Italy's fighting style of play scared the cardon general.

The previous shelling of the two sides, in fact, General Carden was very satisfied. Although the Montague had been accidentally sunk before, the ensuing battle proved that the battleship's thick armor was indeed resistant to beating.

If he had played the same way, he was confident that he would wait for the arrival of reinforcements to inflict heavy losses on the Italians and win the battle for sea supremacy in the Mediterranean.

But now that Italy is unexpectedly fighting, Carden is a little vaguely uneasy in his heart, and of course, in front of everyone, he is very calm.

I saw him say with a smile. "The Italians know that Lieutenant General Sterdy is coming, so they want to fight for their lives, gentlemen of the British Empire, let us teach them a little lesson. Now I order, send an interception formation to block the enemy's lightning strike formation, and the battleship formation now moves eastward, extending the distance with them. ”

Carden's words calmed everyone present, and the tension caused by the Combined Fleet's assault dissipated a lot.

Then the small and medium-sized warships of the Mediterranean Fleet immediately rushed over, and they wanted to intercept the enemy's lightning strike formation, so a thrilling hand-to-hand combat began.

"Fire, stop them."

Looking at the various torpedo boat destroyers that were densely packed and rushing towards the battleships in the rear, the captain of the cruiser Azalea in charge of intercepting the task hurriedly gave the order to open fire.

I saw that the 6-inch (152 mm), 5-inch (127 mm), and 3-inch (76 mm) naval guns equipped with them were constantly spitting tongues of fire, trying to stop the charge of the enemy ships.

Doing the same thing as the Azalea, there were other warships responsible for carrying out interceptions, and these more than 30 warships, large and small, became the roadblocks of the assault formation, and the cartography stopped them. Even the battleship formations not far away were firing with the remaining secondary guns, so a rain of bullets hit the way of the charging lightning strike formation.

Countless columns of water rose from all around the lightning strike formation, and a wave of artillery bombardment from this interception formation was empty. In fact, this is very normal, you must know that the current shooting commander is not only not cheap, but also very large, and the space required is not small at all.

Just the introduction of the ship's optical rangefinder is several meters long, not to mention other instruments, they are all rushing to the big guys, so at present, the ones equipped with the shooting command instrument are all large warships, basically tens of thousands of tons.

As for the small and medium-sized warships, they don't need them urgently and can't fit them, so they still need manpower to shoot at the water, and they can hit accurately in the first round.

In the face of the artillery fire that intercepted them, the lightning strike formation of the combined fleet did not pause in the slightest, and they all frantically urged the wheel crew to increase their horsepower and rush past the enemy's interception at a faster speed.

Of course, the cruiser formation that is a cover task will not ignore the fact that its own lightning strike formation is intercepted by enemy ship fire, so the cruiser formation that is coming rapidly at this moment will naturally not let the other party get its wish.

"Open fire, target the enemy intercept the formation, and give priority to attacking the opponent's small and medium-sized warships."

The commander of the cruiser formation, Rear Admiral López, gave the order in a loud voice.

Under his order, more than a dozen cruisers also spewed tongues of fire, venting their anger to the interception formation.

In the face of Italian firepower, Major Admiral Edward, who was in charge of intercepting and commanding the interception formation, originally did not want to pay attention to it, because he knew who was more threatening. However, when the second and third artillery fire from the enemy's cruiser formation hit the battleships of his formation, he had to face the enemy in front of him.

"Why is the firepower of the opposing cruiser formation so fierce?"

It is no wonder that Rear Admiral Edward is puzzled, because the cruisers in front of him are all new cruisers led by the Piedmont class and its improved Verona class, and with a full load displacement of five or six thousand tons, Italy is equipped with 8-10 twin 150 mm 50 times the caliber main guns and 4 105 secondary guns, and its rate of fire of three or four cents per minute is enough to make the interception formation extremely threatening.

Moreover, the Italians are chicken thieves, and their cruiser formations give priority to the selection of battleships with a smaller displacement of the interception formation. How could a warship of several hundred, one or two thousand tons in its formation be able to withstand the attack of its 150-millimeter main gun, let alone its rate of fire, and the battleships targeted by it would be filled with smoke and suffer heavy losses after a while.

"The 1st Squadron of the cruisers counterattacked the enemy, and the remaining battleships continued to intercept the enemy mine-strike formation."

At this moment, in order to ensure that the firepower of the interceptor formation was not interrupted by the opponent, Rear Admiral Edward could only let his first squadron of cruisers counterattack. This is the most deterrent warship in his hands, and it is a formation of six Monmouth-class cruisers.

The standard displacement of this class is as high as 9,800 tons, and it is equipped with 14 152 mm 45 times naval guns, 10 76 mm guns, and a maximum speed of 23 knots. Although this class has been in service for ten years and is slightly old, it still has enough deterrent power in the face of the Italian cruiser formation led by the Piedmont class and the Verona class. (The 10,000-ton warship and the 6,000-ton warship are evenly matched, which is enough to see how backward they are)

With the order of Rear Admiral Edward, six 10,000-ton patrol ships began to vent their artillery fire on the new opponent. Although it is a little behind, the 10,000-ton cruiser is at least in armor, and it is thicker than the new Italian cruisers.

