When Rommel made this call, a terrible air raid siren had sounded near Sirte, and 17 Swordfish bombers were weaving through the fire web woven by anti-aircraft fire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

They saw the huge pier floating on the sea, the huge crane that was busy on the pier, and everything they didn't want to see.

If in Benghazi these British pilots were taken aback by the results of their air raids, in Sirte they were stupefied by the German construction.

This is not something that can be done in a short period of time, because here, a third huge pier is already in view, and some small transport ships can be docked.

The port of Sirte, which was previously unknown on the map, and which was not as good as Benghazi or even Tobruk, now looks almost as spectacular as Tripoli......

Unlike Benghazi, Italy, which is messy and slightly noisy, Sirte is completely under the rule of order.

The ships shuttled back and forth, under the command and dispatch of German patrol boats, and the construction of the port was in an orderly manner, as if it were a set of party that had been choreographed for a long time, and everything was going according to plan.

On the ground, the warehouses were well camouflaged and had a large number of anti-aircraft guns as cover. Unlike the loose defenses of Italian ports, the anti-aircraft fire, although not dense, is precisely covered.

Because of the early warning from Benghazi, the German air defense units here have entered the air defense mode in advance, and the anti-aircraft gun positions are guarded by soldiers, and the air defense alarm has been sounded.

Inside the port, the improvised anti-aircraft machine guns were also very targeted, and these large-caliber machine guns were concentrated near the docks and around the warehouses.

Compared to the loose anti-aircraft artillery in Italy, the Germans are all new in their hands! There were 18 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as 32 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, which surpassed the incoming British aircraft in terms of quantity and quality.

"Phew! Bang! "Even in the daytime, tracer bullets fired by the Bofors anti-aircraft guns can easily distinguish the trajectory with the naked eye.

The shells formed a barrage of flammable goods that covered the most vulnerable parts of the port's warehouses and created a shield over the docks to prevent British planes from approaching.

"Oh God! How did the Germans build so many giant docks in such a short period of time? Still with a crane? Sitting in the navigator's seat, a British officer shouted in shock as he looked at the huge port wharf below that made their hearts tremble.

He couldn't feel the faint undulation of the floating dock on the waves, because he could only feel the feeling of floating on the sea when he stood on it.

Because the pier is so huge, it is impossible to see from the plane that the pier is actually hollow and floating on the sea.

These huge docks are huge, and the German engineers have added anchor chains and ballast weights, so it's hard to be sure that these giants are just looking like they are without looking closely.

What's even more interesting is that one side of these docks sits on the shore, so it also plays a very good role in fixation - and the waves in the Mediterranean are much calmer than in the Atlantic, so the working environment of the floating dock is more suitable.

"It's no wonder that the Germans were able to quickly complete the transportation and supply of supplies at the front, and it is not unusual for them to be able to establish a port of this size in a short period of time." The front-line commander who flew the plane lamented.

The British naval pilots had heard about the fiasco at the front, and the specific reasons for the fiasco were well known to them. Now that they have seen the Germans' miraculous ability to build ports, they finally realize where they have lost.

"The Germans only need to build such a damn dock in Matroux to support them in winning the battle of El Alamein!" On another plane, a pilot who was hiding from artillery fire on the ground followed.

Soon, the first Swordfish attack aircraft crashed near the barracks on the side of the harbor under the heavy fire of German ground-based anti-aircraft artillery, dragging a long smoke trail.

After all, the Swordfish attack aircraft is an old equipment from ten years ago, and it stubbornly uses a two-wing design, so it cannot well resist the perfect defensive artillery fire of the German army.

At this time, the disadvantages of British naval aviation were finally exposed at a glance in the face of an opponent of equal strength.

There were only 17 British planes that attacked the port of Sirte! That's the huge disadvantage they have to face!

There were only 10 carrier-based aircraft on the Eagle aircraft carrier, and there were originally only 20 Swordfish attack planes on the Guanghui, and the maximum attack scale of these two aircraft carriers was only 30.

