My Italian

The lightning strike formation released by Carden really made the United Fleet in a hurry, and the Mediterranean Fleet also took advantage of the lightning strike formation to cause trouble, and continued to put firepower on the United Fleet.

Let the warships of the United Fleet suffer more or less certain losses, such as the Giulio, Dante, Michelangelo, and Estevan suffered more or less losses.

The most serious loss was the Dante. A front main turret of the ship was hit. Although it did not penetrate, it collapsed the deck and made it unable to rotate. In addition to a main turret being damaged and unable to rotate, a large gap was opened in its chimney by a shell, which greatly affected the firing range of the two turrets at the rear of the battleship. It can be said that the Dante lost Half of the combat power.

The chaos of the bombardment formation caused by the harassment of the lightning strike formation was finally over, allowing the Dante to get rid of it. Although some losses were caused, fortunately, with the excellent performance of the Italian warships, they survived this wave, and then it is time to counterattack.

"Target enemy artillery formation, open fire!"

After finally clearing the Leifer of the Thunderbolt formation, he ordered the formation to continue firing. Since the opponent used the lightning strike tactics to take advantage of some advantage, then the next step is to get it back.

As he commanded, battleship after battle reintroduced former opponents into their targets.

The observer re-reported the enemy's azimuth and distance, the gunnery officer quickly calculated the muzzle angle, and the ammunition hand sent the ammunition to the turret through the conveyor belt. After a quick filling, the gunner pressed the launch button under the command to fire. There was a deafening sound, and the shell rushed out of the barrel and roared towards the enemy ship in the distance.

Boom!

A violent explosion sounded from the vicinity of the Montague. This was a near-missed bomb. Although it did not cause much damage to the Montague, it has already shown that it has been included in the shooting range, and the next step is to increase the Fire output, there will always be shells hitting the ship.

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

Lieutenant Colonel Traore, the captain of the Montague, who was taken aback by the near miss, immediately issued an order to counterattack loudly. Perhaps it was because of the intensity of the battle that he didn't notice a tremor in his voice.

Under Captain Traore's order or in other words, the officers and soldiers on the Montague naturally put in all their strength and spirit to work hard for the battleship's counterattack.

At this moment, as the most core ammunition bay of the battleship, it is constantly delivering ammunition to the turret.

"No. 4 armor-piercing bullets, and four packs of No. 2 ammunition. Hurry up, everyone."

At this moment, in the ammunition bay, an officer loudly stated the needs of the fort. Following his orders, more than a dozen soldiers were busy carrying medicine bags and anti-drug bags, carrying ammunition and ammunition.

Fortunately, the drug package is a few kilograms of propellant package wrapped in silk, which can resist movement by one person. As for the main gun shells of three to four hundred kilograms, even five or six big men without tools can't do anything to it.

Fortunately, these ammunition porters are all veterans who have served on the Montague for several years, and they know how to quickly move hundreds of kilograms of shells with squinting eyes, so after a while of skilled operations, the two shells were taken Loaded on a special ammunition cart, several strong men pushed the cart and quickly put it on the elevator connected to the turret.

"Twenty-one seconds, the action is still not fast enough."

The officer looked at the stopwatch, still dissatisfied with the speed.

"Sir, we can't go any faster. It takes four seconds to open and close the hatch. Our ability to transport the ammunition in seventeen seconds is already our limit."

At this time, the porters who were already tired and sweating profusely could only respond helplessly. Seventeen seconds to complete a load of ammunition is already their limit, and they can't get up any faster.

"I don't care what method you use, you must improve the loading efficiency, we are the gunnery champions."

The officer's words gave a very obvious hint, if you don't understand it, you would be too stupid.

It was obvious that the ammunition handlers on the Montague were not stupid, and soon the ammunition handling speed reached a new high, and the always-open hatch gave a clear answer.