Of course, the British Empire was not without new cruisers, which were actually far more numerous than Italy, but they were concentrated in the North Sea to deal with the more threatening High Seas Fleet, and the Mediterranean was more allocated to the more usable patrols. Although the British Empire's naval power is still the best in the world, it has more than one enemy. And the allies are useless, and they can only be left to futile.

However, soon, a roaring sound like a train made the faces of the officers and men of the interception formation change greatly.

I saw a series of loud explosions sounding from all around the interception formation, which was brought by super-large caliber shells.

"Not good, it's the shelling of battleships."

As the commander of the interception formation, Edward was even more experienced, and as soon as he heard it, he knew that the caliber of the incoming shells was not less than 300 millimeters. At this moment, his heart was broken, the interception formation he led not only had to deal with the lightning strike formation, but also had to fight with the enemy cruisers, and now the battleships didn't care about beating them first, why was it so difficult for his own interception formation!

And the shelling from the battleships made the officers and men of the interception formation restless, and its hit rate plummeted. Don't blame these officers and men for not being able to hold their breath, because they belong to the second-rate level of quality in the British Navy.

As we all know, the most elite officers and men of the navies of various countries are inevitably equipped with the main ships of their navies, among which the dreadnought, ultra-dreadnought, and battle cruisers are the most elite, followed by the cutting-edge warships that have been put into service in recent years, such as new cruisers, destroyers, and so on, and then the old combat ships of various countries. The Mediterranean Fleet, on the other hand, is a large number of old-fashioned warships, and naturally its officers and men are not as elite as they are. (Actually, it's not an old-fashioned warship, but compared to the latest warships, a change of country is also a good year.) ）

On the side of General Kaden, seeing the unfair treatment suffered by his own interception formation, he naturally would not sit idly by. I saw that he immediately ordered, "Shoot at full speed and sink the enemy ship." ”

The battleship formation led by him immediately broke out into the most intensive artillery fire, and the steel giants of the sea that constantly sprayed tongues of fire shelled at the battleship formation where Lefeel was located at a rate of 1-2 rounds per minute.

This kind of constant artillery bombardment without pressure naturally has a good strike effect, and at present, the distance between the two sides is close enough (six or seven thousand meters), and the damage effect is even more amazing, and the combined fleet is under a lot of pressure.

On the Cavour, the atmosphere in the command tower was even more tense, and there were constantly communications staff officers reporting the losses of various ships.

"Report, a telegram from the Leonardo da Vinci that its turret No. 4 was destroyed and the left side of the ship was punctured, causing water ......"

"Reported, the Michelangelo sent a telegram that the battleship's chimney was hit, and the smoke caused the accuracy of the third and fourth turrets in the rear to be reduced, and the power compartment was hit by a 305-mm shell, losing 28% of its power, and its speed was reduced by three knots. Colonel Nosov has already relinquished his position and will follow when some momentum has been restored. ”

Report ......

Just as the staff officer was reporting the situation, a deafening loud explosion suddenly sounded, directly interrupting the report.

"What's going on, go and see."

Lieutenant General Sidorol, who was the chief of staff, couldn't help it at this time, and immediately gave the order.

Soon an officer came in and reported. "Report, it was the explosion from the Taghoff at the tail of the formation."

Within two minutes, a more detailed copy of the damage to the Taghoff arrived.

And Lieutenant General Sidorol, who received the information, looked at it with a dark eye. Because the situation reported by the captain of the Taghoff was quite bad. The Taghoff was hit in the ammunition compartment, but fortunately it had already lost half of its ammunition and did not sink on the spot. However, the situation was not optimistic, it was blown out of a large hole of about 10 square meters, and the turbulent sea water continued to pour into the ship's hold, and the management team could no longer do anything about it, and the captain of the Taghoff applied to abandon the ship and save the officers and men on the ship.

Coupled with the István, which had suffered heavy losses before, in just one afternoon, only one of the three Austro-Hungarian battleships was left on the battlefield, and it was not bleak.

This is sometimes a factor of bad luck, but it is more due to the lack of combined force performance, especially in armor performance.

With a slightly lower displacement than the Dante class (more than 500 tons less than the Dante), the combined force was equipped with more firepower from other aspects, including 400 tons less armor than the Dante class. Although Italy selflessly provided its own experience in building ships, the Austro-Hungarian Navy still had its own unique opinions. So in the case of some changes, although the combined force class has stronger firepower than the Dante class, it is slightly inferior in speed and protection. And the battlefield, which is the only criterion for testing warships, makes the Combined Forces class perform worse than the Dante class.

But now it is useless to say this, the bitter fruit of the sinking of the Taghof can only be tasted by the Austro-Hungarian Navy itself.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is uncomfortable, and the Italian side is also uncomfortable, this kind of self-defeating behavior is still such a dangerous distance, and it is the same for anyone.

But even so, Leffel didn't frown, but a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth at this time.

Because the lightning strike formation had already rushed past the interception formation and rushed towards the battleship formation not far away.

(End of chapter)