At midnight on January 11, flares suddenly rose from several forward positions of the Matru Fortress, instantly illuminating the positions of the German-Italian forces in front as if it were daylight. "Oh, Shet! The Allies are about to launch a night raid, get ready for battle! "Hurry, hurry, hurry! Do a good job of concealment! They will definitely shell first! "Such a big movement naturally attracted the attention of the German and Italian armies at once. However, they had already anticipated the situation in front of them, and they did not panic at all when dealing with it, and their first reaction was not to enter the position to prepare for battle, but to continue to remain concealed and wait for the upcoming large-scale artillery bombardment, or air raid.

Sure enough, as they expected, it didn't take long for rocket shells with long tails of flames to rise in the distant sky. The light emitted by the rocket launchers is a sight to behold in the dark night sky, just like a large fireworks set off during the Chinese New Year. "Even-bought karma! Damn rocket artillery again! "Spread out and hide!" Of course, as the German-Italian troops who were about to be shelled, the mood would definitely not be so happy, because they had already seen and knew the terrifying power of this artillery.

Even though they had repaired and strengthened a large number of anti-artillery holes on the original foundation, they still felt extreme fear and uneasiness in the face of this dense and powerful rocket rain at this moment. "Boom!" The German-Italian troops didn't have to wait long, and a rocket shell fell overwhelmingly from the sky, crackling and exploding wildly. An earth-shattering explosion broke the silence of the night in an instant, and continued to resound and reverberate between heaven and earth.

Immediately afterwards, I saw a raging fire emerge from the sky, and the light of the sky-high fire dispelled the endless darkness and illuminated everything around it. In an instant, a huge area on the German-Italian position was illuminated as daylight. In this wave of rocket artillery shelling, mixed with a large number of incendiary shells, its purpose is to provide illumination and provide accurate bombing targets for subsequent bomber groups.

Buzz! Not long after the rocket artillery fire ended, a group of Allied bombers flew over the fortress of Matrou. "Quick, send a telegram to the General Headquarters immediately! The Allies are launching a large-scale night attack on our troops, requesting air fire support. "Artillery units are ready for battle!"

The roar of a motor could be heard in the sky in the distance, and the German-Italian front-line commander was convinced that the Allies were not simply setting fire tonight, but were going to launch a counteroffensive in earnest. As a result, urgent telegrams were sent out one after another. However, this is what Jiang Qiang wants. At the same time as the night attack was launched, in the sea area 5 kilometers away from the port of Tobruk, Libya, 12 Chinese special forces frogmen were quietly sneaking in the sea water in groups of two and two, driving MKI manned torpedoes.

Their destination was the port of Tobruk, and the goal of the operation was naturally to blow up the Italian naval ships moored in the port. As early as March 1918, the Italian naval engineer Rafael Rossetti used the A115/450 torpedo manufactured by the French company Schneider as the basis to develop the "Leech" manned torpedo. This torpedo is 8 meters long and 0.6 meters in diameter, and uses compressed air as the power to drive the four-bladed propeller at the tail of the torpedo to propulse, and can travel 10 nautical miles underwater at a speed of 2 knots. The nose of the "Leech" manned torpedo has a special explosive compartment, which can hold two 175kg time bombs.

After the torpedo sneaks underwater to the bottom of the enemy battleship, the two frogmen cooperate with each other to remove the explosives, install them on the bottom of the enemy battleship, and then quietly escape on the manned torpedo. But the funny thing is that this manned torpedo is not equipped with rudders, nor is there a special seat design, and the two crew members can only straddle the torpedo and perform "differential steering" by stretching their hands and feet on both sides of the torpedo as a way to increase flank drag. However, such a rudimentary manned torpedo played a huge role in the First World War and set a precedent.

On the night of October 31, 1918, two frogman soldiers of the Royal Italian Navy came to the port of Pula, Austria-Hungary on a sabotage mission on the "Leech" manned torpedo, and successfully blew up the lead ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's Combined Forces class battleship, the "Combined Forces". Thus became famous in the First World War and lit up the manned torpedo technology tree of the Italian Navy. In World War II, Italy's naval strength still dominated the Mediterranean, but after joining the Axis powers, it had to be cautious to go out of the Mediterranean to fight against the navies of the allies. As a result, the Italians continued to develop manned torpedoes in the same way as the old World War I era, trying to continue the World War I "stealing chickens and dogs" type of attacks in World War II.

