My Italian: Chapter 624 Battle of Malta 6

The Mediterranean climate in winter is rainy, which also leads to fickle weather. Not only did a strong wind and rain hit, but the Italian airship in charge of exploring the Mediterranean Sea was in a mess.

At this time in the sky, in a small airship with the words N18 printed on the body, the members of the airship are busy.

"Agil, bring the number three wrench."

From the suspended engine at the stern of the airship, Haber, the airship maintainer, yelled at Yagier, the transmitter and assistant.

"Here, this is wrench number three."

A number three wrench was handed to Haber, who was hanging on the engine, and the oily big hand took the wrench and started to move the engine.

In addition to repairing the engine, other members of the N18 airship are also busy because of this violent storm. Sewing and mending, tidying up the cables, and testing the transmitters. It can be said that after this storm, none of the twelve members of the N18 airship will be able to relax.

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

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

Most of the airships currently performing 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 to voyage maintenance. However, meeting the standard does not mean that it can return, because now in order to ensure the monitoring task of this sea area, unless another airship takes over, or the N18 needs to continue to persevere.

Of course, if the N18 airship really suffers irreparable damage, then it can send an emergency telegram to let the Navy send an airship to replace itself. Of course, this emergency telegram must be used when the airship has been unable to complete the task, and now the airship N18 has not reached this state.

For the Italian military, they are also aware of the various problems faced by small airships such as N18, but the three advantages of small airships are low cost, less personnel, and low maintenance costs. It is used for reconnaissance missions. can only rely on this small airship, despite its various shortcomings.

In fact, all countries are similar at present, and the airships used for reconnaissance are all small models, even the rich and powerful United States. Of course, it is unrealistic to rely on small airships to monitor the vast sea area between Crete, Malta, and only medium and large airships can be used as supplements, which even affects the strategy for the island of Malta.

But for Italy and even the Alliance, the British Mediterranean fleet was far more important than the island of Malta. Therefore, even if the Malta strategy is not going well, priority must be given to ensuring that the first time the Mediterranean Fleet appears, it can be known by the Combined Fleet.

The N18 airship can only be parked in mid-air for maintenance, but its maintenance time is not long. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the three-hour maintenance N18 finally recovered.

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

Captain Hatsey held the chart divided into countless small grids and talked about his next mission destination.

Each airship can inspect its own sea area. Generally speaking, each airship needs to inspect the sea area of ​​thousands of square nautical miles a day. Although the inspection scope is not too large, there are requirements for the number of inspections. Every morning and afternoon, they will patrol each other to ensure that the Mediterranean fleet will not slip past.

Just when the N18 reconnaissance airship was about to finish the inspection this afternoon, suddenly the observation hand seemed to find something and shouted loudly.

"At 10 o'clock on our left, we found a plume 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 plume of smoke at 19 o'clock. According to the size of the plume, there were definitely many ships.

"Steering, we're going full speed to 10 o'clock to see what the boat is causing."

While issuing orders to the pilot, Hartsy 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 twitch, which was not due to nervousness but excitement.

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

At this time, the advantages of aerial reconnaissance were revealed. Although the speed of the airship is less than 100, its station is far from high. In addition, compared with the speed of the battleship, which is only about 20 knots, the airship is much faster (.85 kilometers).

Half an hour later, the crew of the N18 had been able to see through a clear telescope what ship was sending out the plume.

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

"It's the British fleet, and we've got them."

Then Captain Hartsey carefully observed the fleet on the sea, while flipping through the ship identification map, trying to see which warships it was.

"This is the enemy's Orion, the Conqueror, and the Centenarian..."

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

In the chanting of Captain Hartsey and other members, they recited the main battleships of the British Empire's Mediterranean Fleet over and over again.

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

When Hartsey was so excited to discover the Mediterranean Fleet, UU read www.uukanshu. The Mediterranean fleet at sea also spotted the airship in the sky.

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

A staff officer reports to Admiral Carden, who is also observing the N18 airship aboard the flagship Orion.

"I've seen it, go down."

After dismissing the staff officer, Lieutenant General Robeck, the chief of staff on the side, said. "Now that we have been exposed in the eyes of Italians, I believe that the eyes of Italians will be all drawn to us tomorrow."

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

Yes, exposing the fleet to the Italians was a premeditated plan.

In order to relieve the pressure of being discovered by the reinforcement formations, the Mediterranean Fleet decided to take advantage of the fact that it was a thorn in the eyes of the Italians, intending to attract all its attention to itself and create favorable conditions for it to pass through the Central Mediterranean.

And that's why, the Mediterranean Fleet will choose to appear in the eyes of the Italians two or three hours before the sun sets. Using the cover of the night, Kaden can attack and retreat and defend. As he can decide to dash for thousands of miles, he can retreat to the hidden place.

This is also a trick set up by Carden to take advantage of the convenience of Italian investigation. Since the Italians have weaved a sleuthing network with great fanfare, and it is still so airtight, wouldn't it make the Italians underestimate the prestige of the British Empire if they don't make use of it.

So sometimes the reconnaissance is too good, and it is easy to be used by others.

And in addition to reinforcements, Carden has a back-up.

So for this upcoming naval battle, it is not yet known who will die.

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