"Boom!" When a deafening roar sounded in the air, like the roar of an ancient ferocious head, Rao is that the United Force has been completed for more than half a year, and the thousands of Austro-Hungarian officers and men on the ship are still excited and enthusiastic about the majestic power it displayed when it opened fire. The four majestic main turrets pointed at the side in unison, each of which rushed out in an instant, a wave of fire tens of meters long; The powerful power of the 350mm heavy gun when it fires has undoubtedly become the absolute master of this battlefield!

Twenty seconds later, 14,000 yards away, four towering columns of water rushed out of the sea, and the rolling silver waves stopped for a moment at the highest point in the air, and then suddenly fell back, and the white waves sprayed and splashed in all directions. On the towering mast, the lookout is using a Zeiss rangefinder imported from Guò to distinguish the actual deviation of the bullet point from the target; The Austro-Hungarian gunnery officers, on the other hand, calculated a new set of firing parameters based on the numbers obtained from real-time observations against a dense table of ballistic guns, which were then sent to the interior of each turret. At present, the mechanical fire control computer has not yet been popularized in the world's navies, and in the navies of the Mediterranean powers, skilled and experienced gunnery officers are still the most core element in determining the actual firing parameters of artillery.

The opening of the Combined Forces was the order for a general attack. Suddenly, the heavy artillery roared, and the remaining 11 capital ships in the Allied battle line poured out their anger on the target. A row of displacement columns exploded near the French forward dreadnoughts that had not had time to form in the rear, enveloping the target in a wave of foaming water. The most powerful of these was the Italian battleship Dante, who had long followed the example of the British Navy and did not use the German Navy's more effective half-salvo. Rather, test artillery was carried out with full salvo fire. However, the innate error in sighting cannot be compensated for by the number of guns. In addition to the spectacular sight of 12 rounds of 305-mm shells roaring into the sea, the Italian officers and soldiers were able to enjoy it. Nothing substantial was achieved.

In the face of this sudden and fierce blow, the French battleship's return fire appeared disheveled and weak. Since the battle line was still not open at this time, only some of the ships could fire at the enemy with all four 305-mm guns, and several battleships could only fire with one main turret, or even a firing range with no main guns at all. Coupled with the remoteness of the current engagements and the fact that the number of main guns of a single French ship was far from the projection necessary to maintain the accuracy of hits, the battle was one-sided from the start. After four or five rounds of firing, the Allied dreadnoughts were very close to the target; What they're going to do next. Just wait for the favor of Lady Luck so that your own shells that fall near the average impact point can successfully hit the enemy!

"Boom!" In the column of water that soared into the sky, a huge fireball suddenly rose from the French ship. After consuming 60 shells, the Italians, who insisted on firing a salvo from the whole ship, finally caught the French former dreadnought "Charlemagne" in their sixth round of firing, and ushered in the first victory of the main Allied fleet. A 305-mm shell crashed into the rear bridge of the French battleship, and the violent explosion directly flattened the tall complex; The cabin where the signal flag was stored disappeared completely, and more than 20 French officers and soldiers were killed on the spot, and fierce fire and thick black smoke billowed out of the shocking explosion hole. A 100-millimeter secondary cannon was melted into a pile of scrap metal by the high temperature at the core of the explosion point, and several corpses with rolled flesh and bones were scattered and lying on their backs. The bloody ghostly face made several recruits who had just joined the army couldn't help but vomit on the ground.

"Great. That's it! "The commander of the Dante, Tari, the commander of the Italian fleet, Lefere, saw his battleship opening the record, and his grim and solemn face suddenly became more smiling than a blooming chrysanthemum. He glanced defiantly at the United Forces, thousands of meters away, and his disdain was unmistakable: it had once again proved that the Italian Navy, with its long history and glorious traditions, was the true master of the Mediterranean. Isn't it funny to say that the Galician beasts are only suitable for wrestling and biting with the Teutons and Slavs on land, and let them set foot in the noble and highly technological naval realm?

Just as the Italians were proud, two dazzling orange-red clusters of light rose one after another from the French column, and the flames rose vigorously, far exceeding the masts of the French warships. The smile on Leffel's face instantly stiffened, and he grabbed the binoculars and looked forward, only to see that the French battleships that were hit were one of the targets of the Austro-Hungarian dreadnoughts! The muscles on Lefel's face twitched, and he could only be comforted by the fact that the Austrians had more dreadnoughts than we did, and he immediately gave a loud order to his men to make sure that the Dante had the first drop of blood in the artillery battle before the Austrians.

