The trajectory of a whole row of torpedoes showed a beautiful fan, and what frightened Man Peng even more was that he saw the same torpedo trajectory under the water in the other direction. The Siamese water reconnaissance aircraft had a Japanese-made radio on it, but no response from the fleet was heard, no matter how loudly Lieutenant Manpong called.

Lieutenant Colonel Wei Fengan stood on the open bridge of the [Thonburi], watching the seaplane take off with a group of men, and felt proud of his quick thinking, who would have thought of borrowing an airplane from a transport ship.

Suddenly, there was an exclamation from the bridge, and the seaplane suddenly rolled inexplicably, twisting its nose and diving towards the sea.

"Did something go wrong?" Thinking of this, Lieutenant Colonel Wei Fengan couldn't help but nervously hold the fence beside him.

He immediately noticed that the plane seemed to be strafing the sea, as he saw the splash on the surface of the water, and then heard the crisp sound of machine gun.

"What is he targeting?" Wei Fengan was a little puzzled, and then he suddenly thought of something, and suddenly a cold sweat broke out from his back.

"Set sail now and go full speed ahead!" The captain commanded loudly.

"Order the fleet to set sail immediately, pay attention to the surface of the water, the reconnaissance aircraft may have found traces of submarines!" Pointing at the signal soldier and yelling loudly, Wei Fengan's head was already bursting with green tendons.

The Italian lightning strike ships on both wings of the formation are equipped with the latest steam turbine power, because it is a temporary stop, and enough steam pressure is still maintained in the pipeline, so when the flagship's order is transmitted through the flag and light signal, the ships immediately turn on the power, the white water splash in the stern, and the propeller begins to rotate at high speed.

But at this time, for the outer lightning strike ship, the flagship's order obviously came a little late. Because it is a Mediterranean ship type, the freeboard of these lightning strike ships is relatively low, and in order to maintain stability, the hull superstructure is not very high, so when the lookout standing on the open-air lookout at the top of the bridge found the torpedo track, the distance between the two sides was already quite close, and the Siamese sailors did not even have time to warn their superiors, and the torpedo had already hit the side of the ship.

The two [Da Na] class small lightning strike ships on the left, the [Chuncang] and the [Pattani] each hit one torpedo, and the [Surat] was hit twice in a row. The former soon began to sink on its side, while the latter was blown to parts on the spot because the ammunition depot was detonated.

A torpedo that slipped behind the stern of the Pattani was lucky enough to hit the inner transport ship of the Kochangdo, making a five-meter-wide hole in the front compartment side wall of the old freighter built in 1898.

Because the draft of these target ships is very shallow, the torpedoes are only about two meters deep, but because they are all electrically powered, there is no obvious wake.

Just when the mine-striking ships on the left were all wiped out, the three mine-striking ships on the right were also attacked, but because of the angle of attack, only one [Chonburi] ship was hit by one torpedo in the bow, and the remaining torpedoes all missed the target.

Under the fearful gaze of a group of Siamese naval officers and sailors, one after another torpedoes passed through the column at high speed, and finally one of them crashed headlong into the stern of the [Ayutthaya Ayutthaya] at the front of the queue, and the remaining torpedoes disappeared from people's sight as quickly as they appeared, and after more than ten seconds, a displacement column exploded on the sea in the distance.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the ships of the [Thonburi] formation lost half of the total tonnage. At this time, only two [Dana]-class lightning strike ships and the flagship [Thonburi] were still in combat effectiveness, and the remaining ships were either heavily damaged or already sinking.

Unable to rescue his colleagues who had fallen into the water, [Thonburi] increased his horsepower and began to move forward, and Wei Fengan did not dare to guarantee whether there would be a second wave of torpedoes. Judging by the number just now, there are at least two submarines under the surface of the sea nearby, which is not a good thing for this shallow water heavy gunboat.

Although she has a large-caliber main gun of 203 mm, and her firepower is comparable to that of a Japanese heavy cruiser, she does not even have the basic ability to fight back against the kind of opponent lurking beneath the surface of the sea.

The Songkhla and Rayong, however, could not sit idly by while their compatriots in the same squadron were at full power, and the two warships were cruising around the injured ships at speed, while constantly throwing life-saving equipment at their compatriots who had fallen overboard.

The Thonburi maneuvered serpentinely to the northeast for almost five minutes, not waiting for the expected second wave of attacks, and Lieutenant Commander Wei Fengan was not sure that the other side had left, because there have been many similar examples in the history of naval warfare, and the submarine would launch a second and third attack when the enemy rescued the attacked ship.

At this time, the formation commander had also calmed down, knowing that he could not abandon his other teammates like this, and if he returned to the base alone with only one warship, he would definitely be sent to a military court by his angry superiors.

In particular, he could not sit idly by and watch the sinking of the Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, this gunboat and the [Thonburi] were regarded by the navy as a double wall of the kingdom, and the loss of either was an unforgivable thing.

So the Thonburi began to turn around and return to the scene of the accident. At the same time, the [Thonburi] radioed a detailed report to the naval command in Bangkok about what happened to the formation, but in the report, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel avoided the important and did not mention the matter of him stopping the ship and releasing the plane.

Of course, it is absolutely impossible to avoid this matter during the post-war investigation, but if in the end because of his efforts, the formation recovers some of the losses, maybe it will still get a chance to be light.

If Lieutenant Colonel Wei Fengan reported truthfully now, he would definitely end up being deprived of command by his superiors on the spot, and he would not have been given any chance to defend himself.

