"Ladies and gentlemen, what we are looking at at the moment is a military map of Malta. Malta is located 90 km south of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia and 333 km north of Libya. Its geographical location is very important, not only as a roadblock connecting our country to Libya, but also as a central point in the Mediterranean. At present, Malta is occupied by British troops, and it has become a strategic point that restricts us. Therefore, our country needs to uproot this point as soon as possible and make it the cornerstone of our country's domination of the Mediterranean. ”

Inside the General Staff, an officer briefs Carlo and Prime Minister Cruze on the importance of Malta.

If you are attentive, you will notice that the officer who is the narrator is wearing a naval uniform. That's right, today's military briefing to Carlo and the government was led by the Navy.

Because of historical reasons, the General Staff is mainly army officers, so in order to better state the plan, the Admiralty selected officers with clear speech and sharp thinking to act as narrators.

How could Carlo and Cruze not know about the importance of Malta. In just over a month since the outbreak of the war, Libya's oil and iron ore imports have dropped significantly compared to previous years. Not only that, the British army on the island of Malta sent small warships to harass, resulting in the sinking or capture of nine merchant ships, and the loss of tens of thousands of tons of oil and iron ore.

For this reason, the navy organized merchant ships to sail in formation, and also sent warships to escort them, in addition to using airships to increase patrols in the waters around Malta, and under multiple measures, the attacks were contained.

It would be worth mentioning here that the world's first air battle also broke out over the waters around Malta.

The V-5 airship belonging to the Italian Navy and the Dandelion airship of the British army met unexpectedly, and the two sides exchanged a wave of friendly passion with the ship's machine guns, causing varying degrees of damage to the airships of the two sides, and also causing three British dead and six wounded, and one Italian dead and three wounded.

Of course, the casualties on both sides were different, in addition to the greater tonnage of the Italian airship, and the fact that the Italian airship had one more machine gun than the British.

Of course, this also led to the British and Italian sides starting to add more machine guns to the airships, and even the navy even considered putting a 37mm gun on it.

Of course, for the Italian Navy, all these measures are just a cure for the root cause, and the best way is to occupy the island of Malta and pull out the nail.

That's why Carlo and the prime minister came. Malta is occupied by the British army, which will make Italy unable to play at all, and this nail must be removed in order to talk about dominating the Mediterranean.

"So what's your plan?"

Faced with the officer's story, Carlo asked.

In the face of Carlo's inquiry, the officer spoke at the signal of Admiral Yagill.

"Your Majesty, our navy plans to organize forces to seize the island. According to the plan of our navy, our navy intends to use the cover of warships to allow the marines to seize the beach in Malta. According to the exact information we have received, the British army in Malta has more than 9,000 men, of which more than 4,000 are the defenders of the original Maltese island, and three days before the outbreak of the war, the British army reinforced nearly 5,000 men, resulting in the island now has 9,000 troops. More than 8,000 of them are guarding the island of Malta, and nearly 1,000 are guarding the nearby island of Gozo. At present, the Maltese defenders are armed with hundreds of guns of various calibers, and the main port of Valletta is the focus of its defense, and the port is very well defended, so we intend to use unconventional means. ”

Hearing the officer's words, Carlo became interested. "By what means?"

"First of all, our Navy is ready to use joint operations in the air and sea."

Good guys, Carlo is really interested enough now. Combined naval and air operations are really about to be achieved, and this is a combat system that has created a precedent.

And this can also be seen that the navy's use of new technologies is now becoming more and more perfect.

"First of all, we will gather more than 60 airships, give priority to air suppression, second, send out a reserve fleet to artillery bombardment the island, and then the infantry will land on it and gradually sweep away the defenders of the island. In addition, I will elaborate on the specific combat situation......"

It may not sound like anything new, but such a landing operation is very new in this day and age. You must know that the current landing war is still very primitive, basically using wooden boats to send soldiers up, and in the process, the power of the ships basically depends on the soldiers themselves paddling.

