"Send a message to Admiral Milne, we must evacuate immediately!" Standing aboard the destroyer Stiletto, La Perel commanded as he watched the tilted figure of his flagship. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The French Navy has already lost a valuable dreadnought, and if the Corbet is left in this area of water, it will be unbearable for itself and for the French Navy.

La Perel didn't care whether the losses of the British were greater than his own. Even if the entire fleet is exhausted, as long as it can annihilate the German fleet, it will be considered a victory? Milne's fleet was exhausted, and the Royal Navy was not distressed, with the most powerful former dreadnought fleet in the world, they could pull out such a fleet at any time. But its own fleet was wiped out, and the French Navy didn't even have the capital to compete with the Italians!

Not to mention the fact that the current situation has no hope of being able to defeat the Germans at all!

However, after the commander of the Combined Fleet was Milne, La Perel decided to advise Milne to evacuate first, believing that Milne would understand what he meant.

At this time, Milne had already begun to retreat, so that ? The Barr abandoned the ship, the core of the combined Anglo-French fleet had lost one-half, the Lord Nelson sank, the Zealandia was heavily damaged, and the entire formation was disjointed, and the situation was already very unfavorable to itself.

Moreover, the sun has already sunk below sea level, and only a faint light still illuminates a little bit of the sky around the horizon, and it will not be long before night will completely cover this sea area, and the British and French combined fleet will actually have no possibility of heavy damage or even total annihilation of the German-Croatian combined fleet.

If the Germans had not taken advantage of the situation and walked away, Milne would have been more than happy to fight again during the day, and it would have been a victory for the Royal Navy if it could inflict heavy damage on the German-Croatian fleet. But even if you want to continue fighting, you have to regroup first, and then fight again tomorrow. And Milne also had to take into account the ideas of the French, let? The loss of the Barr was enough to make the French quit, and if they wanted to fight again tomorrow, they had to convince La Perel that without the cooperation of the French, they would not have the capital to fight again.

So now we must get out of the fighting, and the rest will be talked about in the evening.

However, before Milne could receive a telegram from La Perel, a 330-kilogram shell from the Hesse pierced through the side rear of the bridge, crashed under the command tower and exploded. Although the shells did not directly hit the command tower, the explosion still said that everyone in the command tower was thrown into the air and then smashed on the floor of the command tower, and the command tower was suddenly in a mess, and the wounded officers and soldiers lay on the ground for a long time and could not get up. When the less injured men endured tinnitus, shook their heads, and staggered to their feet to look around the Command Tower, they found that His Excellency the Admiral's right arm was twisted at a strange angle, and the man had passed out.

Admiral Milne was seriously injured and unconscious, and was carried out of the command tower and sent to the infirmary for treatment, the officers were all wounded, and the inside of the bridge was also damaged by the explosion, and for a time the bridge of the Agamemnon became a little chaotic. La Perel's telegram was thus put on hold and no reply was made.

La Perel didn't know what was going on on the Agamemnon, and he didn't get a reply from Milne, who thought that Milne still wanted to fight to the death with the Germans, and he had to drag himself into the water!

If you want to fight your fleet and lose both the Germans, then let it go, but you must not let your fleet be dragged together and die together!

La Perel immediately sent a wireless telegram to all French warships, ordering all French naval ships to evacuate immediately! And this order ultimately led to a catastrophe for the entire combined Anglo-French fleet!

The Colbe, which had become the lead ship of the fleet, began to turn and disengage, followed by the unknown Agamemnon. The six French Danton-class ships that were originally at the end of the team turned and broke away.

The armored cruiser detachment and destroyer squadron in the rear of the fleet are all ships of the French Navy, because the queue of the Anglo-French combined fleet is longer than that of the combined fleet of Dirk, and it is likely to block the view of their own warships and cause accidental damage when they break into the rear of the enemy fleet, so they have been following behind the Danton class to guard against the opponent's destroyer assault, so they evacuated with the Danton class after receiving the order.

The four British light cruisers that had been following the French armored cruisers found that the situation was wrong and asked the French fleet, but after figuring out the situation, night had fallen, and the British could only scold the French while breaking away from the French formation and discrediting the search for their own battleship formation.

And when the five British former dreadnoughts, which had not received La Perel's order and had not been instructed by Admiral Milne, readjusted their course after bypassing the sunken position of the Lord Nelson and were about to chase the Agamemnon back to the battle line, they were stunned to find that they could no longer see the Agamemnon under the cover of night, and the combined Anglo-French fleet was divided into 4 teams!

Didrich did not direct the fleet to speed up immediately, and when night fell, the Ionian Sea was already dark, but all his ships were injured to varying degrees, and the flames burning on the deck would make the fleet the best target for the enemy, so Didrich ordered the fleet to maintain speed and carry out fire extinguishing and emergency repairs.

At the same time, visibility was greatly reduced at night, the distance of the enemy was greatly reduced, and the speed of his own quasi-dreadnoughts was not high, making them vulnerable to light attacks, so Didrichs also called on Pachner's cruiser fleet to overtake the front of the battlefleet to help intercept a possible attack.

The hustle and bustle of the Ionian Sea finally quieted down, and the surrounding area was pitch black, and the fleet with all lights turned off was silently sailing on the sea, only the faint red light revealed in the inner sea of the navigation bridge and the sound of the warship's bow crashing into the sea proved the existence of the fleet.

Walking out of the command tower, Didrichs, who was standing on the flybridge, exhaled a deep breath of turbidity in his chest, and the salty sea breeze dispelled the lingering smell of gunsmoke, which made people feel refreshed.

