The rainy climate in the Mediterranean in winter also leads to unpredictable weather. Not just after a strong wind and rain hit, the Italian airship responsible for exploring the Mediterranean Sea was chaotic in the air.

At this time, in the sky, in a small airship with the word N18 printed on the hull, the members of the airship were busy.

"Yagill, bring the number three wrench."

On the suspended engine at the tail of the airship, Haber, who is an airship maintenance man, yells at Yagir, the dispatcher and assistant.

"Here, this is the number three wrench."

A number three wrench was handed to Haber on the suspension of the engine, and the oily man took the wrench and began to work on the engine.

In addition to repairing the engine, the other members of the N18 airship were also busy because of the storm. Sewing and mending, arranging the cable, sorting the cable, testing the transmitter, it can be said that after this storm, none of the twelve members on the N18 airship can be idle.

As a small airship, its ability to carry weather changes is indeed much worse than that of medium and large airships.

However, this is also a helpless thing, although the small airship is smaller in size and causes a smaller windward side, its power is worse, and its self-sustaining ability is also worse, so the ability to resist weather changes is also poor.

At present, the vast majority of airships carrying out reconnaissance missions over the Mediterranean Sea are small airships like the N18.

In addition, in terms of the degree of damage, the N18 is actually enough to meet the standard of return maintenance. However, meeting the standard does not mean that you can return home, because now in order to ensure the surveillance mission in this area, unless another airship takes over, N18 needs to continue to persevere.

Of course, if the N18 airship does suffer irreparable damage, then it can send an urgent telegram asking the Navy to send an airship to replace it first. Of course, this emergency telegram must be used if the airship is no longer able to complete the mission, and the N18 airship has not yet reached this state.

For the Italian military, they are also aware of the various problems faced by small airships like the N18, but the three advantages of small airships are low cost, less personnel required, and low maintenance costs, and they can only rely on this small airship for reconnaissance missions, even if they have various shortcomings.

In fact, at present, all countries are similar, and the airships used for reconnaissance are all small models, even in the United States, which has deep pockets. Of course, it is not realistic to rely on small airships to monitor the vast sea area between Crete on Malta Island, and only medium and large airships can be used as supplements, which even affects the strategy of Malta Island.

However, for Italy and even the Allies, the British Mediterranean Fleet was far more important than the island of Malta. Therefore, even if the Maltese strategy is not smooth, it must be given priority to ensure that the Mediterranean Fleet can be known by the Combined Fleet at the first time.

The N18 airship can only be parked in mid-air for repairs now, but its repair time is not long, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the three-hour maintenance of N18 finally resumed.

"Now we're going to B3 and we need to catch up."

Captain Hatsea held the chart, which had been divided into countless small grids, and talked about his next mission destination.

Generally speaking, each airship needs to inspect thousands of square nautical miles of sea area a day, although the patrol scope is not too large, but there are requirements for the number of inspections. Patrols were to be made in the morning and in the afternoon to ensure that the Mediterranean Fleet would not slip through.

Just as the N18 reconnaissance airship was about to finish this afternoon's inspection, the observer suddenly shouted as if he had found something.

"At 10 o'clock on our left, we spotted a column of smoke, and there should be a large group of ships preparing to pass there."

"What?"

Captain Hartsea took out his binoculars and looked over, and found that there was indeed a column of smoke at 19 o'clock, and according to the size of the column of smoke, there were definitely quite a few ships.

"Turn, let's go full speed toward 10 o'clock to see what the ship is doing."

As he gave the command to the pilot, Hartsi picked up the ship identification map issued by the Admiralty.

At this time, a large group of ships suddenly appeared, which made him feel that something was wrong, so he first took the ship identification map in his hand.

And his action made the throats of the other personnel on the airship shudder, not because of nervousness but because of excitement.

Soon, propelled by a diesel engine of up to 920 horsepower, the N18 airship rushed in the direction of the suspicious flotilla at an altitude of 3,000 meters and a speed of 117 kilometers.

At this time, the advantages of aerial reconnaissance were revealed. Although the speed of the airship is only more than 100, it can see far from the height, and compared with the speed of the battleship is only about 20 knots, the airship is much faster (one section = 1.85 kilometers).

Half an hour later, the crew of the N18 was able to see through clear telescopes what ship was emitting the plume of smoke.

At this time, Captain Hatsea and the lookout both showed surprised expressions, and then their expressions changed to surprise.

"This is the fleet of the British, we have caught them."

Captain Hartsiy then carefully observed the fleet on the surface of the sea, and at the same time flipped through the ship identification map, trying to see which ships were there.

"This is the enemy's Orion, the Conqueror, and the Captain of the Hundred......"

"That's the enemy's St. Vincent, USS Collingwood, USS Avantgarde, Neptune......"

As Captain Hartsey and the other members of the crew chanted, they read over and over the main ships of the British Empire's Mediterranean Fleet.

"Immediately, send a telegram to Taranto and tell them that we have found the Mediterranean Fleet sixty nautical miles west of the sea off Crete, and that all its main warships are there."

While Hartsey was so excited that he shouted for the discovery of the Mediterranean Fleet, the Mediterranean Fleet at sea also discovered the airship in the sky.

"Admiral, we have been exposed to the eyes of the Italians."

A staff officer reported to Admiral Kaden, who was also observing the N18 airship from the flagship Orion.

"I've seen it, let's go down."

After sending the staff officer away, the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Robbeck, spoke up. "Now that we have been exposed to the eyes of the Italians, I believe that tomorrow the eyes of the Italians will be drawn to us all."

Carden, who put down his binoculars, looked at his chief of staff and said. "Isn't that what we planned?"

That's right, exposing the fleet to the eyes of the Italians was a premeditated plan.

In order to relieve the pressure of detection on the reinforcement formation, the Mediterranean Fleet decided to take advantage of the fact that it was a thorn in the side of the Italians, intending to draw its attention to itself and create favorable conditions for its passage through the Central Mediterranean.

And that's why the Mediterranean fleet chooses to appear in the eyes of the Italians two or three hours before the sun sets. Using the cover of night, Carden can attack and retreat, and as he can decide, he can break through thousands of miles or retreat to a hidden place.

This is also a strategy set up by Carden to take advantage of the convenience of Italian investigation. Since the Italians have woven a reconnaissance net with great fanfare, and it is so impermeable, wouldn't it make the Italians underestimate the prestige of the British Empire if they didn't take advantage of it.

So sometimes the detection is too good and easy to be exploited.

And in addition to the reinforcement formation, Carden also has a backhand.

So for this upcoming naval battle, it is not yet known who will kill the deer.

(End of chapter)