My Italy

"Everyone, what we are seeing now is the military map of Malta. Malta is located 90 kilometers south of Sicily, 284 kilometers east of Tunisia, and 333 kilometers north of Libya. Its geographical location is very important. It is not only a roadblock for our country to connect with Libya, but also It is also the central point of the Mediterranean. Currently, Malta is occupied by the British army and has become a strategic point that restricts us. Therefore, our country needs to remove this point as soon as possible and make it the cornerstone of our country’s dominance in the Mediterranean.”

Within the General Staff, an officer was introducing the importance of Malta to Carlo and Prime Minister Cruz.

If you are careful, you will find that the officer who serves as the narrator is wearing a navy uniform. Yes, today's military briefing to Carlo and the government was led by the navy.

Due to historical reasons, the General Staff is dominated by army officers, so in order to better present the plan, the Navy Department selected officers with clear articulation and sharp thinking to serve as narrators.

How could Carlo and Cruze not know the importance of Malta? In just over a month since the war broke out, Libya's oil and iron ore imports have dropped significantly compared to previous years. Not only that, the British army on the island of Malta sent small warships to harass, causing nine merchant ships to be sunk or captured, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of tons of oil and iron ore.

For this reason, the Navy organized a merchant ship formation to sail, and also sent warships to escort. In addition, the Navy also used airships to increase patrols of the waters surrounding Malta. Through multiple measures, the attack was contained.

One more thing to say here is that the world's first air battle also broke out over the waters surrounding Malta.

The V-5 airship belonging to the Italian Navy and the British airship Dandelion encountered each other unexpectedly. The two sides exchanged friendly fire with ship-borne machine guns, causing varying degrees of damage to the two airships, and also causing the British Three soldiers were killed and six were wounded, and the Italian army was killed and three wounded.

Of course, the casualties between the two sides were different. In addition to the larger tonnage of the Italian airship, there was also the reason that the Italian airship had one more machine gun than the British.

Of course, this also led the British and Italians to start installing more machine guns on the airships, and the navy even considered moving a 37mm cannon aboard.

Of course, for the Italian Navy, the above measures are just a permanent solution, not the root cause. The best way is to occupy the island of Malta and remove this nail.

This is why Carlo and the Prime Minister came. Malta being occupied by the British army will make it impossible for Italy to exert its power. This nail must be removed before it can talk about dominating the Mediterranean.

"So what's your plan?"

Facing the officer's story, Carlo asked.

Facing Carlo's inquiry, the officer spoke at the signal of Admiral Yagir.

"Your Majesty, our navy plans to organize troops to seize the island. According to our navy's plan, our navy intends to use the cover of warships to allow the marines to seize Malta. According to the exact information we have received, there are more than 9,000 British troops in Malta. More than 4,000 of them were originally defenders of the island of Malta. In the three days before the war broke out, the British army reinforced nearly 5,000 people, resulting in the island currently having 9,000 troops, of which more than 8,000 were guarding the island of Malta. , and nearly a thousand people are guarding the island of Gozo. Currently, the Maltese defenders are equipped with hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers. Among them, the port of Valletta, the main port, is the focus of its defense, and the port is very tightly defended. , so we plan to use unconventional means.”

After hearing the officer's words, Carlo became interested. "What means?"

"First of all, our navy is prepared to use joint sea and air operations."

Good guy, Carlo is really interested enough now. Joint naval and air operations are really coming true. This is a first-of-its-kind combat system.

And this can also be seen that the navy's use of new technologies is now becoming more and more proficient.

"First we will assemble more than 60 airships and give priority to air suppression. Secondly, we will dispatch the reserve fleet to bombard the island, and then the infantry will land on it and gradually wipe out the island's defenders. Also, let me tell you in detail, The specific combat situation..."

It sounds like there is nothing new, but in this era such landing operations are already very novel. You must know that the current landing warfare is still very primitive. Basically, wooden boats are used to send soldiers aboard. In the process, the power of the boats is basically relied on the soldiers to row their own oars.

