After the flagship Queen, the battlecruiser led the main fleet to join the artillery battle, the four light cruisers, including the Bremen and the Leipzig, naturally understood their weaknesses and were sent to the flank by Vice Admiral Spee, preparing to attack the enemy ships that had been damaged and fled in the artillery battle.

Unexpectedly, due to the bad weather and poor visibility, the night attack effect of the main fleet was really difficult to say that it was up to standard, but the artillery fire of the battleship Martel's continuous counterattack provided a maximum target for the torpedo attack of the German light cruiser, and after the four battleships quietly approached 4,000 meters in turn, they fired two rounds of a total of 12 torpedoes in accordance with the firing specifications of echelon scattering in the direction of the Martel's maneuver.

The German-made Barracuda torpedo uses a thermodynamic engine similar to the British torpedo, but the German-made torpedo adopts a double-combustion chamber structure, although the manufacturing process is more complicated, but the range is 500 meters farther than the British torpedo, reaching 5000 meters, it is this critical 500 meters, in the poor visibility of the day, the German light patrol fleet approached and launched the torpedo was not detected by the French at all.

In just a few minutes, a large influx of seawater caused the entire rear compartment of the battleship to be filled with nearly 1,500 tons of seawater, and the spread of seawater also caused serious water accumulation in the steam power compartment...... Solve the problem at hand first. Clearly an option that cannot be given up.

After weighing the situation on the battlefield, Vice Admiral Spee finally gave up the idea of pursuing the battleship Martel, and the sky was already clouded by this moment. The view of the battleship in the mist has gradually become wider, and in this case, it is really a big problem to sink the Martel without suffering damage, and it can take a lot of time...... So. He chose a more immediate target.

The German fleet collided head-on with the British and French light cruisers that followed the Martre into the battle sequence, and in the face of the German battle cruisers and heavy cruisers whose own armor was almost completely immune, the British light cruiser Gloucester was hit by several 150mm shells. Immediately choosing to speed up the evacuation, Lieutenant Commander Owen understood better that his mission was not to annihilate such an astonishing German fleet, but to inform the Royal Navy fleet of key news.

The 8,000-ton Teller Light Cruiser and the 5,000-ton Straburg of the French Far East Fleet were the last defenders of the glory of France. These two cruisers were armed only with a maximum of 200mm guns. Faced with the complete suppression of the German fleet of heavy artillery, they continued to fight the German fleet on the battle line at dawn for 30 minutes, but all they could do was provide an opportunity for the large number of French ships behind them to withdraw.

At 6:11, on the 135-meter slender hull of the Teller's light cruiser, 3 343mm shells, 17 210mm shells, and nearly 50 shells of caliber below 150mm had been hit, and the bridge superstructure was completely damaged, and 2 210mm main turrets and 12 150mm side guns were all destroyed. Eventually, a fierce fire blew up the ammunition depot in the bilge, in the flames. The broken battleship components were ejected to a height of tens of meters, and Colonel Duras and 580 French officers and sailors did not survive.

A few minutes later, the already scarred Stella Castle light cruiser was still forced to turn in the face of the German fierce cannon fodder when the turret was all destroyed, ready to fire torpedoes at the German ship, but this was to no avail of the final struggle, the flank of the Hans battle patrol was completely destroyed by a round of close-range free fire, at a distance of 6000 meters, 3 340mm armor-piercing shells, 5 150mm high-explosive shells swept across the battleship's side chord.

After a series of violent explosions, the sea water rushed violently into the right side of the battleship, and there was no chance to adjust at all, and the French light cruiser capsized on the sea...... The four remaining French light cruisers, including the seriously wounded Metz, were all damaged and had to be evacuated, unable to stop the ensuing unilateral massacre.

Although the all-out counterattack of the escort fleet won the fleet a chance to evacuate for more than an hour, under the huge cannon of the Queen-class battle cruiser, all the counterattacks were reduced to powder after dawn, and when the blazing sun jumped into the sky, the entire sea was covered with the remnants of warships and merchant ships. In addition, there were as many as 14 French merchant ships that hoisted white flags and announced their surrender.

Vice Admiral Spee had no time to take prisoners, but out of naval tradition and military honor, he ordered that the French ships that had been allowed to surrender lay down their lifeboats and salvage the survivors at sea, and ordered three merchant ships to abandon all supplies and accept surrendered prisoners of war, while the remaining 11 merchant ships were sunk, and the three merchant ships full of prisoners were released three hours later after being asked to collectively sign a declaration of non-participation in the war and let them return to the Strait of Malacca.

In the whole battle, only the Dresden light cruiser was hit hard, a 200mm shell from the Teller light cruiser pierced the rear armor belt, causing damage to 3 of the 6 boilers, almost causing the boiler to explode, which also led to a significant drop in the speed of the battleship, and it was difficult to continue to follow the fleet for formation operations, and later that day, with the order of Vice Admiral Spee, he left alone to prepare to secretly return to Subic Bay for repairs.

When the British warships from all over the Indian Ocean swarmed before sunset that afternoon, several Tianshan-class destroyers belonging to the South China Squadron were already cruising near the battlefield, and Major Chen Kai, who was the commander of the destroyer fleet, unexpectedly found a sunken American coal carrier after inspecting the battlefield, this large cargo ship with a displacement of 4,000 tons was in Penang to undertake the supply task of the French fleet, who knew that in the fierce battle in the early morning, it was accidentally hit by a torpedo and sank quickly...... Then, another unexpected situation was discovered!

