4** Eagle over North Africa (Season 5)

2

Two o'clock in the morning. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

Fifty kilometers east of Trick Island, south of Rhodes Island, six Ottoman ships sped by, like ghosts.

The fleet after the lights were controlled, except for the dim anti-collision lights, there was no light to be seen.

Wu Yingke sat in a separate room specially opened for him on the flagship Izmail, and could not concentrate his thoughts for a long time in front of the charts, because he found that the combat efficiency of the Ottoman Navy was really a big problem, not to mention the quality of the soldiers, and the pervasive war-weariness alone made him feel very uncomfortable.

In addition to this, the Ottomans' intelligence efficiency was tricky, and by the time the fleet departed, he still had the reconnaissance information provided by the Nujiang not long ago, and the Italians dispatched five old battleships.

Since the Brahmaputra returned home overnight with gold and pound cash delivered by the Ottomans, he currently only has the Nujiang and the Snow Sculpture of the Naval Intelligence Department providing intelligence support in the Mediterranean, but it is similar to the South Sea, with many islands, and no important target has been found.

Dante is the only Italian battleship at present, due to the British and German pioneers in breaking through the technology, coupled with the Ottoman purchase of the Izmael, Italy realized the lack of naval strength, and also accelerated the research of the battleship, and built this battleship in a short time.

From his domestic spoiled point of view, Dante is also a very good battleship, four triple 305 mm/46 times caliber naval guns arranged on the central axis, with very strong destructive power, full load displacement of 21,800 tons, but also makes the hull can have a large enough ability to resist strikes, 22 knots of speed, is the same level of battleships of the same level in the world.

If you want to talk about the weak point, it is its thinner armor and endurance, the main armor is only 250 mm thick, only 76 mm thin, the horizontal deck is only 30 mm, and the endurance is 10 knots/5000 nautical miles.

If the main task of the Italian Navy is to defend the Mediterranean, and the endurance is not a big problem, its armor will become a fatal wound, especially after entering the long-distance running battle, the country has begun to increase the thickness of the horizontal deck, if he has a Dalian-class heavy cruiser in his hand at this time, he can at least guarantee to hit the other side hard.

But not now

With the combat capabilities of the Italian Navy, if he encountered Dante, then he could only choose to escape, so he mainly focused on the five old battleships.

As the top military strategist in everyone's mind, the emperor has long been outspoken and repeatedly pointed out the importance of the Ottoman Empire to China.

It can be said that if conditions permit, then even if there is a war with the whole world, Hua will defend the Ottoman Empire to the death

Before, the emperor's argument was still puzzling, but as more and more deductions and wars tempered everyone's gradually broadened vision, everyone gradually understood that except for the Suez Canal, which is known as the world's main artery, the Ottous Empire and Persia were too important to China

First of all, once it is controlled, even if it is a garrison, it can threaten the entire West and South Asian regions, including India, from the flank, and even if it does not want Africa, it can also radiate the core Central Asian region, which is equivalent to a sharp sword that can be stabbed at any time, cutting off all European countries, including Russia, from Asia at once

However, the current Chinese Navy cannot blatantly enter this area, but the influence must come early, and there is nothing more direct than military help except for economic influence

This is also the main reason why the emperor asked him to come to Osman.

"Help the Ottomans and let them know what we are capable of, and at the same time help the Empire expand its influence in the region, and ensure that in the event of war, all European connections to Asia can be cut off"

These are the emperor's exact words, but it is not easy to do this, first of all, Britain is currently in its heyday, Persia and Africa are almost all their colonies and protectorates, and even the Kuwait and Basra oil fields have been repeatedly threatened by the British.

Second, to let the Ottomans know how powerful Hua is, they must be helped to win at least one decent naval battle, even if they all retreat behind the Dardanelles.

But the Ottomans were also not too strong, and it was necessary to keep the ancient empire weak, so that they could continue to cling to China, which made high demands on him.

Help Osman win a victory and then let it lose

Is this possible?

The imposing Italian fleet was in front, there were no aircraft reconnaissance, no radio detectors, the intelligence was unsightly, and the low enthusiasm for battle made him feel that it was even more difficult than the scene against Japan back then

Wu Yingke shook his head, put aside his complicated thoughts, and looked at the charts again, the first thing he had to do was to find the Italian fleet, otherwise everything would be empty talk.

Just as he was about to consider where the Italian fleet would be at the moment, there was a sudden knock on the door of the cabin.

"Come in."

As soon as Wu Yingke spoke, a communications officer of the Chinese Imperial Navy with a portable radio on his back rushed into the hatch: "Report, the Nujiang sent a telegram that their detector was south of Trick Island, and an unknown warship was found off the coast of Castelli, with more than four ships and a speed of 12 knots, but it was too dark at night for the plane to take off for reconnaissance." (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)"

This specially left communications officer was the only reconnaissance method that Wu Yingke could rely on, because he was the only one who could contact the nearby Nu River, so when he brought the news, he immediately climbed in front of the chart and found this small place in the western part of Trik Island.

