my head

In the middle of the night of January 1940, 1, the 13st Italian Cruiser Squadron, accompanied by the 1th Destroyer Squadron, quietly left the port of Taranto to carry out the order to destroy the British sea line of communication.And Zhang Jun sent three groups of reconnaissance planes, each with a b-9 air tanker, and four "Six Masters" patrolling the Italian fleet at high altitude throughout the entire process.

第1巡洋舰分队由3艘扎拉级重巡洋舰组成，分别是“扎拉”号、“阜姆”号和“波拉”号。第9驱逐舰分队由4艘奥里亚尼级驱逐舰组成，分别是“奥里亚尼”号、“焦贝蒂”号、“阿尔菲耶里”号和“卡尔杜奇”号。他们统归第1巡洋舰分队司令卡塔尼奥少将指挥。这就是意大利海军仅剩的海军力量了。

The plan for this battle was the result of a compromise between the Italian military and the German army.Italy demanded that the Italian fleet should cut off the sea channel for British reinforcements to Greece and annihilate a British fleet, with the German Air Force providing an air force air support.On January 1, the German SS Air Force reported that two British battleships were severely damaged in Crete, which made the Italian Navy, which had been lacking confidence, believe that it was possible to change the passive situation.

Therefore, Admiral Rica, the new Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, formulated a combat plan, which was arranged as follows: the Italian Navy will organize four fleets to set off from four ports respectively, and after rendezvous, Admiral Aquino will command them to sweep the Eastern Mediterranean. It is all the belongings of the Italian navy, and Mussolini also began to bet his entire navy, just for the sake of face, which is extremely stupid.

On the morning of January 1.The western waters of the Strait of Messina are filled with sea fog. 17 am. The 11 fleets appeared in the scheduled assembly area on time.According to the predetermined plan.At this time, a large number of German planes should arrive to conduct an escort exercise, so as to facilitate mutual identification and cooperation in future coordinated operations.But after waiting for a long time, the Italians didn't wait for the German planes. The German planes had already been cruising at their high altitude, but they didn't show up. The SS Air Force was waiting for the British warships to appear.However, the Italian Navy waited for a British Sunderland reconnaissance plane at 4:12.Admiral Yaquino believed that the whereabouts of the fleet had been exposed and requested to cancel the plan.But being denied by Admiral Rica in Rome, Admiral Aquino had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to follow the plan, although his inner uneasiness grew stronger and stronger.

On the 18th, the Italian fleet marched towards the southwest of Gardos Island in three routes along a course of 130 degrees.Catagno's squadron and Vice Admiral Legnani's squadron were combined into one and were the northernmost of the formation. At 6:43, the Italian ro43 reconnaissance plane spotted the British cruiser, and the Italians immediately accelerated to 30 knots and headed towards the British. At 8 o'clock, the Sanseniti Squadron in the center visually spotted the enemy ship and opened fire 12 minutes later. 8:55.The Sansenity Squadron began to retreat to lure the British cruisers to pursue.At this time, Catagno's squadron remained north.Prepared to cut off the retreat of the British fleet at the right opportunity without engaging in combat.Due to the air attack of the British Air Force at 10:58, the Italian fleet had to retreat again along a course of 300 degrees.

At 15:30 in the afternoon, bad luck began for the unlucky Italians, when the flagship "Veneto" (the only battleship in the fleet) was hit by a mine in an air attack.Aquino believed that only the destroyer fleet of the British army could chase him at night, and the other threat was the air attack the next day, so he decided to let all the fleets rendezvous to protect "Veneto".The Catagno Squadron and the Legnani Squadron were separated and closely arranged on the starboard side of the "Veneto".

At dusk, the Italians spotted 8 British planes circling behind the fleet. These planes took off from the aircraft carrier "Formidable" at 17:30.However, the British pilots did not attack immediately. They waited for the light to get darker in a circle before attacking, so that it was difficult for the Italians to see the plane clearly. At 19:15, the last ray of light was also swallowed by the night, and Yaquino ordered the fleet to turn suddenly to confuse the British pilots. Ten minutes later, the British fleet consisting of 10 torpedo planes flew over the fleet, and the fleet immediately counterattacked with intensive anti-aircraft firepower. The fiery fire net composed of 8mm, 100mm and 90mm anti-aircraft guns forced the British At a distance of 37 yards the planes abandoned their attempt to attack collectively.They withdrew from the battle first, then spread out outside the fire net, and attacked independently by a single machine to disperse the fleet's anti-aircraft firepower.However, the destroyer squadrons began to cast thick smoke screens, and turned on searchlights, covering the British aircraft with strong and blinding beams.All this made the British pilot dizzy, so the first 3000 planes got nothing.The last to enter the attack route was Lieutenant C. Williams, because most of the British aircraft had already begun to withdraw, and the fleet's anti-aircraft fire was relatively sparse.He flew the plane to break through the defense at a height close to the sea surface, and approached the fleet on the right.He chose the big ship closest to him, which was the "Pola". At 7:19, the torpedo was thrown out and rushed towards the "Pola".

