Expedition to Europe

"Hurricane" and "Kangaroo" are not on the same level. Whether it is in terms of weight or volume, "Kangaroo" has an overwhelming advantage when facing "Hurricane".

The length of the "Kangaroo" is 19.50 meters, the wingspan is 29.22 meters, and the height is 5.2 meters. The modified "Kangaroo" weighs ten tons, making it a real big guy. The "Hurricane" has a wingspan of 12.2 meters, a length of 9.8 meters, a height of 4.00 meters, and an empty weight of just over two tons, which is incomparable to the "Kangaroo".

With Long Chengyuan's command, a collision horn was installed on the belly of the "Kangaroo", so when the "Kangaroo" flew over the "Hurricane", Dou Yongyi in the distance felt like a knife cutting through butter. Generally smooth, the "hurricane" in the air fell apart almost instantly——

It's not that it was torn apart. The "Hurricane"'s tail and most of the left wing were cut off. This caused the "Hurricane" to lose its balance in an instant, turn somersaults and fall directly in the air.

In fact, it was not very high from the sea, maybe two to three hundred meters, but falling from this distance was still unbearable for the aircraft. The aircraft fell apart in an instant, and the pilot didn't even have a chance to parachute, so he just sank to the bottom of the sea with the aircraft.

This way of death was so tragic that the pilot of the other "Hurricane" was so frightened that he had no idea of ​​recovering his position, so he turned the plane's nose towards Italy and wanted to run away.

Wherever they could escape, the three "Kangaroos" modified by Long Chengyuan were all on the clouds. One was used to deal with the "Hurricane" piloted by Sylvinho, and the other two were waiting to be picked up.

The final result was that the other "Hurricane" was even worse, being hit and disintegrated by the "Kangaroo" directly in the air.

The "Kangaroo" didn't fare well either. The wing on one side was seriously damaged, and a big hole was knocked out of the fuselage. Fortunately, the structure of the "Kangaroo" was solid, and the pilot reluctantly flew the "Kangaroo" crookedly back to the airport.

This is the result of poor academic skills. If you choose a good position when you hit it, just like the first "Kangaroo", there will be no damage at all.

The result was already very good. Although not a single shot was fired, both "Hurricanes" were retained. As long as the wreckage of the "Hurricane" was salvaged, it would not take a few days for Long Chengyuan to deduce the "Hurricane" approximate performance.

After shooting down two "Hurricanes", the destroyer Lanfang, which was patrolling on the nearby sea, rushed to the area where the incident occurred as scheduled, sealed the entire area where the incident occurred, and prohibited any foreign ships from entering.

Three hours later, two destroyers of the Italian Navy also arrived at the scene of the incident and had a confrontation with the destroyer of the Lanfang Navy.

At this time, the Lanfang Navy will definitely not back down. On the sea not far away, two salvage ships are salvaging the wreckage of the "Hurricane". Before completing the task, the Lanfang Navy must withstand the pressure of the Italian Navy. .

The Italians did not back down. The Italians signed a contract with the British when they purchased the "Hurricane". If the "Hurricane" fell into the hands of the Lanfang people, the Italians would be responsible.

And this responsibility is often war, so the Italians have reasons why they cannot retreat.

Before two o'clock in the afternoon, the destroyers of the Italian Navy attacked the defense line formed by the destroyers of the Lanfang Navy several times, but to no avail. The Lanfang Navy did not give in at all, and would rather collide with the warships than retreat even half a step.

The destroyers equipped by the Italian Navy are all around 1,000 tons, which is incomparable with Lanfang's two to three thousand tons destroyers. Not only is it not as fast as Lanfang's "Brave-class" destroyer, it cannot be hit by a collision, so by 2 p.m. From left to right, the Italian air force finally arrived to help.

Compared with warships, the air force has a much higher degree of freedom. It is difficult to intercept aircraft without firing.

However, the data of "Hurricane" in all aspects are different from Lanfang's "Falcon". The Lanfang Air Force has also been prepared. There are more than ten "Falcon" above the fleet to assist in the battle, ready to expel Italian aircraft at any time.

So starting from two o'clock, the planes in the sky were fighting, and the warships on the sea were also confronting each other. Several times they almost missed fire, and the war was about to break out.

In fact, before the "Falcon Plan" was formulated, Qin Zhiyuan predicted that if Lan Fang shot down an Italian fighter jet, regardless of whether Lan Fang fired during the shooting down, the Italian government would definitely take corresponding actions.

Qin Zhiyuan still underestimated the madness of Mussolini. At six o'clock in the evening, when the sun was about to set, Mussolini issued a war declaration on the radio: - The arrogant Lanfang people have repeatedly hurt us Italians. dignity, they not only violated my dignity with despicable means Our Sardinia, and now we have brazenly shot down our war eagle in the sky. This is a blatant provocation to our Italy. This is a repeated trampling on the dignity of our Italians. We will never accept the rude behavior of the Lanfang people, so now I Declare that it is time to use war to maintain Italy's dignity!

On July 7, 1924, Italy officially declared war on Lanfang.

Just half an hour after Italy declared war on Lanfang, Pope Benedict XV visited Mussolini, and French President Gaston Doumergue had a phone call with Qin Zhiyuan.