120 nautical miles away from yourself

Wu Yingke immediately looked at his watch, although the detector could not distinguish the correct number and type of enemy fleet under the current technology, he was almost certain that it was the Italian fleet, and the only problem was that Dante was not among them

After thinking about it, Wu Yingke flew into his clothes, and knocked on the door of Admiral Hakan, the captain and commander of the fleet, with a messenger and a defending Imperial soldier.

"Your Majesty, Commander, you must put the fleet into battle at once, we are going to encounter the enemy"

"What" The sleepy-eyed Hakan was stunned for a long time, suddenly understood Wu Yingke's words, looked at the telegraph operator behind him, took out his pocket watch and looked at it, and was a little suspicious, even if Hua had a plane, but it was late at night and early in the morning, how could they find the Italian fleet?

However, Hakan was not stupid after all, he knew that if the other party did not have accurate information, he would not disturb his good dreams in the middle of the night, so he immediately dressed and walked into the command tower with Wu Yingke.

Morning... The aging Ottoman fleet finally woke up from its slumber and began to prepare for the war.

------

------

The fish white in the east woke all the soldiers of the Nujiang from their sleep, and the boom slowly lowered Fan Wu and his osprey to the sea, and when the boom returned to its original position, he saw the comrades on the deck who gave him a thumbs up.

The last incident caused him to be trained, but the smile that the captain couldn't hide from the corners of his eyes and the excited praise of his comrades-in-arms made this reprimand completely change the taste.

Today, however, it was different, because the neutral flag had been flown on the mast of the Nujiang, which meant that he could no longer see the Italian fleet and planes, and could only relayed the intelligence and information he saw by the Nujiang by radio.

The throttle stick slowly pushed, the propeller revving more and more, pulling the osprey to begin to glide at high speed on the water, and when the nose of the plane jumped uncontrollably, he gently pulled the plane up.

According to the rules, after circling over the warship, he flew towards the broken island in the distance.

After quickly crossing the Cyclades Islands belonging to Greece, the beautiful Aegean Sea appeared in front of Fan Wu's eyes, and in order to get a good line of sight, he gradually raised the plane to an altitude of 1,000 meters, grabbed the telescope strapped to his body and searched around.

This is the natural advantage of the aircraft, no matter how high the mast is, it can only help the observer to see a distance of about 30 kilometers, while he can easily monitor a range of nearly 100 kilometers, and from the telescope, the horizon sinks like a graceful and curved arc to both ends.

Suddenly, a black dot caught his attention, and he saw that the Italian biplane, which he had forced to almost land in the water not long ago, was rapidly rising from the Aegean Sea, but due to the lack of power, it was too slow and could not rise to such a height to challenge itself.

Just as Fan Wu licked his lips and considered whether he was violating an order and forcing this guy down again, a large stream of smoke suddenly appeared in the east, and at the same moment, more than a dozen black ship shadows appeared in the west.

When the smoke in the east became clearer, the low-flying Italian plane also found the target, turned a corner and quickly flew towards the fleet, just when Fan Wu took the walkie-talkie and began to report the situation of the Italian fleet, the Italian plane also circled the fleet a few times, and threw down a small thing.

Fan Wu smacked his lips, he didn't have to look to know what it was.

That's the pain of not having radio

------

------

"They are thirty nautical miles away and have already found us"

"Two capital ships of the San Giorgio-class battleship, two battleships Queen Elena, one queen Margaret and two armored cruisers."

"No Dante"

Wu Yingke took the telegram forwarded from the Nujiang and saw that there was no Dante, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Admiral Hakan, the admiral of the Osmen Empire, who did not dare to hesitate any longer, and immediately began to adjust the formation.

Seeing his slow action in a hurry, and even a little overwhelmed, Wu Yingke frowned, and suddenly said boldly: "General, if you allow it, I think I can command"

These words made the command tower of the Izmir quickly quiet down, and all eyes focused on this middle-aged man with a messenger and a guard, dressed in regular clothes and with a straight posture.

He was going to command the Ottoman fleet?

Put a strong fleet of a country under the command of a stranger who has been here for a few days? Is this a joke?

Admiral Hakan glared at Wu Yingke, for him this sentence was like a provocation, like a mockery of his incompetence, distrust of the Ottoman Empire At some moment, he even had the urge to kick a guy with his head still held high into the sea.

But in his heart, he really admires this staff officer of the Chinese Imperial Navy, don't look at his usual giggling, but in fact, he knows better than anyone else the problems of the Ottoman Navy, and the shortcomings in this cannot be changed by a few battleships, so after thinking about it, he pointed to Wu Yingke and said: "I can't command my fleet, but you can be my plenipotentiary deputy"

Plenipotentiary deputy?

