With coal smoke rolling and rolling waves, two huge fleets in the depths of the Eastern Mediterranean, two hundred nautical miles from the coastline of North Africa, engaged in a desperate battle at a distance of 11 kilometers. For this naval war, both sides are determined to win and will never allow defeat: the Entente will ensure that the Mediterranean can continue to be the surging artery of their blood transfusion for the European war, and the Allies will cut off this source of war for the other side in one fell swoop!

"The whole ship turned left to a compass point, and five minutes later resumed course. At the same time, the flag was waved to the 'Condise' in the rear, so that they did not have to follow us this time. "Having a commander tower under heavy armor, Admiral de la Perel calmly gave the order. After a few minutes of firefighting, the Austro-Hungarian Combined Forces had formed a straddle fire on the ship; Although its own artillery fire had fallen to a distance of less than 100 meters from the opposing battleships, our fleet undoubtedly chose to be stable first and ensure that it could hold out more time under the German artillery fire.

In a short time, the majestic and broad French battleship began to turn around the sea at a deft speed that was not in keeping with its size. Although the low stability of the French battleship gave it extremely poor stability and resistance to overturning, it also brought superior maneuverability and steering ability, especially in this small position adjustment, the French battleship's gait was even lighter than that of a slender and slender light cruiser.

Ten seconds later, the Danton also responded with a salvo from its starboard main gun, but the French were much less intense in comparison. When designing this class of ships, the French still had a lot of pre-dreadnought in their minds: although the Dandong class was designed and equipped with 10 305mm L45 main guns, the firepower was completely at the top level in the world at that time. However, its six main guns were distributed in the form of single turrets on both sides of the hull. It is simply impossible to shoot in the opposite direction. At the moment when facing the United Forces. The Dandong-class was at a serious disadvantage in terms of the number and caliber of the main guns, and the overall firepower was only 60% of that of the opponent; And even the few ships in the rear against the ships of the same class as the Austro-Hungarian Radec class and the Turkish Sea Redding, the French battleships were still in a disadvantageous position of 7 to 8 in terms of fire projection.

The artillery fire thundered, the red mangs exploded angrily, and waves of heavy shells roared into the sea, stirring up the rushing waves and turbulent waves. It embodies the highest technology since mankind entered the era of electric industrialization, and inherits the ambition of every major country to touch the ocean. After the hard work of countless designers and workers, these world's top warplanes were finally sounded in the battle of the Titans. Even after that, they may sleep in the depths of the sea, forever in the company of death and darkness, but this extremely shining streak like a meteor is exactly what they were made for!

"Boom!" There was a shocking sound, and a huge blood-colored cloud suddenly exploded on the foredeck of the battleship Austrozolini, and the flames erupted into the sky; The hull of the ship, with a standard displacement of 16,200 tons, shook violently in the explosion, and even the tough steel plates made a tooth-sore tearing sound. A 305-mm shell fired from the battleship Condise penetrated the steel plates and exploded inside the bow of the Zorini; Nearly a dozen sailors' quarters were destroyed in an instant. Bedding, clothing, hammocks and other miscellaneous items began to burn violently. The only thing the Austrians were thankful for was that the area hit by the shells was not a critical part of the ship; The steam power that supports it to sail at full speed at 20.5 knots is still there. The three main turrets are also operating at full capacity.

After a while, another burst of fireworks burst into flames, but this time it was the French. The Turkish battleship Hayreddin, which had not achieved much in the shelling before, finally broke out at this moment; A 305-mm shell flew through the air and crashed into the single-mounted main turret on the starboard side of the French "Voltaire". This blow inflicted heavy losses on the French battleship.

According to the original wishes of the French designers, the Danton class was a first-class warship equipped with two twin 305-mm guns and six twin-mounted 240-mm second-class guns. However, due to the historical leap of the German Navy in the field of dreadnoughts and the fierce Anglo-German naval competition from 1906, the French felt the need to follow the trend and changed the former dreadnought of this class of mixed guns to the current appearance. In the process of replacing the twin 240 mm with a single 305 mm, the French designers, who were already troubled by the expansion of the diameter of the turret seat and the overall weight increase, did not let these single turrets have the same strong protection as the first and last twin turrets, but maintained the 220 mm armor as the standard of the second main gun to control the tonnage. And this thickness obviously can't prevent the frontal bombardment of the 305-mm hard cap armor-piercing bullet.

