My Italy

Italy's desperate play shocked the general.

General Kaden was actually very satisfied with the previous shelling from both sides. Although the Montague was accidentally sunk before, the subsequent battle proved that the battleship's thick armor was indeed resistant to beating.

If he followed his previous play style, he was confident that he would wait until the reinforcement fleet arrived to inflict heavy damage on the Italians and win this battle for sea power in the Mediterranean.

But now that Italy is unexpectedly fighting for its life, Kaden feels a little uneasy in his heart. Of course, in front of everyone, he behaves very calmly.

I saw him smiling and saying. "The Italians know that Lieutenant General Sturdy is coming, so they want to fight with their lives. Gentlemen of the British Empire, let us teach them a small lesson. Now I am ordering to send out an interception formation to block the enemy's lightning strike formation. , and the battleship formation is now moving eastward, lengthening the distance from them."

Carden's words calmed everyone present and made the tension caused by the joint fleet's desperate assault dissipate a lot.

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

"Fire and stop them."

Looking at the densely packed torpedo boat destroyers rushing towards the rear battleships, the captain of the cruiser Azalea, who was responsible for the interception mission, quickly issued the order to fire.

I saw the 6-inch (152 mm), 5-inch (127 mm), and 3-inch (76 mm) naval guns equipped with it, constantly spitting out tongues of flame, trying to prevent the enemy ships from charging.

Doing the same thing as the Azalea, there are other warships responsible for interception. These more than 30 warships, large and small, have become roadblocks for the assault formation, making plans to stop them. Even the battleship formation not far away was firing with its remaining secondary guns, so a hail of bullets hit the charging Lightning Strike formation.

Countless water jets emerged from around the lightning strike formation, and all the bombardment of the intercepting formation was hit empty. In fact, this is normal. You must know that the current shooting director is not only not cheap, but also very large, and the space required is not small at all.

The ship optical rangefinder alone is introduced to be several meters long, let alone other instruments, all of which are large. Therefore, at present, all the ships equipped with shooting directors are large warships, basically tens of thousands of tons.

As for small and medium-sized battleships, their needs are not urgent and they cannot be installed. Therefore, their water shooting requires direct human aiming. If they can hit accurately in the first round, it is a ghost.

Facing the interception of their own artillery fire, the lightning strike formation of the United Fleet did not pause at all. At this time, they all madly urged the wheel sets to increase their horsepower and rush through the enemy's interception at a faster speed.

Of course, when one's own lightning strike formation is intercepted by enemy ship fire, the cruise formation, which is tasked with covering, will not ignore it. Therefore, the cruise formation coming rapidly at this moment will naturally not let the opponent get what they want.

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

Rear Admiral Lopez, commander of the cruiser formation, issued the order loudly.

Under his order, more than a dozen cruisers also sprayed tongues of fire, venting their anger on the intercepting formation.

Facing the Italian firepower, Major General Edward, who was responsible for intercepting and commanding the interception formation, originally wanted to ignore it because he knew who was the greater threat. But when successive rounds of artillery fire from the enemy cruise formation hit the battleships in his formation, he had to face the enemy in front of him.

"Why is the opponent's cruiser formation so fierce in firepower?"

No wonder Major General Edward was confused, because the cruisers in front of him were all new cruisers headed by the Piedmont class and its improved Verona class. With a full displacement of five to six thousand tons, Italy was equipped with 8-10 double-door cruisers. Equipped with a 150 mm 50 times caliber main gun and four 105 secondary guns, its rate of fire of three to four points per minute is enough to pose a great threat to the interception formation.

Moreover, the Italians are very thieves. Their cruiser formations give priority to warships with smaller displacement in the interception formation. How could any of the several hundred to one to two thousand ton warships in its formation be able to fire with its 150mm main gun, not to mention its high rate of fire? The warships targeted by it would be filled with smoke in a matter of seconds, causing heavy losses.

"The first squadron of the cruiser counterattacked the enemy, and the remaining warships continued to intercept the enemy's lightning strike formation."

At this moment, in order to ensure that the firepower of the interception formation would not be interrupted by the opponent, Major General Edward could only let the first squadron of his cruiser counterattack. This is the most intimidating warship in his hands, a formation composed of six Monmouth-class armored cruisers.

The standard displacement of this class of cruise ships is as high as 9,800 tons. It is equipped with 14 152mm 45x naval guns and 10 76mm guns. It has a maximum speed of 23 knots. Its main combat target is the war-breaking cruisers of various countries. Although this class has been in service for ten years and is slightly old, it still has sufficient deterrent power against the Italian cruiser formation headed 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 far behind they are)

Following Major General Edward's order, six 10,000-ton cruise ships began to unleash artillery fire on the new opponent. Although it is a bit behind, the armor of the 10,000-ton cruiser is thicker than that of Italy's new cruiser.

