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Text Chapter 1332 Attack on Taranto (Part 1)

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    Chapter 1332 Attack on Taranto (Part 1) Rear Admiral Xiao Zhenjiang, the commander of the Chinese Navy¡¯s task force, and his chief of staff, Colonel Ding Kun, are guarding the intelligence they just received. Taranto is a place that is more powerful than the British military port.  It is much smaller than Pearl Harbor in the United States, and there are not many Italian warships here. Under normal circumstances, if an aircraft carrier aircraft attacks them, there will be no problem, but here it is  There are two problems that need to be solved.  The first is their five battleships. They have put down mine protection nets around them. This means that after your attack torpedo is launched into the water and it floats up, it will hit the mine protection net outside the warship. Then  It is impossible to cause damage to warships at all. This requires the torpedo to be modified. It turns out that the method used by the Japanese when they attacked Pearl Harbor was exactly the opposite of the situation here. They increased the buoyancy of the torpedo so that the torpedo could attack the military port.  The side of the Chinese warship, and now that the buoyancy has been increased, it can only hit the mine protection net directly.  The aviation combat plan staff on the side said: "This is not a big deal. We can reduce the buoyancy of the torpedoes, that is, deepen the fixed depth of the torpedoes, so that they can drill directly under the mine protection net as soon as they enter the water.  When they pass under the warship, we use magnetically controlled torpedoes to explode under the warship, which will achieve a better effect than on the side. "The second problem is that the Italians' anti-aircraft firepower is not strong, but  However, they installed an anti-aircraft balloon every 270 meters apart and launched an attack on the airport during the day.  This distance of 270 meters is nothing, and the pilot can pass through it calmly.  But if it's at night, this problem will be difficult to solve.  If the pilot accidentally hits the steel cable holding the balloon, the aircraft will be destroyed and everyone will be killed.  ¡°However, this kind of problem has also occurred in normal training. That is to use airplanes to drop flares downwards and let the flares illuminate the entire sky. This can avoid such a situation.  After several people discussed the solutions to the two main problems, they also improved the entire air raid process, and the entire plan was finalized.  The time is set for five days.  The Italian Navy was not completely unprepared for the British Royal Navy. The British Royal Navy was also quite careful when passing the tip of Italy's boot. The Italians had the right time and location.  Advantage, they can attack the British transport fleet at any time, so the British have always regarded the Italian fleet as a thorn in their side.  However, because his own strength has been greatly damaged, General Cunningham, the commander of the Mediterranean naval fleet, concentrated his superior forces several times in an attempt to lure the Italian Navy out for a decisive battle, but failed to achieve it. However, the main force of the British fleet was once  gone.  The Italian navy will be active again and cause trouble on the British transportation routes.  Therefore, the British transport fleet has never had any good methods. If they want to pass through this chokepoint, they usually pass at night, so that they can be less or less vulnerable to Italian air attacks.  And now when this Chinese aircraft carrier formation passes by.  The Italian navy is even more careful. They will not take the initiative to provoke the Chinese navy.  They themselves know how important their fleet is.  However, in order to cover the passage of the Chinese task force without arousing suspicion among the Italians, the British also did a lot of work. First, they sent a large transport fleet to allow them to pass through Italy.  It is common for people to walk from west to east under their noses. When a large Chinese fleet passes through the southern sea area of ??Italy, they are escorting the British fleet.  In order to confuse the Italian fleet, the British fleet has been relatively large in the past two days, and multiple batches of transport fleets and escort fleets have passed by. Therefore, the Italians soon ignored the Chinese aircraft carrier task force, and the Chinese  The fleet showed no signs of attacking the Italian Navy.  General Inigo Campioni, Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Navy, saw that the Chinese aircraft carrier task force passed by and did not cause him much trouble. He was naturally relieved. He thought that the Chinese fleet was going to start from  With the Suez Canal passing through, he could once again control the sea in the central Mediterranean.  However, after the Chinese fleet moved eastward for a period of time, they stopped advancing 250 kilometers southeast of Taranto, Italy. This distance of more than 200 kilometers is the best attack range for carrier-based aircraft.  