Montgomery, who left Downing Street, definitely did not expect that his words would push the British Royal Navy to a point of no return.

Faced with the pressure of the domestic tide, the strongman Churchill also had to give in, and immediately convened a military conference to discuss how to rescue the Eighth Army.

200,000 British troops surrendered, what would be the consequences if such news was transmitted back home? Brooke's telegram and Montgomery's words pierced Churchill's heart deeply. It is clear that none of them believed that in such a situation, the Royal Navy would come to the rescue of the Army. But the prime minister wanted to give it a try, "In Dunkirk, it was Brooke who saved the British army, this time, let me come!" ”

Churchill, a former naval secretary, was convinced that his naval influence was still there, and he was convinced that the Royal Navy was still capable of fighting the Allied navies in the Mediterranean. Moreover, Britain is not alone now, and the European detachment of the American Atlantic Fleet is also in Gibraltar.

The two state-of-the-art Essex-class aircraft carriers can fully compete with the Marshal-class of the Han Kingdom. As for the number of advanced aircraft carriers of the Dahan Royal Navy...... Churchill selectively ignored it.

"The British Empire rose in the navy, and it will be glorious in the navy again!"

With such a firm conviction, Churchill intervened in the battle plan of the individual for the first time in the course of the war.

After the destruction of the H fleet, Admiral Cunningham, the commander of the C-ship, who had retreated to Gibraltar, was well aware that although the multinational forces were reluctant to admit it, the Entente had actually lost control of the Mediterranean.

The Allied air forces on Sardinia had blocked the ships of the Entente outside the narrow sea between Spain and Morocco. Breakthrough through the Tunis Strait? The total annihilation of Admiral Somerville and the H Fleet has already told everyone the result.

However, the prime minister stubbornly demanded that the Royal Navy go to war, and even did not hesitate to transfer the capital ships of the home fleet to Gibraltar. With regard to the Han Navy's aircraft carrier battle formation, the USS Radiance, which has just been overhauled at the USS Norfolk in the United States, and the USS Dadreadnought, the lead ship of the Dreadnought-class aircraft carrier in the United Kingdom, will be ordered to join the Mediterranean Fleet. There are also four escort aircraft carriers from the United States, the Shooter-class Archer, the Avenger, the Deceptioner, and the Shocker, plus the aircraft carriers that originally belonged to the C Fleet such as the Eagle, and the United Kingdom has assembled 16 aircraft carriers of various types in Gibraltar, including six large and medium-sized main aircraft carriers.

Together with the US Atlantic Fleet, which has agreed to fight in conjunction with the Mediterranean Fleet, there will also be three large aircraft carriers and four escort aircraft carriers in the battle.

Outside the port of Gibraltar, in the Atlantic Ocean, there were 23 aircraft carriers of various types gathered for the first time.

Also assigned to Admiral Cunningham's command were six battleships and four battle cruisers, as well as more than seventy destroyers and frigates of various kinds, which were all the ships that Churchill could allocate to the C Fleet to the best of his ability.

But Admiral Cunningham was not in any sense of joy, and it was certainly an honor to be able to command one of the largest fleets in British history. But Cunningham knew that after the battle, victory would bring him to the throne of British naval marshal; Fail...... Cunningham could not have imagined that once the elite of the Royal Navy here was lost, Britain, as an island nation, would face an endless abyss.

Admiral Joseph King, chief of naval operations and commander of the Atlantic Fleet, is also in Gibraltar. The battle plan, codenamed "Bright", was repeatedly rehearsed, but the worries on the faces of the two generals, Cunningham and Kim, also grew.

"This is definitely not a good plan, I wonder why President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill would approve such a plan?" Admiral King had a lot of grievances about the Atlantic Fleet's assistance to the British Navy. The British, especially the officers of the British Navy, were too arrogant!

Cunningham spread his hands, "Your Excellency, I would like to ask this question as well!" But my Excellency the Prime Minister told me that this action must be carried out. ”

"Oh, damn politics! Don't they know that bringing politics to military action will lead to ruin? ”

In the Mediterranean, which is tightly controlled by the Allied Air Force and Navy, such a large retreat is simply a joke! Unless it is possible to decisively defeat the naval power of the allies in the Mediterranean.

The "Bright" plan was developed based on this idea. Concentrate the elite forces of the British and American navies to completely defeat the Han Northern Fleet in the Mediterranean, and regain control of the Mediterranean, which has an important impact on the war situation.

"This plan is very bold and crazy...... Admiral Kim actually wanted to say "very naïve", but after looking at the admirals and staff officers of the multinational force not far away, he still chose to keep his mouth shut.

If the Han Navy is so easy to defeat, will the proud British Royal Navy be driven out of the Mediterranean step by step? Rescuing the British Army in Benghazi?

"I hope it's not a piece of poison there, a poison that can poison the main forces of the Entente navy!"

……

The Commonwealth troops in Benghazi resisted valiantly, and the German-Italian forces fought leisurely. On the frontal battlefield, the German 20th Mechanized Corps and the 90th Panzer Division poured dozens of tons of ammunition on the battlefield every day. The British positions were also broken through several sections at one point, and were quickly filled in by other troops in time.

