A few minutes later, Betty finally saw her fleet in the telescope. Rao was already mentally prepared, but he was still shocked by the miserable scene in front of him. Of the 16 French battleships that had been dispatched, only 3 Dreadnoughts and 4 Dreadnoughts were still on the battlefield, their hulls and superstructures were charred and devastation, and the deck of one of them was constantly washed and beaten by the surging waves. And of its own 6 old man-star battleships, there is only 1 left at the moment; One of them was sinking in smoke and flames, and several torpedo boats were gathering next to it to rescue the people on the lifeboats.

"The British are finally here......" After receiving the report from the adjutant, the commander of the French fleet, de la Perel, only muttered, without any excitement or joy on his face. Although it turned out that Milne, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, did not have the idea of killing people with a sword, the Grand Fleet really sent a strong main force to the Mediterranean, but the French fleet, which was used as a decoy, paid extremely heavy losses. Receiving the heavy losses and casualties that represented countless tragedies made de la Perel, who had been so excited a few hours ago, disheartened that he no longer had any desire to fight. All he could think about now was to do his best to save the Diderot, and then return safely with the young lives of France.

"Signal to the British that the mission of the French fleet has been completed and that it will withdraw to the port of Toulon for rest. Let them do the rest on their own. A bandaged right arm hanging from his chest said softly, speaking the hearts of all the French officers present. He glanced at the main fleet of the Central Powers in the distance, which was beginning to turn in the distance, and said, "Send out two well-powered patrols to tow the Diderot." The fleet turned right two compass points (22.5 degrees). Speed 10 knots. Target Port of Toulon. ”

"The French have died enough, it's time for them to leave in disgrace." Knowing that the French had decided to go away, Betty, seeing that the other party had suffered such a heavy loss, could not be too demanding; With the strength of these 8 super dreadnoughts in his hands, the destruction of 6 Allied capital ships that were already at the end of the crossbow was also easy to capture. After waving the banner of good luck to the French, Betty stopped paying attention to the meritorious men who had created a great opportunity for him to fight, and threw himself into the pursuit of the Allied fleet.

What made Betty feel a little tricky was that the opposing commander didn't play according to the routine at all; From the moment they found themselves, they directly abandoned the basic battle formation, led by the flagship. Start turning at full speed and fleeing north. Commanding a battleship formation to fight, the most taboo thing is that the formation is disrupted, but the other party is not constrained by the traditional rules at all, and directly does this kind of escape and turn into the wind!

"Anton? House, as expected, deserves to be the commander-in-chief of the fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, even if he is placed in the Royal Navy as a general, he must be an excellent person who can command an entire regional fleet. Looking at the Allied fleet in the distance, Betty angrily gave the Austrian admiral a heartfelt compliment. He paused, but the corners of his mouth suddenly hooked up a smile: "However, after such a fierce battle. Will your dreadnoughts be able to reach speeds above 20 knots? There were still three and a half hours until dark, which would give me time to fight. That's enough to sink all your dreadnoughts! ”

"Boom!" The Orion's front main gun once again erupted in a magnificent firework that made the blood boil, and the shells fell into the sea hundreds of meters away from the target, and the waves exploded in anger. This time, the British replaced the armor-piercing shells, which were really used in the decisive battle of the fleet, and the water column was significantly less powerful than before, comparable to the 350 mm heavy guns on the Austro-Hungarian battleships. Betty didn't care in the slightest about the loss of this long-range shelling; The current shelling is only a prelude, and the real sword is yet to come.

On the USS Combined Forces, 19 kilometers away, when House saw the lineup of the British main fleet chasing behind him, he couldn't help but burst into foul language. The British fleet lined up in two columns, and pursued them relentlessly: four of them were all arranged along the central axis with five twin main guns, which were identified from the bridge as the cutting-edge Super Intrepid Orion class, which had been completed for less than two years; The other four ships have four twin main guns in the form of the United Force, corresponding to the original British Super Dreadnought Giant. He didn't have time to think about how these cutting-edge ships of the British Home Fleet had the audacity to ignore the threat of the German High Seas Fleet, and how they appeared in the Mediterranean theater without knowing it: he only knew that once these ships appeared, everything he had won today would be spit out, and even more would be lost!