Not long ago, the frogman unit of the Italian Navy rode the newly developed "pig" manned torpedo, successfully evaded the British army's mines and anti-submarine nets, and entered Alexandria. In the end, the Italian Navy sank three capital ships and one oil tanker of the British Mediterranean Fleet at the cost of only 10 frogmen, causing huge losses to the British warships. The Italian frogman unit achieved extremely rich results, and the Italian manned torpedoes became completely famous.

Since even Italy has slipped away so much, Jiang will naturally not be resigned to being left behind, and the navy's frogman unit has already been established, and all kinds of training and conventional equipment are also readily available. Especially after the port of Alexandria was attacked by the Italian navy,

The MKI manned torpedo is actually a domestic manned torpedo developed by the British Royal Navy after the British warship was attacked by an Italian manned torpedo in another time and space. The manned torpedo has a total length of 6.8m, a width of 0.9m, a height of 1.2m, a mass of 1.6 tons, a maximum diving depth of 27m, and is propelled by a battery-driven propeller. It has a top speed of 3.5 knots and a range of 8 hours at a speed of 2.9 knots. Like the Italian manned torpedo of the "pig" type, the MKI torpedo did not have a special cockpit, two frogmen straddled the torpedo and maneuvered it through a joystick on the console.

The attack shell of the MKI torpedo is separable from the mine body, and the projectile body can hold 270kg of aluminum-containing explosives, which is powerful enough to sink thousands of tons of warships. During the battle, the frogman sat in the driver's seat and drove the torpedo close to the enemy ship, separated the mine body from the bomb, fixed the bomb to the bottom of the ship, and blew up the enemy ship by means of timing or remote control.

After sending this MKI manned torpedo to Shanghai, Jiang someone, who had a lot of money, naturally spent a full $10 million to buy 20 MKI manned torpedoes for training at the first time. After more than half a month of training, now the frogman unit can finally be officially put to use. After sneaking in the water for more than an hour, the 12 Tiger Frogmen finally touched the vicinity of Tobruk Harbor.

The Special Forces Frogman unit began to slow down dramatically, and eventually came to a slow stop, as they needed to stop and take a closer look at the situation and identify the specific directions. There was no moon in the sky tonight, and the heavens and the earth were shrouded in a thick night, and the sea water was naturally pitch black. In the endless darkness and without any target in the sea, it is not only easy to get lost, but also easy to panic.

If it weren't for the compass and pressure gauge to indicate the direction and depth of the dive, the Tiger Army frogman unit would have been like a swarm of headless flies crashing into the sea during the few kilometers of stealth after breaking away from the submarine. Fortunately, the well-trained Tiger Frogmen had long since adapted to such combat conditions and infiltrated the port of Tobruk very accurately.

Although it was the middle of the night when the people were still in the middle of the night, and the heavens and the earth were draped in black pajamas and fell asleep, the port of Tobruk did not fall into a deep sleep, but seemed a little busy and nervous. I saw that there were many small-tonnage patrol boats and destroyers moored on the sea near the harbor, and the soldiers on board were staring at all kinds of instruments and equipment with high vigilance. In the radar station on the shore, there are also radar soldiers who are listening 24 hours a day.

And that's not all. In the waters outside the port, the Italian navy laid at least two anti-submarine nets and laid a large number of trigger mines to prevent submarine forces from attacking the port. Of course, this does not mean that the Italian navy did not know that the Allies would come to attack the port tonight.

Rather, these tight defensive measures are in fact nothing more than the basic routine operations of the naval ports of various countries, not to mention the Mediterranean, where the naval forces of the enemy and the enemy are in full swing. However, the magic is one foot high and one foot high, and although the Italian Navy's defensive measures are tight, the special forces frogman unit is not in vain. In the case that the opponent has no targeted defense, as long as they are careful and patient enough, the chance of a successful sneak attack is still very high.

In order to maximize the success rate of the frogman troops, in addition to the strict training of elite soldiers, Jiang Qiang also invested enough money in hardware. For example, the frogman's underwater breathing device is a closed rebreather, which ensures that the frogman does not release air bubbles underwater, thus reducing the chance of being spotted on the surface. In addition to the currently used MKI manned torpedoes, the Tiger Army Frogman unit also has an advanced underwater vehicle, which is an open submersible thruster that the crew wears a breathing apparatus to complete underwater reconnaissance, positioning, and attack tasks.

