My Italy

"Boom, boom, boom!"

"Da da da~"

"Doctor, call the doctor quickly."

"Ah~, my hand, my hand, my hand is broken!"

At this time, in a position on the island of Malta, the heartbreaking sounds of the British army could be heard everywhere. The culprit of all this was the behemoth airships in the sky.

At this moment, several airships were constantly attacking them. The machine guns on the airships were spraying flames, and the bombs thrown from the cabins were roaring and falling on the heads of the British troops on this position.

At this time, the British position was in disarray under the attack of the airship. The four artillery pieces had been scattered to pieces because they were destroyed as soon as they were discovered. Then these soldiers suffered. The trenches' defense against attacks from the air was greatly reduced, and the trenches also restricted the movement of the soldiers, making it easier for the machine guns on the airship to attack.

Some airships have lowered their altitude to a dangerous distance of about a thousand in order to make it easier to attack the British troops on the ground.

Although this height is a bit dangerous for the airship, the British army below has no desire to attack at all. Because the only weapons they could shoot in the air were the rifles in their hands and a few Maxim heavy machine guns. There was no way they could deal with the airships that looked easy to fight but were out of reach.

Therefore, most of the British officers and soldiers at this time could only flee in all directions, trying to find a suitable hiding spot. A few soldiers who were not afraid of death fired desperately with machine rifles in an attempt to provide cover for their comrades. However, most of them will not end well, because the machine gunners on the airship can easily find anyone who dares to offend their power.

Of course, the British army actually has other ways, which is to use artillery capable of anti-aircraft. At present, the British army's most equipped air defense equipment is the Vickers 2-pound automatic cannon. It is essentially like an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun, complete with belt feeds, water-cooled sleeves, etc. Apart from being a bit bulkier, it is excellent in terms of reliability and power when dealing with slow airships in the sky. s Choice.

Of course, this machine gun also has a shortcoming, that is, it cannot attack air targets above 1,500 meters. Because the muzzle velocity of the gun is only 510 meters per second, the effective range of the gun is 1,500 meters. Of course, this does not mean that the cannonball can only hit a height of 1,500 meters, but at this height, the gravity of the earth will have a very strong effect on the cannonball, causing its trajectory to basically be in a downward state.

Of course, this anti-aircraft cannon is very powerful against big guys like airships. So far, six of the seven airships lost by Italy on the island of Malta were shot down by this anti-aircraft cannon.

However, the Malta Island defenders do not have much equipment for this kind of air defense weapon. There are only about twenty of them. Most of them are used to protect the military facilities in and around Valletta Port. Only a few of them are deployed at other key points. area.

It is obvious that the British army in this position does not have such anti-aircraft weapons. They only have the anti-aircraft effects of machine guns and rifles. I must have seen them all. It's completely better than nothing. It can only have a psychological effect and has no actual effect at all.

In addition to this position, the defenders of Malta Island were attacked by airships in many places today.

Some casualties were minor, while others suffered heavy casualties. The main reason for all this is that previous airship reconnaissance has figured out the arrangement of the island's defenders, especially the arrangement of anti-aircraft firepower.

For the Port of Valletta and its surroundings, where anti-aircraft firepower is intensive, there are fewer airship attacks. After all, looking at the fire chains emerging from the ground, the huge airship only dared to attack above its protection.

However, the height of 2,500 meters had a great impact on airship bombing and shooting. In addition, there were few airships in the air attack on Valletta Port, resulting in very slight losses.

When the airships left after dropping their bombs, a burst of cheers erupted from Valletta Port. This was the sound of joy from the British soldiers for repelling the enemy's air attack.

At this time, the British army's excited cheers did not look like they had repelled an enemy air attack, but rather seemed like they had achieved a complete victory.

This was not a case of British officers and soldiers going insane and venting their stress. Although the top brass in the military blocked the news, the grassroots officers and soldiers were not stupid at all. After the war began, the number of warships in the Malta naval port was reduced instead of increased. Don't think that the grassroots officers and soldiers don't know what this means.

Although there are more defenders on the island, the most important thing in defending Malta is the navy. As long as the battleships are numerous and powerful, they will feel at ease even if the defenders are very sparse, because with the protection of the battleships, it is impossible for the enemy to land ashore.

In the days after the war started, the Maltese defenders never saw their majestic fleet again. Although according to the people above, this fleet was deterring the Italians, they knew it when they saw the airships flying over their heads. , there is still some credibility left in this statement.

Therefore, the mood of the defenders has been low these days, which is relatively depressed. Of course, if this suppression continues, it will cause a huge blow to morale, so the defenders need to vent.

Generally speaking, to vent a soldier's emotions, alcohol and sex are the best choices. But it's a pity that it's wartime, and even an officer with no common sense knows that it's impossible to let the soldiers get drunk. As for sex, I'm sorry to say that there are only about twenty people doing this kind of stress relief work in Malta, and they are too exhausted to complete the stress relief work for the officers and soldiers.

Therefore, they can only divert their pressure and promote that it is the Italians who caused everything and that everything is the fault of the Italians.

Judging from the current performance of the defenders, this propaganda is still very effective.

Regarding the victory cries of the officers and soldiers at the port, Major General Behrens, the commander of the island, was not so optimistic.

Because he knew that this was just a prelude to the Italian attack, and this airship attack was just a prelude to the subsequent battle in Malta.

Of course, he immediately sent a telegram to Alexandria and London with the news of the attack on Malta.

In the evening when Malta suffered an air attack, London announced that the Home Fleet would conduct a week of maritime patrols and tactical exercises, and the exercise location would be in the North Sea.

The news announced by London was not only the report of Major General Behrens, but also the British had spies in Italy. The officers and soldiers who boarded the ship in Palermo to prepare for landing were so conspicuous that anyone who was not blind could see them.

Therefore, after the news of the Palermo landing officers and soldiers boarding the ship reached London, the Admiralty immediately launched a secret reinforcement plan. The next step was naturally to cover the local fleet's sea training inspection.