dress as straight, the folds on the clothes must be folded according to the norms, so as to conform to the noble temperament of the British Navy.

"Very well, let's do our best, and when we set foot in Sardinia, I will provide you with a bottle of private wine and celebrate." David Betty made a promise.

"Whew-" The atmosphere of response was even more enthusiastic.

It is said that there are really many drunkards among the British, and alcoholism has become a common practice in the navy, and like "building a foundation", it is a stubborn disease that the British Navy cannot cure.

Just as everyone was responding, a terrible air defense siren suddenly sounded in the bridge, and the battle was about to begin.

In this battle, the radar installed by the Lanfang Air Force on the Marmora Peak in the Jinnar Gentu Mountains played a key role.

Although David Betty advocated attack, he was not reckless, and in the process of the British fleet's advance towards Sardinia, David Betty ordered the aircraft carrier to release reconnaissance planes early to reconnoitre, so as to win more early warning time for the fleet.

David Betty knew that the British Air Force could not beat the Lanfang Air Force, and yesterday's battle had fully proved this, so David Betty did not pin his hopes of protecting the fleet on the air force, and David Betty also knew that there was a performance gap between the British fighters and the Lanfang fighters, so David Betty did not expect the carrier-based aircraft of the Air Force to put the Lanfang Air Force outside the fleet's protective net, as long as the British carrier-based aircraft could win a certain amount of early warning time for the fleet, it was enough, and David Betty was still very confident in the air defense strength of the fleet.

It's a pity that although David Betty knows that there is a performance gap between the British fighter and the Lanfang fighter, David Betty doesn't know how big the gap is.

Lan Fang's "Eagle Falcon" has a practical ceiling of 10,000 meters, while the "Hurricane" has a practical ceiling of only 9,000 meters, and this kilometer determines the fate of the British fleet.

Before it came into contact with the "Hurricane," the radar station on the Marmora Peak provided an early warning for the Lanfang fighters, so the Lanfang fighters began to climb early and fully occupied a favorable position, and when the "Falcon" was about to fly directly above the "Hurricane," the "Falcon" began to dive in a nearly vertical attitude.

In this position, the "Hurricane" is the largest area in the eyes of the "Eagle Falcon" pilots, and Lan Fang's ace pilots will definitely not let go of this opportunity, Dou Yongyi used a two-plane formation attack again, if the first plane misses, there is still a second plane that can be re-fired, so the British "Hurricane" is very sad, less than a minute before and after, all eight reconnaissance planes were shot down, and the British pilots did not even have a chance to warn the fleet.

After cleaning up all the reconnaissance planes, in fact, it was less than ten nautical miles away from the British fleet, which was a dive for the aircraft, because there was no harassment from the British Air Force, so Dou Yongyi could command the bombers and torpedo planes to calmly form and attack the British fleet in batches.

Dou Yongyi's formation is very layered, compared with bombers and torpedo planes, the size of the fighter is the smallest, so the first wave of dive is responsible for the fighter, when the fighter leads away the anti-aircraft fire of the British fleet, the bomber dives directly from above the British fleet, and the torpedo plane is close to the sea surface to carry out ultra-low-altitude penetration, and at the same time launch an attack on the British fleet.

Dou Yongyi's requirements are not high, as long as he can sink one or two large warships of the British army, of course, it is best if he can sink more, and Dou Yongyi has no objection.

It must be said that the British did conduct air defense exercises before the war, but air defense exercises and actual combat are two different things after all, and the way the Lanfang Air Force attacked was something that the British sailors had never heard of, so naturally there was no vigilance, so it was not until the first wave of fighters began to dive that the British sounded the air defense alarm.

In fact, Dou Yongyi had already made a mistake at this time, if the first wave of dives was not fighter planes but bombers or torpedo planes, then the Lanfang Air Force only needed one attack to severely damage the British fleet, even if it was not as chopping melons and vegetables as in the battle against the Japanese fleet, it was enough to make the British feel painful.

This can be regarded as Dou Yongyi and David Betty have made empirical mistakes, Lan Fang and Britain have conducted fleet air defense drills before the war, but the two armies have never fought each other, so David Betty speculated on the combat effectiveness of the Lan Fang Air Force, it was inferred according to the combat effectiveness of the British Air Force, and the combat effectiveness of the British Air Force was raised to a higher level, so David Betty believed that the Lan Fang Air Force could not break through the air defense network of the British fleet.

David Betty still underestimated the penetration capability of the Lanfang Air Force, the Lanfang Air Force may have to make a lot of effort to break through the air defense network of the British fleet, but it is by no means impossible to break through, the Lanfang Air Force is more powerful than David Betty imagined, and the air defense network of the British fleet is not as perfect as David Betty imagined.

When the Lanfang Navy conducted the exercise, at the beginning, two bomber formations and two torpedo aircraft formations made a total of four formations to penetrate the defense from four directions, and later, with the progress of Lanfang's pilot technology, the four formations were reduced to three, and now they have been reduced to two, which fully proves the progress of the Lanfang Air Force.

Dou Yongyi speculated that the air defense capability of the British fleet was also based on the Lanfang Navy, and in Dou Yongyi's assumption, the air defense capability of the British fleet was at least similar to that of the Lanfang Navy, because the intelligence analysis obtained from the Lanfang National Security Bureau showed that the anti-aircraft firepower on the British warships was comparable to that of the Lanfang warships.

Dou Yongyi overestimated the air defense capabilities of the British fleet.

The air defense capability of the Lanfang Navy is abused by the Lanfang Air Force, which is second to none in the world at present, whether it is the level of defense or the coordination of anti-aircraft firepower, it is much better than the British fleet, although the British warships are also equipped with a large number of air defense weapons, but the British air defense is not coordinated, and the basic mountain is still a situation of fighting separately, which cannot be compared with the air defense density of the Lanfang warship.

David Betty has indeed learned a lesson that he will never forget.