African Nationhood

Chapter 605 The Great Battle of Otranto (Part )
The Strait of Otranto is a strait between the Italian province of Brindisi and Albania. It is about 85 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.

The Strait of Otranto is the boundary between the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Sea, and is the only channel connecting the two seas.

The strait takes its name from the Italian city of Otranto, which sits along the strait.

During World War I, the Allied powers Britain, France and Italy blocked the strait to prevent Austro-Hungarian ships from entering or leaving.

After the South China National Defense Committee decided to send troops, it contacted the Allied Powers and informed South China of the operational scope and landing location.

The Allied forces were overjoyed when they learned of South China's strategy of breaking through the blockade of the Strait of Otranto and occupying Mendnegoro (today's Republic of Montenegro).

Joseph Drago, commander of the French squadron of the Allied Powers, directly ridiculed the South Chinese for their arrogance.

The Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy, Paolo Taone di Leifer, welcomed this. He was hoping that someone could come to help them share the pressure of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so he expressed very generously: He hoped that the Nanhua Navy would be stationed first. In the port of Ottoran, Italy.

The South China Navy's advance fleet includes the "Sanfeng" battle cruiser, the "Zhang Fei" cruiser, the "Wei Yan" cruiser, the "Zhao Yun" cruiser, the "Ma Chao" cruiser, and 40 "Court Class" ships equipped with active sonar "submarine.

Among them, the cruiser "Wei Yan" is the German "Königsberg". After this cruiser was repaired, it was incorporated into the King of Shu fleet and was given this ship name.

The advance fleet was not intended to fight a positional war with the Austro-Hungarian Navy. It mainly relied on the submarine force to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the German submarine force.

As for the army and landing ships, they will be transported later.

In March 1917, the South China advance team reached the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.

Arriving at the Port of Otranto, Italy on March 3, after the anchorage was stable, Commodore Ou Haiwa, on behalf of the South China Navy, met with Italian Chief of General Staff Paolo Taone di Leifer, and the two sides agreed on a date for the attack.

The Italians were curious about Nanhua's confidence and tried to investigate but were rejected by Ou Haiwa.

At the same time, the Nanhua advance team requested Italy to provide supplies so that the soldiers could take a rest, and Italy readily agreed.

On April 4, April Fool's Day, the Nanhua Submarine Force launched an attack on the Otertoran Strait.

……

Both the Italians and the French were curious about the South China Navy's honeyed confidence.

Who knew that news would come that afternoon that Nanhua submarines directly sank two destroyers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the "Lawrence" and the "Balaton" outside the port of Durazzo (today's Albanian seaport).

This news directly made the Allied Powers very happy, but their celebration was not over yet. Another good news came from the Nanhua Submarine Force.

On April 4, they captured an Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine U3 on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea.

While being pursued by the Nanhua submarine, the submarine hit a submarine rock.

All the Austro-Hungarian navy soldiers in the submarine suffocated to death under the sea because they could not surface.

Nanhua's salvage ship, escorted by several cruisers, quickly attacked and salvaged the submarine.

Because the submarine has been damaged, it must be repaired before it can continue to be used.

Nanhua planned to keep the submarine and study it carefully to see if the Austro-Hungarians had made any progress.

However, this move was opposed by the French, because the U14 submarine was once the French "Curie".

The submarine was towed by the French cruiser "Jules Michelet" to the island of Pelagosa (now Pelagruza, Croatia) in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, where it attempted to sneak into the port of Pola.

However, it was entangled in the anti-submarine net and could not escape. After five hours of efforts, it was still unable to move, and the boat had to surface.

It was immediately discovered by the destroyer "Magnet" and the torpedo ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. After a burst of shelling, the "Curie" sank at the entrance of Pola Port at a depth of 39 meters. Three French sailors died and 3 were captured. After the Austro-Hungarians salvaged the submarine, they found that this French Wrigley-class submarine was almost twice as large as the Austro-Hungarian submarine.

It also has a long-range endurance of 5 knots and 6500 nautical miles. Although it was destroyed and sunk, the overall damage was minor.

After restoration, it was directly incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Navy sequence.

Knowing that Nanhua had captured the submarine, the French were naturally nervous that their submarine technology would be leaked.

The commander of the French squadron, Joseph Drage, came to the door with his people and asked Nanhua to return the submarine to them.

After Ou Haiwa learned the news, she laughed angrily.

However, he did not take the French's words seriously and directly shut out the French.

There is nothing that can be done about the popular French jumper.

Nanhua had defeated the French navy at sea and was powerful. Not only would it not help them to break up with Nanhua, but they would suffer even greater humiliation.

In addition, Nanhua's submarine force is so evil that they are not afraid of the dense mines and anti-submarine nets deployed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy on the east coast.

The French are very curious about Nanhua's submarine technology. If they break up with each other, they will have no chance to obtain authorization.

……

It was already early May when the senior leaders of the Austro-Hungarian Navy learned about the Nanhua submarine's participation in the war. By this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already lost ten ships of various types.

However, Nanhua's submarine force had no casualties at all. Now not only the Austro-Hungarian navy was puzzled, but even the Allied countries also speculated that Nanhua's submarine force had a secret weapon.

Ou Haiwa told the other party directly and had no comment.

On May 5, Britain, France, and South China gathered in Corfu (a Greek island with a fortress built on it) to hold a consultation meeting on the "Otranto Offensive" against the Austro-Hungarian navy.

Because of the dazzling performance of the Nanhua Submarine Force, Britain, France, and Italy all hoped that the Nanhua Submarine Force would penetrate deep into the Adriatic Sea and directly attack the Austro-Hungarian Navy's important ports such as Trieste, Pola, and Fiume.

It is impossible for Nanhua to accept this kind of burden.

Ou Haiwa directly informed the other party that the Nanhua submarine force needed to rest and recuperate after more than a month of high-intensity fighting.

Britain, France, and Italy did not dare to force Nanhua. When Nanhua gave up and quit, they were embarrassed.

In desperation, they could only report the situation to the French Marshal General Foch, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.

Foch contacted Brigadier General Ou Haiwa, hoping that he could understand that the Allied Powers were currently under strong military pressure and hoped to end the war in Europe as quickly as possible.

Naturally, Ou Haiwa would not betray the French. He directly told the other party that the South China Expeditionary Force planned to land from Mendnegoro.

It is hoped that the Allied Forces can help the South China advance team capture the Kataro (today's Port of Kotor, Montenegro) base, so that South China can gain a foothold in southern Europe.

The capture of Mendnegoro was conducive to the Allied military counterattack, so Marshal Foch nodded in agreement. He took the initiative to coordinate Britain, France and Italy and asked them to obey Brigadier General Ou Haiwa's dispatch.

The four parties first worked together to attack the Kataro base, and waited for the Nanhua advance fleet to stabilize its foothold before continuing to attack the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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(End of this chapter)