The Italian sharpening of the knife had bad intentions towards Malta, and the Maltese defenders who were its target were not unaware. After all, it is necessary to prepare for combat, so the preparation of personnel and materials before the war, as well as intelligence reconnaissance, and logistics support and other tasks.

Therefore, it is not easy to fight a war, and it is even more difficult to conceal strategic intentions.

"Enemy airship!"

A British soldier shouted, and the other soldiers immediately scattered in search of shelter.

However, the island of Malta is sparsely wooded, some are mostly small bushes, and the earthy yellow earth makes them a little conspicuous in their green uniforms.

However, to their relief, the airship did not come towards them, but slowly drove towards Valletta in the sky.

"Looks like it's going to Valletta."

The British soldiers, who had escaped, breathed a sigh of relief.

The British soldiers didn't really feel anything about the Italian airship at first, until half a month ago, an airship launched an attack on a unit that was marching on foot. After machine gun bullets rained down from the sky, causing heavy casualties, dodging airships became an essential training subject for the defenders.

After a while, there was the sound of gunfire in Valletta, which was driving the airship in the sky.

"Everyone continues to dig trenches."

After tidying up his messy clothes, the leading officer ordered the soldiers to continue their work.

While the soldiers could ignore the situation, Major General Behrens, the commander of the Maltese garrison, could not.

Don't look at the Italian airship just dangling overhead every day, but this is a very clear signal that the Italians are about to make a move on Malta.

As the commander of a strategically important place, Major General Behrens was definitely not bad in the British army, and of course knew his situation.

If it is contained by the Mediterranean Fleet, then Malta is not impregnable, at least it can be regarded as a strong fortress. Because it was previously the headquarters of the Mediterranean Fleet, there was no shortage of various defense facilities here.

But if there is no containment of the Mediterranean fleet, then no matter how strong the fortress is, it will be broken without reinforcements.

Major General Behrens, who understood this well, sent a telegram to London and Alexandria, describing the situation facing Malta.

This is also where the cleverness comes in, calling for help directly can give the impression of panic, and stating the situation facing Malta and leaving the choice to the superiors allows the big guys to make decisions.

Major General Behrens's telegram was transmitted over the air to London and Alexandria.

Alexandria, where the Mediterranean Fleet was stationed, was where a large fleet was stationed. That's right, this is the Mediterranean Fleet, one of the pillars of the British Empire, as one of the two major British fleets, the Mediterranean Fleet is in its heyday, and many new warships are densely packed with ports.

And as the commander of the fleet, Admiral Sackville Carden was also busy at his command.

"Report."

"Come in."

"Admiral, this is a telegram from Malta."

The communications officer placed a telegram on the admiral's desk.

Admiral Carden glanced at it. "Bring in the Chief of Staff."

"Yes."

After the officer went out, the admiral, who was still capable, showed a tired expression. This time can exhaust him, because of the telegram of Major General Behrens.

As commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, General Sackville Carden seemed to others to be in power. But only by sitting in his position did you know how uncomfortable it was.

As a former Governor of Malta, he certainly has feelings for the island of Malta, and he knows the importance of the island when he can become the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Therefore, after receiving information from Major General Behrens that Italy was preparing to attack the island of Malta, he specially asked the staff officers to make tactical deductions. However, the results are not optimistic, whether it is an all-out rescue or a diversion battle, the victory rate of the Mediterranean Fleet is not high.

The reason for all this is very simple, that is, the Mediterranean Fleet is at a disadvantage, and with the inferior forces, in the case that the other side has a home advantage, even if the staff officers who deduce it want their own fleet to win, there is not much good way.

It was precisely because of the unsatisfactory results of the staff officer's deduction that General Carden did not dare to send a telegram to Major General Behrens.

"Commander, you're looking for me."

In a few moments, Vice Admiral Robeck, who was the chief of staff of the fleet, arrived.

"Robeck, this is a telegram from Malta."

Facing his deputy, Carden directly took out the telegram of Major General Behrens.

"I think it must be the news that Italy is spying on Malta again."

As soon as he heard the general's words, Lieutenant General Robeck basically guessed the content.

"That's right, my successor is clever enough to send me another telegram about what happened to Malta."

"So you're going to continue not to reply to him?"

Faced with the chief of staff's inquiry, Carden raised his eyebrows. "How do you ask me to reply, do you tell him to stay there or do his duty for the kingdom?"

At this point, General Carden continued angrily. "Our Mediterranean fleet is far inferior to the Italian fleet, they have 12 battleships and 5 cruisers, while we only have 10 battleships and 3 battlecruisers, and we are inferior to each other in terms of strength. I had proposed that the French warships join us, but the French rejected us on the grounds that they needed to defend their Mediterranean coastline.

