The lightning strike formation released by Carden did make the Combined Fleet scramble, and the Mediterranean Fleet also took advantage of the lightning strike formation to make trouble, and constantly threw firepower on the head of the Combined Fleet.

Let the warships of the Combined Fleet suffer more or less certain losses, such as the Giulio, Dante, Michelangelo, and István suffered some losses to a greater or lesser extent.

The worst of these losses was the Dante, where one of the ship's front main turrets was hit, and although it did not penetrate, it broke the deck and prevented it from turning. In addition to the damage to one of the main turrets and the inability to rotate, its chimney was also smashed by a cannonball to open a large gap, which greatly affected the firing range of the two batteries behind the battleship, and it can be said that Dante lost half of its combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

The chaos of the artillery formation caused by the lightning strike formation was finally over, and Dante was also freed. Although a certain amount of losses were caused, but fortunately, with the excellent quality performance of the Italian battleship, it was able to withstand this wave, so the next moment was the time for the counterattack.

"Target enemy shelling formation, fire!"

Lyfer, who finally cleared the lightning strike formation, immediately ordered the formation to continue firing. Since the other party has taken advantage of it with lightning strike tactics in the front, then the next step is to get it back.

With his command, battleships re-incorporated their former opponents into the target.

The observer re-reported the enemy's azimuth distance, the gunnery officer quickly calculated the muzzle angle, the ammunition was sent to the turret through the conveyor belt, and after a quick filling, under the command to fire, the gunner pressed the firing button, and with a deafening gun, the shell rushed out of the gun chamber and roared away towards the enemy ship in the distance.

Boom!

A violent explosion sounded from the close range of the Montagu, a near-miss bomb that did not cause much damage to the Montagu, but it had already shown that it had been included in the firing range, and the next step was to increase the fire output, and there would always be shells hitting the ship.

"Fire, counterattack the enemy ships, and show your strength to win the gunnery competition."

Lieutenant Commander Traore, the captain of the Montagu, who was taken aback by the near-miss, immediately issued a loud order to counterattack. Perhaps because of the intensity of the battle, he didn't notice a tremor in his voice.

Under the order or fierceness of Captain Traore, the officers and men on the Montague naturally showed twelve points of strength and spirit to work hard for the counterattack of the battleship.

At this moment, the ammunition compartment, which is the core of the battleship, is constantly delivering ammunition to the turret.

"No. 4 armor-piercing bullet, No. 2 medicine pack four, everyone move quickly."

At this moment, in the ammunition compartment, an officer loudly stated the need for the battery. I saw that with his order, more than a dozen soldiers carried anti-drug bags of medicine bags, and those who carried ammunition were busy.

It's okay to say that dozens of catties of propellant bags are wrapped in silk, and one person can resist it. And three or four hundred kilograms of main artillery shells, even if you don't use tools, five or six big men can't help it.

Fortunately, these ammunition porters were veterans who had served on the Montague for several years, and they all knew how to quickly carry hundreds of kilograms of shells with squinted eyes, so after a period of skillful operation, the two shells were loaded onto a special ammunition cart, and several strong men pushed the cart and quickly placed it on the elevator connecting to the turret.

"Twenty-one seconds, it's still not fast enough."

The officer looked at the stopwatch, still not satisfied with the speed.

"Sir, we can't go any faster, it takes four seconds just to open and close the hatch. We can transport ammunition in seventeen seconds, which is already our limit. ”

At this time, the sweaty porters who were already tired could only respond helplessly. Seventeen seconds to complete the loading of ammunition is already their limit, no matter how fast they are, they can't get up fast.

"I don't care what you use, we have to improve the reloading efficiency, we are the champion of gunnery."

The officer's words gave a very obvious hint that it would be stupid not to understand them.

It was clear that the ammunition porters on the Montague were not stupid, and soon the speed of ammunition handling reached new heights, and the hatch that had been open gave a clear answer.

Of course, this must be a violation of wartime safety regulations, ammunition silos as the most lethal position on the warship, any country's navy knows its importance, so the management of ammunition silos in various countries are very strict.