After two days of tension at the Italian military port of Taranto, the soldiers could finally take a rest. However, at 10:30 in the evening, the outpost unit responsible for monitoring on a small island sounded an alarm. They heard  The roar of the plane and the sirens in the entire Taranto military port all rang, and they were already resting.The injured soldiers hurriedly got up and rushed to their combat posts to prepare for battle. The beams of searchlights pierced the night sky, searching the sky nervously. The shells of the anti-aircraft guns were loaded, and the muzzles were constantly rotating.  The soldiers on the warship are ready to drive the warship out of the port anytime and anywhere for dispersed transfers.  But when they were ready for battle, everything calmed down again, and there were no planes coming at all.  The officers and soldiers cursed and went back to rest.  At twelve o'clock at night, the loyal frontline monitoring troops sounded the alarm again. The alarm in the military port sounded again. The soldiers who had just slept got up again and prepared for battle. Searchlights shined into the air.  The soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery unit stared closely at the sky, but after struggling for more than an hour, they could not find any trace of the enemy aircraft. The soldiers cursed and returned to their barracks to rest. At this time, if those outposts  If the troops appear here, they will probably be thrown into the Mediterranean Sea by the angry soldiers.  The officer on duty in the military port picked up the phone and scolded the monitoring personnel of the front troops. It has been two days since they had a good rest. Can't you let people take a good rest?  At two o'clock in the night, the sound of airplanes rang again. This time, the officers responsible for monitoring did not dare to sound the alarm easily. They wanted to observe carefully to see if there was any airplane coming, but when they saw a few  By the time ten planes flew towards the military port, it was already too late.  It turns out that the Chinese Navy's Second Task Force is in the Mediterranean, more than 200 kilometers away from the Italian military port of Taranto. The air superiority in this area is firmly in its own hands. Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Xiao Zhenjiang has already assigned the fleet to  Departing from the main route, no ships would pass through this area. A squadron of fighter jets was patrolling in the air to protect its fleet from being discovered by others.  In the afternoon, a bomber taking off from North Africa conducted a long-distance aerial reconnaissance of the Taranto military port in Italy to confirm that there were no other changes in the Italian Navy. When they returned, the bomber flew over  From the sky above the fleet, the photos they took again were airdropped to the task force.  After knowing that there were no changes in the Italian Navy, the commander of the task force, Rear Admiral Xiao Zhenjiang, ordered all members of the fleet to rest. Two hours later, the sun went down and the sky slowly became dark. The fleet began to move northwest, in the distance.  One hundred and seventy kilometers away from Taranto, the advance stopped, and the crew on the ship began to make necessary preparations.  After sending two planes to harass the enemy, knowing that the enemy was very tired now, the aircraft carrier began to take action. Soon its speed reached 30 nautical miles per hour. The fleet chief of staff issued an order to launch an attack.  Under the command of the ship's commander, the attack aircraft that had been prepared first launched a squadron of fighter jets to protect the fleet, and then another squadron of fighter jets took off. This was the squadron that escorted the attack aircraft.  After they took off, the attack aircraft took off, then quickly formed a formation in the air, and flew towards Taranto under the command of the leader aircraft.  Coming over from the air were the first wave of attacking squadrons of twelve torpedo attack planes. Behind them, five hundred meters higher in the air, were the escorting squadrons. After taking off, they had maintained radio silence. The instrument panel in front of the aircraft  The lights flashed, and their current location was indicated on the theodolite.  The fleet bypassed the front of Taranto and flew due west of Taranto, entering the territory of Italy from a place they had never expected. In this way, the fleet would appear in a place they had never expected.  The Italians never thought that someone would appear in their sky, they just thought it was their own plane flying.  Soon the plane arrived northwest of Taranto. Someone lit a fire on the ground. It was the direction of an arrow, pointing to the southeast. A call from the ground came from the headset of the captain: "Little Eagle."  "Xiaoying, we are entering the enemy's military port twenty kilometers ahead. I wish you success in completing the mission." The captain simply replied: "Thank you, we will definitely complete the mission." The captain turned on the microphone and gave instructions to his attack fleet.  Combat order: "Come out in front of the lights, we are behind you." Soon four planes came out in a diamond formation. They began to climb. After reaching altitude, they rushed towards Taranto.
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