"Boom!" The 10 343mm L45 heavy guns on the Orion let out a deafening wind and thunder in an instant, and the purple light burst into flames; In less than 20 seconds, the Italian-made patrol "Varese", which was 10,000 meters away, was directly engulfed by a monstrous column of water and orange-red flames. Three shells slammed into its hull with a thunderous blast, and the violent explosion seemed to tear apart the block in front of it. The deck was shattered, the steel was shattered, and the flames of light were raging, and the classic Garibaldi-class cruiser with a standing displacement of 7,200 tons had become a broken torch floating on the sea. The remaining Italian sailors had no desire to fight, and they were jumping into the sea one after another like dumplings.

"The whole ship turned its guns, locked onto the Austro-Hungarian battleship Combined Forces in the 136th direction, and started a full salvo in a minute!" Commander Tower, who was protected by heavy armor, Betty looked at the battered Italian patrol in the distance, and finally got some vent for her hatred. He was actually teased by Anton House, and almost let him slip through his fingers, which was undoubtedly a hot shame in the face for Betty, who was quite proud of his professionalism in his heart. "Order, each ship must do its best to deal with the other party's harassing ships, and attack the enemy's dreadnoughts as the first priority!" Betty said loudly.

The sea breeze was howling, the waves were rolling, and in the brilliant afterglow of the setting sun, eight British super dreadnoughts rushed out a huge cluster of orange and red bright light; and the earth-shaking thunder roar of heavy artillery, and the surging waves swept into the sky in the distance, it is not an indescribable scene. If it weren't for the violence, the bloody and criminal killing. This should be a magnificent picture that will be timeless, reverie and celebrated, and will be passed on forever!

Accompanied by Betty's order. The Orion's five massive main turrets, weighing more than 600 tons, began to rotate slowly under the auspices of electric motors. The thick and strong cannon is like a giant's arm, pointing diagonally at the high sky. Although the Orion-class battleship of the British class was not a good design in itself, the shortcomings of its carrier did not hide the superiority of the guns themselves. When firing a 574.5kg light bullet with a standard charge, it has a staggering 450 rounds of barrel life, almost twice as long as the German 350mm naval gun, and is a model of thrift in the navy. And if anyone criticizes the gun for being 10% weaker than its German counterpart, it will respond with a strong charge: a 635kg heavy bullet with a terrifying discharge speed of 863 m/s when the gun is charged. It is almost 20% stronger than the German-made 350-mm naval gun. If the British shells were not so tragic, the strong charge armor-piercing ability of this gun would undoubtedly surpass the 356 mm L50 of the American New Mexico class and the 380 mm L42.4 of the German Bavarian class, becoming the strongest penetration in the history of World War I!

While the Orion's main gun was turning, the 102-mm secondary gun on its starboard side was not idle, but kept spewing out brilliant flames. In order to delay the advance of the British main fleet and buy time for his own main fleet to survive into the night, House chose the same tactics as de la Perel, that is, to suppress the enemy destroyers and a small number of light cruisers with the guns of armored cruisers. The large torpedo boats rushed in through this open gap. However, the fate of these auxiliary ships. But it's the same as the previous French outfit.

Since the secondary fire of the British fleet could not stop these patrols, Betty ordered the use of main gun fire, and prioritized the use of these warships that might tear apart their own defense torpedo boat system. This certainly won a precious respite for the main fleet, but it undoubtedly allowed these mounted cruisers to withstand the fierce fire of the opponent's super dreadnoughts. The fragility of the dreadnoughts was vividly reflected in the Battle of Jutland in history: the best British patrol defense and the Warrior were sunk in an instant, and none of the officers and men on board survived. Although the Italian cruisers were superior to their British counterparts, there was no chance of resistance in the face of the 343mm guns: in less than ten minutes, the Varese and Garibaldi were smashed into a mass of burning floats, and the three remaining Italian captains were even more frightened, and they directed the battleship to make a 180-degree turn in front of the enemy, and without looking back, they rushed at full speed in the direction of the Aegean Sea.

"Cowardly and incompetent Italians, just because they also want to dominate this blue of the Mediterranean?" Seeing the Italian cruisers that fled quickly, Betty let out a disdainful snort in her nose. If the Royal Navy is replaced, even in the case of absolute disadvantage, it will launch a decisive attack with fearless courage and interpret the maritime heritage of Britain with life. However, for Betty, the escape of the Italians was the last obstacle for him to gather fire on the opponent's capital ship; The British battleships left their secondary guns against the Allied torpedo boats that were struggling on the sea, and the main guns were aimed at the fleeing Allied battleships. In the sharp sound of the alarm bell, a wide flame of red and gorgeous light erupted from the muzzle of the cannon again!