Although he sank one dreadnought and two former dreadnoughts of the Anglo-French fleet, Diedrichs also knew how dangerous the decision he made that afternoon was. Giving up the advantage of long-range artillery bombardment and fighting close combat with the enemy cost his fleet a lot, and after the battle, Didrichs was a little frightened when he saw the reports of the ships.

The bow of the Ljubljana was trimmed and forced to reverse the water balance; The armor of the B turret mount at the rear of the Alsace was pierced, but fortunately the shell did not penetrate the turret shaft, but only made a gap in the bezel armor, but the B turret was no longer usable; The steering gear on one side of the Styria was damaged, fortunately it was in a direct state at that time, otherwise the Styria was estimated to be out of formation, but now the rudder on the other side alone made it extremely difficult for the Styria's steering ability; The most seriously damaged was the Bohemia, the front of the C turret was hit, the two gun barrels were all blown off, the rear chimney flue was broken, the rear boiler compartment had to be shut down, the maximum speed could only reach about 15 knots, the secondary guns were all dumb, and there were 3 breaks in the riveting parts of the main armor belt on the side side, causing damage to the hull and more than 100 tons of water.

If the above 4 ships are a little less lucky, even if they don't sink, they will probably have to get out of the queue, and as for the superstructure of the other ships being damaged by shells, it is no longer a dangerous injury.

However, such a risk still seemed worth it now, not only did the sinking of 3 enemy ships close the numerical gap, but the situation of the remaining enemies was not much better. As long as they are not thrown off and wait for dawn tomorrow, they will have enough time to give full play to the advantages of long-range artillery battles and send the combined British and French fleets to the bottom of the sea.

Moreover, Su Shun's light cruiser fleet was located in the southwest of him at this time, and these light ships should be able to cause a lot of trouble to the British and French at night.

In fact, Didrichs also arranged some submarines in the southwest of the Ionian Sea, but these submarines had not previously discovered the Anglo-French combined fleet (Didrichs did not know that the Anglo-French combined fleet came in from the southeast), so Didrichs also had doubts about whether these submarines could find the enemy at night.

And these guys, who only operate underwater during the day, cannot receive their own wireless telegraphies, although Didrichs informed the port of the enemy of the enemy's position after discovering the main force of the combined Anglo-French fleet in the afternoon, and the submarine command of the Mediterranean Fleet in the port of Pula did continue to issue orders to the submarines scattered near the Ionian Sea after dark to intercept the combined British and French fleet, but so far none of the submarines have called back. Although it is understandable that the submarine forces must reduce radio communications in order to prevent revealing positions, it is not clear whether they received orders or where Didrichs was.

The night is still long, so I should go get something to eat first. Looking at the calm Ionian Sea at night, Deedrichs thought.

However, the presence of a ball of fire in the right front of the fleet brought Didrich's feast to an end before it could begin, when the light cruiser opened fire and produced cannon flames.

Didrichs, who immediately turned back to the command tower, asked eagerly, "With whom is Pachna's fleet at war?" Have you confirmed the identity of the enemy? ”

"Rear Admiral Pachner reports the sight of a ship in front of the left, 4,000 yards away! Judging as a battleship! ”

"4000 yards?!" Diedrichs understood why Pachner did not dare to turn on the searchlight, which at this distance would have been torn to pieces by the enemy's battleship.

"Let Pachner distance himself and keep firing! It doesn't matter if you don't hit! Thinking that he had collided with the entire battlefleet of the combined Anglo-French fleet, Diedrichs cautiously ordered: "Fleet acceleration!" Prepare searchlights for alternate cover, with the flagship searchlight as the firing signal! ”

It's only been 2 hours at night, and I collided with the main force of the combined Anglo-French fleet again? And this time it's closer! Didrichs didn't know if he was lucky or unlucky.

But since you hit it, let's fight! In the face of the attack of light ships, the opponent will definitely turn on the searchlight, and turning on the searchlight in the night battle is a double-edged sword, although it can better attack the target, but it will also expose its position, which gives itself the opportunity to take the lead. In order to avoid the adverse effects caused by the own side turning on the searchlight after the battle begins, having the battleships work in pairs and turn on the searchlight can interfere with the opponent's judgment of their position to a certain extent.

Sure enough, soon the sea was illuminated by the searchlights of the combined Anglo-French fleet, but Didrichs found that the situation was wrong: "Only 5 ships? Is it a battleship that was wounded and straggled? ”

Diedrichs did not know that the combined Anglo-French fleet had been divided into four squadrons, and the five battleships that appeared in the left front were only five Edward VII-class ships that had lost contact with Admiral Milne.

This discovery made Didrichs hesitate, even if there were injured and straggled, it shouldn't be 5 together? Is there really only 5 on the opposite side, or are other warships of the Anglo-French combined fleet nearby? Will you turn on the searchlight and enter the battle on your side, will you be attacked by the combined British and French fleet?

However, time did not give Didriches more time to analyze the situation, and in less than ten minutes, except for the Bohemia, which could only sail at a speed of 15 knots, the remaining 12 battleships caught up with Pachna's fleet at a speed of 18 knots, and the enemy was close at hand!

"No matter!" Diedrichs gritted his teeth and shouted: "Let the light cruiser stop firing and go forward to search for other enemy ships!" Let's turn on the searchlights! ”

With Didrichs' order, 6 warships turned on their searchlights one after another, and 24 bright pillars of light instantly pierced the darkness of the Ionian Sea! Enemies 3,500 yards away are nowhere to be found!

"Fire!"