"It's ridiculous, we have the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean!" Mussolini held back his anger and did not shout this sentence out. The Italian prime minister habitually raised his chin and looked coldly at Admiral Cavliani, who had a calm face.

"Can the Navy give any reasonable explanation for this?" Mussolini asked loudly.

For the construction of the Italian navy, he has spent a lot of effort, resources, manpower, and national policy, and almost everything the navy needs can be taken from him. At the same time, Mussolini also pinned great hopes on the navy, and he looked forward to the day when the powerful navy of the Kingdom of Italy would help him complete his magnificent dream of dominating the Mediterranean and rebuilding the glory of the Roman Empire.

"Most of our transport ships are assembled in the eastern ports, ready to transport army reinforcements to land in Greece, and at the moment due to lack of fuel, we are temporarily unable to sail, if we can allocate a batch of fuel in time..."

"And what about the escort fleet, you won't tell me that the naval fleet is also short of fuel." Mussolini's face was covered with a layer of frost, he knew that the navy had always been a little dissatisfied with his appropriation of the base's reserve fuel supplement industry, but he didn't expect that they would use this method to blackmail at a critical moment, it seems that he still underestimated the conservative forces in the navy, if he can get through the difficulties this time, he must look good at this group of maggots in navy uniforms.

"The main fleet of the Kingdom Navy has entered the first level of combat readiness and can be dispatched at any time. But we have to take it into account. Once the fleet departed, it was bound to engage in a head-on battle with the Mediterranean task forces of the British, French, and German navies. According to the information available so far, the strength of the landing fleet is very strong, so this will not be a skirmish, but a decisive battle at sea. Of course, the navy would not be afraid to face a formidable enemy, but if the war was unfavorable and the fleet suffered too much loss, the coastal defenses of mainland Italy would crumble and the entire maritime frontier would be open to the enemy. Cavriani ignored Mussolini's ugly face and replied calmly.

"The Anglo-French navy suffered heavy losses in the war with Germany, and even with the addition of the Germans, it was no match for the navy of the Kingdom of Italy." Mussolini suddenly felt that there was nothing to be angry with this stubborn chief of staff, and almost forgot that this guy himself was a coward and was firmly opposed to Italy's entry into the war from the very beginning. It seemed that the Navy needed a more backbone person for the position, and Mussolini decided to go back and look at the Navy archives to prepare for a replacement.

"It is true that as you said, the British and French navies are not as strong as before, but they still retain an elite force that is experienced in combat and well-trained. At present, the navies of the three countries have deployed seven battleships in the Mediterranean, with more than 28 light and heavy cruisers, two of the latest aircraft carriers, 60 destroyers of various types, and a considerable number of submarines operating in the waters around Italy. The number of merchant ships we lost last month has already reached 350,000 tons, and the destroyers and cruisers escorting us have also suffered serious losses, I believe you should have read the report. ”

Cavliani was there to talk, but Mussolini's emotions were on the verge of exploding.

"Our fleet is invincible!" Mussolini finally couldn't help but roar, his face flushed, and the veins under the skin of his forehead bulged, looking like a bull with a whip in the face.

"But we are not ready for war, and I have long warned you, as I reminded you at the meeting of the High Command four months ago, that the navy of the Kingdom of Italy is not ready for a large-scale war. I hadn't taken the German Navy into account at the time, so the situation is worse now than it was four months ago. The new warships that we have just commissioned still need time to run in, and the newly recruited officers and men generally lack training.

Due to the lack of qualified technicians, the retrofitting of the old combat ship is progressing very slowly. The naval blockade of the British and French navies has reduced our material reserves to a dangerous level. All of our ongoing shipbuilding projects are all supported by the materials we have accumulated in the past few years. Now that Britain and Germany control the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, Italian ships now can't even get out of the Mediterranean. My Excellency the Prime Minister, your wish has been fulfilled in a sense, and the Mediterranean can indeed now be called "our sea", the sea that traps us. Cavliani's emotions also became a little agitated, not only in his words, but also with a mocking expression on his face.

"Enough! You know who you're talking to, I'm the Prime Minister of Italy, the leader of the Fascist National Party! Mussolini was so angry that the other party had so mercilessly punctured the dream he had weaved.

"Of course I know, but I also have my duty, I am the Chief of Staff of the Navy of the Kingdom of Italy! Your Excellency the Prime Minister! Cavliani also raised his voice, and the chief of the general staff of the Navy also opened up at this time, for the sake of the kingdom and the navy, someone must stand in front and tell the truth.