Wu Yingke couldn't help but admire this treacherous and cunning guy, so that all the credit after victory was his, and he could be a scapegoat for failure, and he could also let himself take over the entire fleet, which was really a very "wise" decision.

"Commander, my first suggestion is to let my men take over the flagship turret"

"I agree."

With Hakan's words, a strange command brain was formed, Wu Yingke couldn't manage so much at this time, and it was far better for him to master a naval gun operated by a veteran brought by himself than to have veterans scattered everywhere to guide the Ottoman sailors.

In fact, what happened later proved the effectiveness of this approach.

At 6:30, the Ottoman fleet was quickly prepared under the clear and swift command of Wu Yingke's "help", and at the same time, a large stream of black smoke had risen from the sky.

With no optical aiming, no fire control, Wu Yingke is almost certain that this is a close-range encounter, but the problem is that he can't follow the rhythm of the Italians, and must keep enough distance, otherwise even if he has enough firepower advantage, the quality of the Italian Navy can guarantee to tear these Ottoman soldiers apart.

"28,000 yards."

The Ottoman Navy navigator held up the telescope and began to shout, Wu Yingke frowned, he was not very used to using yards to express distance, after all, the Chinese Navy used the metric meter as a unit.

Fortunately, the imperial system was not very unfamiliar, so he immediately calculated the approximate distance between the two sides, but one detail caught his attention.

velocity

The speed of the Italian fleet began to increase, almost all of them remained at 20 knots, while the Izmael and the three Dukes on their side could also maintain 20 knots, but the two Barbarossa and Reese, which were formerly of the German Navy's Brandenburg class, were only 16 knots, so the speed of the formation could not be maintained

The capital ships must maintain the same speed during the engagement, otherwise there will be a disjointed ** annoyance

At 6:40 a.m., just as he was wondering what to do, the Snow Sculpture sent information that Dante and another battleship had been found seventy nautical miles west of the island of Trick, and his eyes lit up, and he immediately made a decision that the Ottomans could not understand.

He ordered the 16-knot crossing and at the same time turned left to the west of Crete.

This decision, which almost triggered a riot of the Ottomans, saw that the Italian fleet was in front, but suddenly turned, what purpose could it serve other than to make the Italians laugh at the Ottoman timidity?

The big problem was that the Italian fleet of five battleships and two cruisers remained at about 20 knots, and unless they threw away two Barbarossa-class battleships, they could only leave their butts to the Italian cannons to kiss

But this question stopped controversy after Wu Yingke drew a few lines.

The Italian fleet in the distance saw that the Ottomans had fled without a fight, and the direction of escape was still the position where the Dante was coming from the ambush on the periphery, and immediately chased after it with full force.

"20,000 yards."

"19,000 yards."

The captain's shouts came one after another, but Wu Yingke still lowered his head and lay on the chart table, naval battle is a mathematical game in the final analysis, Dante wants to block himself, it takes three hours less, and the Italian fleet can close the distance to 10,000 meters after an hour, then there is still a time difference of two hours in the middle

That's enough for a big counterattack

What's more, what the Italians didn't expect was that after they had a pair of heavenly eyes, they also quietly mastered the high gaze.

"15,000 yards"

This time, when the navigator reported the number again, Wu Yingke shook off the pen fiercely: "Left, ninety degrees"

Ten minutes later, as the Izmail took the lead in making a turn, a standard and perfect T-sign appeared in the sea forty kilometers north of Trick Island.

"Fire"

When the 26 305 mm/45 barrel guns and the two Barbarossa-class 12 280 mm guns roared at the same time, all the Ottoman officers in the flagship command tower threw this seemingly short and short Chinese naval officer who forcibly seized command in his own name to the ground, because he used a fake rout to obscene the Italian fleet that was anxious to destroy him, and then used a perfect cross-cut, seemingly passive, but in fact actively grabbed the vital T-position

The rumbling sound of naval guns tore through the calm of the Mediterranean, and the Italian fleet did not expect that the Ottoman fleet would suddenly turn sideways when it was about to be attacked from both sides on the way to escape, not only grabbing the T-position, but also taking the lead in firing a salvo

The naval guns were firing frantically at a rate of one shot per minute, and the Italian fleet, after spending a few minutes of confusion, also began to return fire with the main guns in the bow.

Because of the full five rounds of shelling, all of them were missed

"**, I'm blind."

In the sky, seeing the Ottoman fleet that took the lead in firing, Fan Wu excitedly didn't shake his fist a few times, he found that all the shells were outrageous, and he hammered the cabin angrily, grabbed the microphone and shouted: "Nujiang, this is Eagle Eye, all of them are off, all of them are off, the coordinate ruler is five degrees, and the distance is extending four hundred meters forward."