If you want to choose the most frequent artillery and the most lively battlefield, then Benghazi must be on the list, even Stalingrad, which is in the midst of fierce fighting, can only be regarded as a meat grinder, a cruel meat grinder that constantly pushes the lives of soldiers on both sides.

In Rommel's view, Benghazi is completely blind and even a waste of ammunition here.

But the order given to him by Commander-in-Chief Jiang Yunzhi was to nail it to Benghazi, not to break through the British defensive line, and not to let Brooke be idle.

As one of the developers and participants of the "poison" plan, Rommel, of course, knew that the action in Benghazi was important, tempting to take the bait, and of course to have a sufficiently attractive bait.

However, it was not too boring to fight like this, and seeing that the enemy was on the opposite side, but he could not swallow it in one bite, this made Rommel feel very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, this torture did not last long, and the outbreak of the naval battle in the Tunisian Strait instantly made the desert fox feel that everything was worth it. Although it was a matter of the navy and air force, it had nothing to do with him.

Four British troop carriers, escorted by two destroyers, prepared under the cover of night to sneak through the Tunis Strait and along the Tunisian coast into the Gulf of Sirte.

However, this operation was detected by radar on the island of Bantellunya, and two Dongfeng-class submarines intercepted the transport ship formation in the eastern section of the strait, and only one destroyer narrowly escaped the assassination and escaped into the harbor of Tripoli. After daybreak, the Allied air forces in Sicily crossed the bombed island of Malta and launched an air raid on Tripoli, targeting the escaping destroyer.

This is clearly to be wiped out, not even a single destroyer.

The task force, consisting of the aircraft carriers Eagle and Glory, then sailed out of the port of Gibraltar and settled in the port of Algiers. One hundred and sixteen Sabres and more than 200 Vulcan bombers of the Royal Air Force were also transferred to Tunisia at the same time to increase the front line of the battle against the Allied Air Force.

In particular, the arrival of the Vulcan bomber made Lieutenant General Long Zhou, the commander of the Allied Air Force who had received the information, keenly aware that the British were going to make a new operation!

Sure enough, the day before the Allied air forces on Sardinia were preparing to attack the Glory and Eagle in Algiers, nearly 200 Allied air force planes and more than 400 bombers of various types were transferred to Annaba and Constantine.

On September 17, 1942, the first rays of the morning sun just shone on the Sardinian island in the Mediterranean, at the Solgono Air Base, the ground crew of the 31st Flight Division of the 11th Army of the Royal Air Force of the Han Empire were carrying Fire Phoenix-2 and Fairy Penguin-7 air-to-air missiles on the wings of one J-41 Swiftlolast. On the other side of the group, the pilots stood in a row, listening to the regiment commander's assignment.

Sudden alarms sounded, and the shrill electric bells suddenly rang through Solgono Air Base. The pilots were not in a hurry, as the front-line air base, as the pilots of the Swift Dragon fighters who mainly flew interception missions, they had experienced too many such scenarios.

But this time it was noticeably different, the radar station at Cape Teulada, the highest end of Sardinia, reported to the command, and at a number of Allied airfields in Algeria and Tunisia, a large number of aircraft took off. "Note that it is a large number, and the number of enemy aircraft can almost fill the radar display."

Perhaps to emphasize the huge number of enemy aircraft, the head of the radar station used an extremely exaggerated analogy. When Jiang Yunzhi, who had just woken up, received the news that the multinational air force had launched a large-scale air raid on Sardinia, the Thunderdragon fleet in Solgono had already begun to take off.

In this airfield, an entire division of Swift Dragon fighters was stationed, whose mission was to prevent a surprise attack from the enemy and shoot down the Allied bombers before they could reach their targets.

The Royal Air Force was a luxury ground support force, ensuring that all 150 Swiftlokes were lifted into the air in a very short time, and the air battle began before the Allied airspace entered the skies over Sardinia.

After the Air Force entered the age of sonic aircraft, such large-scale air battles were actually rare. But this is a world war, a world war that gambles on the fortunes of the country and the fate of the nation. Nothing is impossible, everything is only a winner or a loser, a winner or a loser at any cost.

The spearhead of the multinational force air force is still the F-102 triangular javelin, an old rival of the Swift Dragon, and the battle between the AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile and the fairy penguin and the fire phoenix is still being staged in the air.

Before the two huge groups of planes could meet, several warplanes from each side had already been shot down. And there is only one shooting opportunity outside the line of sight, and each Swift Dragon and Triangular Javelin can already see the opponent's fleet with the naked eye after firing a missile.

The brutal and exciting dog fight is still the main body of air combat, even if the fighters of the two warring sides are already supersonic fighters. Cannons, missiles, each to the best of his ability. Overload, stall, rollover, and inverted flight, each with its own magical powers.

Advanced fighters have widened the gap in technology between pilots. Airplanes, especially high-speed fighters, are not in the era of spiral, and they can take off and soar after a few days of casual training. Jet pilots must undergo rigorous training and hard training before they can be competent in modern air combat.

In this regard, the Han Empire took advantage of some advantages. Pilots who are not suitable for training in other countries are recruited in batches in Dahan, that is, than training, Dahan's pilots also began to contact jet aircraft earlier, and their first fighter J-5 is actually a mature jet fighter that has been tested in actual combat.

The fighters on both sides are comparable in performance and in number, and the air battle over southern Sardinia is inextricable.