It can be released by the submarine's torpedo tubes, allowing frogmen to travel long distances underwater in a short period of time, and can be recycled after completing the mission. Whether it is an MKI manned torpedo or a frogman underwater vehicle, it is a low-speed submersible with low noise, and its noise is much less than 90 decibels in the case of slowing down. As we all know, the background noise of seawater is as high as 90 decibels, so as long as the noise of the submersible is within 90 decibels, the sonar cannot be monitored

Therefore, although the Italian navy's defense measures are very tight, and it can be regarded as hard work, it is powerless in the face of the slow infiltration of the frogman troops of the Chinese Tiger Army. Unless they detect the situation in advance and carry out active sonar detection for a certain sea area, they can only be blind. At the same time, the frogman unit is responsible for underwater reconnaissance, demolition and other special combat missions, and its combat environment is basically underwater, so the weapons equipped with are naturally different from other combat units.

Because water is much denser than air, ordinary guns are basically difficult to function normally underwater. Whether a bullet is fired from the water or directly underwater, the range of an ordinary bullet is incredibly short, and it loses its power within a few meters. Therefore, the firearms of the frogmen must be specially designed, and for this reason, Jiang Qiang equipped the special forces frogman units with special underwater combat weapons and tools.

Among the firearms are APS underwater rifles and spp1 underwater pistols. They are all slender arrow-shaped bullets. When this kind of bullet moves forward, a cavitation can be formed at the front end, which can greatly reduce the resistance of water, and the bullet can maintain a straight line and move forward at high speed. Its effective firing range can reach about 20 meters. Because bullets are elongated, sharp, and heavy, their power is considerable. At an effective range, the arrow can penetrate five millimeters of plexiglass or three millimeters of steel plates. That is, it is possible to penetrate oxygen masks and cylinders.

It still doesn't sound like long enough, but the underwater visibility is not very high, and the range is enough for normal use. But then again, except for underwater missions such as underwater reconnaissance, underwater blasting, and swimming attacks, the other combat missions of the frogmen are similar to those of the army units, but there is no such thing as fighting the enemy frogmen. In fact, frogman wars are extremely rare in reality, after all, frogmen are secret missions, and the probability of being discovered is not high. It is even rarer for frogmen from two countries to operate in the same sea area and clash.

So underwater weapons are often a kind of preparedness and rarely come in handy. After some extremely patient and careful investigation and investigation, the special forces frogman unit finally broke through many obstacles, entered the port smoothly, and successfully attached 6 torpedoes to 1 battleship, 2 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers.

It stands to reason that the most military value is undoubtedly the battleships and heavy cruisers of the Italian Navy, and at this moment there are a full 3 battleships of the Italian Navy and 4 heavy cruisers docked in the port of Tobruk. But what I want to say is that in the harbor where the enemy situation is complicated, it is not an ordinary difficulty and danger to find out these big guys one by one. So you really can't be too greedy at this time, it's almost fine.

What's more, the frogman army's sneak attack on the port of Tobruk was only the first appetizer, and the finale was still to come. As for why only 6 MKI manned torpedoes were sent tonight to do things, the same is true. What's more, not long after the MKI manned torpedo was launched, even if it took more than half a month of intensive and high-intensity training, it was still a new weapon that had not been put into actual combat after all, and it was really not too greedy to be put into use for the first time!

For now, it's the experience of a successful brush that counts. After setting a 2-hour explosion time, the Tiger Frogman unit slowly returned the same way in this MKI manned torpedo. Since it was impossible to determine the specific time of the navy's air strikes, they could only adjust the time a little more so as not to end up in a state of surprise. As for whether it will take too long to become an "afterthought", or even be eliminated after being discovered by the enemy, there is no need to worry too much about this, as long as they themselves are not discovered, this chance is almost zero.

Moreover, in addition to the timing fuse, these bombs can also be detonated remotely, so there will be no wasted situation. 220 kilometres northeast of the port of Tobruk, there was not a single light or movement on the sea. Except for the inaudible sound of the sea breeze and waves, the whole sea area is surprisingly quiet, and there seems to be nothing but a ** sea.

However, if you calm down and observe carefully, you can still see the outlines of huge black shadows with the help of the extremely faint starry sky. It is really hard to imagine that in this dark and silent sea area, there are enough 6 aircraft carriers, 10 destroyers, and a large number of frigates scattered around to stand guard. After a lot of maneuvering, transferring, feints, and feints, Jiang Qiang finally unknowingly placed this chess piece on the sea area that was the most threatening to the port of Tobruk.

On the aircraft carrier Zhenyuan, Huzi was standing quietly in front of the glass window of the command module, staring at the pitch-black sea level like a clay sculpture. On the surface, Huzi is very stable at the moment, but in fact, his heart is not calm at all, but the dark waves are turbulent and extremely worried.

Because this air raid operation, which had been prepared for a long time but was somewhat urgent, it was the first show battle of the Myanmar Navy after it arrived in the North African theater, and it was also the first aircraft carrier-based aircraft operation in history. Although he has made all kinds of preparations and drawn up multiple sets of emergency plans, Liu Qiang still has no bottom in his heart. After all, everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is inevitable that you will be a little nervous for the first time!

