The US Brooklyn-class light cruiser, the USS Savannah, is facing sideways and approaching Pantelleria Island 10,000 meters away.

This ship is equipped with 15 152mm/47-diameter guns, installed in 5 triple turrets, 3 turrets installed on the front deck, and the ship's secondary guns are 8 single-barrel 127mm/25-diameter high-level dual-purpose guns.

The air defense weapons are mainly 0.5-inch machine guns, and the tail of the ship is equipped with two catapults and 4 seaplanes, without torpedo devices.

The ship's 15 152mm naval guns and 8 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns. If the land firepower support attack is carried out at the same time, its destructive power is equivalent to three heavy artillery regiments.

Next to the ship, the new cruiser "Boise" is also approaching Panteleria Island.

"How is the situation now? How long will it take for us to shell the shelling?"

Captain Colonel Fleist, waiting for his superiors' combat orders in the command room, asked a naval officer named Cunningham beside him.

"The island of Panteleria is very quiet. We are now so close to the enemy's defense range; but not only did we hear any alarm sounds, nor did we hear the attack and explosion of anti-aircraft shells that tore their eardrums; even the enemy planes on the island did not see any trace, and now even the enemy's voices, or even the lights on the island, have not been found! Captain!"

"To put it simply, this island seems to have become an uninhabited island all at once, just like the deserted and deserted island in the book "Robinson Crafting Records."

Naval officer Cunningham sorted out his thoughts and replied.

"Yes! What is Italy on that island doing? They didn't have evacuated before we attacked!"

Captain Colonel Fleist stared at the other party with confusion.

"This possibility is also very high. According to the Italian army's unwillingness to fight, it is not surprising that they retreated at all, Captain! But I personally feel that it is possible that the Italians are ambushing on the island, waiting for our landing and attacking; or that something happened on the island that we didn't know, or that they slept too hard, and they didn't even know that we had arrived in their sea!"

Naval officer Cunningham responded with his own opinion again.

"Hey! No matter what they do, it's fine! I don't care about these Italian troops at all. If they dare to fight against us, we will launch artillery attacks! Anyway, we are now strong and have sufficient supplies, and we are not afraid of these Italian troops at all! Even if the Nazi German troops come, I am not afraid! I also shelled them without hesitation!"

After hearing this, Captain Colonel Fleist waved his hand and responded indifferently.

"I think so too, Captain!"

Navy officer Cunningham quickly smiled and echoed.

"By the way, what's the second thing I ask you? Did Commander Eisenhower give us a combat order to shell the defense system of enemy coasts?"

Captain Colonel Fleist continued to ask.

"No! But he said he would wait for our night fighter fleet first and bomb attack first!"

Naval officer Cunningham replied.

"So when will they start air strikes?"

Captain Colonel Fleist asked hurriedly.

"After about fifteen minutes, it will take some time for our night fighter fleet to arrive here for night bombing!"

Naval officer Cunningham replied immediately.

"Well! OK! Then after our aircraft group launches an attack, we will immediately launch artillery support! We must try to draw out the Italian army's planes on the island in the night attack tonight, annihilate them all, or severely damage them; and try to destroy the enemy's defense system on the island in a large number of ways!"

Captain Colonel Fleist nodded with satisfaction and gave an order.

"Yes! Captain!"

Naval officer Cunningham immediately saluted and replied loudly.

"Hey! Good! Come on! Our navy should not lose to our air force! For the victory of our navy, in this night attack, we must fight to attack the enemy's various coastal defense positions with all our might! We must destroy their anti-aircraft gun bases in large quantities!"

Captain Colonel Fleist happily patted the other person on the shoulder and encouraged him.

"Yes! Captain! I will definitely work hard! Those Italian troops will definitely lose their will to fight under our fierce shelling! Maybe after our fierce artillery fire, they will all surrender to us! Just like their cowardly performance in Africa and Tunisia!"

After being so admired and encouraged by his commander, Navy officer Cunningham instantly echoed with excitement as if he was injected with chicken blood.

Captain Colonel Fleist did not reply, but nodded gently with satisfaction to show his agreement and smiled with a smile.

And when they looked down on the Italian army on Pantelleria so despised, a large number of British "Beautiful Warriors" VI aircraft, the Douglas A-20 "Haota" night fighter fleet equipped with a 1,400-amp searchlight, were flying rapidly in the night sky with the stars becoming increasingly dimmering.

The British "Beautiful Soldier" VI aircraft were the main night fighter jets of British and American troops throughout the 1943 Mediterranean Battle.

This aircraft is equipped with two Bristol Hercules star engines. The pilot has a good vision in front and the radar is sitting in the rear fuselage. The ordnance includes: 4 20mm cannons fired from the low position of the nose and 6 7.62mm wing machine guns.

However, these "Beautiful Warrior" VI night fighters were used until the appearance of the US P-61 night fighter jets in October 1943, and they were gradually eliminated.

As for the P-70 night fighter, they are fighting with the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, but Japanese bombers often attack from an altitude of 7,620 meters, which is difficult to reach by such modified bombers, so the US military is also satisfied with the plan to dispatch them to the Mediterranean to fight.

And those Douglas A-20 "catastrophes", also known as Douglas DB-7, were one of the most widely used light bombers in World War II.

The Douglas A-20C battle to which the 9th and 15th Air Force belongs is widely used in tactical bombing in European battlefields and North Africa.

In February 1943, the A-20G, which had better bulletproof performance, was modified with 1600 horsepower R-2600-23 engine, began to leave the factory and was put into operation.

At this time, the Douglas A-20C was equipped with 4 20mm cannons and 2 12.7mm machine guns in the sealed nose; the result of this was that their ground strafing power was very powerful, and in order to be more powerful; so the designers were also equipped with 6 12.7mm machine guns on their noses.
Chapter completed!