The Tunis Strait is a choke point and a key sea area for Italian investigation. Especially after the French formation went to sea, more ships and airships patrolled here. Even yesterday, an Italian small warship boldly came to the waters off Tunisia.
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For this reason, the French side gave the opponent a severe lesson and beat the opponent until he fled in confusion before giving up.
Lessons have been learned, but since the other side dares to come, it is obvious that they are not afraid of France's maritime strength in Tunisia. This makes the reinforcement formations preparing to pass through the Tunis Strait have fewer opportunities to choose, unless they are willing to stand up to the Italians.
sight.
At this time, the darkness became an excellent cover, allowing these figures to sneak through the area.
The whirring sound of the motor sounded in the waters off Tunisia. A small patrol boat carefully observed the surrounding movements in the night. Its searchlight kept shining on the surrounding areas.
At this time, in this patrol boat, more than a dozen French naval officers and soldiers opened their eyes wide and observed the movements around them.
"Nothing has happened, everything is normal."
"No suspicious circumstances were found. It's safe."
As the officers and soldiers of the patrol boat continued to observe the surrounding waters to ensure safety, the transmitter sent a safety coded message at the captain's signal.
There will be more than one patrol boat out tonight. In fact, starting from Bizerte at the end of the western section of the Tunisian strait, to Sfax, which is already beyond the scope of the Tunisian Strait in the eastern section, the French side has arranged many ships.
Conduct patrols in our own waters. The reason why the French are so aggressive is because there is a formation that wants to pass through here at night.
The best way to pass through here is to use the cover of night, sail quickly off the coast of Tunisia, and cross the strait in one fell swoop before sunrise tomorrow.
Vice Admiral Sturdy was thinking the same thing as he was leading the British and French reinforcement fleets through this sea area.
"Report, the French side sent a telegram. No abnormalities were found on the Tunisian side of the strait. In addition, Lieutenant General Dufournel sent a telegram asking if the speed should be increased now."
At this moment on the flagship, Lieutenant General Sturdy was listening to the communications officer reporting the situation.
"Tell Lieutenant General Dufresneel not to worry now. Increasing the speed late at night may cause unnecessary harm. The speed of 14 knots is enough for us to leave before dawn."
Lieutenant General Sturdy asked the communications officer to convey his meaning.
At this time, Vice Admiral Sturdy had already waited for the French formation. After a brief exchange, the reinforcement formation became a reinforcement fleet. Sturdy was promoted to fleet commander and commander of the British formation, while the French commander
This is Lieutenant General Dufournel, who also serves as the Chief of Staff of the Fleet.
In addition, after some friendly exchanges and discussions, the two agreed that the northern passage near the island of Malta was too dangerous, and that only the southern passage near the Libyan Sea was the best option.
For this reason, Vice Admiral Sturdy specially reported to the Mediterranean Fleet led by Admiral Cardon and informed them of his course of action.
Of course, it is not enough to just rely on the reinforcement fleet to cross the Tunis Strait. France's maritime power in Tunisia also needs to explore the route in advance to ensure that the fleet can safely slip through the Strait without being discovered by the Italians.
It's looking good so far, they're lucky.
Yes, luck is one of the guarantees for success in action. As long as you are lucky enough, sometimes plans that may seem unreliable will succeed due to a combination of circumstances.
So far, Lieutenant General Sturdy feels that he has been lucky.
With the help of the French colonial navy, the joint reinforcement fleet formed by Britain and France sneaked through the Tunis Strait under the cover of night.
At this time, Italy still knew nothing about the reinforcement fleet that had slipped through the Tunis Strait, because most of its attention was attracted by the Mediterranean fleet.
There were very few ships in the waters off Libya at this time. Previously, due to the harassment of British warships from Malta, Italy was the first to create an escort formation.
Therefore, there are very few ships in Libyan waters at this time. In addition to fishing boats in the offshore, there are only some smuggling ships here.
Yes, it is a smuggling ship. Although Italy and France have fallen into a state of war and the two countries have fought fiercely in Europe. But how to say, if there is demand, there will be sales, especially after the two countries cut off their economic and trade exchanges.
Many people have noticed the huge profits.
In Europe, due to strict regulations, smuggling is not a serious problem, but in Africa, which is vast and sparsely populated and has poor supervision, this kind of smuggling is becoming increasingly rampant.
Those adventurers who wander in the gray area smuggle fuel vehicles and their parts from Libya to Tunisia, and then load tobacco, olives, wool, wine and other materials from Tunisia, smuggle them back to Libya, and then pass through
The transport fleet returned to the mainland.
The doubling of profits from this transaction is enough to tempt all brave people. A sage named Ma once said that as long as there is a hundred percent profit, people will disregard all laws.
The smuggling surrounding Tunisia and Libya demonstrates the truth in his words.
At this time, a smuggling boat disguised as a fishing boat appeared on the sea.
Boxes of sea fish are placed on the deck of the ship, which looks like a fishing boat with a full harvest, but if you open the cabin, it is filled with bags of auto parts. Several crew members, led by the captain, operate
This incredibly fast fishing boat is heading towards Tunisia.
When running a smuggling operation, speed is the most important thing.
First of all, it needs to be faster than the anti-smuggling ship so that it can respond calmly when encountering official forces to avoid everyone getting the stolen goods. Secondly, speed is still profit. Smuggling also needs to be efficient. When the price of a certain commodity fluctuates, it can be the first time to respond.
