Expedition to Europe

At eight o'clock in the morning on July 23, David Beatty, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, was enjoying coffee sent by staff officer Zach Dillon on the bridge of the flagship "HMS Hood".

Different from the original British Mediterranean Fleet, this Mediterranean Fleet is a temporary organization, which was only established for the purpose of fighting Sardinia. After this station, this organization will be cancelled.

David Beatty is a British naval marshal. 53 years old is indeed a bit young for a marshal, but it is not surprising at all when it comes to David Beatty.

David Beatty is a senior member of the British Navy. He served as deputy commander of the Nile Fleet at the age of 25. He later participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, performed outstandingly in the last world war, and was finally able to accept the surrender of the German fleet on behalf of Britain. , David Beatty was promoted to Admiral after the war, when he was not even fifty.

After John Jellicoe faded from active service, David Beatty was the undisputed number one man in the British Navy. This guy had a violent personality and was aggressive. Of course, if you use a nicer adjective to describe it, he would be "full of energy and enthusiasm." courage".

In the last world war, David Beatty's boss John Jellicoe once refused to let David Beatty take a higher position on the grounds that the more ships given to David Beatty, the bolder David Beatty would be. big.

This judgment was correct. David Beatty was indeed very courageous, so even when he lost air protection, David Beatty still resolutely ordered the fleet to move towards Sardinia.

"Sir, we will enter the position in two hours." Zach Dillon had a serious expression and looked at David Betty with expectant eyes.

"Don't worry little Zach, the Lanfang planes can't break through our anti-aircraft firepower. They can only bark miserably like puppies and watch us destroy all the airports on Sardinia and then turn them into the Mediterranean Sea." "The bluefin tuna in it." David Beatty was confident that once he decided on something, he couldn't change it. Then David Beatty shouted: "Go full speed, let's kick the Lanfang people's ass."

"Hooah -" a neat response sounded from the bridge, and the "Hood" began to accelerate, heading towards Sardinia at full speed.

"I have to say that the people of Lanfang still have some merits. At least their coffee is really good -" David Betty only then picked up the coffee sent by Zach Dillon and put it under his nose to smell it. , and then said with a face of intoxication: "Tom, don't you have a drink?"

"Oh, I have to stay alert. When we land in Sardinia, I will have a good drink with you." Rear Admiral Tomkinson, the captain of the "Hood", has a determined look.

The battleship "HMS Hood" is Britain's most advanced battleship. It was commissioned four years ago. Tomkinson is the first captain of the "HMS Hood". Perhaps after this battle, Tomkinson will be promoted, so Tomkinson Never accept failure of any kind.

The British admirals can be said to be the most proud people in the world. Although Britain's national power is now weakened and it has actually given up its position as the world's leader, in the hearts of the British admirals, the fleet of the British Empire is still the arrogant one. The Invincible Fleet may have seen the frequent launch of American battleships, but the British Navy has already When there is no fresh blood input for a long time, the British naval generals will feel sad, but these British naval generals firmly believe that even if they face the United States Navy, which is composed entirely of cutting-edge warships, the British Navy will not be at a disadvantage, because the British Navy has A proud enough tradition and enough outstanding officers, which cannot be bought with money.

When thinking this way, these British naval admirals must not have realized that it was precisely because the British Empire was rich that the United Kingdom was able to build an invincible fleet that dominated the world. Now that the United Kingdom has lost its economic advantage, , then it is numbered how long the navy can maintain its dominant position.

Of course, British naval admirals will definitely not think about this issue. Perhaps in the eyes of many British naval admirals, only boring politicians and businessmen who smell like copper will consider this issue. In the UK, the projects that admirals are responsible for are It shows the "handsomeness" of the British Navy, just like the formal dress worn by admirals, and the folds on the clothes must be folded according to the regulations, so as to be in line with the noble temperament of the British Navy.

"Very well, let's keep working hard. When we conquer Sardinia, I will provide a bottle of red wine from my private collection to celebrate with everyone." David Beatty promised.

"Hua -" the response became even more enthusiastic.

It is said that there are many drunkards among the British, and alcoholism in the navy is even more common. Like "gayism", it is a stubborn disease in the British navy that cannot be cured.

Just as everyone responded with a bang, a shrill air defense siren suddenly sounded in the bridge, and the battle was about to begin.

In this battle, the radar installed by the Lanfang Air Force on the Marmora Peak in the Jinnargentu Mountains played a key role.

Although David Beatty advocated offense, he was not reckless. As the British fleet was advancing towards Sardinia, David Beatty ordered the aircraft carrier to release reconnaissance planes early for reconnaissance, giving the fleet more warning time. .