The four Allied dreadnoughts, which had fallen behind due to speed problems, were surrounded by a column of water like a fortress wall. To House's horror, the British had no intention of taking care of the dreadnoughts who had left behind as cannon fodder bait, and instead concentrated all their main guns on his dreadnought. At the moment, numerically, the British fleet occupies a 2 to 1 advantage; And in terms of firepower, his wounded soldiers are not an order of magnitude compared to the other party!

After a while, House felt a convulsive and strong tremor on the ground, and a loud bang in his ears exploded in anger; A dazzling orange-red light rushed in from the window of the command tower, illuminating everyone's clothes. Soon after, news came from the damage management department that a large-caliber armor-piercing shell hit the left side of the foredeck, destroying four nearby cabins, killing eight sailors, and igniting a fire from the explosion. House's cheeks twitched, and he hurriedly ordered to extinguish the flames with all his might; If he had taken these obvious light sources into the night, he would have never had a chance of escaping.

Only half a minute later, another wild dance of clouds and water suddenly rushed up, and silver waves were rolling and spurting; The Thor's salvo did not hit directly, and the combined forces' nose and tail waterline armor was more than enough to withstand the onslaught of near-miss fragments. But before House could feel a hint of rejoicing, the fate of the friendly ship made his heart hang again: the armor of the Zorini's gun was pierced by a 343-mm shell, and a shocking amount of blood-colored light suddenly rushed out of the middle of the hull. House tries to get in touch with the other party, only to find that the Zollini's signal is gone!

"God bless Austria, Lord Franz my ......," Hauss prayed earnestly over and over again, pale.

The waves gushed out, and the cannon flames were like rainbows. For more than an hour after that, despite the efforts of the Allied battleships to twist their bodies to interfere with the enemy's fire control and ranging, a large number of shells were still hit by the concentrated fire of the British battleships. The Combined Forces was hit by 13 rounds of 343 mm shells, and only one of the four main turrets was still operational at 60 degrees; The rear bridge disappeared completely, and seven fires broke out throughout the ship. The only thing that made House happy was that because his side was fleeing at full speed and the course angle of the two fleets was not large, the shells were prone to ricochet when they hit the waterline armor; Coupled with the fact that the British shells seemed to have an unstable fuse that had exploded early, there were no new holes in the waterline of the United Forces, and the water ingress miraculously did not increase. The various motors and pumps in the core cabin are also unscathed, as long as you work hard to extinguish the fire, you have the opportunity to turn thousands of miles in the dark!

House looked around the rear, and saw that it was half sea and half flames: the other two dreadnoughts were also dancing wildly in flames, and the sight was terrible; From time to time, there are dozens of meters high sky-high water columns gushing and stirring up around it, like a white dragon galloping, the momentum is amazing. His heart sank suddenly, because the position of the two battleships from the flagship was more than twice as large as it had been during the firefight; This undoubtedly means that they have stalled further, and the chances of a successful escape are quite low.

"Whew......" A very discordant long sigh of relief suddenly sounded in the command tower. The commander of the Italian fleet, Lefel, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and his face was obviously a little more bloody than that of House. Outwardly, Dante, who followed the United Forces, did not appear to have suffered much damage; Its flame intensity is the lowest of the four remaining dreadnoughts, and it is still capable of maintaining a speed of more than 19 knots. Seeing the angry eyes of the Austrian officers around him, Lefel, who was away from home, did not bother with these temporary allies, but continued to look intently at his own precious and lovely dreadnought warship not far away.

The waves rushed into the sky, and ten huge columns of water rose around Dante. Seeing that the British artillery fire was lost again, Leffel felt a little more at ease in his heart. After another twenty minutes, Dante would no longer be able to be accurately distanced by the British because of the dimming light of the sky; And the next ten hours of darkness are your own turning time!

However, a few seconds later, a vast and majestic orange-purple flame suddenly burst out from the bow of Dante's ship from the inside out; Everywhere I went, the steel armor and iron plates were like grass and paper paste, and layers of broken explosions burst out. Seeing this monstrous flame that completely obscured the entire hull of Dante, the expression on Lefeel's face was dumbfounded; The salvo of the British battleship had obviously been lost, so what was the cause of this devastating explosion? (To be continued......)