Imperial Overlord

What exactly is the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet going to do? In fact, they already had a plan.

First they have to quickly retreat back to Egypt, and then replenish fresh water and oil in Port Said. The fleet would then be divided into two parts, the main force breaking westward to Gibraltar, and the destroyer and cruiser squadrons, which would stay and continue the fight.

When will the fight last? Fight until Germany captures the naval port of Said. The remaining warships will no longer risk retreating west, but will retreat to the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.

On the one hand, this arrangement is to interfere as much as possible with the Mediterranean route between Germany and Italy, and to create pressure on the Italian Navy.

On the other hand, it is to avoid problems when breaking through, and lose too many troops, which has the effect of diversifying risks.

Of course, there is the last reason that, in fact, the United Kingdom is also planning to strengthen its naval power in the Indian Ocean.

The reason for the last reason is equally intriguing. The first is to stabilize India, an important British colony, and use it as a backer to continue fighting against Germany in the Middle East.

The second is because Britain felt the huge pressure from Japan on its colonies in the Asia-Pacific region, so it could only bite the bullet and demonstrate against Japan to see the effect.

However, only God and the Japanese know how much deterrent the fleet driven by the German Army can have when it goes to the Far East.

"Return! The attack may have been discovered by the enemy's submarine, don't be careless, and be extra careful when you go back!" General Cunningham saw that nothing could be done, and left the crime scene immediately.

His philosophy is that as long as there is no good thing, then immediately interrupt and leave, without any nostalgia.

This time, he didn't think about the leak, because in his opinion, the Italians detected the British fleet in advance and then evacuated the warships in the port. This explanation makes more sense.

Why do you say that? Because of Cunningham's empathy, he felt that if he had obtained the offensive intelligence of the British Navy in advance, he would definitely block the British fleet on the way.

Unfortunately, he still guessed wrong. With the reminder of Germany, Italy had long known that the British fleet was coming, which led to more intensive reconnaissance and a contingency plan to evacuate the battleship.

Li Le's original plan was to use the information he knew to wipe out the British Mediterranean Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, but the information in his hand was not accurate.

On the one hand, the historical Battle of Taranto happened in November 40, but it can't be that late now!

Rommel's tanks have now moved into Alexandria, and if the British don't communicate, by November 1940, their Mediterranean fleet will have no Mediterranean ports at all!

Therefore, if the British want to continue to contain the Italian fleet, they must attack in advance. With this advance, the attack time of the British fleet is uncertain!

Because of this, Li Le's so-called shadow of the intelligence department did not dare to determine the attack route of the British Navy when the attack time could not be determined!

Because of this, although the German intelligence service reminded the Italian Navy that the British would definitely attack Taranto, they could not give a definite time and route.

In this case, it becomes an impossible task to contain and annihilate the British Mediterranean Fleet in advance!

The German intelligence department asked three questions, so that the Italian navy was willing to go to war, and there was no condition for going to war. In the end, what they could do was to try to avoid losses.

Therefore, the Italian fleet is still in the port, so the Italian fleet is temporarily retreating, rather than organizing a counterattack.

After all, this is the Italian fleet, not the gap between the strength and determination of the German fleet, so that this fleet cannot truly become a force that Li Le can command, so the combat effectiveness is greatly reduced.

However, only Li Le himself knew that in the historical battle of Taranto, one battleship of the Italian fleet was killed and two wounded, and the loss was considerable.

Being able to avoid such a loss is already a good gain for Li Le. At least the Italian fleet can maintain its presence and continue to threaten the British Gibraltar fleet.

The historically significant Battle of Taranto, which ended like this, was an anticlimactic. At the cost of losing 10 aircraft, the United Kingdom showed its presence in Taranto.

Because an aircraft crashed into the sea when it returned, and another aircraft crashed and couldn't take off due to an operating error, the actual loss of the British Navy was 10 aircraft, but only 18 pilots were lost.

The Italian fleet had been busy all night, and during the day, when its fighter force flew over its own port, it was only certain that the British fleet had left.

