"The American Eagle reports that the destroyer fleet has attacked!"

"Yay! Then let's help them a little more! Left rudder! Hasten! Give me a bite to go! Su Shun shouted excitedly. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The result of merely sinking and damaging one French armored cruiser could not satisfy Su Shun, he paid such a big price, if he let the French leave like this, he would not be reconciled, and the German naval officers and men who fought bravely would not be reconciled!

The French fleet formed an oblique wedge formation because of the sharp turn, and the destroyer fleet launched a surprise attack from the direction of their stern, rushing to the rear of the starboard side of the French to launch a torpedo attack, and indeed only had to face the outermost enemy, but in the previous engagement, the French had always been on the port side to withstand the attack of the light cruisers, and the starboard fire was intact. In this case, the risk of a destroyer launching a torpedo assault is still very high, although the assault of 17 light ships will not go home empty-handed, but it is not enough! Su Shun greedily wanted to leave all 4 French armored cruisers behind!

Su Shun decided to let the light cruisers bite the French and continue to force them to continue the battle on the port side to distract the fire and attract attention, so that the surprise attack of the destroyer fleet could have the best effect! For this, even if the already scarred light cruisers continue to withstand the shells of the French!

"Without sacrifice, there is no victory!"

The Salzburg, which was already full of scars, began to pick up speed, and while accelerating, it turned to the Salzburg, which had already entered the water and tilted sideways, and the inclination angle of the hull became larger, and the officers and men on the Vienna who followed behind looked sweating.

Because of the huge inclination of the hull, the guns on the Salzburg also stopped firing temporarily, but when the Salzburg returned to the rudder and entered the direct state, the four 150mm naval guns on the ship immediately let out a roar!

The artillery battle is back!

The Germans, who had learned their lesson before, did not dare to turn on their searchlights at this time, and firing at a black shadow 5,000 yards away was basically blind, but the continuous muzzle flame and the continuous strip of light that constantly streaked across the night sky soon attracted a counterattack from the French.

The artillery battle between the two fleets in the dark light was certainly not accurate, but the German light cruisers did attract the attention of the French armored cruisers.

At this time, just behind the flanks of the French wedge queue, 12 German destroyers of 3 detachments lined up in 3 columns, also pounced in an oblique wedge formation.

The destroyers were able to reach the rear of the French without any hindrance, and the French armored cruisers, which were constantly firing, made their position clear to the German destroyers.

Seeing that the enemy was in front of him and was about to deal a fatal blow to the French, the sudden flickering muzzle flame in the left front and the ensuing sound of artillery completely dashed the German destroyer's hope of a sneak attack.

4 clusters of orange flames flashed in the darkness, and almost at the same time, 5 larger clusters of orange flames appeared in front of the right, and the distance between the muzzle flames was less than 1000 yards!

"Damn it! Sure enough, there were French destroyers! Captain Novotini, the captain of the destroyer Z-119, who was in the 3rd position of the 2nd detachment at the front, couldn't help but curse as he looked at the cannon flame in the distance.

The larger muzzle flame of those 5 regiments came from the 120mm naval guns of the destroyer leadership of the destroyer's flagship, the Sparrowhawk!

The French destroyer that was sunk by the light cruiser before proved that the French armored cruiser was not acting alone, in order to deal with the possible presence of French destroyers, the Sparrowhawk with the 4 destroyers of the 1st detachment did not approach from behind the stern of the French, but took the initiative to move forward to the front right, and now the sudden outbreak of the engagement proved that the French did have other destroyers escorting the escort at the same time, and also made the French armored cruiser pay attention to the situation on the right!

Just when Captain Novotini was worried that the entire destroyer fleet would be exposed, the Sparrowhawk and the 4 destroyers behind it took the initiative to turn on the searchlights!

After the pillar of light illuminated the figure of the French destroyer, Captain Novotini became even more worried.

On the opposite side are only five Elite ships with a standard displacement of about 500 tons, a speed of 28 knots, and six 65 mm naval guns and three 450 mm torpedo tubes (Note 1).

The Sparrowhawk, with a standard displacement of 1,800 tons, a speed of 32 knots, armed with five 120-mm naval guns and nine 550-mm torpedo tubes, and four Type 1913 destroyers with a standard displacement of 1,450 tons, a speed of 34 knots, four 120-mm guns and six 550-mm torpedo tubes, have an overwhelming advantage in any respect.

But they were also exposed to the French armored cruisers!

Soon, what Captain Novotini feared happened, the originally quiet starboard side of the French armored cruiser in front of him burst into flames one after another, which was the muzzle flame of a 65mm rapid-fire gun!

Captain Novotini was tempted to order his ship to open fire, but he was also well aware of Heinrich on the Sparrowhawk? Colonel Seitz turned on the purpose of the searchlight! Sink the armored cruisers of the French as soon as possible to solve the crisis they are facing! Now firing the cannon yourself will not only do nothing, but will expose the entire destroyer fleet in the rear!

