Chapter 440 Melee (Part 2)

People always underestimate the enemy, especially when they are in long-term and comprehensive control of the situation.

For example, the Allied Air Force in the Battle of Sicily...

They had already fully mastered the air supremacy more than a month before the launch of the battle. The entire Sicily was left to the Allies to bomb. Any German and Italian fighters that dared to take off to fight would inevitably be ruthlessly destroyed.

This forced the German and Italian fighters to avoid Italy or Sardinia. The Allied bombers did not even need fighter escorts to carry out bombing missions in Sicily.

Over time, the Allies almost forgot that the German and Italian armies had an air force.

Qin Chuan took advantage of this.

He first separated the US Navy and Air Force from the British Navy and Air Force... If the military forces of the British and American armies were closely united, to be honest, anything Qin Chuan did in Sicily would be in vain.

Tactics, deception, quality... These will all be wiped out in the face of absolute strength.

But the British and American armies were not like this. There were also contradictions between them, and Qin Chuan realized this before the war.

Therefore, in order to defeat the Allied forces, the first thing to do is to alienate the British and American forces and let them fight on their own.

The method of alienation is very simple, that is, to attack the US army instead of the British army at the beginning, and to keep chasing the US army, so that the US army feels that it is suffering and being bullied by the main force of the German army alone, while the British army is easily reaping fame and fortune on the other side.

Perhaps Eisenhower can still tolerate these, because he is the supreme commander, and his task is to unite the two armies.

But if... the safety of the US military itself is in question, Eisenhower may not be able to persist.

Sure enough, things are the same as Qin Chuan thought. The US Navy retreated to the beachhead to protect itself, and the fighter planes lurked in Tripoli, just to provide timely reinforcements when the "surrounded" beachhead is needed.

In this way... the German and Italian armies can concentrate their forces to deal with the British army.

Not only Syracuse, but also the British fleet and the British Air Force. The British army, who thought that the German and Italian air forces were no longer powerful, was destined to pay the price for this.

Originally, the Italian Air Force had difficulty playing a role in front of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the British Air Force.

This can be said to be Mussolini's fault. Mussolini's vain personality made him pay more attention to superficial data rather than substance. As a result, the army had the best ranks in the world but had no combat effectiveness, and the air force was large in size but most of the fighter planes were outdated and could not stand up to the battle.

What's worse is that the Italian navy and air force belonged to two completely different branches of the military and basically did not cooperate with each other... A large part of the reason for the poor performance of the Italian navy was that the air force failed to provide coordination. You must know that the most important thing in naval warfare is air supremacy. Before the naval battle, the air force needs reconnaissance, and then the air force needs to fight for air supremacy. If the air force completely ignores the interests of the navy, the warships are almost blind at sea: they cannot see where the enemy is, have no power to fight back against the enemy's air strikes, and do not know whether the enemy warships are attacking them and cannot be prepared, etc.

Of course, the air force also has its reasons: the maximum speed of the fighter Macchi 200 is only 512 kilometers per hour, which is a big difference from the 655 kilometers per hour of the British Spitfire, and the maximum speed of the BR bomber is only 440 kilometers per hour, and this data is also exaggerated.

In order to cater to Mussolini's vanity, the Italian high-level officials often did such things, that is, exaggerated equipment data to please Mussolini.

The "Piaggio" heavy bomber claimed to have a range of 3,600 kilometers. After exaggerating, even the Italians themselves believed it. According to this data, they bombed the Strait of Gibraltar and the British fleet. As a result, more than half of the planes had to make emergency landings in Spain due to lack of fuel.

Upon investigation, it turned out that the 3,600-kilometer range was obtained based on the condition of taking off with full fuel without ammunition.

The results of these water-filled fighters and bombers in actual combat can be imagined... The air supremacy in the Mediterranean is basically transferred between the German and British forces, and the Italian Air Force has nothing to do with it.

But now it is different. There are fighters flying around like kites in the sky. From time to time, two fighters cannot avoid each other and collide with each other, and the planes are destroyed and people are killed. Not to mention the anti-aircraft gunners and anti-aircraft machine gunners on the ground, even the British pilots in the air are also in chaos.

A Spitfire fighter easily locked onto the Italian fighter with its much faster speed. As the wing fired a row of bullets, a row of bullet holes appeared on the Italian Machi fighter and it plunged into the sea.

However, the British pilot was about to look for another target when a machine gun roared behind him... Just as he shot down the Italian fighter, the German fighter had also locked onto him.

A Hurricane fighter dived towards an Italian Br bomber that was preparing to carry out a low-altitude bombing. The pilot noticed that the target of this Br bomber was the British aircraft carrier HMS Dreadnought.

The pilot knew how dangerous it was, because there were fighters ready to take off parked on the deck of the HMS Dreadnought, so even if there were German fighters chasing him from behind, he had to shoot down the witness.

But just as the pilot locked onto the target and shot it down, several clouds of black fog suddenly appeared in front of him, and then with a "boom" the plane lost balance and fell heavily into the sea.

At the moment the plane tumbled and fell into the sea, the pilot screamed in anger... because he knew that it was not the enemy that destroyed the fighter plane, but the anti-aircraft guns on his own warship.

The anti-aircraft gunner who committed this "crime" was stunned. He aimed at the Italian bomber in front, but because the plane was too fast, the shells he fired could not keep up, and instead destroyed his own fighter behind.

Then, he could only watch the Italian bomber drop rows of bombs with whistling sounds... and below was the "Dreadnought" aircraft carrier.

"Boom boom", in a burst of fire and explosions, the fighters on the flight deck of the "Dreadnought" aircraft carrier were blown to pieces. Since these fighters were full of fuel, they immediately caused a fire. Many British soldiers were affected by the fire. They were ignited and screamed wildly. Many people couldn't stand the pain and jumped from the aircraft carrier into the sea.

The anti-aircraft gunner stopped his actions because he thought it was all caused by him because of his own mistakes.

But he soon didn't need to worry about it, because a Machi fighter swooped down and then "swooshed" and fired a row of bullets at the anti-aircraft gun.

There were whistling sounds, machine gun fire, and explosions. The sea and the sky were filled with flames and black smoke. A fierce and brutal sea and air battle was unfolding over the port of Syracuse...