Of course, the British Empire is not without new cruisers. Their number is actually far more than that of Italy. However, they are all concentrated in the North Sea to deal with the more threatening High Seas Fleet. In the Mediterranean, more serviceable cruisers are allocated. Although the British Empire's naval strength still ranks first in the world, it has more than one enemy. The allies are of no use and can only be left to their own devices.

But soon, a whistling sound like a train made the officers and soldiers of the intercepting formation change their expressions.

A series of loud explosions were heard from all around the interception formation, which were caused by super-large-caliber artillery shells.

"No, this is a battleship bombardment."

As the commander of the interception formation, Edward was even more experienced. He knew as soon as he heard the incoming shells that the caliber of the incoming shells was no 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 fought with the enemy cruisers. Now the battleships did not care about beating them first. Why was it so difficult for his own interception formation!

The shelling from the battleships made the officers and soldiers of the intercepting formation restless, and their hit rate plummeted. Don't blame these officers and soldiers for being impatient, because they are second-rate in quality in the British Navy.

As we all know, the most elite officers and soldiers of the navies of various countries must be equipped with their main naval ships. Among them, the Dreadnought, Super Dreadnought, and Battle Cruiser are the most elite, followed by the cutting-edge warships that have been in service in recent years, such as new cruisers, destroyers, etc., and then only It is an honest battleship of all countries. The Mediterranean fleet is heavily mixed with old warships, so naturally its officers and soldiers are not as elite as they are. (In fact, it is not an old-fashioned battleship, but compared to the latest battleships, it is still considered to be a fighting age in another country.)

On the side of General Kaden, seeing the unfair treatment suffered by his own interception formation, he naturally would not sit idly by and ignore it. He then ordered, "Fire at full speed and sink the enemy ship."

The battleship formation he led immediately erupted with the most intensive artillery fire. The steel giant on the sea, which was constantly spraying flames, bombarded Leifer's battleship formation at a rate of 1-2 rounds per minute.

This kind of pressure-free continuous bombardment naturally has a good strike effect. In addition, the distance between the two sides is currently close enough (a distance of six to seven kilometers), and the damage effect is even more amazing. The combined fleet has a considerable burden. pressure.

On the Cavour, the atmosphere in the command tower was even more tense, with communications staff constantly reporting the losses of each ship.

"Report, a telegram was sent from the Leonardo da Vinci. Its No. 4 turret was destroyed, and the left side of the ship was penetrated, causing water to enter..."

"Report, the Michelangelo sent a telegram. The battleship's chimney was hit. The thick smoke caused the accuracy of the rear turrets No. 3 and 4 to decrease. In addition, 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 given up his position and will follow after regaining some power."

"Report……"

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

"What's going on? Go and have a look."

Lieutenant General Sidorol, the chief of staff, couldn't bear it anymore and immediately issued an order.

Soon an officer came in to report. "Report, there was an explosion just now from the Tegelhof at the rear of the formation."

Within two minutes, a more detailed report of the damage to the Tegelhof was sent.

Lieutenant General Sidroel, who received the information, looked at it with dark eyes. Because the situation reported by the captain of the Tegelhof was quite bad. The Tegelhof was hit in the ammunition compartment. Fortunately, half of the ammunition had been loaded before, so it did not sink on the spot. However, the situation was not optimistic. A large hole of about ten square meters was blown out of the ship. Raging seawater continued to pour into the cabin. The damage management team was unable to do anything. The captain of the Tegelhof applied to abandon the ship and save the ship's officers and soldiers.

Coupled with the previously severely damaged Istvan, in just one afternoon, only one of the three Austro-Hungarian battleships, the United Forces, was left on the battlefield. It was so desolate.

There was some bad luck, but it was mostly due to lack of performance at the joint force level, especially in terms of armor performance.

Although the United Forces has a slightly lower displacement than the Dante-class (more than 500 tons less than the Dante-class), its stronger firepower has been reduced in other aspects, including less armor than the Dante-class. Four hundred tons. Although Italy selflessly provided its own shipbuilding experience, the Austro-Hungarian Navy still had its own unique insights. So after some changes, although the combined force class has stronger firepower than the Dante class, it is slightly inferior in speed and protection. In the battlefield, the only standard for testing warships, this makes the Combined Forces class perform worse than the Dante class.

But it is useless to say this now. The bitter fruit of the sinking of the Teghov can only be tasted by the Austro-Hungarian navy itself.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian navy felt uncomfortable, and the Italian side also felt uncomfortable. This behavior of not fighting back after being beaten was still at such a dangerous distance, and it was the same for everyone.

But even so, Leifer did not frown at all. Instead, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth at this time.

Because the Lightning Strike formation had already passed the interception formation and rushed towards the battleship formation not far away at high speed.