When the Italian and Japanese cruisers were fighting to the death, the situation was reversed in the frontal battlefield with three Turin-class battleships as the core.

Under the leadership of the three Turin-class ships, the Japanese diversion formation was beaten to pieces, and the ships were not miserable.

Take the Sankei ship as an example, the main gun of the Itsukushima was stuck in the battery because of the previous shelling, and its main gun firing required the warship movement to adjust the angle, and the rate of fire dropped to an unbearable half an hour, and this shot did not know where it was hit. This problem, in addition to the fact that its 305mm guns are too malfunctioning, is also the pot of too few fires training for its warships' main guns.

At the beginning, in order to deal with the second ship of Zhending, Japan put forward strict requirements for the muzzle velocity of the shells when it purchased the main guns at the Garnet gun factory in France. Although the Garnett Gun Factory finally fulfilled the Japanese demand, the muzzle velocity of the main gun decreased after firing 120-140 shells. Of the other three ships, only the Matsushima had a spare barrel. Therefore, in order to ensure that it could deal with the Jingjing 2nd ship, the Japanese Navy had to strictly limit the number of shooting training times of the Sankei ship.

Except for the Matsushima, which had a slightly more number of shooting drills because it had spare barrels, Itsukushima only conducted one shooting training, and as for "Hashidate", until the outbreak of the war, it did not even conduct a single shooting training. In this case, it is natural that the Japanese sailors cannot be expected to skillfully use the main gun in battle?

So being able to fire a shot in half an hour is already very good.

And in a naval battle, it takes half an hour to shoot a shot, what else is this? Therefore, the 320 mm main gun on the Sanjing ship is really only a theoretical threat to the Turin class.

And what is the situation with the other ships except for the Sanjing ship, the most resistant Yamashiro was beaten half to death, and the other warships are all cruisers of two or three thousand tons, and there are even 1,000 tons, and the battleships that were sunk by these few guns are even more unreliable. As a matter of fact, the Japanese Navy's containment formation was not very effective in pinning down, and it was more caused by the efforts of its torpedo boat formation, which sacrificed its life and death.

These high-speed torpedo boats, armed with lethal weapons, were more dangerous than the unfortunate naval guns in the pin formation.

After all, in this era, the defense of battleships against the waterline is very weak, and it is very likely that a single shot will happen to the soul.

If it weren't for guarding against these little demons, how could Lieutenant General Álvaro's formation be entangled for so long. But now that these torpedo boats have been eliminated, the next step is to get rid of the entanglement of enemy ships. Of course, there was a more crucial reason, Lieutenant General Álvaro had a telegram for help from Major General Levi.

On the telegram, Rear Admiral Levy gave a detailed report to Vice Admiral Alvaro on the current state of the rescue formation, including the heavy damage to the Venice.

Although the Italian and Japanese fleets were divided into two divisions to fight, the Italian fleet relied on the superiority of radio to connect the two disconnected formations together.

So after receiving a telegram from Major General Levi, Lieutenant General Álvaro knew that his side could not wait.

"Order the Barry and Palermo, together with the Turin, to aim at the enemy ship Yamashiro, and we will sink the ship first."

Vice Admiral Álvaro put the goal of the breakthrough on the only ironclad ship in the containment formation, the Yamashiro.

Lieutenant General Álvaro's order may be a bit confusing if it were to be changed at another time and place. Because according to the degree of difficulty, the ironclad ship should be the most resistant battleship, how can you target this ship, shouldn't the Sanjing ship and other crispy battleships be more targeted?

Generally speaking, this is true, but now the situation is different, because now Lieutenant General Alvaro is most interested in speed. The reason is that due to the efforts of the officers and men of the Yamashiro, the speed of the Yamashiro has gradually recovered, and although it has not yet reached the speed of eighteen knots, it has risen to almost seventeen knots.

Now that the speed of the Yamashiro has increased to seventeen knots, it should be dealt with first, and Alvaro does not want to see the hardest ship of the Combined Fleet slip away.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Although the salvo of twelve 356-mm guns of the three battleships failed to hit them, it let the officers and men of the Yamashiro know that they were in purgatory again.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Before the officers and men of the Yamashiro could understand, another salvo of artillery rang out, and four 356-mm shells came with a howl of death.

"Boom, boom!"

The Yamashiro was unlucky in this shelling, as a 356-millimeter shell tore a large hole of nearly two meters in the side of the ship, and the turbulent sea water rushed down this opening to the cabin.

"Quick, Pipe Loss Group!"

The exhausted personnel of the Yamashiro who had not been rested at all could only bite the bullet when they looked at the menacing seawater.

As the captain of the Yamashiro, Kitago Kunao Osa only felt a tingling of crust at this time. The power of the 356-mm cannon was best known to the officers and men of the Yamashiro. In the face of the enemy's stormy artillery bombardment, the best way at this time is to let the heavily damaged Yamashiro break away from the formation and return home.

"Major General Tsuboi, the Yamashiro is going to be unbearable."

