"Report, sixteen thousand kilometers away."

"Fifteen thousand kilometers."

"Fourteen thousand meters!"

At this moment, on the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, the navigator constantly reported the distance between the two fleets.

The sound of its report smashed into the hearts of Carden and everyone in the commander tower of the flagship Orion.

As the commander of the fleet, Admiral Carden stared at the incoming Combined Fleet with a telescope, and did not speak, waiting for the other side to enter the best range of artillery.

Although the maximum firing range of the main guns of battleships has reached more than 20 kilometers, due to the observation instruments, artillery accuracy and other reasons, generally speaking, the best firing distance is 10-13 kilometers. In addition to the impressive hit rate of the artillery, it will also have a much smaller chance of penetrating the opponent's armor, and of course your opponent is a thin skin and stuffing.

As for the distance, of course, it is better in terms of hit rate and breakdown rate, but the opponent's artillery also has this bonus, of course, the main thing is that too close will cause the two sides to show hand-to-hand combat, and it is not easy to get out of the battle in time. In addition, the flexibility is poor, the radius of rotation is too large, and the torpedo on small and medium-sized warships will become more threatening, so in general, in order to ensure sufficient maneuverability and tactical requirements, this distance is the best choice.

However, while Carden waited for the best shooting distance, his opponent, Lieutenant General Leffel, did not wait. When the navigator reported a distance of fourteen thousand kilometers, Leffel immediately ordered. "Order the ships to fire at the target."

With Leffel's order, the battleships of the Combined Fleet immediately opened fire on the target they had already taken.

As the Cavour fired the first round and a half salvo, within half a minute, hundreds of guns in the Italian-Austrian Navy erupted orange fireballs, like thunder and thunder resounding throughout the battlefield, like the drums and roars of the giants before the battle. What the firing of a hundred large-caliber naval guns looked like, the officers and men who participated in this naval battle were fortunate to see.

Seeing that the enemy was the first to fire, General Carden announced that he could not wait any longer. As a result, the Mediterranean Fleet, not to be outdone, also spewed out tongues of fire, and its shells attacked the Combined Fleet.

Dreadnoughts spewed deadly flames from a distance, and soon huge columns of water rose around the fleet, forming huge water curtains to cover the warships.

After the first round of fire, neither side had a broken shot, which was still a little farther away. This battle is destined to be a vicious battle, whether it is the Italian-Austrian Combined Fleet, which is bent on gaining hegemony in the Mediterranean, or the Mediterranean Fleet, it is simply impossible to achieve its goal without inflicting heavy damage on the opponent.

"Let's get closer, we need to get results as soon as possible!"

The roar of the ship's guns made Lefell forget about anything other than the war, and he knew that there was a reinforcement fleet on the other side. If the Mediterranean Fleet is not inflicted a heavy blow as soon as possible, then this will put the Combined Fleet in a potentially dangerous situation. Therefore, in the hope of victory, but also with full confidence in their own warships, the combined fleet deviated half a course to the right.

In the face of the enemy gradually approaching, Admiral Carden did not intend to back down at this moment, so the two sides moved closer, and with the passage of time, the distance between the two sides approached from 14km to 13km, and at this time, the Italian navy made the first hit in this naval battle.

"The Captain 100 has been shot!"

Following the direction pointed out by the Navigator, Leffel could clearly see through the telescope that the Captain Centurion's No. 1 turret was covered in smoke and flames.

A 350-mm shell smashed into the front of the 320-mm thick turret of the Centurion at an angle of 80. At this distance, it was difficult for a 350-mm shell to penetrate such a thick layer of armor, but the gun still caused a lot of losses to the opponent.

The fragments of the shell burst into bent a gun on the turret, and the frontal armor also caused the collapse of the armor back plate, although it failed to penetrate, but the inside of the turret still experienced a baptism of steel, large and small shrapnel in the narrow and closed turret constantly jumped and rebounded from time to time to sweep down an officer and soldier, the strong smell of blood and the wail of the wounded soldiers instantly filled the entire turret, and the operation of the turret was temporarily suspended.

Once you get into the potency shot, it means that theoretically, the opponent will be hit in a row in future battles, and the current situation is exactly what the textbook definition is.

Then the Captain of the Centurion was hit three times in a row by his opponent Duilio in just five minutes.

"The Italians struck with ferocity and precision, and over a distance of 13 kilometers the Captain was hit in succession. First of all, turret No. 1, and in less than a minute after that, the Captain of the Centurion was hit with at least 5 shots! ”

One of the ship's British officers recalled afterwards with trepidation.

Two shells hit the Centurion almost simultaneously, which was counterattacking, and one shell pierced the upper armor belt of the hull amidships, exploding between the two gun galleries. The shock wave of the powerful TNT explosives destroyed the armor of the two gun galleries from the side, and the secondary guns, which weighed more than 5 tons, were withdrawn from the gun carriage, while the naval personnel next to them were smashed into pulp by the bent barrels.

Another shell hit the main belt, which was only about 305 mm thick, but not as strong as the turret. With a screeching crash, the hardened layer of armor and the shells shattered almost simultaneously with the caps, and the sharp warheads rushed into the interior of the hull with a large number of fragments.

After penetrating the main deck, it eventually exploded in the upper part of the power compartment. At this time, the upper part of the power compartment was nothing more than a layer of fragile structural steel, and the powerful impact of the explosion knocked the ceiling of the power compartment into a sieve. Large swaths of steel plates broke and shattered, and a rain of bullets swept through a boiler room with a small tooth-sore sound. The stoker was swept to one piece, while several steam pipes were ruptured, and high-pressure water vapor spread through the chamber at temperatures of up to several hundred degrees.

And the Centurion, which was hit in the power compartment, led to a sudden decrease in its speed, from 18 to 16 knots.

And with the exception of the Centurion, in this round of engagement, all ships were more or less lost, certainly not as miserable as the Centurion.

The Colossus suffered two shells, one hit the ship's main armor belt, and one hit the No. 2 chimney, causing a loss of visibility. The Collingwood was shelled with two shells, resulting in the loss of only two secondary guns. There are also the Montagu, the Neptune......

The Combined Fleet was not without losses, the Petrarch, Giulio, and Dante were all hit by their opponents. However, since it failed to hit the vital point, the damage caused was not large.

The main reason for the much greater losses of the Mediterranean Fleet than for the Combined Fleet, in addition to the disadvantage in the number of battleships, was more due to the difference in shells.

The performance of Italian and Austrian armor-piercing shells is much better than that of British armor-piercing shells. Italy used TNT-charged shells as early as 1902 (from the results of German research), while Britain still uses picric acid compounds.

Although picric acid shone at the end of the last century, picric acid has a fatal drawback, and that is its sensitivity. Picric shells detonate earlier than the fuse due to the vibration at the time of impact, and cannot effectively penetrate the armor. TNT, on the other hand, can be detonated until the shell has penetrated and the fuse has been activated, allowing it to attack weak areas behind the armor.

As early as 1908, Vice Admiral Jerichault was the Third Admiral of the Navy and was aware of the poor performance of the shells and ordered the design of new shells to begin. However, this work did not continue after his departure, and the new shells were not fully tested.

It can be said that the conservative style of the British Imperial Navy made the front-line officers and men suffer.

However, the problem of shells is not taken into account by General Carden, and how to break the situation now is the key factor. His fleet was at a disadvantage, and he had to figure out a way.

(End of chapter)