David Beatty knew that the British Air Force could not defeat the Lan Fang Air Force, and yesterday's battle had fully proved this, so David Beatty did not pin his hopes on the Air Force to protect the fleet. David Beatty also knew that there was a performance gap between the British fighters and the Lan Fang fighters, so David Beatty did not expect the Air Force's carrier-based aircraft to be able to push the Lan Fang Air Force out of the fleet's defense net. As long as the British carrier-based aircraft could win a certain amount of warning time for the fleet, it would be enough. David Beatty was still very confident in the fleet's air defense capabilities.

It's a pity that although David Beatty knew that there was a performance gap between the British fighters and the Lan Fang fighters, David Beatty didn't know how big the gap was.

The practical ceiling of Lan Fang's "Falcon" was 10,000 meters, while the practical ceiling of the "Hurricane" was only 9,000 meters. This 1,000 meters determined the fate of the British fleet.

Before the Hurricane came into contact, the radar station on Mount Marmora provided early warning to the Lan Fang fighters, so the Lan Fang fighters began to climb early and fully occupied the advantageous position. When the Falcon was about to fly directly above the Hurricane, the Falcon began to dive in a nearly vertical posture.

At this position, the Hurricane had the largest area in the eyes of the Falcon pilots. The ace pilots of Lan Fang would never miss this opportunity. Dou Yongyi used a two-plane formation attack. If the first plane did not hit, there was a second plane to make up for it, so the British "Hurricanes" were very miserable. In less than a minute, all eight reconnaissance planes were shot down, and the British pilots did not even have the opportunity to warn the fleet.

After clearing all the reconnaissance planes, they were actually less than ten nautical miles away from the British fleet. For the aircraft, it was just a matter of diving. Because there was no harassment from the British Air Force, Dou Yongyi could command the bombers and torpedo planes to form a formation calmly and attack the British fleet in batches.

Dou Yongyi's formation was very layered. Compared with bombers and torpedo planes, fighter planes were the smallest, so the first wave of dives was handled by fighter planes. After the fighter planes diverted the British fleet's anti-aircraft firepower, the bombers dived directly from above the British fleet, and the torpedo planes penetrated the British fleet at ultra-low altitude close to the sea surface, while launching attacks on the British fleet at the same time.

Dou Yongyi's requirements were not high, as long as he could sink one or two of the British large warships. Of course, if he could sink more, Dou Yongyi would not object.

The original text is available at Liu # 9 @Shu/Bar!

It must be said that the British did conduct air defense exercises before the war, but air defense exercises and actual combat are two different things after all. The way the Lan Fang Air Force attacked was something the British sailors had never heard of, so naturally they had no precautions. Therefore, it was not until the first wave of fighter planes began to dive that the British sounded the air defense alarm.

In fact, Dou Yongyi had made a mistake at this moment. If the first wave of dives were not fighters but bombers or torpedo planes, then the Lan Fang Air Force only needed one attack to severely damage the British fleet. Even if it was not as easy as chopping melons and vegetables when fighting the Japanese fleet, it was enough to make the British heartbroken.

This can be regarded as an empiricist mistake made by Dou Yongyi and David Beatty. Lan Fang and Britain had conducted fleet air defense drills before the war, but the two armies had never fought each other. Therefore, when David Beatty speculated on the combat effectiveness of the Lan Fang Air Force, he inferred it according to the combat effectiveness of the British Air Force, and improved the combat effectiveness of the British Air Force by a level. Therefore, David Beatty believed that the Lan Fang Air Force could not break through the air defense network of the British fleet.

David Beatty still underestimated the penetration capability of the Lan Fang Air Force. It might take some effort for the Lan Fang Air Force to break through the air defense network of the British fleet, but it was by no means impossible to break through. The Lan Fang Air Force was stronger than David Beatty imagined, and the air defense network of the British fleet was not as perfect as David Beatty imagined.

When the Lan Fang Navy conducted the exercise, at the beginning, there were two bomber formations and two torpedo formations, a total of four formations, breaking through from four directions. Later, with the improvement of the Lan Fang pilots' technology, the four formations were reduced to three, and now it has been reduced to two, which fully proves the progress of the Lan Fang Air Force.

Dou Yongyi speculated that the air defense capability of the British fleet was also based on the Lan Fang Navy. In Dou Yongyi's imagination, the air defense capability of the British fleet was at least similar to that of the Lan Fang Navy, because the intelligence analysis obtained from the Lan Fang National Security Bureau showed that the anti-aircraft firepower on the British warships was comparable to that of the Lan Fang warships.

Dou Yongyi overestimated the air defense capability of the British fleet.

The air defense capability of the Lan Fang Navy was developed by the Lan Fang Air Force. It is the best in the world at present. Whether in terms of defense level or coordination of air defense firepower, it is much better than the British fleet. Although the British warships are also equipped with a large number of air defense weapons, the British air defense is not coordinated, and basically each of them is fighting on their own. This cannot be compared with the air defense density of the Lan Fang warships.

In this situation, David Beatty did learn a lesson that he would never forget.