For the Italian Navy, which has always been at the forefront of the world, this slow approach to landing is certainly not advisable. Given Italy's needs in the Mediterranean, it was imperative to use newer modes of transport to bring soldiers and heavy weapons ashore as quickly and safely as possible.

After years of research and testing, the world's first professional landing ship was born. Named the Barracuda class by the Navy, the 15.7-ton landing craft has a flat-bottomed structure suitable for shallow water, with a landing hatch open at the front, 12 mm thick steel plates to withstand small arms attacks, and a Maxim machine gun for self-defense.

In addition, the ship ran at a speed of 10.5 knots with 50 heavily armed soldiers and 3 tons of supplies. As a landing craft, it can run such a fast speed thanks to the 180 horsepower diesel engine it is equipped with. Of course, in addition to transporting soldiers, the boat can also transport artillery to meet the heavy firepower requirements required for the landing and alleviate the suffering of the lack of heavy firepower of the front-line landing troops, of course, this is when there are enough landing fields.

In terms of performance, this landing craft is already leading the world (because no other country has one), and the Italian Navy also built 150 of these landing craft before the war.

It is precisely with the experience of using many new weapons that the Italian Navy began to prepare to remove the Malta nail after the start of the war.

And after listening to the officer's story, Carlo praised. "The commentary was very good, and it made me feel like I had a real experience with the prime minister."

The praise from the king greatly encouraged the navy present.

Admiral Yagill took the opportunity to speak. "Our navy is determined to win Malta this time, and there is another small issue that needs to be coordinated by the government."

Faced with Admiral Yagill's words, Carlo looked at Prime Minister Cruz, who immediately understood what the king meant.

"If you have any request from the Admiralty, as long as you can remove the nail from Malta and ensure the safety of transportation with Libya Province, as long as it is within the scope of what I can do, I can agree."

Since the prime minister is so happy, Admiral Yagill will also be mentioned. "Our navy hopes that the government will help us recruit another batch of merchant ships to use as transport ships."

Why did Admiral Yagill make such a point, because not every merchant ship can be used as a naval transport. It has a lot of requirements for the speed and use of the vessel, as well as the type of use. As a result, ships that can be called up are generally not very cheap.

Although the navy can do it on its own, there is a difference in whether there is government assistance or not. With assistance, the Navy can complete the call-up faster, as well as the right amount of modifications.

"There is no problem, our government will fully cooperate." Your Excellency the Prime Minister will answer with one bite.

What followed was a scene of great joy, and after listening to the plan of the Navy, Carlo and the Prime Minister praised the plan, and Carlo even said that he would award the title of outstanding commander after the defeat of Malta.

Oh yes. I forgot to mention that the reserve fleet in the mouth of the naval officer was also the product of the Italo-Austrian naval alliance, and in order to increase the chances of the Allies in the Mediterranean, promoted by the Italian side, Germany chose to favor, and the reserve fleet passively accepted by Vienna was formed on the tenth day after the outbreak of the war.

The fleet consisted mainly of Italian and Austrian ex-dreadnoughts, of which three Genoa-class Italian and three Radetzky-class ex-dreadnoughts of Austria-Hungary formed the core of the reserve fleet. Together with a group of other former dreadnoughts that are not suitable for the main battleship, as well as cruisers and destroyers, such a hodgepodge of battleships is the combined reserve fleet.

As for the choice of commander of the fleet, Italy fully listened to the opinion of Admiral von Haus, the head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and jointly commanded the fleet with Vice Admiral Maximilian Negovan of Austria-Hungary as commander and Vice Admiral Hilma as chief of staff.

As for the puzzle of who is the strongest former dreadnought battleship between Italy and Austria, it can only be known after the battlefield has been tested. Of course, whether this battle can be achieved as desired depends on the efforts of the main combined fleet.

(End of chapter)