Chapter 674： Old battleship

Marshal Italo Balbo, born in Ferrara, Italy, graduated from the University of Florence.

During the First World War he served as an officer in the Alpine Army. It can be considered a highly qualified general, and at the same time, he is also one of Mussolini's team.

He once led the Black Shirt militia to march to Rome, and was highly regarded by Mussolini, and was promoted to Minister of Aviation by Mussolini.

You know, he is a person who knows nothing about flying, but he soon learned to fly and set about reorganizing the Royal Italian Air Force.

As a fanatic under Mussolini, he has done many great things.

In 1930, he led a high-speed maritime flight squadron composed of the Savior-Advance to visit America, setting a record.

He single-handedly dropped a bomb from the air, killing thousands of Ethiopians.

In 1933, he led 24 seaplanes to complete the transatlantic flight from Italy to Chicago.

Chicago named a Balboa Avenue as a commemoration, and Franklin Roosevelt invited him to lunch.

It can be said that he is definitely a legend in the Italian military and political circles.

Unfortunately, Mussolini dismissed him. On the surface, he left the air force and became the governor of Libya. He was promoted, but in fact, he was promoted because of his high reputation, which caused Mussolini's suspicion. Was rising and falling.

It is gold, and it shines everywhere. After arriving in Villa, Balbo transformed Libya from a backward colony into a model of Italian province, known as the fourth coast of Italy.

Especially after Germany exploited a large amount of Libya's oil, Balbo began to introduce the petrochemical industry, and started the petrochemical industry in Tripoli, making Libya a colony.

But recently, Balbo has a headache.

The European battlefield is in full swing, and on the battlefield of North Africa, Italy has also begun to expand its colony eastward. They very much hope to defeat the British, occupy Egypt, control the Suez Canal, and even expand to the Middle East!

However, the situation is not optimistic.

On the European battlefield, the British expeditionary forces were all lost, while in Egypt, the 250,000 Italian troops could not beat the tens of thousands of British troops!

Now, I heard that the German army finally landed in North Africa. He immediately took a plane and prepared to go to the German base in Libya. This base has now grown to a large scale, and even the runway in the base can take off and land large. The passenger plane is out.

Sitting on a makeshift bunk and looking at another accompanying plane outside, Balbo lit a cigarette.

There are a lot of things he has to worry about. The German army with strong combat capability has come. This has a positive effect on the situation in the North African battlefield. However, he faces another question, who is the commander?

………

Benghazi.

A sharp air defense alarm sounded throughout the port. With the sound of the alarm, all the Italian sailors ran toward their positions nervously.

Not only are the British dominated on the ground, but even in the sky, the British can often be seen. It may be that they were stimulated on the European battlefield and went to North Africa to find balance. During this time, the British bombers, They appeared almost every day to bomb the Italian navy in Libya.

On the east side of the port, is the old armored cruiser Gilgio of the Italian Navy. This battleship has been in service for many years, with a sense of vicissitudes.

Sailor Corradio Mazzola, sitting nervously on his gun position, this BredaM193520mm anti-aircraft gun is the anti-aircraft weapon on this warship. Compared with other caliber antiaircraft guns, its power is very poor, the only one The advantage is the high rate of fire.

At the same time, even this type of anti-aircraft gun was added later. The anti-aircraft guns used on land were barely installed on the deck, without even a shield for the antiaircraft guns, and even sandbags were used to pile up bunkers around them as cover.

Sandbags on the warship, this kind of simple old ship, the British will not let go!

Just sitting on his gun position, the shadow of a British bomber appeared in the distant field of vision.

The British bombed the oil base last time and suffered heavy losses. After that, the British learned to behave. Every time they fly, they detour to the sea and come from the north. In this way, they are completely outside the radar detection of the Libyan oil base. Therefore, they never It has not been intercepted.

Two British bombers roared and flew from the sky, seeming to pick up soft persimmons, and dived down towards the Gilgios again!

"Fire!" the gunner shouted loudly.

Stepping on the percussion device, the 20mm anti-aircraft shells flew up to the sky, accompanied by the sound of pounding fire, one after another, the shells fell out from the other side.

It looked good, but the two bombers, after diving and dropping bombs, made a chic steering motion and flew away.

The bomb exploded dozens of meters away from the warship, and water splashed more than ten meters high.

ended.

After letting go of his feet, Cladio felt his brain swell. When he fired, the sound of guns in his ears was reverberating all the time. He looked up. On the bridge, the captain and the first mate Personally, they all went on.

Victory again, driven away the British, they must have ran to the shore to drink red wine!

Thinking of red wine, Cladio couldn't help sticking out his tongue and licking his chapped lips. It was really unfair. As officers, they could drink red wine at any time, but as soldiers, they could only get a glass every day!

Now, the British bomber flew away, and the rest of the time was spent on deck.

Sitting on the deck next to the gun, looking at the shore in the distance, before the war, from here you can see the girl swimming on the beach, but now, there is nothing.

It's so boring!

After waiting for more than ten minutes sitting on the very boring Cladio, he looked up at the sky casually, and suddenly realized that two planes flew again in the direction of the British plane flying away!

"Alarm, alarm, here comes the British!" he shouted loudly, and quickly ran back to his gun position.

At this time, there are not many people left.

According to the previous rules, the British came once a day. Today, who knew they killed a carbine, the officers went ashore and drank, and many low-level officers also drove away. When Cladio was sitting on his gun, Even his gunner could not be found.

There was no one to command. These ordinary sailors stared at the sky nervously. The British plane was getting closer.

"Brothers don't froze, let's do it!" Claudio used his anti-aircraft artillery to aim at the sky. Maybe he will get a promotion because of this opportunity!

Fire!

He stepped on the trigger, and the 20mm anti-aircraft shells flew into the sky again. This time, the two bombers did not evade!