The darkness of night really affected the visual effect of the Italians. Colonel M. De Pisa, the captain of the "Pola", discovered that it was too late when the British plane dropped the bomb.Although he, who was praised as an outstanding commander by Admiral Ninoy Aquino, gave an emergency order to turn the rudder, the distance of the torpedo plane flying so low was too close, and the huge body of the "Pola" could not turn smoothly. After 1 minute, everyone watched the torpedo hit the starboard engine room and the boiler room.This was a fatal blow. The huge explosion caused flesh and blood to fly in the main engine room and the boiler room, the main engine stopped operating, and the electrical equipment of the whole ship was paralyzed.Soon, the turbulent sea rushed into the three fire compartments and filled them.The stop of the main engine caused the "Pola" to lose its power, and the huge ship slowly stopped, unable to move like a dead fish. The failure of the electrical equipment made the warship lose its ability to save itself.At this point, the stubborn m? De? Pisa Colonel had to order to abandon the ship.Nearly 800 officers and soldiers rushed to jump into the sea to survive. Only 257 people including the deputy captain stayed on the "Pola", waiting for rescue from either their own people or the British.

What's interesting is that under normal circumstances, the people on the ship in distress either became panicked and fled for their own lives, or made a final effort to save the beloved ship together.The performance of the Italian sailors made people laugh and cry. The military discipline of the sailors who stayed on the ship had disappeared. They rushed into the officers' cabins screaming, smashed the lockers of the officers, and threw things everywhere. , took out a bottle of good wine from it, and poured it into his mouth.Soon, most of them became drunk, some talking nonsense, some humming decadent ditties.oh!Lovely Italian navy soldiers, the British navy likes opponents like you, so loving.

The news of the complete loss of power of the "Pola" was conveyed to Admiral Yaquino at 20:15.He was distraught at the moment because the fight hadn't been going well. Three minutes later, he signaled Rear Admiral Catagno to lead the 3st Cruiser Squadron to rescue.However, according to naval conventions, such tasks are generally assigned to destroyers.Therefore, Major General Catagno immediately expressed his opinion with a signal-it is a luxury to send a cruiser, and only two destroyers are enough.Although General Yaquino considered the opinions of his subordinates, he finally insisted on his point of view. At 2:20, he sent a signal to Major General Catagno to explain in detail.Because he felt that in the face of the situation of the "Pola", a fleet commander with sufficient authority and qualifications was needed to assess the extent of the damage to the "Pola" and the time required for repairs, and make a decision on the spot. .The order came into effect at 38:21. Rear Admiral Catagno accepted the order with military obedience, led his squadron to leave the main array, and headed southeast at a speed of 16 knots.

At 20:14, the poor "Pola" was discovered by the British cruiser "Orion" equipped with a sea search radar. 26 minutes later, Lieutenant Admiral Wipper, commander of the British Cruiser Squadron, reported to the flagship: "Unknown ship, bearing 240 degrees, distance 5 nautical miles. It has obviously stalled. My position is 35 degrees 21' north latitude, 21 degrees 5' east longitude Admiral Cunningham, the commander of the British fleet, believed that this might be the battleship "Veneto" that had been damaged in the previous air strike, and immediately led the main force to come here in a murderous spirit. The Bora has become a whining pup in a trap, attracting hunters and more prey.

At about 22 o'clock, the British main fleet approached him from the northeast of the "Pola". 4 large ships form a row, from south to north are the battleship "Barham", the aircraft carrier "Formidable", the battleship "Warrior" and the battleship "War Spite". At 22:03, the figure of the "Pola" appeared on the screen of the 279 radar on the "Warrior".According to the signal, the radar operator judged that the distance was about 6 nautical miles, and it was a large ship more than 600 feet long. Seven minutes later, Admiral Cunningham, who received the radar report, was very excited and commanded the fleet to enter the bombardment. At 7:22, the radar of the "Warrior" locked on the "Pola" again, and obtained the tactical data at a bearing of 20 and a distance of 191 nautical miles.Since the "Pola" was on the port side of the British fleet, at this time, the destroyer on the port side was required to start shifting its position to the starboard side to make room for the battleship to shoot.The "Dreadnought" also received the order to leave the queue.

However, just when the British destroyer had just received the transfer order, the destroyer "Stuart" on the starboard side issued an alarm at 22:23, because he was about 250 nautical miles at the 2-degree bearing of the bow, and found that there was a ship in the night. Shadows of 6 warships sailing from port to starboard.Among them, the second and third ships are large ships, and the rest are small ships. At 2:3 Commodore Eddleston, Chief of Staff of the British Fleet, observed these shadows with a telescope, and he calmly issued an almost identical report.Lieutenant Colonel Bauer, a warship outline recognition expert who was once the captain of a submarine, judged with his keen eyes that the two large ships were Zara-class heavy cruisers with a main gun caliber of 22 inches.

The British army responded extremely quickly, and Admiral Cunningham quickly ordered the fleet to line up through the ultrashort wave transmitter.At the same time, the artillery began to turn and aim in the direction of the enemy ship.Since the distance is about 4000 yards, it is suitable for short-range flat shooting, so the British artillery were all turned to the flat shooting position. (To be continued..)