Although the German-designed battleships such as the United Forces and Radetz were strong in defense, the main armor was indeed indestructible in the face of the French 305 mm L45 guns; However, in the bow and tail part of the main armor belt, which accounts for 60 to 65 percent of the length of the ship, the thin armor laid on it, which is only used to resist direct attacks from light artillery and large-caliber shrapnel, cannot withstand the direct bombardment of large-caliber shells. In the previous fierce battle, several ships were hit with the bow and tail waterlines, the compartments were flooded, and the speed of the ship was reduced. Neither the Zolini nor the Radetz could drive 18 knots because of the ingress, and the Combined Forces also stalled by two knots. The situation was even worse for the Habsburg-class dreadnoughts, and the only thing that made House happy was that two dreadnoughts had been seriously wounded an hour and a half earlier, and had been lucky enough to escape.

"Boom!" Another thick column of water rose near our own fleet, and the waves swayed; The Italian former dreadnought "Emmanuel", with a standing displacement of 12,550 tons, is shaking violently like a flat boat in a huge wave at this moment. No one doubted the devastating consequences of British 343-mm shells hitting its hull. Due to the direct turn of the Allied ships on the spot, the four Italian dreadnoughts that were originally at the forefront of the column fell behind, and at this moment they were being bombarded by the thunderous fire of the British super-dreadnoughts. And because the previous ships of this class were badly damaged in the battle with the French cutting-edge dreadnoughts, they could no longer maintain a speed of 21 knots due to the tilt of the water, and the British super-dreadnought group was getting closer and closer to them!

Looking at the huge column of water rising from the side of the Italian battleship, House no longer gloated in his heart, but felt extremely anxious about the future of his own fleet. At present, in the entire main fleet, only two dreadnoughts, the Ferdinand and the Hareddin, have not lost their speed, and even the Dante has only less than 20 knots left due to the massive flooding of the bilge at the bottom. If nothing is done, 4 dreadnoughts and 8 dreadnoughts including the combined forces will be caught up and sunk by the British fleet one by one. And if you fight to the death with it, your own remaining firepower and shells are almost only a fraction of the opponent's; was bombarded by the British at close range, and there was no possibility of survival.

Seeing that everyone in the command tower was at a loss, looking at him with a look of worry and anticipation, House's heart suddenly flashed, and he said in a deep voice: "Now we have only one way, and that is to make a big move forward!" ”

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The sun was dazzling, the waves were dancing, and eight British battleships were cleaving the waves under the escort of more than 30 light ships, chasing at full speed. Seeing that the enemy's main fleet in front of her was getting closer and closer to her, Betty became more and more sure of her previous judgment: after a long and fierce battle, the main warships of the Central Powers no longer had the ability to drive at full speed. In view of this, Betty was not in a hurry to start the battle line, but chose to continue to chase with two sailing formations, constantly closing the distance between the two sides. Wait for less than 10,000 meters, the British fleet will come back to start a decisive battle formation; By that time, a powerful artillery group of 72 343mm guns will let these clowns who dare to make waves in the Mediterranean know what true naval power is!

Just as Betty was excitedly looking forward to the glorious moment to come, a thick yellow-green smoke suddenly rose on the sea, which seemed so abrupt in the blue sky and sea. Betty frowned, and looked intently to see annoying small torpedo boats shuttling back and forth on the sea, and smoke filled everywhere she went, blocking the view of her own fleet. As one of the top generals in the Royal Navy, it is impossible for Betty not to know that the opponent is using the smoke canisters that are always available on small ships to interfere with the fire of her own artillery. Betty was annoyed but helpless at these small actions of the Austrians: the smoke was completely unreasonable to block the view of the main gun rangefinder, and no matter how hard the fire was in vain without seeing the enemy.

"The Austrians have released so much smoke, do they think they can escape?" Seeing the thick smoke gushing out of the sea, Betty said with some annoyance. In his telescope tube, not only three or four hundred ton torpedo boats were shuttling repeatedly, but even light cruisers and armored cruisers joined the sequence of smoke occurrences at the risk of the great threat of the main guns of their own battleships. In less than ten minutes, dozens of Allied auxiliary ships had erected a huge smoke barrier more than ten kilometers long on the sea; Not only can the rangefinder not be able to locate accurately, but even the observation of the other party's storage zài is also something that cannot be done. (To be continued......)

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