For Rear Admiral François of the Ottoman fleet, the quest for the enemy from the 18th to the 19th was a completely fatal game, and in order to avoid revealing the fleet's whereabouts in advance, he had to order the fleet to move away from all small fleets that could be observed, and the camouflage of the battleships could also confuse most distant observations.

Even though it was obtained from the intelligence ship that the destination of the Italian battleship was to return to the port of Crotone, the interception in the open sea still encountered unprecedented difficulties, and the sudden light rain on the morning of the 19th greatly reduced the observation distance of the battleship, and it was difficult to distinguish the ships two or three kilometers away.

As time passed quickly, even the calm and calm Chen Han began to feel worried, the destroyer Kavala, which was patrolling the periphery of the northwest, accidentally spotted a flash of light at the end of the mist, and after continuing to approach, it was surprised to find a battleship flying the Italian flag slowly sailing by, and the Italian fleet, which had not expected the danger, had not paid enough attention to the suddenly disguised destroyer in the distance.

This directly led to a completely one-sided battlefield situation when the two sides began to engage 50 minutes later...... When Rear Admiral François learned of the news of the Italian fleet, he did not forget that the Chinese instructors had repeatedly emphasized the T-position tactic, and immediately ordered the fleet to assemble, with the flagship Suleiman the Magnificent as the leader, to set up a battle line with a distance of 6 chains, and completed the acceleration after 20 minutes.

The fierce battle between the Italian and Ottoman navies, which took place 300 kilometers southeast of Crotone and in the Ionian Sea, began at 3 pm on the 19th, and the Italian fleet sailed at a cruising speed of 12 knots on the journey home, and the flagship of the detachment was the battleship Emmanuel, and the fleet also included the Queen Margarita-class battleship Benaditto, the destroyer Mountain Infantry, and the armed transport ship Piro, which had just been launched three years earlier.

In addition, the fleet also added 5 Italian merchant ships to the previous voyage, and it was precisely because of the addition of merchant ships that the speed of the Italian fleet observed by the destroyer Kavala was only maintained at 12 knots......

The thick fog of the day hid the traces of the Ottoman fleet's interception, and when the visual distance was only less than 4,000 meters, when the battleship Suleiman the Magnificent was the first to emerge from the fog and fired the first salvo with six 305mm, 40x diameter main guns on the side chord, the commander of the Italian detachment, Colonel Amidio, was leisurely reading an interesting book in the rest room of the command tower.

Although the Chinese advisory group had already participated in the firing command of the three battleships, and the Suleiman Magnificent, which belonged to the Xia-class battleship, was also equipped with a main gun electric shock device, the Ottoman Navy's lack of combat experience was exposed in this completely active battle......

Although the firing parameters were later proved to be completely correct, according to the opinion of the officers of the Chinese advisory group, shooting at a distance of 4,000 meters is almost considered to be firing at the enemy, and it is definitely a matter of character to not be able to hit the first shot at this distance on any warship of the Chinese Navy...... However, when the commander of the conning tower shot the firing button, the huge cannon fire that tore through the mist sent six huge waves of water to the right side of the battleship Emanuel.

The rumbling sound of cannons and the distant cannon fire in the mist opened the first face-to-face naval battle between Italy and the Ottomans, but it was obviously a one-sided naval war, although the first salvo of the Suleiman the Magnificent all failed, but the battleship's side-chord 150mm rapid-fire guns still hit the battleship Emmanuel in front of the ship one after another.

For the former dreadnought battleship with a displacement of 11,000 tons and the main parts were covered with 250mm Harvin steel armor, the 150mm shells were obviously not enough to constitute a real sense of lethality, but the real effect was the fire caused by the explosion, which made the shelling of the Ottoman fleet easier, and the battleship Muradan the Great who followed Suleiman the Magnificent into the top of the T-position was also a Xia-class battleship, and the first round of firing of 6 305mm main guns finally achieved satisfactory results.

This round of salvo fired at a distance of less than 3,800 meters achieved a good result of one direct hit and one close miss, especially the high-explosive bomb that hit the frontal command tower, which directly shook the Italian first mate, second officer and other technical officers in the cockpit to the ground, and even caused the battleship to lose control for a short time.

The Italian fleet, which was suddenly attacked, obviously did not expect this to happen in his own backyard, and the commander of the battleship Emanuel, Fernand, had no time to make any judgment after the shelling, and the bullet on the bridge was very lucky that it did not penetrate the armor, which gave him a little respite, but he obviously realized quickly that there was only one opponent who could launch such a fierce attack here!