However, in a short period of half a month, the two aircraft carriers first lost 10 carrier-based aircraft in the battle of the Italian port of Taranto, and then in the battle to attack Benghazi not long ago, they were shot down by the Italian defenders......

Of course, it seems an exaggeration to say that two were shot down by the Italian defenders, since the Italians shot down only one Swordfish, and the other crashed themselves......

In the process of returning home, the British themselves crashed a Swordfish due to a malfunction, and now there are only 17 that can be handled.

Obviously, to attack a well-guarded, not weakly garrisoned port, 17 aircraft is not enough.

The numerical disadvantage put the British pilots in a very awkward position: even if they achieved success, they did not have enough strength to expand it.

Ninety percent of the huge losses caused by the bombing of Benghazi were not caused by bombs dropped by British attack planes, but by the burning of oil and gasoline.

When the Germans were defending their oil area, it was unrealistic to rely on a small number of bombs carried by carrier-based aircraft to inflict damage on a port city.

Another thing that embarrassed the British was - there was no ammunition in the port of Sirte! The actual total amount of petroleum gasoline is not much!

The main reason for this situation was that the oil pipeline to Sirte, which the Germans had prepared, was about to be opened, and there was no need for the Germans to stock up on large quantities of petroleum products in the port.

These petroleum products had been transported to Benghazi a few days ago, and had been forcibly transported by truck......

Ammunition for war will not be transported to a port like Sirte, where most of the materials are cement and steel for construction, and the rest are pipelines and various machinery and equipment.

After such an analysis, it became clear that the damage that the British planes could do in Sirte would not be as great as that of Benghazi.

Therefore, most of the gasoline stored in the port of Sirte is used as consumables for the port equipment, and the ammunition is also used by the garrison.

Compared to Benghazi, it is more of a civilian port, and because it is still under construction, it has avoided damage on a larger scale.

……

Standing on the USS Brilliance, Cunningham realized at this time that his bold decision to kill the Gulf of Sirte had many unexpected gains!

The first takeaway was that he could be sure that the Germans had the technical means to quickly build a port and wharf, which was a very important piece of military intelligence.

The second takeaway was not simple, and that was that he found the exact location of the secret port of the Germans in Africa in the future!

Such a huge gain was all due to the moment of inspiration he had when he studied the specific process of implementing the "Tantu Plan" a few days ago.

Today, because of his own inspiration, he has gained a lot of valuable information. And he has already won a great victory in the battle of Benghazi, and now he is robbing a house in Sirte, which is definitely a big victory.

"Break the radio silence, and we don't need to hide our location!" As his nervously clenched fists loosened, Cunningham's confidence returned to his face once again.

He issued a series of operational orders and began to arrange the subsequent combat missions: "Turn the fleet and assemble at the pre-planned rendezvous point C!" Accelerate northward! ”

"Send a telegram to London, confirming the previous speculation...... The Germans had the technology to quickly build large-scale port terminals in Africa...... This matter must be reported first! Feeling the slight shaking of the battleship under his feet, Cunningham gave orders one after another, and his tone was the same as before.

The success of the attack on Benghazi and the success of the sneak attack on Sirte allowed him to regain his self-confidence, and at the same time completed a detachment and transformation in his heart.

"The important port of the German army in North Africa is not Tripoli, not Benghazi, it is Sirte!" Only then did he send another telegram to London.

Keeping the radio silent now, as Cunningham had said, actually didn't make any sense - the other side could already guess the approximate location of his fleet.

The Italian fleet, which had intercepted him near Alexander, had already turned back by this time, and they would return straight to Malta to seek a decisive battle with the British fleet.

The Italian submarines that followed, as well as the planes taking off from mainland Italy and Africa, would quickly find his fleet, but he still won the naval battle!

"I'm sorry, but I still won, in this case, even if you find my fleet, I will win...... Win without any suspense! He looked at the sea in the distance and smiled and muttered to himself.

At the time of his words, the battle for British carrier-based aircraft in the skies over Sirte was not over. The battle that belongs to them, at this time the opposite has just begun.