Chapter 73 Fleet

"Look, warships!" Qin Chuan and others heard someone shouting as soon as they stepped onto the dock.

The German soldiers on the dock quickly became busy, either looking for cover or preparing artillery... But in fact, if it was an enemy warship, doing these would be useless. They could use large-caliber naval guns to raze the dock to the ground from several kilometers away.

Qin Chuan followed the soldiers and ran out of the part blocked by the cruise ship. Sure enough, several black spots slowly emerged on the sea surface. Qin Chuan habitually raised his rifle and looked in that direction through the scope, then put it down again... The 2.5x scope has no effect on long-distance objects.

Then Qin Chuan took the telescope hanging on his waist to observe.

This is a priest 6*30 telescope, a German standard military telescope, 6 represents the magnification, 30 represents the objective lens caliber... Qin Chuan, who specializes in the history of the German army, knows that such a telescope is worth 115.50 marks, which is equivalent to the cost of an MG34 machine gun at the exchange rate at the time.

So Qin Chuan protected it very well, and tried not to take it out of the lens box if he didn't need it, so as not to dirty the lens with dust in the desert.

Several warships appeared in the aperture of Qin Chuan's telescope, and then several more...

"Whose warships are they?" Werner asked nervously.

Qin Chuan saw a little red on the warship's flag, so he answered: "It's Italian!"

The Italian flag at this time was a little different from the modern one. In addition to the green, white and red colors, the emblem of the Savoy dynasty, the red shield and the white cross, was added in the middle. (Note: This Italian flag withdrew from the stage of history in 1946 with the fall of the Italian royal family.)

The German soldiers cheered when they heard this. Although they did not recognize the combat effectiveness of the Italian army, the appearance of an Allied fleet at this time and the reinforcements were exciting anyway.

The most excited one was of course Alfredo. He had been like a shadow in the German army during this period... He always chose the safest place to hide, and the German soldiers were accustomed to his behavior.

It is said that Kuhn and Bazel discussed whether to take Alfredo to a corner and make him disappear forever, but finally gave up the idea... On the one hand, Alfredo's presence did not affect the morale of the troops, after all, he was not a German soldier, and on the other hand, they were worried that if the news leaked out, it would affect the alliance between Germany and Italy.

"Look, Italian warships, our warships!" Alfredo raised his hands and shouted: "Long live Italy! Long live the navy! Great, I can go back, I'm safe..."

Alfredo couldn't help but kneel on the ground and cry, and all the German soldiers looked at Alfredo with contempt. Werner also spit in Alfredo's direction and said disdainfully: "Italian guy!"

But Qin Chuan could understand Alfredo's feelings, because this was not a place for people to stay. It was full of blood and death at all times, full of dangers at all times, and challenged the limit of human endurance again and again.

In fact, Qin Chuan had the urge to yell and even cry like Alfredo several times in his heart, but Qin Chuan knew that it would not help.

Suddenly, several black shadows in the sky came into Qin Chuan's sight. Qin Chuan raised his telescope and looked at it. His face changed drastically and he said, "Mosquito reconnaissance plane!"

Bazel looked in the direction Qin Chuan indicated and nodded and said, "The British are prepared. They know we have reinforcements and are likely to send the Air Force to intercept!"

Bazel shouted to the soldiers, "Prepare for air defense. There will be a fierce battle soon!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldiers responded and turned around and got busy.

The so-called air defense preparation is to build an air defense position.

The equipment is of course taken from the warehouse... The British warehouse has all kinds of equipment, and air defense equipment is no exception.

However, the British Army did not have high air defense needs. The British Army's previous opponent was the Italian Army. Although the Italian Army had a large number of fighter planes, most of them were old and backward. The British Air Force did not take them seriously at all, so the British Army did not have many air defense equipment.

The German soldiers searched in the warehouse for a long time before they brought out more than a dozen Bofors 40MM anti-aircraft guns.

This anti-aircraft gun was made in Sweden... It was a weapon used by very few Allied and Axis countries and was regarded as standard air defense equipment: the British Army purchased it directly from Sweden and Poland, and the German Army purchased it indirectly from Sweden through Hungary.

Because countries around the world use it for air defense, it is also called the "Air Defense Screen of All Nations".

Then the soldiers took out dozens of Vickers heavy machine guns from the warehouse, arranged them in circles of sandbags, and quickly built an air defense position.

However, there were only fifteen small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns in total... This air defense force can only be said to be better than nothing, and it mainly depends on the anti-aircraft firepower of the Italian fleet.

The fleet was getting closer and closer, and the national flag with a red shield and a white cross emblem fluttered in the sea breeze. It was indeed the Italian fleet, and Italian naval soldiers were waving flags on the bows in the distance.

Seeing their lineup, Qin Chuan's heart was half relieved, because this fleet had ten ships, including a battleship, seven destroyers, and the other two were transport ships, obviously transporting reinforcements.

Although these warships seemed a bit old, they could still handle ordinary bombings.

"Plane!" Someone screamed at this time: "British planes!"

Sure enough, a row of black spots appeared in the dazzling sunlight in the east, densely packed with at least hundreds of planes.

"Air defense alarm!" Bazel shouted.

A shrill whistle sounded over the port. On the one hand, it notified the German soldiers to be prepared, and on the other hand, it was also a warning to the Italian fleet and asked them to approach the port and fight side by side with the air defense forces on the shore.

However, Bazel's efforts were in vain, because when the air defense alarm whistled, the speed of the Italian fleet slowed down significantly.

At first, Qin Chuan thought that the Italian fleet was preparing for battle, because the fleet was indeed not suitable for docking when encountering an air raid. They should be dispersed on a wider sea surface and travel at high speed. If necessary, they should also make some snake-like maneuvers to avoid the bombing of enemy aircraft.

Later, Qin Chuan discovered that this was not the case. The first reaction of the Italian fleet was actually to escape.

The British bombers swooped down with a roar. What surprised Qin Chuan was that the target of the British bombers was not the Italian fleet, but the port and several cruise ships docked at the port.