Interestingly, under normal circumstances, the personnel on the shipwrecked ship either became panicked and fled for their lives, or they made a last-ditch effort to save the ship. The Italian sailors, on the other hand, behaved in a way that made people laugh and cry, and the discipline of the sailors who remained on the ship was gone, and they rushed into the officers' cabins with strange screams, smashed open the officers' lockers, threw things everywhere, took out bottles of fine wine, and poured them into their mouths.

Soon, most of them became drunk, some talking nonsense, some humming decadent tunes. Oh! Lovely Italian naval soldiers, the British Navy likes opponents like you, so loving.

The news of the complete loss of power of the "Bora" reached Admiral Aquino at 20:15. At the moment he felt distraught, because the battle had not been going well. Three minutes later, he signaled Rear Admiral Cataño to lead the First Cruiser Squadron to the rescue. However, according to naval practice, such tasks are usually entrusted to destroyers.

Rear Admiral Cataño immediately signaled his opinion - sending cruisers was a luxury, only 2 destroyers would be enough, and although Admiral Aquino considered the opinion of his subordinates, in the end he insisted on his opinion, and at 20:38 he signaled a detailed explanation to Rear Admiral Cataño.

Because he felt that in the face of such a situation as the "Bola", it was necessary for the commander of the general fleet to have sufficient authority and qualifications to assess the extent of the damage to the Bora and the time required to repair it, and to make a plan to deal with it on the spot. The order entered into force at 21 o'clock, and Major General Cataño accepted the order with the obedience of the military. Led his detachment away from the main array, and the column advanced to the southeast at a speed of 16 knots.

Poor "Bola" was spotted by the British cruiser "Orion", equipped with a sea search radar. Vice Admiral Wippel, commander of the British cruiser detachment, reported to the flagship: "The situation is unknown for the ship, the azimuth is 240 degrees, the distance is 5 nautical miles. There has been a clear stagnation. My location is 35 degrees 21 minutes north latitude and 21 degrees 5 minutes east longitude. Admiral Cunningham, commander of the British fleet, thought that this might be the battleship "Veneto", which had been damaged in a previous air raid, and immediately led the main forces to rush in a murderous manner. "Bora" became a wailing cub in a trap and was attracting hunters and more prey.

At about 22 o'clock, the main British fleet approached him from the northeast direction of the "Bora", and four large ships formed a horizontal column, and from south to north were the battleship "Barham". "Dreadnought" aircraft carrier. The battleships "Sovereign" and "Rodney". At 22:03, the figure of "Bora" appeared on the screen of the 279 radar on the "Rodney".

The radar control officer judged that the distance was about 6 nautical miles, and it was a large ship more than 600 feet long. Seven minutes later, Admiral Cunningham, who received the radar report, was excited. Command the fleet into the shelling. 10:20 p.m. The radar of the USS Rodney was once again locked on the Bora. Tactical data at a bearing of 191 and a distance of 4.5 nautical miles are obtained. Since "Bola" was located on the port side of the British fleet, at this time. The destroyer, which was on the port side, was asked to begin shifting positions to the starboard side in order to free up space for the battleship to fire, and the "Dreadnought" received an order to leave the queue.

However, just as the British destroyer received the order to transfer, the destroyer "Stuart", located on the starboard side, raised the alarm at 22:23, because he was about 2 nautical miles away from 250 degrees from the bow of the ship and spotted the shadows of six warships moving from port to starboard in the night. The second and third ships are large ships, and the rest are small ships. At 22:25, the chief of staff of the British fleet, Brigadier Admiral Edelston, observed the shadows with a telescope, and he calmly issued almost the same report. And Lieutenant Colonel Bauer, an expert in the contour identification of warships who had been the captain of a submarine, judged with a keen eye that the two large ships were Zara-class heavy cruisers with a main gun caliber of 8 inches.

The British reacted extremely quickly, and Admiral Cunningham quickly ordered the fleet to form a column through an ultra-short-wave transmitter. At the same time, the artillery began to turn in the direction of the enemy ship. Since the distance was about 4000 yards, it was suitable for close-range flat fire, so the British guns were shaken to the flat firing position.

Soon, the whole fleet was adjusted, course 280, 24 15-inch, 20 6-inch and 20 4.5-inch guns were aimed at the Italian fleet on course 130, the gunner's finger was already pulling the trigger of fire. At 22:27, the British fleet, which had completed preparations, turned on the searchlight by the destroyer "Hound Dog", which covered the No. 3 ship of the Italian formation. The killing is about to begin.

Admiral Aquino didn't expect that his order would send his fleet to the Ghost Gate. Major General Cataño, although he obeyed the order, still underestimated the danger. Because the Italian fleet did not make any effective preparations for a night battle. They only equipped the torpedo tubes with flame-suppressing equipment, but not on the artillery, and it is said that the Italian officers thought that it was impossible to use the main guns in a night battle.

In addition, due to the fact that they do not pay attention to the study of fire control equipment for night combat communications in peacetime, none of their equipment is suitable for use at night. Why would such a fleet dare to return to a dangerous sea area at night to rescue friendly ships? This was because they believed that there was no possibility for the British fleet to catch up, and even if it did, it would never be possible to send a large ship like a battleship to pursue it at night.

According to Aquino, he believed that the British would only leave the destroyers around. Thus, while the British had already aimed their guns at the Italians, the Italians were hardly mentally prepared for the imminent start of the battle, and Rear Admiral Cataño was only concerned about the actual condition of the "Pola".

In fact, as early as 21:55, the Cataño detachment was discovered, and it was the British light cruiser "Ajax" equipped with 279 radars that detected them. The radar screen of the "Ajax" immediately reported upwards after showing that there were three unidentified ships 5 nautical miles ahead.

Colonel Mack, who was then directing the destroyer fleet in pursuit of the "Veneto", received this report. At the moment, he was 10 nautical miles northeast of Cataño's fleet. The navigator analysed the messages and charts and found that the position of the unidentified vessel reported by the "Ajax" was only 4 nautical miles away from its position at 21:55.

Due to the low accuracy of radar positioning at that time, it was common for the difference of several nautical miles to be different, so Mike judged that the "Ajax" had discovered himself and ignored it. In fact, not only did the radar have errors, but there were also errors in the nautical chart operations carried out in the rocking warship at that time, and the double errors of the radar and the nautical charts were superimposed, resulting in the Cataño detachment at a distance of 10 nautical miles from the Mack fleet at 21:55 to a distance of 4 nautical miles. The Cataño squadron seems to have escaped this fate, but an even greater catastrophe awaits it.

The Cataño detachment, unbeknownst to it, continued its march in the darkness of the night, with the destroyer Alfieri at the head of the queue, followed by the Zara, the Fum, the Betty, the Calducci, and the Oriani. At 10:26 p.m., two red flares were raised in front of its bow.

…… (To be continued......)

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