Of course, this is definitely a violation of wartime security regulations. As the most deadly position on a warship, the ammunition storehouse is the most deadly position on a warship. Any navy knows its importance, so all countries have very strict requirements on the management of ammunition storehouses.

But unfortunately, the regulations are just regulations, and how to implement them requires the intuition of the officers and soldiers of the battleship. Obviously, the officers and soldiers on the Montague did not strictly abide by this system.

In fact, it wasn't just the officers and soldiers of the Montague who violated the regulations. At this time, there were not many warships in the Mediterranean Fleet that strictly abide by the system. At this moment, they are all trying their best to increase the firepower of the battleship, and they don't have a high awareness of the possible danger of the battleship.

And this is the performance of not conducting actual combat for too long. Since the Crimean War, the British Empire has not conducted a decent naval battle.

Of course, this is only one of the reasons, and more importantly, there is a sense of arrogance in the hearts of British naval officers and soldiers 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 soldiers. But there is also a small problem, that is, it is very likely to cause one's own arrogance. ·

As for now, the naval officers and soldiers of the British Empire have obviously forgotten its danger at this moment, and only want to let the enemy have a taste of their own strength.

Blossoming orange-red muzzle flames bloomed brilliantly on the sea surface, and then the roar that resounded through the sky swept across the sea surface with an unstoppable momentum. The water column rising into the sky is almost connected into one piece, forming a white wall!

At this moment, the artillery battle between the two sides was in full swing, and everyone wanted the other to fall first.

The first Dobono card soon appeared. The large-caliber armor-piercing projectile fired by the Duilio directly penetrated the 8-inch-thick armor plate on the outer wall of the main turret in the middle of the Montague, and exploded inside it.

The huge momentum generated by the explosion directly lifted half of the top cover of the turret, and then slammed it heavily on the deck. The gunpowder in the gun chamber and charging chamber was ignited. The gunners in the turret were all killed in an instant, and the violent explosion caused the Montague to turn sharply to starboard and withdraw from the battle.

A large amount of air immediately poured into the open turret. The top cover of the hit turret was like an open can, and light yellow smoke continuously spewed out from the crack, and the huge gun barrel tilted helplessly into the air.

What is even more dangerous at this moment is that since the explosion ignited the propellant packs in the turret and the ammunition hoist, the scurrying flames poured into the open ammunition depot along the ammunition hoist, igniting more scattered ammunition piles. The drug caused the fire to rage everywhere inside the Montague's hull.

Two minutes later, an earth-shattering explosion came from the Montague. At first, no obvious fireworks could be seen, and then the entire hull was suddenly submerged in thick black smoke, mixed with flashes of flames." The British rangefinders on the bridge of the St. Vincent closest to the Montagu looked at this scene in surprise. scene.

"All kinds of debris and wreckage flew into the sky, and the motorboat that was blown into two sections was thrown up to a height of one meter by the air wave. A few seconds later, the Montagu took nearly a thousand officers and men on board in the explosion. Disappeared.

At this moment, the officers and soldiers on the Duilio were cheering loudly, because they sank the Montagu and achieved the first victory in the naval battle.

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

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

Obviously, Lefer wants to use this news to boost the morale of the fleet officers and soldiers. Facts have proved that this news has greatly improved the morale of the officers and soldiers of the United Fleet, making them more confident that they can win this naval battle. Therefore, the firepower of the United Fleet is getting more and more accurate.

Compared with Leifer, Admiral Cardon, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, received the news no later than the other party.

At this moment, he ordered, "Order the ships to continue to counterattack. Our reinforcements are only 60 nautical miles away from us. If you persist in the last five minutes, you will win."

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

And what he did in Carden largely restored the morale of the British army. After all, such an obvious explosion on his own warship could be seen.

Of course, this also shows that Admiral Cardon put his hope of victory in this naval battle on the reinforcements.

So where is the British and French rescue formation that it has given high hopes at this moment?

(end of this chapter)