Gaston Doumergue hoped that Lanfang would not respond to Italy's declaration of war, and expressed his willingness to mediate to resolve the conflict between Lanfang and Italy. Qin Zhiyuan was noncommittal about this. At nine o'clock in the evening, Qin Zhiyuan received another call from Auerbach, and the communication between Benedict XV and Mussolini had no results.

At half past nine, Lanfang officially declared war on Italy.

It was impossible not to declare war. At the same time that Mussolini declared war on Lanfang, the Italian colonial army in Eritrea launched an attack on Djibouti.

Eritrea is a colony of Italy. Italy has stationed two divisions in Eritrea and formed two servant divisions composed of Eritreans. In terms of military strength, it is much stronger than Djibouti, which has only one division stationed.

However, the combat effectiveness of the Lanfang Army is not comparable to that of the Italians. If it is compared to making noodles, the Lanfang soldiers who basically cannot cook may not be able to beat the Italians, but compared to fighting, the Lanfang soldiers can throw away the Eritreans. Open ten streets.

The Italians were well prepared. As soon as Mussolini declared war, the Italians launched an attack on Djibouti from Assab in Eritrea and Asaita in Ethiopia. Two servant divisions and a local army participated in the attack. The army division plus two regiments can be said to be deployed in full force.

When the Italians launched their attack, Chen Kangjian was not in Djibouti, but in Little Aden. After receiving the news that the Italians were attacking Djibouti, Chen Kangjian ordered the 16th Division of the Lanfang Army stationed in Djibouti to defend on the spot. On the one hand, the Eighth Division of the Lanfang Army and the Fifth and Seventh Divisions of the Foreign Legion stationed in the Middle East were ordered to prepare reinforcements in the direction of Djibouti.

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In fact, there was no need for reinforcements. When the Italians first started attacking, they did break through a few outposts on the Djibouti border, but that was all. By the time Lanfang declared war on Italy, no Italian army had penetrated two kilometers into Djibouti territory. Basically, as long as the Lanfang Army can mobilize a battalion of troops, it can withstand an Italian division.

This sounds a bit exaggerated, but it is true. The terrain in Djibouti is complex, with mountains and hills, making it almost impossible for mechanized troops to deploy. The narrow mountain roads also restrict the rapid advancement of the Italian army. In many places, a firepower point composed of two machine guns is It was enough to block a mountain road, and the Italians' numerical advantage was not obvious.

The attack launched by the Italians was relatively sudden. It can be said that Lanfang's army was not prepared at all, so it was not easy to organize a counterattack for a while. Therefore, when Lanfang declared war on Italy, the battle in Djibouti was a bit stalemate.

Compared with the slow progress of the Italian army in the direction of Eritrea, the Italian navy in Sardinia is much more threatening.

When Mussolini declared war on Lanfang, the Lanfang Navy was confronting the Italian Navy at sea. This was originally a battle between destroyers. Lanfang had the upper hand, but after the Italian Navy's battleships joined the battle, the situation quickly deteriorated. The Italian side tilted.

It has to be said that the Italian Navy during this period still had some combat effectiveness. In the last World War, the main opponent of the Italian Navy was the Navy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When facing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the "sick man of Europe", the Italian Navy It showed great power and defeated the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Even the flagship became the trophy of the Italian Navy. Therefore, the Italian Navy was very high-spirited during this period. After Mussolini came to power, there were The saying that the Mediterranean “is our sea”.

There is not much basis for the statement "our sea". After the World War, the Italian Navy did have a shipbuilding plan, but due to funding issues, this shipbuilding plan was never actually implemented. Therefore, the main equipment of the Italian Navy is still the world's. The battleships that were in service before the war were already quite old.

Even the most dilapidated battleships have much larger artillery caliber than destroyers. Although Lanfang's "Brave-class" destroyer has a tonnage of two to three thousand tons, it is not equipped with large-caliber artillery. It uses 152 mm caliber artillery. This leaves the destroyers with insufficient means of attack when facing battleships. Only torpedoes can pose a certain threat to the Italian Navy's battleships. , and the artillery range of the Italian Navy battleships is much greater than the torpedoes of the Lanfang Navy. The conditions for the use of torpedoes by the Lanfang Navy are insufficient. Therefore, the destroyers of the Lanfang Navy can only withstand the fierce artillery fire of the Italian Navy battleships and launch a fatal attack on the Italian Navy. Charge to close the distance with the Italian battleship so that you can use torpedoes to attack the Italian battleship.

The result was very tragic. Two of the six destroyers of the Lanfang Navy were sunk and three were damaged. Fortunately, the Italians took the initiative to retreat after Lanfang Air Force reinforcements arrived on the battlefield, otherwise these destroyers would not be able to return to their home port.

When the destroyer fleet returned, faced with the questioning of Lanfang War Department investigators, the destroyer squadron commander Shen Zhixin's voice was sonorous and powerful: "We cannot retreat. Behind us is Sardinia and His Majesty. As long as we take a step back, the Italians may Threatening His Majesty’s safety.”

Yes, Qin Zhiyuan is still in Sardinia. This is considered the front line.