The damage to the Ayutthaya Ayutthaya was worse than Vifonan had imagined, as the torpedo hit the stern steering room and blew through the waterproof partition of the power compartment, causing a large amount of water to enter the power room, and the fire caused by the leaking fuel also burned down the generator room and the adjacent power distribution room. So at this time, the shallow water heavy gunboat not only lost power, but also lost all power, although the crew struggled to save themselves to prevent the ship from sinking on the spot, but the warship has become a dead fish without combat effectiveness, and can only be at the mercy of others.

In just a few minutes, four [Da Na] class lightning strike ships had disappeared from the sea, a thick layer of fuel oil and debris floating on the water, and a group of oil-stained sailors were floating in the sea.

The transport ship Phagan lowered all her deck dinghy and struggled to save the Siamese sailors who had fallen overboard. The remaining two mine-striking ships circled the wreck area, vigilantly monitoring the nearby waters, but it seemed that the attackers were in no hurry to show up, or that they had already left, and the so-called submarines still did not show up until the rescue was nearing the end.

By this time, a full forty minutes had passed since the first torpedo exploded, and the Bangkok Command had already sent back a reply, ordering Vi Phongan to immediately lead the remaining ships back to Sattahip, where he would wait for the senior officer's questioning.

The superiors ordered him to find a way to bring the [Ayutthaya] back to Sattahip no matter what, and they had already ordered the Sattahip side to send a naval tugboat fleet to help, and also dispatched some naval reconnaissance bombers to escort the [Thonburi] formation.

The Siamese seaplane was not enough fuel to carry, and after hovering over the fleet for more than 40 minutes, it finally ran out of fuel and landed near the Thonburi.

At this time, the deck deck of the [Pagan Island] was already full of rescued wounded, and there was no place to park the plane, and the transport ship was towing the [Ayuthaya], so it was impossible to stop and recover it. So in the end, Wei Fengan assigned a motorized dinghy on the [Thonburi] to pick up the pilot, and then ordered the mine-striking ship to use 76 mm guns to destroy the seaplane on the spot.

The Songkhla fired four or five shots at the small seaplane in a row, but it didn't even hit a single shot, which made the captain of the lightning strike ship feel a great loss of face, and after scolding the gunner, the lightning strike ship could only turn at high speed to approach the Siamese, and finally completely destroyed the small seaplane with a 20-mm single-barreled gun on the back of the bridge.

Just as everyone was paying attention to the [Songkhla]'s terrible artillery performance, a few faint columns of smoke appeared on the horizon to the northwest of the fleet.

"To the northwest, a ship was found." The lookout man standing in the 4.5-meter rangefinder fence at the top of the bridge of the [Thonburi] shouted loudly to the captain on the open bridge.

"Probably a tugboat fleet from Sattahip." The first mate said to Wei Fengan.

"They came just in time, so we might be able to increase our speed a bit." The lieutenant commander nodded in agreement.

The Ayuthaya, whose deck was already close to the surface of the sea, had used every inch of steam because of the complete loss of power in the towing carry, and the speed had dropped to a pitiful six knots again. In order to avoid being attacked by submarines, they had to turn around every few minutes, which made the whole formation move more slowly.

"Be especially careful at this time, the enemy has not left, he must still be watching us somewhere, I can feel it." With a telescope in hand, Wei Fengan observed the sea on the side of the ship, hoping to find some clues to prove his judgment.

"Left full rudder." The captain patted his sleeve and ordered.

"Left helm, sir." In the brass intercom tube, the helmsman in the wheelhouse replied loudly, and the formation began a new turn.

After about a quarter of an hour of zigzag sailing, I could already see the figure of the ship in front of me through the high-powered telescope, and judging from the gray-white hull paint of the opponent and the main cannon raised high, it was obvious that it was not a tugboat sent by Sattahip.

"It's the French Navy flag!" Through the high-powered lens of the 4.5-meter rangefinder, the operator finally saw the huge tricolor flag fluttering on the opponent's mast.

"Pull the battle alert! Ordered the [Pagan Island] to sail to the northeast shore, but if it was not possible, it ran aground with the [Ayutthaya]. Wei Fengan decisively gave the battle order.

The Ayutthaya Ayutthaya had become a burden at this time, and in order to keep the warship, it was a correct way to dispose of it.

As for the [Pagan Island], although it is a cargo ship bought from Italy, it is more than 30 years old, even if the loss can be bearable, the key is that she still has four surviving officers and soldiers on the lightning ship, and she can't get them into the war anymore.

Although it was a new ship, the sailors were rigorously trained by Japanese instructors, and their combat preparations were carried out quickly and skillfully, and soon all of them entered their respective combat posts.

The two mine-striking ships increased their speed, overtook the Thonburi, and launched a surprise attack in the direction of the incoming enemy, preparing to carry out a wave of preemptive attacks at speeds of up to 30 knots.

"The enemy ship is followed by two warships, which are being identified." The azimuth disc operator reports.

"Three-on-three? Let's see who will have the last laugh and how much time is left to get into range? Wei Fengan raised his head and asked.

"Calculating.... It will take about five minutes. The operator reported.

"The main guns began to be loaded, everyone was ready for battle, and the officers entered the conning tower." Lieutenant Commander ordered.

The officer followed the captain down the rear spiral ladder and into the armored conning tower under the navigation bridge, where only a few lookouts and sailing non-commissioned officers remained.

"The main gun is loaded, Captain." The gunners picked up the telephone on the side and listened to the report from the firing command post.

"The first two have been identified as French Storm-class destroyers, and the other battleship is too far away to distinguish the model at the moment." The first mate reported to the captain.

"Very well, wait until the enemy ship is in range, immediately open fire on the first enemy ship and cover the attack of the mine-striking ship." Vifunan nodded, binoculars in hand, and peered out the narrow viewing window of the armored conning tower at the enemy ships in the distance.

PS: Chapter 2 is presented, thank you for your support. (To be continued.) )