All the officers and men of the entire destroyer fleet understood this, so the 12 German destroyers just watched their comrades being covered in a rain of bullets and still rushed towards the French without firing.

"Distance 8000!" The voice of the lookout post came from above: "Z-114 begins to turn!" ”

"Left rudder!" Captain Novotini shouted.

Having reached a distance of 8,000 yards directly behind the French, it's time to turn and attack!

The Z-119 under the command of Captain Novotini was a type 1 destroyer designed by the German Navy and was not a successful type 1, based on the Type 1905 destroyer, which was simply enlarged to 1100 tons, with one 105 mm naval gun, and the Type 1910 destroyer with three 550 mm torpedo tubes replaced by three 450 mm torpedo tubes, because the upper armament was too heavy, resulting in poor seaworthiness. After 20 ships were built, they were urgently stopped, and all 8 ships built for the Ocean Fleet were thrown into the Baltic Sea. After that, the hull had to be enlarged to improve the seaworthiness problem, and then there was a Type 1913 destroyer with a tonnage larger than that of the first generation destroyer, the lead ship of the Nymph class.

However, the poor seaworthiness of the Type 1910 was not obvious in the Mediterranean, and the 550 mm torpedo, with a range of 6,000 yards at 38 knots, had a real advantage over the original 450 mm torpedo.

This allowed Captain Novotini not to have to watch his comrades being attacked, but to get closer than 2,000 yards!

Accompanied by Captain Novotini's "Return to the rudder!" "Order, the route of the second detachment and the route of the French formed an angle of 30 degrees, and the German destroyer quickly left the French directly behind the starboard side of the French!

"Get ready to fight! Port torpedo battles! 30 degrees on the port side! Target French armored cruiser! Captain Novotini shouted as he looked at the huge figure of the ship that was still firing in the distance.

"The enemy's course is 180 degrees, the speed is 11 knots, the torpedo speed is 38 knots, and the firing angle is 0 degrees!" The torpedo chief stared at the target through the huge fixed telescope, and quickly calculated the torpedo shot.

"Advance to a distance of 5000 to attack!"

"Torpedo tube No. 1, number of mines fired 3!"

"Ready for launch!"

"Distance 5000!"

"Start attacking!"

With the sound of torpedoes entering the water, 3 snow-white tracks appeared on the port side of the Z-119, and not far ahead, there were 2 groups of the same 3 tracks! Soon there was another set in the rear! 12 torpedoes just rushed towards El Nest, who was firing heavily at the Sparrowhawk? The Renant.

El Nest? The Renant was probably the worst warship in the entire Battle of the Ionian Sea, and both the Germans and the French could only see wave after wave of walls of water rising into the sky, but no one could tell how many torpedoes she had hit.

After the war, the eyewitness testimonies of the officers and men on the German destroyers showed that there were 3 obvious explosions intervals, indicating that they should have been torpedoes fired from different destroyers, that is to say, the torpedoes fired by the 4 destroyers of the 2nd detachment all hit, and each 1 destroyer fired 3 torpedoes!

El Nest? It is impossible to determine how many torpedoes the Renan hit, but one thing everyone knows for sure is that the armored cruiser, which had been blown into Elephant Trunk Hill by a 550-mm torpedo, completely disappeared just one minute after the explosion.

In the words of Captain Novotini: "I didn't even have time to see what she was blown up into, and she was gone." ”

El Nest? The sinking of the Renan freed Squad 1 from the crisis. However, the situation of these 5 ships is not much better.

The Sparrowhawk was the most severely damaged, with three of its five turrets destroyed; The engine room was penetrated by a 164-mm shell and completely lost power; The bridge was hit by 1 194-mm shell, but fortunately this shell was pierced, otherwise if it exploded in the bridge, the heroic Colonel Seitz would not have been seriously injured and unconscious.

The 4 brand-new Project 1913 destroyers were also potholed at this time, and they didn't look much different from the scrap ships that would be dismantled after they were decommissioned.

However, the power system was intact, and most of the ship's guns could still be used, and the four Type 1913 destroyers immediately began to teach the French destroyers who had just relied on the armored cruiser Fox and the Tiger to behave.

For these gadgets, which have a standard displacement of less than 500 tons, a single 120-mm shell can send them back for overhaul. By the time the 4 destroyers of the 2nd Detachment pounced, 2 French destroyers had already been paralyzed by the 1st Detachment, and the remaining 3 destroyers were immediately scattered. However, these gadgets, which only had a speed of 28 knots, could not escape, and after leaving one destroyer to clean up the mess and take care of the sparrowhawk, which had lost power, the remaining three destroyers immediately chased after it.

After the remaining destroyers continued to reward the two French destroyers paralyzed on the sea with several 120-mm shells, the French chose to abandon the ship.

Seeing that the friendly forces were unharmed, Detachment 2 turned and fought again. By this time the 3rd detachment had already overtaken from their left rear and inserted itself from the position where the French armored cruiser had sunk to the right rear of the third French armored cruiser.

The second prey of the destroyer fleet is at hand!