However, it is a pity that the regulations are only regulations, and how to implement them requires the intuition of the officers and men of the battleship. Obviously, the officers and men on the Montague did not strictly adhere to this system.

In fact, it was not only the officers and men of the Montagu who violated the regulations, but at this time there were few warships in the Mediterranean Fleet that were allowed to abide by the system. At the moment, they are trying to increase the firepower of the battleship by all means, and they do not have too high a sense of the possible danger of the battleship.

And this is a manifestation of the fact that there has not been a real combat battle for too long, since the Crimean War, the British Empire has not had a decent naval battle.

Of course, this is only one of the reasons, and the main thing is that there is a sense of arrogance in the hearts of the British naval officers and men who have fought all over the world. A temperament that depends on the navies of various countries, of course, this kind of momentum is good most of the time, and it can improve the morale of officers and men. But there is also a small problem, that is, it is very likely to cause your own hubris.

As for the officers and men of the British Empire, who have now been red-eyed, they have obviously forgotten its danger at this moment, and only want to let the enemy taste their own strength.

Orange-red muzzle flames bloomed on the surface of the sea, and then the roar that resounded in the sky swept across the sea with an unstoppable momentum. The columns of water that rose into the sky almost joined together and became a white wall!

At this moment, the artillery battle between the two sides is in full swing, and each wants the other to fall first.

The first multi-bony card soon appeared, and a large-caliber armor-piercing projectile fired from the Duilio directly penetrated the 8-inch-thick armor plate on the outer wall of the Montagu's central main turret and exploded inside it.

The force of the explosion sent half of the turret's roof flying off and slamming it down on the deck. The gunpowder in the gun chamber and the loading chamber was ignited. The gunners in the turret were all killed in an instant, and the violent explosion caused the Montague to turn upside down to starboard and withdraw from the battle.

A large amount of air immediately poured into the open turret, and the top of the turret that was hit was like an open can, and the crack continued to spew out yellowish smoke, and the huge barrel was helplessly warped into the air, and it seemed that it was finished.

Even more dangerous at the moment was the explosion that ignited the projectile packs in the turret and ammunition hoist, and the flames scurried down the ammo hoist into the open ammunition depot, igniting more scattered piles of projectiles, causing the fire to rage all over the interior of the Montagu's hull.

Two minutes later, an earth-shattering explosion came from the Montagu. At first there were no obvious fireworks, and then the entire hull was suddenly submerged in a thick black smoke, mixed with flashes of flames," the British rangefinders on the bridge of the St. Vincent, which was closest to the Montagu, watched in amazement.

All kinds of debris and wreckage flew into the sky, and the motorboat, which had been blown into two parts, was tossed up by the air waves, and a few seconds later, the Montague disappeared in the explosion with nearly a thousand officers and men on board.

At this moment, the officers and men of the Duilio thundered with joy as they sank the Montague and achieved their first victory in the naval battle.

When the news of the sinking of the Montague reached Lefel, the steady fleet commander waved his hands violently.

"Great, send this good news to the entire fleet."

It was clear that Leffel wanted to use this news to boost the morale of the officers and men of the fleet. This news proved to be a great morale boost for the officers and men of the Combined Fleet, and made them even more confident that they could win the naval battle. Therefore, the firepower of the combined fleet side is also getting more and more accurate.

Compared to Lefel, Carden, as the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, will receive the news no later than the other side.

At this moment, he ordered, "Order the ships to continue the counterattack, our reinforcements are only sixty nautical miles away from us, and the last five minutes will be victory." ”

At this moment, Carden can only cheer up his officers and soldiers, telling them that there are reinforcements, and he also motivates everyone with the last five minutes of the Duke of Wellington in the Battle of Waterloo.

And Carden's approach largely saved the morale of the British army, after all, such an obvious explosion of their own warship could be seen.

Of course, this can also show that this Admiral Carden put the hope of victory in this naval battle on the reinforcements.

So where are the Anglo-French rescue formations that they have high hopes for at this moment?

(End of chapter)