In the fierce battle that night, Italy shot down 8 British planes, captured the remaining 4 unlucky 12 British pilots, and became the only casualty of this air raid.

In any case, the Battle of Taranto ended with a complete victory for Italy. In the afternoon, 10 transport ships, escorted by several Italian destroyers, sailed to Alexandria.

Supplies can be quickly transported to Alexandria, but for the sake of safety, the transport point for personnel closest to the front line is Matrouh.

The mighty British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet is still there. At this time, it hastily opened the route to Alexandria to be taught by the other party how to behave.

However, because of the diversion of various materials, the transportation of supplies from Italy to North Africa has begun to increase exponentially.

In the last few days of September, with the support of floating docks, the total number of sea shipments in September was more than double that of August!

Yes, the supplies of the Axis powers to North Africa are almost triple what they were last month! This number not only startled Rommel, but also everyone who knows Africa's capacity.

With so many supplies, it was actually possible to feed more troops, but the Germans still did not increase their combat troops in North Africa on a large scale.

Instead, most of the increased capacity was focused on the development of oil fields in Libya, with a large amount of material being transported directly to Sirte and then further south along the pipeline that was almost completed.

Along the oil pipeline, German engineers directed the Italians to build a nearby road that accompanies the pipeline, and also erected utility poles along the road.

Although he is against the country of Japan in his bones, Li Le still used some things that the Japanese had played in the process of building Libya.

Because in North Africa, there is also a lack of support weapons such as heavy artillery, so along this important oil pipeline, the Germans and Italians also engaged in the local method of artillery turrets.

The ancient artillery turret is very simple to build. It provides a bunker and has enough viewing height. It is really a good thing with high cost performance.

The main reason why Europeans don't play this thing is that the firepower of both sides is very strong, so the survivability of the turret cannot be guaranteed.

However, in preventing the destruction of guerrillas and British special forces, the advantage of the artillery turret to crush light weapons and equipment has been infinitely magnified.

Although such a project is not small, with the help of the locals and the Italian army, the progress of the project is still very good.

At the same time, it is still being perfected a little bit, and there is also the construction in the oilfield area! That's the main event in the main event.

With the help of German engineers, a thermal power station was first built here, and a relatively high-power thermal generator was shipped, which solved the nearby power supply problem at once.

On the other hand, with the continuous construction of the pipeline, the desalinated seawater will soon be sent to this water-deficient place. At that time, the cooling water and domestic water can be solved.

The most frightening thing is that while these infrastructures are being built, oilfield exploitation has not slowed down.

The German garrison here is helping with the construction. More than a dozen oil wells have been erected, and the oil produced has already made everyone laugh from ear to ear.

Although most of the oil cannot be shipped out yet, factories have been built to process gasoline and diesel locally.

The Great Deutsche Oil Company has put into operation a large-scale gasoline production base here. Although it has not been completed yet, there is no problem in producing finished gasoline products.

An unattended gasoline reserve is already under construction 70 kilometers away from the oil base.

Said to be a gasoline reserve base, that is, on the edge of an oasis, build a small wooden house, station a company of soldiers, and then use cars to transport the produced gasoline here at no cost.

The barrels of gasoline were quickly transported here~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and then piled up as high as the hills. The reason for choosing this place is entirely because of excess production capacity and to establish a forward base.

A car filled with a tank of gas, then transported here with gasoline, and then returned empty, was a serious waste in the previous transport procedure.

Under normal circumstances, the car transportation of the African Legion must avoid the return of empty cars. Wasting gas is absolutely disgraceful and should be taken seriously.

Such a thing, now on the front lines, in Alexandria, is still one of the codes of conduct for the German transport support forces.

However, in Libya's oil fields, in order to transport the gasoline and diesel produced as soon as possible, such waste is allowed and is a very normal phenomenon.

In order to establish this gasoline supply station 70 kilometers away, the Germans used cars, carriages and even camels to transport gasoline and diesel here with all their might.

A large number of gasoline barrels and diesel barrels are piled up like that, and in desolate places, most of them can't even lay camouflage nets.