The sinking of the Majesty did not damage much to the strength of the British and French fleets, this kind of old-fashioned warship did not even feel sorry for the British themselves, but the blow to morale was very severe, fourteen battleships besieged four of them, and so far they have not caused any damage to the enemy worth mentioning, but let the enemy sink one, it is strange to say that he is not depressed!

But the problem is that these four Combined Forces-class battleships are too strong, so strong that they are simply outrageous, and the United Forces has suffered six 305 shells, and they are either on the waterline or on the turret, which can be said to be important positions, and the result is not harmful at all, all of them are bounced off by the hard alloy armor. The more desperate the battle became, and the sailors in the British and French fleets scolded them with grief and indignation, but it was useless to scold, they were still like four steel fortresses in the middle of the narrow strait, and any warship that wanted to enter the Adriatic Sea had to face their three, five, or six cannons first.

The British and French fleets were more cautious in the next battle, especially those British battleships, they were determined not to draw too close, although these battleships were no longer of much value, but those experienced officers and soldiers were very valuable, the British slipway was still waiting for them to build new battleships, it took several years to train an excellent naval officer, and the damage was great in a single shot.

Because the Majesty sank too fast, none of the hundreds of officers and men ran out, and they were all fed fish, and once the battleship sank because of its own weight, the speed was very fast, and it was basically difficult for the crew to have too many chances to escape.

But don't close the distance to the extremely thrilling Cheng dù. On these old battleships, those did not have centralized fire control, and the elevation angle was at most a dozen degrees. Most of the old artillery guns under 40 times the diameter could not reach the enemy at all, and the British had no choice but to play harassment cheekily and push the real engagement mission to the French, who at best attracted a small amount of firepower.

But the six Lone Class ships of the French are not having a good time, except for their speed and the number of guns, the caliber and protection ability of other guns are one level lower than the enemy, no matter where they hit the combined forces on this side. None of them can cause substantial damage, but no matter where the shells hit, they can cause serious damage. Just half an hour into the battle, all six Lone Class ships were wounded, especially the France, which suffered two piercing bombs on the waterline one after another. Casually and in time to control the water ingress. However, it caused the hull to tilt and had to withdraw from the battle, running to the side to watch the excitement.

In this way, the battle of the remaining five Lone class was even more difficult, but at this time, the battle between the light battleships was overwhelming, which saved a little face for the British and French fleets, and their nearly 100 cruisers and destroyers besieged the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and so far sank an old protective cruiser and a destroyer, but also allowed the Austro-Hungarian fleet to sink a diesel-powered light cruiser with torpedoes.

"There are submarines underwater!" At this time. On board the Ottoman I, sonar crews suddenly reported. At this time, all countries have begun to vigorously develop submarines, whether it is Britain, France or Germany and Austria, there are a certain number of underwater fleets, so the warships built by Yang's shipyard are equipped with sonar with good performance, of course, compared with China's own use, it is very primitive.

"What location?" The commander of the Ottoman Navy, who was watching the battle, asked hurriedly.

The sonar crew quickly determined the location of the submarine.

"Sailing out of the Adriatic Sea, it must be the Austrians, two ships are sailing underwater on our side, it is estimated that they are ......" Du Xiqi said as he raised his head and looked at the French that had retreated into the distance, and couldn't help but smile, while looking at the Ottoman naval commander with inquiring eyes.

You know, this submarine is sailing in Ottoman territorial waters.

His Excellency the Commander shrugged his shoulders, didn't say a word, held the binoculars and continued to watch the excitement, after understanding his intentions, the Ottoman warships that were originally on the route of the two submarines inadvertently retreated, making way for these guys, the water in this area is very shallow, in case of collision with the submarine that is submarine, it will not be lively.

The British and French fleets that were fighting on the sea did not know that there were two hidden killers slowly passing by the side of the battlefield under the water, there was sonar on the Ottoman I, but there was no on their battleship, and the British hydrophones were still in the real room! This kind of thing, which was only invented in 1906, has been greatly advanced because of the war.

There is still no substantial change on the battlefield, the four combined force class, after being convinced that the enemy's shells will not penetrate their armor at all, are even more fearless, and they don't even bother to play any maneuvers, they simply stop on the sea as floating batteries, and occasionally use three, five, or six main guns to support those cruisers and destroyers, but only occasionally, but it also causes great psychological pressure on the British and French fleets, you must know that their battlefield is very small, when the Ottoman navy strictly guards its territorial waters, The Italian Navy also held its own territorial waters tightly, and the entire battlefield was completely condensed into a width of less than forty kilometers.