For the Italian Navy, which has always been at the forefront of the world, this slow landing method is definitely not advisable. Considering Italy's needs in the Mediterranean, using newer transportation methods to transport soldiers and heavy weapons ashore as quickly and safely as possible is a problem that must be solved.

After years of research and testing, the world's first professional landing ship was launched. This landing craft, named the Barracuda class by the Navy, has a total weight of 15.7 tons. It adopts a flat-bottomed structure suitable for shallow water navigation. The landing hatch opens directly in front, and the 12 mm thick steel plate allows it to withstand small arms attacks. Moreover, the boat also Equipped with a Maxim machine gun as self-defense firepower.

In addition, the ship ran at a speed of 10.5 knots while carrying 50 fully armed soldiers and 3 tons of supplies. As a landing craft, it can run at such a fast speed thanks to its equipped 180-horsepower diesel engine. Of course, in addition to transporting soldiers, the boat can also transport artillery to meet the heavy firepower requirements for landing and alleviate the lack of heavy firepower for front-line landing troops. Of course, this is when there is enough landing site.

In terms of performance, this landing craft has led the world (because no other country has it), and the Italian Navy also built 150 such landing craft before the war.

It was precisely because of its experience in using many new weapons that the Italian Navy began to eagerly prepare to remove the nail in Malta after the war began.

After listening to the officer's story, Carlo praised. "The explanation was very good, and it made me and the Prime Minister feel like they were having a real experience."

The praise from the king greatly encouraged the navy present.

Admiral Yagier, Minister of the Navy, took the opportunity to speak. "Our navy is determined to win Malta this time, and there are still some minor issues that need to be coordinated by the government."

Facing Admiral Yagir's words, Carlo looked at Prime Minister Cruz, who immediately understood what the king meant.

"If you, the Navy Department, have any requests, just mention them. As long as it can remove the nail in Malta and ensure the safety of transportation with the Libyan province, I can agree to it as long as it is within the scope of what I can do."

Since the Prime Minister was so happy, Admiral Yagir also mentioned it. "Our navy hopes that the government will assist us in recruiting another batch of merchant ships to be used as transport ships."

Why did Admiral Yagir mention this specifically? Because not every merchant ship can be used as a naval transport ship. It has high requirements on the speed, usage and type of use of the ship. This also leads to the fact that the ships that can be recruited are generally not very cheap.

Although the navy can do it on its own, it makes a difference whether there is government assistance. With assistance, the Navy can complete the recruitment and appropriate modifications faster.

"No problem, our government will fully cooperate." The Prime Minister agreed immediately.

What followed was a scene where everyone was happy. After Carlo and the Prime Minister listened to the navy's plan, they highly praised the plan. Carlo even said that after Malta was captured, outstanding commanders would be awarded titles.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention that the reserve fleet that the naval officer mentioned was also the product of the Italian-Austrian naval alliance. In order to increase the Allies' chances of winning in the Mediterranean, it was promoted by Italy and Germany chose to agree. The reserve fleet that Vienna passively accepted after the war broke out. The tenth day was established.

The fleet is mainly composed of Italian and Austrian pre-dreadnoughts. Among them, Italy's three Genoa-class and Austria-Hungary's three Radetzky-class pre-dreadnoughts have become the core of the reserve fleet. Coupled with a group of other pre-dreadnoughts, cruisers, and destroyers that are not suitable for main battleships, such a hodgepodge of battleships is the Joint Reserve Fleet.

As for the commander of the fleet, Italy fully listened to the opinions of Admiral von Haus, the head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and appointed Austro-Hungarian Vice Admiral Maximilian Negovan as the commander, while Italian Vice Admiral Hilma As chief of staff, jointly command this fleet.

As for the mystery of who is the strongest pre-dreadnought battleship between Italy and Austria, we can only know it after the battlefield test. Of course, whether this battle can be achieved as expected depends on the efforts of the main combined fleet.