"No, it's not anymore, Admiral Cavliani, I dismiss you as Chief of the General Staff of the Navy in the name of Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy." Mussolini, almost losing his mind in shame, slapped the table and announced the dismissal of the chief of staff of the navy.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister..."Badoglio hurriedly tried to persuade, the current scene was something he did not expect, and he did not expect Cavriani to be so strong.

"Don't say more, I've already decided." Mussolini glared at Badogglio viciously.

"I take your orders and would like to know what your reasons are." Cavliani's eyes were cold, and there was a sneer on the corner of his mouth.

"Cowardice, dereliction of duty!" Mussolini replied through gritted teeth.

"I will not accept these baseless allegations."

"Bastard, I don't care if you accept it or not, you've been fired now, get out of my office immediately!" Mussolini was already mad, and he jerked up a metal stamp box on the table and threw it at the admiral.

Cavliani turned slightly, dodging the attack that could have caused him injury, and now he knew that the time had to leave the game, and then continue to provoke the arrogant dictator, who knows what crazy things he will do.

Cavliani put back on his military cap, buttoned up his gold-rimmed glasses, and then gave an Italian military salute to Mussolini, who was being held by Ziano and Badoglio, before turning around and striding out of his office. If anyone were standing in the corridor at this moment, they would see the relieved expression on the face of the former chief of staff of the Italian Navy.

Dominica. Six years older than Mussolini, Cavliani fought in World War I and the Italo-Turkish War, and also served as director of the Italian Naval Academy. The admiral's resume was flawless, an example of an Italian naval officer, and he was an absolute big ship.

After he became Chief of Staff of the Imperial Navy, the admiral devoted most of his energy to the construction of the naval fleet, and all the battleships currently owned by the Navy were built with his advice and support, and he was also able to accept new things, and with his help the famous Italian submarine force was built.

Cavliani's dream is the same as Mussolini's, to build a naval force capable of dominating the Mediterranean. At first, his cooperation with Mussolini was quite tacit, and the relationship between the two sides was very close for a time, because Mussolini favored and supported the navy, and as a senior naval officer, of course, he had to repay it.

It was not until that day in June of this year that Mussolini, in defiance of his vehemently objections, forcibly declared war on Britain and France at an emergency meeting of the High Command, and the image of the Caesar of the new century collapsed in Cavliani's mind for the first time.

As Chief of the Naval Staff, he had access to the most classified information collected by Italy, and he knew what a formidable force the Italian Navy would face. Of course, he was not afraid to fight a strong enemy, in fact he had been preparing for this war, but the problem was that everything was still in its infancy, and the Italian Navy was not yet capable of facing such a grim situation.

According to his timetable, it would take at least two years to prepare for war, and in two years the Italian Navy would have built a powerful fleet with all eight battleships and seven heavy cruisers and twenty-six light cruisers, capable of crushing any country's Mediterranean fleet, even the main fleet of the opposing side, provided that it had the full support of the Italian Air Force.

But now is definitely not the time for war, at this time the Italian Navy has on paper four old battleships and two new ones, but two of the former are still being modernized, and the latter is just entering service and is a bunch of rookies from top to bottom. Although the eight heavy cruisers and the twelve light cruisers had already formed combat effectiveness, thinking of the larger cruiser groups of Britain and France, Cavriani did not have the confidence to confront them at all.

He began to be disgusted by Mussolini's hubris and ignorance, he could not accept the fact that this was imposed on the navy, and he could not bear the great fleet, which he had painstakingly built, only to be destroyed by the reckless declaration of war by its leaders, just before it was about to take shape.

But as a naval officer of the kingdom, he can only obey the orders given by the higher-ups, and he can't even do anything in the middle or disobey the law, because it is related to the responsibilities entrusted to him by the state, and at the same time, he violates the standards of his life.

After the start of the war, the Italian navy was indeed working hard, as Mussolini expected, in the early days, because of the German navy, the British and French navies could not put the main force into the Mediterranean theater, and the Italian navy did have some upper hand.

But when the war in Europe ended, it was Italy that alone suffered the wrath of the two navies. The performance of the ships of the two sides can be compensated by technological transformation, but the gap in the quality of personnel cannot be caught up overnight. After several skirmishes of contact, the originally confident Italian naval officers and men finally recognized this fact, because every time the small detachments of the two sides fought, the Italian fleet always lost the absolute numerical superiority.

Especially after Germany declared war on Italy, the top naval officers were no longer thinking about how to win, but how to survive this war that they saw as completely meaningless, and how to fight for a decent ending for the Italian navy.

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