At a distance of 12 nautical miles from the battlefield, the Chinese destroyer found the battleship Martel, which was only exposed to the lookout on the sea, and thankfully, all 670 people were rescued by the Chinese warship.

The battleship Martel, the flagship of the French Far East Fleet, sank at 6:20 a.m. on July 14, more than 40 minutes after being torpedoed by a torpedo on the main armor belt behind the battleship. The 610mm German-made torpedo was as high as 80 kg of mixed explosives, exerting an astonishing blasting power, and the 280mm Harvey steel armor and keel structure at 2 meters below the rear waterline of the battleship Martel were completely torn apart.

Although damage repairs were carried out after evacuation from the battlefield. However, it failed to save the outcome of the sinking of the battleship, and the damage to the rear structure of the battleship made the watertight compartment, which was originally designed to enclose the space to maintain buoyancy, also lose its effect, and finally sank due to the backflow of a large amount of seawater......

The swarming British warships did not include the two battle cruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Fortitude, which were cruising in the British Indian Ocean territory, but the capital ship lineup led by HMS Reckless and consisting of 2 Dreadnought-class pre-dreadnought battleships and 2 Edward-class ex-Dreadnoughts. As well as the latest Weymouth-class, Bristol-class, and Chatham-class destroyers, 12 light cruisers and 18 high-rise Jianghe-class destroyers, have demonstrated the British Empire's enormous control over the Indian Ocean.

However, when the British Light Patrol Southampton, which arrived first, arrived. The German fleet had been away for more than 7 hours, and although the Indian detachment of the Royal Navy already had seaplanes, the big guy was obviously not something that the 5,400-ton Chatham-class Southampton light cruiser could carry. Obviously, I can't ask why.

The next morning, however, the French prisoner ship was intercepted in the Strait of Malacca. The French prisoners on board reported an important situation to the British fleet, the German battleships had been holding the French prisoner ship hostage in the direction of the western Indian Ocean, and after releasing the captive ship, one German battleship at the very end was seen turning to the northwest......

The news immediately touched the sensitive nerves of the British, who sailed southwest, apparently to avoid the British fleet rushing from the coast of India, but turned to the northwest, which was definitely preparing for the rhythm of entering the Arabian Seas...... It is an important gateway from India to Europe. Although it has a strong maritime escort force, it ...... The German fleet had the power to sink battleships. This makes the original escort force of the Royal Navy appear too thin in the face of such a striking force.

Vice Admiral Persson, commander of the Indian detachment, immediately signed a special order, in addition to sending a large number of light patrols to search the Indian Ocean, and at the same time ordering the reckless dreadnought to form a detachment to carry out a wide range of cruises along the Rakdev Sea to the Arabian Sea, and to cooperate at any time in the pursuit of the German fleet that may appear in this area, and in addition, the Australian Navy was also required to cooperate in the search for the German fleet.

On July 20, when Lord Dieters and the battle patrol squadron of HMS Invincible and Fortitude joined the detachment led by the Reckless in the Maldives, a large number of British warships searched around the Indian Ocean for a whole week, but found nothing.

On the contrary, the Australian Navy cruiser Augusta, which departed from Sydney on the 16th, accidentally spotted the German light cruiser Dresden anchored near the island of North Balgae while cruising along the waters of Sumatra.

As a result, in the exchange of fire between the two sides, the two ships with little difference in tonnage launched an attack at a distance of 7,000 meters, and as a result, the Dresden light cruiser took the lead in damaging the Australian Augusta by virtue of its more exquisite gunnony and the advantage in the number of guns, and after nearly 20 rounds of continuous exchange of fire, the Augusta light cruiser gave up the plan of destroying the opponent by relying on his own strength, but used the speed to follow the opponent, and at the same time notified the nearby British warships to rush to reinforcements.

On the morning of the 17th, the German ship Dresden light cruiser had found itself trapped in an encirclement network including 2 British light cruisers, 1 destroyer, and 1 American light cruiser, relying on the warship's only 17 knots speed, it was obviously impossible to get rid of these enemy ships with a speed of nearly 28 knots.

The Chinese flag flying in the harbor and China's declared independence of the Far East from the war meant that the British, Australian, and American warships that arrived later had no choice but to cruise outside the harbor without being able to take further action.

On the 18th, the French Minister to China, Raffarin, and the British Minister to China, Bauer, protested to the Beijing government, demanding that the Beijing government explain the situation of providing battleships to the German Far East Fleet, and that the Chinese government prohibit German warships that had already participated in the war from entering the Far East!

On the 19th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing sent a note to the ministers of the two countries, informing Britain and France that the Chinese shipyards were fulfilling their contracts in accordance with the contract, and that the date of delivery of the ships was also earlier than the start of the war in Europe, and that there was nothing to explain at all.

At the same time, taking into account the interests of Britain and France, the Chinese side will ensure the security of the waters of the Far East, and any warships that enter a state of war will be denied entry into the waters of the Far East and the Pacific Ocean...... And this information, which was also communicated to the US Minister to China in an official document on the same day, was clearly a warning of the participation of American warships in the war in the Far East. (To be continued......)