Seeing that his beloved ship had suffered a huge blow, Kitago Kunao Osa couldn't help but speak.

"I know what Your Excellency thinks, but for the sake of the victory of the Combined Fleet, we must persevere, even at the expense."

Rear Admiral Tsuboi, who knew Captain Hokago's thoughts, hurriedly stopped his desire to retreat. As the commander of the pinning formation, Kozo Tsuboi must consider the overall situation, and it is the responsibility of the formation to drag down the enemy's most powerful warship, so even if they all sacrifice, it must be completed.

Captain Kitago Kunao, who was stopped by Rear Admiral Tsuboi Kozo, could only watch the battleship fall into a miserable situation with tears in his eyes. As the saying goes, the house leak happened to rain overnight, and the Yamashiro was hit hard.

A 356-mm shell fired from the Barry pierced the armor of the ship's side and exploded in the power room.

The explosion of the shell destroyed the high-pressure boiler in the power compartment, and the Yamashiro immediately lost power and collapsed at sea.

Now even the officers and men of the Yamashiro knew that they had fallen into a desperate situation, and that the unpowered battleship would only become a living target.

When the Italian formation saw that the Yamashiro had been stopped, their morale was even higher, and more shells flew towards the Yamashiro next.

Everyone on board the Yamashiro can only pray for the protection of the god of sunshine now.

Although Lieutenant General Ito didn't know that the containment formation led by Kozo Tsuboi was already delaying the enemy's footsteps with his life, he also knew that he didn't have enough time. Because although the target Venice was scarred, the enemy ship still did not lose its combat effectiveness.

"Fire!"

With the roar of the gunnery officer, shells from the four 254-mm guns on the Yoshino flew towards the enemy ship.

Ito Yuhiro looked at the enemy ship with a telescope, but the enemy ship did not have the fireworks of the explosion, but instead fired at the neighboring ship Akitsu Island with its rear main gun, he put down the telescope in disappointment and couldn't help complaining.

"Damn, how can the enemy ships still be so powerful, are our shells useless?"

In fact, it was not only Ito Yuhiro who had such complaints, but the officers and men on the Yoshino and the Akitsuzu had such thoughts, the enemy ship Venice had been hit many times, why didn't it sink yet.

The secret of the Venice is its design, the Venetian class patrol adopts key defenses, and its world-leading armored box design makes it more difficult to be hit hard in the core position.

In addition, its watertight chamber is also second only to the Turin class.

Although the 189 watertight cabins of the Venetian class are less than the 213 of the Turin class, they are unprecedented in this era when everyone does not pay attention to watertight cabins.

So this also caused the Venice to be constantly hit hard, but it was always unsinkable.

In fact, at this time, Ito Yuhyung already had remorse, and the sortie formation had not made significant progress for so long, which made him anxious.

But it's too late to regret it, and it's hard to ride a tiger now. If there is no result, the combined fleet will lose the pinning formation in vain, so he is more desperate than ever to have a result.

"Order the formation to shoot at great speed, and be sure to take the enemy ship."

Ito Yohyung's anxious roar couldn't solve the problem. Although they wanted to produce more firepower by increasing their rate of fire, this led to a decrease in accuracy.

On the Venice, which was under the main fire of the enemy ship formation, the communications officer rushed to the control tower with a telegram.

"The Turin and Palermo have arrived at us, and Vice Admiral Álvaro has asked us to be sure to hold back the enemy and extend our gains."

These words immediately drew a burst of cheers, and Rear Admiral Levy and Captain Gomes, who had gauze wrapped around their heads, let go of their worries and breathed a long sigh of relief. The Venice finally carried the dawn of hope, and the next battle was much easier.

"Send a telegram to get the ships close to the enemy, be sure to entangle them."

In this kind of time to win the winner, Rear Admiral Levy of course did not want the enemy ship to break away, and entanglement the opponent and other battleships could naturally obtain the greatest results.

So in this coincidental situation, the distance between the two formations was even closer. From a distance of four thousand meters, gradually exchanged fire to three thousand meters, or even more than two thousand meters. This kind of hand-to-hand combat at sea was extremely bloody, and people were injured almost every moment, and at this time, there was a shortage of personnel such as management and rescue personnel, who were busier than gunners.

Now it has become a contest of willpower between the officers and men of the two sides, because basically the two sides hit each other, and they can still continue to fight in the midst of the bloody screams of their teammates and the sound of explosions, and they are the absolute elite officers and sailors of the two sides.

This continued for almost an hour, with huge casualties on both sides. According to later statistics, in this hour of hand-to-hand firefighting, 35% of the casualties on both sides of the entire naval battle were accounted for.

But now this situation can not continue, because the figures of two tall warships have appeared in front of them.

"It's Turin and Barry, we win!"

The cheers from the Italian side reinvigorated their morale.

And the cheers of the Italians are hell for the combined fleet.

At this time, he panicked, and hurriedly gave the order that he regretted the most in the naval battle.

"Order all ships to break through and leave immediately!"

At this time, both warships are entangled and want to leave safely, is it possible?