There were also more than a dozen British and American naval generals and staff officers sitting in the command cabin, all of whom remained silent, all patiently waiting for further news. The light in the room was very dim, and only a few dimly lit wall foot safety lights were turned on, which made the atmosphere even more solemn and solemn. "Report!"

I don't know how long this strange atmosphere of silence lasted, Nie Gang, a communications staff officer of the Huaxia Navy who was in the corner of the cabin, suddenly stood up and said in an excited tone: "Seat, our frogman unit has successfully completed its mission, and the torpedo will explode in two hours!" "Hmm! Now it can be said that everything is ready, only the east wind is owed! Huzi nodded slightly, slightly relieved, at least half of the strategic goal has been completed tonight.

The biggest threat to the air raid on the port of Tobruk is whether the land-based fighter group in the port of Tobruk can be mobilized to participate in the battle in the area of the Matlu fortress. In the early days of World War II, there was always a problem in the study of combat aircraft in the Luftwaffe, that is, ordinary propeller aircraft could not take off at night, and night take-off and landing was still a novelty. Before the entry into service of night fighters equipped with radars, night bombers were practically safe, and the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns fired under the guidance of searchlights was very low.

Ordinary fighters can only fight in the night sky if they are piloted by experienced pilots who have been specially trained for night flight. Even then, the effect is poor. But the advent of radar changed all that, and although it was still a new thing in the early days of World War II, it developed rapidly. By 1940, it had been miniaturized enough to be mounted on an airplane, and only an aircraft with more than two engines could be fitted with a radar.

This is not the case with aircraft equipped with radars, which are not affected by visibility and can clearly see enemy aircraft at night when there is no light. If you have a night battle livery and the opponent doesn't have a face alarm, then biting the enemy plane is as easy as tracking a blind person. Usually only when night fighters open fire, prey will spot them, and when both sides have night fighters, they must have a better type of aircraft in order to dominate the night sky.

Both Britain and Germany improved their maneuverable fighters and bombers into night fighters. The first British to serve as the "Handsome Warrior" entered combat in October 1940, shooting down a German bomber in a night air battle for the first time on 19 November. Thanks to the advancement of radar technology, British bombers now have the ability to bomb German cities at night at a negligible cost. In this case, in order to reduce the losses of bombers, the RAF naturally resorted to night bombing measures.

In retaliation against Germany, Britain pursued a brutal strategy of night bombing. Large groups of night bombers did not attack military or military-industrial targets, but purely attacked cities, in an attempt to intimidate the Germans and bring them to their knees by massacring civilians in large numbers. In the face of the British army's crazy night air bombing, Germany naturally would not stand idly by. While using anti-aircraft guns to protect the city, Germany had converted the Ju88 bomber and bf110 fighter into a night fighter in August 1941, which had considerable night combat capabilities.

Therefore, under such circumstances, if the German night fighters cannot be transferred, then the night bombing of the carrier-based aircraft group may end up in the end of pretending to be impossible but being grassy. And in order to achieve this plan to divert the tiger from the mountain, Jiang Qiang can be said to have taken great pains and invested a lot of money.

Jiang Qiang not only mobilized all the rocket artillery units and heavy artillery units to cover the Axis positions without interruption, but also mobilized hundreds of bombers to bomb in depth. After nearly an hour of wanton and indiscriminate bombardment, seeing that the German night combat aircraft group had not yet appeared, they simply made a fake show and dispatched a large number of ground troops to launch an all-out attack on the enemy's positions under the cover of dive bomber and artillery fire.

So all the work that needs to be done has been done, and now it is just a matter of waiting for Germany to take the bait. "Damn, didn't you look at the yellow calendar when you went out today?" After waiting patiently for more than ten minutes, Huzi finally calmed down and did not go any further, even if the torpedoes placed in the port did not explode, the battle of the Matru Fortress should be over. Although in this case, the outer positions lost by the Fortress of Matru can be recaptured smoothly, but it is clear that those outer positions that have almost become ruins are no longer fragrant. At present, the most important thing for the Allies is to rebuild the fleet, reverse the sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, and cut off the Mediterranean shipping lines of the Axis powers step by step!

Just when Huzi began to doubt his life and thought that there would be no drama tonight, Nie Gang, a communications staff officer of the Navy, stood up excitedly again and reported: "Report to the military seat, the Matlu Fortress Headquarters has sent a telegram that the tiger has descended the mountain!" ”