Inside the main turret of the Dante, it was a tense and busy scene at this time. The bomb loser lifted a 305-millimeter shell of nearly half a ton, along with the corresponding propellant, from the magazine and the magazine to the turret; The Italian sailors, who had been waiting for a long time, used the machinery to stop pushing the heavy shells into the chamber and loading the propellant into the chamber behind. Once the reload was complete and the guns were closed-loop, the Italian artillerymen adjusted the vertical elevation and horizontal angles of the 63.5-ton calibers according to the parameters of the new round of ballistic fire sent from the fire control room. Since the triple turret of the Dante has a complete set of three gun carriers, unlike the triple turrets of the Austro-Hungarian Radec-class battleships, which still use the structure of the twin turrets, they can ensure that there are enough shells to be loaded, and in this situation where straddle fire has been formed, the resulting advantage of a high rate of fire is obvious!

"Ding!" With the light of the red light bulb on the top of the turret, which represented immediate fire, the Italian gun commander resolutely pressed the button for the gun to fire; In an instant, a sound like a thousand scorched thunderbolts exploded inside the turret. The cannon was reset, the locks opened, and the thick smell of gunpowder smoke spread through the small space in the turret, mixed with a fiery heat like a fiery wind—the gas smoke left behind in the chamber of the propellant after it had burned. Despite the constant pumping of foul gases out of the turret's exhaust fans, a choking pungent smell permeated the interior of the turret, and the scorching temperature was much higher than outside. However, the artillerymen did not have the energy or power to improve their working environment, and all they could do in battle was to repeat the tasks of reloading, locking, adjusting the angle of the guns, and then opening the gun locks after firing.

Under the continuous salvo of Dante, which has a strong firepower projection density, the French Charlemagne fearlessly surrounded it like a tsunami, and the waves rushed into the sky. From time to time, officers and men were impaled by shrapnel, screamed and fell to the ground, or were swept off the deck by the raging waves caused by near-missed bullets, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. A minute later, the poor battleship was hit again: a 305-mm shell suddenly pierced the unprotected sideboard, and the violent explosion destroyed the generator room, and the main turret, boiler feed pump, condenser and other key equipment came to a standstill. The flames danced wildly, and the scorching smell was fierce, and the French troops once again stepped on the flesh and blood corpses of their robes and began to fight fiercely with the fire demons. And the lack of electricity has set off a series of ripple effects. Although the French urgently activated the backup generator set, their output was far inferior to that of the main generator, so that only a small part of the electricity could be allocated for artillery and power while ensuring the normal operation of the pumps. The speed of the French ships slowed down, and the rate of fire of the guns slowed down. So far, the damage done by Charlemagne to Dante has been a near-miss by luck; Although the French former dreadnought has also been updated with new fire control equipment, the lack of its firepower density has limited its actual combat hit rate.

"Boom!" After the persistent efforts of the French, they finally formed a hit on the enemy who was approaching 10 kilometers away. Dante's amidships were blasted open with a huge gap in the blade of the steel plate, and a 120 mm secondary gun was destroyed, and flames flew high. After receiving the damage report from the damage management department, Lefere in the command tower turned pale, and angrily threw the red and blue pencils in his hand on the map: Dante, who was at the end of the queue, faced the weakest French fearless, why was it still attacked by the other side?

However, this is also Charlemagne's last return to the light. The number of guns on the Italian dreadnoughts was three times that of the Italian dreadnoughts, and the power of a single shot was unmatched by the old guns that were in service with the French 15 years ago; In the next salvo, the French battleship was hit by two heavy shells. A single shell pierced through the mount armor of its bow main gun, turning the entire interior of the shaft into a hell of flames and molten steel; Fortunately, the French did not have the habit of opening blast doors as the British, and the flames were kept out of the ammunition depot. However, the French ships lost half of their firepower and had almost no ability to fight back. Another shell blasted a large hole in the waterline of the bow, and the sea water suddenly roared inward.

The waves rushed, and the layers of the ships swept through the various cabins of the bow and swept towards the amidships. At present, all the capital ships in service and on the drawing board of France have a considerable drawback, that is, the underwater defense capability is strictly low. The watertight compartments of the French battleships were scarce and poorly divided, and once they were flooded, they would spread; What's more, the tall and majestic French warships all had an extremely high center of gravity, which undoubtedly made the ship's ability to resist capsizing extremely low. In a certain way, the French battleships were worse than their British counterparts represented by a thunderstorm in terms of defense against water ingress! (To be continued......)

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