How could the Italian government not know about the British resentment against Italian East Africa? Not only did they know it, but they also knew what made the British resentful so deeply. It was the Italian Indian Ocean Fleet stationed in East Africa. To be more precise, it was the Italian Indian Ocean fleet.
Submarine formations in the fleet.
If you want to say which fleet currently has the most submarines, it has to be the Indian Ocean Fleet based in East Africa.
You must know that the Italian Navy currently has a total of 39 submarines, 24 of which are in the Indian Ocean Fleet. Among these 39 submarines, there are three early-stage submarines with poor performance and can only be used for teaching, and seven offshore submarines. In addition, there are
Two of them were put into service after the war. Look, it's not like the Navy has basically placed all its submarines in the Indian Ocean.
To be fair, it is very reasonable for the Italian Navy to place submarines in the Indian Ocean. Italy has an advantage in surface ships in the Mediterranean, coupled with the Suez Canal, so the most urgent need for submarines is in the Indian Ocean. Because of the location of East Africa, it is
The interception effect in the Indian Ocean is excellent, but since surface ships do not have an advantage, submarines that can navigate underwater become the priority choice.
Due to the large investment in Italian submarines, their performance is very good. Taking the C-5, which is currently the most equipped in the Italian Navy, as an example, the submarine has a total length of 71.55 meters, a width of 7.6 meters, a water displacement of 1,230 tons, and an underwater displacement of 1,510 tons.
.Equipped with a 76mm deck gun, 4 torpedo tubes (three in the front and one in the rear) and 16 torpedoes.
The maximum diving depth is 65 meters. It is equipped with two 400-horsepower diesel engines. The maximum speed on the water is 14 knots and the maximum underwater speed is 5 knots. The maximum endurance is 7,500 nautical miles/10 knots, and the personnel establishment is 27 people.
As for the newly developed C-6 submarine, it is even better. It has a total length of 81.4 meters, a width of 8.1 meters, a surface displacement of 1590 tons, and an underwater displacement of 1910 tons. It is equipped with a 76mm deck gun and 5 torpedo launchers.
tubes (three in the front and two in the rear) and 22 torpedoes.
The maximum diving depth is 55 meters. It is equipped with two 500-horsepower diesel engines. The maximum speed on the water is 14.5 knots and the maximum underwater speed is 6 knots. The maximum endurance is 8,000 nautical miles/10 knots, and the personnel establishment is 29 people.
The Italian Navy not only has excellent submarines, but its use of submarines is also unrivaled in the world.
While countries were still using submarines as auxiliary warships and their combat targets were enemy warships, the Italian Navy had developed a new tactic for submarines, specifically targeting enemy sea supply transportation lines. This tactic was named Sea Wolf Tactics.
It can be seen from the name, it is obvious that someone with the memory of later generations has a hand in it.
The East African Fleet also had its own countermeasures against the gathering of British and French troops in Sudan and British East Africa. During this period, its submarine formations frantically attacked transport ships.
On the blue sea and clear sky, the officers and soldiers on board the C-27 submarine, which had just experienced a storm, breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the submarine can sail underwater, it can only last for two or three hours, and then it must surface. The reason is very simple, the submarine also needs to ventilate, otherwise the officers and soldiers inside will suffocate.
And a submarine of more than a thousand tons, although small, is still so helpless in the face of strong winds.
Of course, the officers and soldiers inside the submarine also felt uncomfortable. The constant shaking was very uncomfortable, and some people almost vomited out bitter bile.
The storm finally calmed down, and the captain of C-27 took into consideration everyone's hard work and gave him a rare rest time. So in Class A of C-27, the submarine officers and soldiers lying in rows only wore their underpants and enjoyed themselves.
A rare moment of relaxation.
Some people were not satisfied lying on the sunbath, so they took out the wine they had collected and took a sip. It felt so comfortable. Of course, it is impossible to drink wine alone. After sharing it with comrades, only half a bottle was left when they came back.
This caused a lot of curses and a lot of laughter from the comrades-in-arms.
However, there were also people enjoying the sunbathing and chatting at the same time.
"You said we would be so lucky if we had the U-9. Three 12,000-ton patrol ships were sunk in less than an hour."
"Defoe, stop daydreaming. I know you also want to be a hero like Captain Weidigen. But you only see the success of U-9 and don't see that there are too many accidental factors. Even now
Once again, the U-9 will not be able to reach that height. Look at how effective German submarines are in attacking warships now. The failure rate is extremely high."
This young man named Defoe joined the submarine force before the war broke out. He was pretty good in other aspects, but he had serious dreams of heroism.
The other crew members on board the C-27 asked this good guy to wake up. Heroism is a must in the military, especially in the navy, which needs more cooperation. As for the failure of the submarine attack, there is a high probability that it will be sunk or destroyed.
captured.
Although he was educated by other crew members, Defoe is also a very persistent person and has no intention of changing his ideas.
Just like this time, Defoe directly ignored the other party's words and continued. "Even if we don't target battleships, then why can't we ask to go to the 1st Submarine Group? I heard that they have achieved good results in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The results of the battle. And I heard that a large part of the ships they sunk were military supplies and personnel ships. If we can be in the first group, we can better attack the British."
No one refuted what Defoe said this time, because basically everyone present thought so.
It should be noted here that the submarine fleet is now divided into two groups, of which the first group is responsible for the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is mainly responsible for ships passing through the Suez Canal. Currently, after Italy occupies Malta, the maritime transportation route into Western Europe through the Mediterranean has been cut off.
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However, given the importance of the Suez Canal and the threat that Italian East Africa posed to the British and French colonies, there were also many Allied ships transporting military supplies and soldiers through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Coupled with the narrow waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, this also resulted in
Even though Britain and France deployed many warships here, they still could not stop the hunting of the first group.
As for their second group, it is responsible for the Indian Ocean region.
At present, the shipping route from India to Europe needs to go around the Cape of Good Hope. As the most dangerous East African waters, transport ships departing from India will not go there at all. Instead, they will go directly south to the Maldives Islands, and then cross the Central Indian Ocean to Mauritius.
Islands, and then take the sea off Madagascar to the Cape of Good Hope.
The current twelve submarines of the Second Brigade are responsible for such a large area, which is too difficult. The results are naturally much less than those of the First Brigade.
The suddenly quiet atmosphere made Captain Claudio, who was sitting aside looking at his wife's photo, immediately feel something bad happened.
I saw him walking over and patting Defoe on the shoulder. "Defoe, if everyone goes to the Red Sea, Lieutenant Colonel Barrera (Commander of the Second Group) will get his butt kicked by Lieutenant General Hilma, but you won't
You want to see the Lieutenant Colonel get his ass kicked."
Captain Claudio's words made the atmosphere lively again. Everyone admired Lieutenant Colonel Barrera for the captain of their submarine brigade.
So a uniform voice sounded, "Of course I don't want to."
At this time, a soldier said funnyly, "Sorry, I want to say that I am really looking forward to it."
"I'll tell the Lieutenant Colonel that you're screwed."
"Don't worry, we will stop him from filing a complaint, because we must all go together."
Just as everyone was joking with each other, someone suddenly stood up and pointed into the distance.
"Look to the northwest to see if there is a plume of smoke."
This sentence immediately made the resting crew members stand up and look around, and Captain Claudio even picked up a pair of binoculars to observe carefully.
"There is indeed a smoke column moving to the northwest. There are quite a few ships. Let's go over and take a look."
Following Captain Claudio's words, C-27 immediately became busy, and soon the submarine slowly disappeared on the sea.