The ship that brings back the cargo will always receive the most generous rewards.
The gray merchants who roam this sea area all understand this truth, so these smuggling ships are willing to have sufficient horsepower in their ships as long as it does not affect the cargo.
Of course, these alone are not enough. The crew members also need to be more vigilant. Always pay attention to any movements in the surroundings, as the anti-smuggling ship may appear from somewhere.
At this time, at the highest point of the smuggling ship, Captain Saba kept looking around.
"Captain what's wrong with you?"
"I feel something is wrong."
"What's going on?"
"My gut tells me something is very wrong now."
Captain Saba's words made the crew members become nervous. Their captain's intuition was very trusted by everyone. They once said something was wrong, and found three anti-smuggling ships surrounding them. If everyone hadn't been alert and discovered it earlier,
They will definitely be sent to the desert to mine.
Just like this, when everyone, led by Captain Saba, was nervously paying attention to the surroundings, a crew member suddenly shouted. "Pay attention to the smoke column to our left front, and there is a ship approaching us."
After being reminded by this crew member, Captain Saba also noticed it.
As a captain who has been drifting at sea for half his life, his rich experience made him immediately feel that something was wrong.
"This smoke column is wrong, it's a battleship coming."
The experienced Captain Saba immediately saw the situation, because warships are burned with the best anthracite, and their smoke plumes are completely different from those of economical merchant ships. Therefore, an experienced person can see it at a glance.
"Captain, what do we do now?"
As soon as they heard that it was a warship, the crew immediately became nervous. No matter which side of the warship it was, they would be wary of their suspicious fishing boat, and smuggling would be caught no matter where it was.
"Now turn the ship around and head towards the shallow sea."
At this moment, Captain Saba immediately gave orders, and he personally took the helm to turn the ship. They just wanted to stay away from these warships and did not want them to discover them.
But this wish was not discovered by God today.
At this moment, ships in the distance have appeared on the horizon, and captain Saba saw the tall warships through the telescope.
"Come on, this is a battleship of the Allied Powers. Or a battleship."
At this moment, Captain Saba's face was pale, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Because anyone who is not stupid would know that the sudden appearance of the battleship, or several battleships, must be carrying out some secret mission. If he accidentally bumped into the opponent, what could he do?
It's strange to eat good fruit. Maybe in order to keep it secret, they even threw people and boats to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.
"At full speed, leave quickly."
At this moment, Captain Saba hoped that the other party had not discovered them. As long as he could escape from here, he would go back and surrender to the customs.
But unfortunately, the Saba captain's wishes came true, they have been noticed.
They saw a destroyer chasing them from a distance. Its extremely high speed made Saba and the others who were trying to escape look like their efforts were in vain.
Facing the menacing destroyer, Saba and the others lost the desire to escape. At first sight, the destroyer was traveling at a speed of thirty knots. How could they escape from a smuggling ship that could only reach a maximum speed of 19 knots?
"Everyone pretends to be innocent. We are fishermen out fishing."
At this moment, everyone on the smuggling boat tried to look like fishermen, but now they could only hope that the other party would just conduct an inspection.
"collapse"
However, the sudden explosion of artillery shells from the side plunged everyone on the smuggling ship into despair. It was obvious that the other party had no intention of boarding their ship and only wanted to sink them and eliminate them.
"Keep running."
Sitting back and waiting for death was not the idea of these brave smugglers. At this moment, the desire to survive filled their brains.
The smuggling ship was swaying from side to side, trying to influence the opponent's bombardment.
"Beng~Beng~Beng..."
Then several consecutive shell explosions sounded around the ship, indicating that the position was still effective. However, as long as you are clear-headed, you will know that unless the opponent suddenly has a power failure, otherwise this will only slow down the death of yourself and others.
"Ram, come and take the helm."
Saba also knew this. After handing the rudder to his deputy, he dove into the captain's cabin. After opening a secret cabin in the captain's cabin, he took out a Marconi company's latest wireless radio.
Smuggling ships also need to keep in contact at all times, so it is normal to bring a radio.
Saba then showed a fierce expression and sent a telegram.
A few minutes later, a clear telegram was spread around.
"We encountered the British and French fleets composed of seven battleships coming from the northwest at the latitude 34.652 and longitude 14.15496 off the coast of Libya. They are chasing us. Please avoid the passing ships. I wish everyone good luck.
I am Captain Saba."
At this moment, not only the passing ships received this telegram, but also Tripoli, Palermo and other places. Of course, the first to receive the telegram were the British and French reinforcement fleets that were very close at hand.
"Lieutenant General, this is a clear telegram we just received."
The communications staff officer handed the telegram to the fleet commander, Lieutenant General Sturdy, with a strange look on his face.
"Cough cough cough..."
Lieutenant General Sturdy, who was drinking black tea, choked on the tea.
"This is the enemy's reconnaissance fishing boat. It is just a common cover-up method. It is too cheap."
The lieutenant general, who had recovered, put down the telegram with a tone that showed he had already seen through the opponent's conspiracy.
"So what do we do next?"
"Send a telegram to Admiral Cardon. We have been exposed now. We should move closer at full speed immediately. Send our position to the Admiral as well."