I don't know how their four battleships protected the coastline against the Italian-Austrian fleet, did they cower under the protection of shore guns? Applying to London to transfer battleships to reinforce us ended up giving us a bunch of useless dreadnoughts, not a single working dreadnought. These damn bureaucrats, they know in their eyes that the defense of the homeland, the Mediterranean Sea has been cut off, and the personnel and materials of Asia want to go to the Cape of Good Hope. ”

Don't blame General Carden for his anger, because he had already reacted to London before he took office that the Mediterranean Fleet was insufficient to achieve the purpose of deterrence against its main target, Italy. And Admiral Winston Churchill agreed to his request, saying that he would send reinforcements of no less than four battleships to the Mediterranean Fleet. Faced with the assurances of the young Churchill, Carden then gladly took office.

What he didn't expect, though, was the young Admiral's later moves.

Immediately after he took office, the Admiralty announced the transfer of eight battleships and more than 20 small and medium-sized warships to the Mediterranean Fleet. You see, that's twice as much as promised, isn't that interesting? However, when General Kaden saw these eight battleships, he became angry.

Because the ones transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet were not the dreadnoughts or super-dreadnoughts he needed at all, but some old dreadnoughts. It is also impossible to talk about the old dragon clock, because these warships have only been in service for more than ten years, and they are still in the stage of good condition.

However, seeing these eight former dreadnoughts, General Kaden would rather give them a discount and get two dreadnoughts.

Because these warships are to strengthen the Mediterranean Fleet, it would be good not to lag behind.

Of course, the fire was great, and Admiral Carden could only admit that he had looked away, and let the young Admiral fool him.

And after firing a fire, Carden looked at his chief of staff and said. "Now we are jointly drafting a telegram asking for the support of battleships from the mainland, at least two, and not dreadnoughts."

"No problem, let's draft it together."

Vice Admiral Robeck, who was well aware of the situation in the Mediterranean Fleet, immediately agreed with the commander's words. As for London's dissatisfaction, he can't manage it now. But he knew that if the Italians seized control of the Mediterranean, neither he nor Carden would have good fruit to eat. As long as the Italians were prevented from seizing sea supremacy, then some outrageous actions would also be forgiven, because the victors would not be condemned.

Then a telegram drawn up by the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet and the chief of staff was sent to London.

The telegram from Carden and Robeck asking for reinforcements from the dreadnoughts made London feel embarrassed. The reason is very simple, although the British Empire has many warships, it is simply not enough to ensure that the homeland is not threatened by the German High Seas Fleet and to suppress the Italo-Austrian navy in the Mediterranean.

According to the calculations of the senior admirals of the Admiralty, the British Navy can only guarantee that one direction will not be lost. And considering the safety of the homeland, London can only guarantee the homeland fleet first.

But looking at Carden's telegram with Robeck, Churchill, as Lord of the Admiralty, hesitated.

So he approached Fisher and consulted.

"Marshal, this is a telegram from Carden."

In front of the famous Fisher, even the current young and vigorous Churchill is in good order.

Taking the telegram, Fissher looked at it earnestly.

The telegram was actually very brief, and in view of Italy's eye on Malta, Carden wanted to be reinforced by at least two battleships.

But though the telegram was brief, Filscher read it slowly, and when he had finished reading it, he looked at Churchill. "So what's your idea?"

"I don't want to lose Malta to the Italians, I want to send reinforcements to General Carden."

Churchill's words, if they had been on other occasions in London, would have caused an uproar. Regardless of the safety of his homeland, he insisted on weakening the home fleet, which did not make his position as Minister of the Navy unstable.

But Fisher knew that the one in front of him was not that simple, and then he asked. "What's your plan?"

Seeing the old marshal ask, Churchill spoke. "My plan is this, secretly draw four battleships from the home fleet, let them go out day and night, sneak into the Mediterranean, and then join up with the Mediterranean fleet to take the Italians by surprise."

Although Churchill said it was simple, Filscher knew that it would not be easy, at least it would take a lot of cooperation, careful planning, and a little bit of good luck.

After listening to Churchill's words, Filscher did not answer immediately, but calculated its feasibility in his mind.

First of all, the cooperation of the home fleet is needed, and secondly, the timing must be just right. It's not okay to go early, because this has led to a decrease in the strength of the home fleet, and the Germans will definitely come out of the nest when they know it. It would not be possible to go too late, which would lead to an encounter with the Italian fleet without reinforcements.

After a long time, Marshal Fisher spoke. "The stakes are not small."

Hearing this, Churchill showed a bitter expression. "I know that, too, but the British Empire cannot afford to lose control of the Mediterranean. It's all to blame for the Parliament's reluctance to give more budgets. Let our Navy now take care of one over the other, and there is simply no way to take care of both directions. ”

By this time Churchill had completely forgotten that a few years earlier, when he was Secretary of State for Commerce, he had blocked the passage of the Navy's budget.

Fisher is not in a position to speak directly about Churchill's words. "In this case, I will ask the naval officers to draw up a plan to transfer four battleships to the Mediterranean Sea to fight, and we will see if it is feasible first."

Since Fisher had said so, Churchill certainly knew that there was no urgency. If the plan fails if it is self-defeating, he will become a sinner in the navy.

But one thing he knew was that Fisher was tempted, otherwise he wouldn't have said that it was risky. Remember the URL of this site, so that you can read it next time, or enter " " in Baidu, you can enter this site