With the violent vibration and the creak of the steel armor being torn, the heavy armor-piercing bullets that fell off the hood and the quilt cap one after another squeezed their round and blunt warheads and fat and round bullets into the interior of the French turret. The superior blunt fuse was then triggered, and the high explosives contained in the shell were directly detonated. These are all things that happen in an instant. The French officers and men aboard the Voltaire felt only a tremor in the hull, followed by an earth-shattering explosion and a tremor of the earth-cracking landslide. A huge fireball with a radius of ten meters rose from the explosion, killing not only all the sailors in the turret on the spot, but also the thick and hideous barrel was bent and deformed, turning into a pile of 54.7 tons of scrap metal. The sea of fire was rushing, the smoke of gunpowder covered the sky, and the vigorous flames that rose nearly 100 meters made De La Perel, who was separated by several formations, couldn't help but give the order to ask him.

At the rear of the dreadnought columns on both sides, the battle between the Venio and the Dante also entered a fever pitch. While the Italian dreadnoughts had a huge advantage of 12 to 7 in firepower, their all-salvo fighting style weakened their advantage in firepower density over a large distance. Due to the lack of delayed firing fuses in the early triple turrets, the closer muzzle spacing of the early triple turrets compared with the twin turrets made the projectiles fired at the same moment interact with each other on the trajectory due to the muzzle storm, thus greatly increasing their dispersion during long-range firing and reducing their accuracy.

And the French artillery fire was surprisingly accurate, and its 305-mm shells hit Dante one after another, so that the actual number of hits of the two battleships, which were nearly twice the density of fire, was basically the same. Dante was hit by three shells, nearly half of the auxiliary lines were destroyed, nearly 1,000 tons of seawater were poured into the stern, and the No. 2 main turret was temporarily stuck due to the cutting of a large shrapnel; The French Venio was also on fire, with a 9-degree left tilt and a 3-degree first roll in the hull, and a drop in speed. If it weren't for the timely closing of their watertight hatch, the ship would have almost repeated the previous capsizing of the Republic!

While the dreadnoughts were fighting fiercely, the former dreadnoughts on both sides also entered a state of bayonet red. At the front of the array, four French dreadnoughts gradually occupied the advantage on the scene: they were all excellent French dreadnoughts that started construction at the beginning of this century, equipped with four 305 mm L40 main guns, and their armor could effectively withstand the bombardment of the main guns of the same level. On the other hand, the four Italian-made Elena class ships have only half the firepower of the main guns of the French, and the advantage of the second-class main guns over the French battleships cannot make up for the gap in the main guns. The Elena class is strong at speeds of over 21 knots, but in the case of the two sides, this advantage has clearly lost its effect. The main guns of the French battleships hit significantly higher than that of the opponent, and the Italian battleships were wounded one by one; Among them, the "Napoli" was destroyed along with a twin 203-mm second-class main gun in the amidships, along with the four 76-mm rapid-fire guns underneath, and nearly 50 Italian officers and men could no longer smell the fragrance of Roman daisies.

In the rear, however, the former dreadnoughts of the Allies formed a huge advantage. Compared with the British old man star that began to be built in 1896, the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg class, which started construction two years later, has obvious advantages in firepower and protection: the kinetic energy of the latter L40 main gun is 120% of that of the former L35 main gun, and the 250 mm main armor up to 5 meters makes the 150 mm armor of the old man star self-contained. After dozens of minutes of fierce fighting, the thick-skinned Austro-Hungarian fearless was still full of firepower, while the British old man star was spewing flames and tilting the hull, and gradually showed a situation of exhaustion. For the officers and men of the Royal Navy, they have used the power of their weapons to the fullest; However, under the condition that Lady Luck is impartial, only with fighting spirit and good training, it is impossible to change the objective fact that this gap is too huge!

"Order, the fleet accelerates to 16 knots, turn left a compass point, we can't continue to fight hard like this!" Della Perel ordered loudly in the conning tower. So far, although his fleet has not shown a significant decline, the firepower advantage of the Allied fleet has gradually become apparent; If he continues to fight like this, he is afraid that if he can't wait for British reinforcements to arrive, his fleet will be here to fight for the old bottom!

With the signal flag of the flagship Dandong waving up and down, the towering battleship like a fortress turned again in a wall of water, and headed quickly in a direction almost due west. The four French new ships that had already had the advantage gave up their opponents with some reluctance, and continued to maintain a line in front of the Danton in a strange but dexterous route. And House obviously refused to let go of this opportunity to expand the results of the battle, and the main fleet of the Central Powers was like a dragon, biting the shape of the Allied fleet and trailing away. (To be continued......)

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