"Counter Strike...... Counterattack ......" The soldiers on the battleship rushed to the gun position in panic amid the heart-rending shouts of the officers, but the small-caliber guns that were overwhelmingly smashed over the battleship continued to kick up clouds of black smoke on the battleship, and the exploding shrapnel spun unscrupulously and smashed into an exposed target.

However, the good craftsmanship of the Italian industry has been tested, and in less than a few minutes, although the battleship has not yet suffered a fatal shelling, the opponent's small-caliber artillery has taken care of the battleship from beginning to end at a distance of less than four thousand meters, and there are burning ships everywhere, but there is no obvious burst penetration.

"Immediately slow down and turn, open the distance, and organize a counterattack! Immediately send a telegram to Vice Admiral Graziani, we are under attack by the Ottoman fleet! The successive explosions calmed down the general, he commanded the Italian capital battleship, even if the enemy's sneak attack seized the opportunity, but the naval battle was only the beginning, he immediately rushed to the narrow lookout window and raised the telescope!

In front of Admiral Fernand, the Suleiman the Magnificent immediately fired a second volley, and Rear Admiral François, who apparently did not give the Orhan the Great a third sequence, rushed out to exert its combat power, less than two and a half minutes before the first salvo, after completing the re-parameter setting, the battleship Suleiman the Magnificent fired a second round of salvo of 6 main guns.

Lieutenant Commander Chen Han, who served as the adviser to the fleet, personally handled the knife this time, and the Ottoman shooting officers on the battleship were obviously shocked by the fierce battle at close range today, and the first salvo was unexpectedly fruitless, which must not be done again, staring at the horizontal pointer on the Rafale Shooting Commander, when the pointer pointed steadily to the end of the dial, he calmly pressed the electric fire launch button in the command room......

Rumble...... Boom......

Black smoke and flames erupted from the muzzle of the 12-inch cannon, and it soared into the air with a loud roar...... Suddenly, in the rain and fog, the distance was slowly turning to the bow of the target ship trying to reverse the enemy's situation, raising a cloud of black smoke that soared into the sky, and when the black smoke rolled into the sky, the fierce fire flashed in the deep black smoke, and then, a large cloud of visible things was thrown into the sky!

The Emanuel battleship, which made an emergency turn, was naturally to avoid using the two 305mm main guns in the bow to confront the full flank fire of the opposite Suleiman the Magnificent, but at the same time, there was no doubt that it brought great risks, especially now that the huge hull was fully exposed to the opponent's fire in this kind of rain and fog melee combat.

Naturally, Fernand would not fail to understand this drawback, but at this moment, it was impossible to continue to charge under the enemy's artillery fire...... The ancient tactics of ramming have long been proven to be useless by a series of naval battles, and the only effect is to use himself as a live target that is getting closer and closer, and he obviously still has a little confidence in his luck.

However, good luck has become a luxury at this moment, in an era when shooting commanders and electronic ignition have become standard equipment in the navy, especially in the face of a ship ...... by China Which Far Eastern naval power...... In the face of the new battleships built, the outcome of the war can no longer be dominated by luck!

The second round of main gun salvo from the battleship Suleiman the Magnificent achieved an astonishing hit rate of 3 hits and 1 near miss, and two 305mm armor-piercing shells hit the middle secondary gun profile and the tail coal bunker of the battleship Emanuel, this time easily tearing through the 250mm Harwe steel armor and exploding behind the armor belt, destroying a 203mm secondary main gun emplacement.

The fatal danger was the armor-piercing shell that hit the front main turret of the Emmanuel, although the Italian battleship turret had a 300mm front armor belt, but it failed to prevent the 12-inch main gun bombardment at a distance of 3,500 meters......

There is no doubt that the moment of this shell hit was too critical, although the 380 kg armor-piercing projectile had a load of only 12 kg of TNT ammunition, but the fragments and the astonishing high temperature from the violent explosion directly ignited the propellant in the turret that was arranged and placed in the turret, and the propellant that should have hit the barrel of the gun became the firing power in the entire turret at this moment.

After the earth-shattering explosion, the top of the heavy turret and the weak rear armor were completely shattered to pieces, and everything in the turret that had not been fixed to the armor was completely evaporated by the explosion...... Or washed up in mid-sky like a cannonball! The huge ball of fire even erupted all the way down the open bullet channel at this moment. R1152