In the cabin, Fan Wu was very busy, while he had to control the plane, he had to take out the sextant to position, and he had to report it through the radio, so he almost wanted to make three heads and six arms.

Fortunately, another osprey came to help at this time, and the two worked together to solve the problem.

They were simple, and they were in trouble with the Italian pigeon below, because the capital ship was firing and lacked radio contact, so they could only keep flying around and drop small notes for communication, and by the time his first coordinate note was dropped, the Ottoman fleet had already left its original position.

The main reason is that there is no unified command system on these warships, so the telegraph operator can only drive the telegraph operator directly to the No. 1 turret controlled by his own people, and the gunners will directly shell according to the coordinates to save the intermediate process.

Five minutes later, the good news finally came, and the old Chinese gunners in the first turret of the Izmail lived up to their expectations, and a shell hit the Roman battleship 10,000 meters away like an eye.

The heavy and huge 305 mm shells pierced through the thin bow armor of the Roma, and the violent explosion caused the battleship with a standard displacement of 12,880 tons to slam down the bow and create a large slit a full meter wide.

The flooding of the bow caused the Roma to quickly lose speed, and the Chinese gunners distributed on the other three Dukes immediately saw the opportunity and asked the Ottoman gunners to adjust the order of the shelling and concentrate all their firepower on the Roma.

I don't know if it was the first hit that awakened the courage of the Ottoman sailors, and suddenly the cannonballs fell around the Roma like eyes.

At 8:20, the Izmail fired another round of straddle fire, announcing the death sentence of the Roma, this time it was the No. 1 turret of the Izmael, the two shells accurately penetrated the main armor behind the first chimney of the Roma, entered the boiler room and caused a large explosion, the violent explosion caused the Roma hull to tilt rapidly, and was torpedoed and sunk by the Italian Navy itself in the afternoon of the same day.

Looking at the Roma slowly tilting, Wu Yingke breathed a sigh of relief, and also felt a little regretful, judging from the effect, the Ottoman shells were obviously no different from the Russians, if they were replaced by Hua's armor-piercing shells, they could detonate the ammunition depot of the first turret of the Roma and directly sink the opponent with the first shot.

After the second maneuver, the Barbarossa-class battleship Reese, which was dragged behind, was heavily damaged by a 305-mm shell, which caused the middle turret to explode.

At 31 minutes, Wu Yingke ordered two Barbarossa-class battleships to withdraw from the battle and retreat to the Ottoman coast, while he continued to bombard himself with the Izmail and three Dukes.

At 50 minutes, after the foremast of the Duke-class battleship Akashi was eliminated by a 305-mm shell, the Ottoman fleet achieved the second and latter result.

The battleship Queen Margaret of Italy was hit by the Hara Akashi and Tsugaru in the process of formation maneuvering and cross-cutting, and this time it was the Ottoman gunners who made the contribution, and their super level of performance led to a large explosion of the battleship of Italy, which was strong before Dante, and a few minutes later thick smoke rose from below deck, engulfing the battleship with a full load of nearly 15,000 tons.

The loss of two battleships in a row made the Italian navy panic, and immediately sent four torpedo ships to harass them, and took the initiative to distance themselves and prepare to wait for the arrival of Dante, which was already thirty nautical miles away.

But Wu Yingke, who had already received the news, how could they be satisfied, and immediately ordered a turn, and at the same time increased the speed to 22 knots, and rushed towards the Ottoman coastline with four capital ships.

A day later, when Admiral Hakan returned to Istanbul with six capital ships, one seriously wounded and four lightly wounded, in exchange for the sinking of two Italian battleships, the revelry of victory almost overwhelmed the ancient city, but that was only the aftermath of joy.

Shortly after the Ottoman fleet had crossed the Dardanelles, the powerful Italian capital ship Dante arrived on the outskirts of the strait with the remaining four battleships and launched nearly two hours of artillery bombardment on the strait in retaliation

At the same time, the bad news calmed Mohammed V from the jubilation of naval victory, and four Italian airships attacked the Turkish army positions in Tripoli, killing a full 600 soldiers.

Fall of Tripoli

The sheer power of the airship made the Ottomans anxious, and due to the small number of North African troops and the lack of countermeasures against Italian airships and aircraft, the Italian army was overwhelmed by the former, and under this circumstance, Mohammed V finally made up his mind to accept Wu Yingke's suggestion to hire the Chinese Empire flying "enthusiasts" and their planes who were flying inland Benghazi (formerly known as Cyrenaica City) for a sky-high price of $100 a day.

Since the strait was blocked by the Italian navy, he transported another 20,000 rifles to Benghazi (formerly known as Cyrenaica) in small boats, and handed them over to Enver, a militant member of the Al-Shabaab who was organizing a defense there, to organize the locals to revolt against the Italian army.

。。

。。