Within this range, the main guns of the four combined-force battleships can completely cover the entire battlefield.

The French also tried to shorten the combat distance a little closer, after all, they couldn't penetrate the armor, no matter how many shells they hit, it didn't make sense, but as soon as they entered the range of ten kilometers, the Barr was hit by a shot, and this shell even easily penetrated the front of the thickest armored main turret on the entire battleship, directly scrapped a main gun, and then leaned forward to get another one, this shell continued to move forward after penetrating the waterline armor, almost scrapped the main engine, and frightened the French to quickly pull away the distance.

At this time, the two submarines finally touched the side of the France, the battleship that had been strictly tilted, after injecting hundreds of tons of seawater into the other side, finally leveled it again, and the interior was also undergoing some emergency repairs, although the speed will definitely drop sharply, but fortunately, this battle does not need speed, and now they are preparing to rejoin the battlefield, those French sailors are full of fighting spirit, vowing to defend the honor of the French Republic with victory, not knowing that it is only a kilometer away, Two periscopes are quietly rising.

On the Austro-Hungarian Navy U2 submarine, the captain locked on to the French ship with the periscope's aiming line, and then gave the launch order, and in the first two torpedo ports of this small submarine of only 300 tons, two Bofors heavy torpedoes were fired one after another, and almost at the same time on the U1 submarine not far away, the same two steam gas torpedoes also dragged out with obvious tracks, and crashed into the France at a high speed of 45 knots.

These are the only two submarines currently in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which were purchased directly from Germany, but the next four are almost complete.

"Torpedo!" The heart-rending screams of the observers immediately rang out on the Francis, which was about to sail to the battlefield, and more than a thousand officers and men were instantly confused, and like their captains, they looked at the four tracks that pierced straight to their starboard side, and the poor captain even forgot to give the order to turn the rudder.

Of course, even if he gave the order, it would be useless, at this time the France had just started, and the speed was less than five knots, which was no different from anchoring in the sea, not to mention that the distance between the two sides was so close that it would not even take a minute for a torpedo at forty-five knots to hit it.

"Turn the rudder!" It took more than ten seconds to be stupid before the captain of the France roared like crazy, and the huge ship with a displacement of 21,000 tons moved slowly and its huge body, like a stranded humpback whale.

Half a minute later, four torpedoes with a charge of 200 kilograms hit its waterline almost simultaneously, and the huge explosion that resounded across the sea made everyone on the entire battlefield stunned, especially those French battleships, more than 10,000 officers and men looked behind them with incredible eyes, looking at the battleship that was sinking at the fastest speed, representing the ambition of the French Republic.

Fortunately, their expressions did not last long, because in less than three minutes, the France had already disappeared from the sea.

This tragic scene completely destroyed the fighting spirit of the French, of course they knew that the submarine did it, but no one knew where the submarine was, this was the real most fatal, not knowing where the enemy was, which meant not knowing who would be the next target, the entire British and French fleet was in chaos, and hurriedly withdrew the cruisers and destroyers that were fighting to provide protection for the battleships.

Even those battleships, in this case, had no intention of continuing the battle, and retreated to a distance beyond the engagement, and the five Guba-class battleships were all wounded and needed to be repaired, and the Austro-Hungarian navy could not be stupid enough to rush out of the Adriatic Sea anyway, in that case the British and French fleets would be very happy.

The first naval battle between the two groups ended in this way, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy, with the loss of two old cruisers and one destroyer, sank a perfect battleship, an old battleship, and a light cruiser of the Allied group, which can be said to be impressive, and more importantly, they firmly held the Strait of Otranto.

The merchant ships that had come from Smyrna, loaded with all kinds of supplies, were able to continue their swaggering voyage to Durrës, and then transfer to Austro-Hungarian merchant ships, or even to Trieste without even reversing.

Of course, this naval battle is only the beginning, the defense of the Adriatic Sea is far from over, Britain and France will not tolerate this situation to continue, they will continue to attack the Austro-Hungarian maritime defense, even if they continue to increase the size to open the door to the Adriatic Sea, and Austria-Hungary will also spare no effort to protect its sea lanes, on their slipway, there are two Combined Forces class battleships under construction, and the battle will continue. (To be continued......)