The news of the complete loss of power of the "Bora" reached Admiral Nokia at 20:15, and he was distraught at this moment, because the battle had not been going well.

Three minutes later, he signaled the cruiser commander to lead the 1st Cruiser Squadron to the rescue. However, according to naval practice, such tasks are usually entrusted to destroyers.

So the cruiser commander immediately expressed his opinion with a signal - sending cruisers was a luxury, and only 2 destroyers would be enough.

Although Admiral Nokia took into account the opinions of his subordinates, in the end he insisted on his opinion, and at 20:38 he gave a detailed explanation to the cruiser commander by signal.

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 came into effect at 21 o'clock, and the cruiser commander accepted the order with the obedience of a soldier, and led his detachment out of the main array, advancing in a column at a speed of 16 knots to the southeast.

Poor "Bola" was spotted by the British cruiser "Orion", equipped with a sea search radar.

The commander of the British cruiser detachment, Vice Admiral Wippel, reported to the flagship:

"The situation is unknown, the azimuth is 240 degrees, the distance is 5 nautical miles, it has obviously stagnated, my position is 35 degrees 21 minutes north latitude, 21 degrees 5 minutes east longitude."

The commander of the British fleet, Admiral Cunningham, thought that this might be the battleship "Veneto", which had been damaged in a previous air raid, and he immediately led a murderous rush against the main force of the fleet, and the "Bora" became a wailing cub in a trap, 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.

From south to north were the battleship "Balham", the aircraft carrier "Dreadnought", the battleship "Sovereign" and the battleship "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 very excited and commanded the fleet into the artillery bombardment.

At 22:20, the radar of the "Rodney" locked on the "Bora" again, and obtained tactical data at a bearing of 191 and a distance of 4.5 nautical miles.

Since the "Bora" was located on the port side of the British fleet, at this time, the destroyer on the port side was asked to begin to shift positions to starboard in order to free up space for the battleship to shoot, and the "Dreadnought" also received the 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 to the bow of the ship, he spotted the shadows of six warships traveling 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, and at the same time, the artillery began to turn in the direction of the enemy ships.

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 Nokia didn't expect that his order would send his fleet to the Ghost Gate.

And the cruiser commander, 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 Nokia, he believed that the British would only leave destroyers around.

Therefore, when the British had already aimed their guns at the Italians, the Italians were hardly mentally prepared for the imminent start of the battle, and the cruiser commander was only worried about the actual condition of the "Bora".

In fact, as early as 21:55, the cruiser detachment was spotted, and it was the British light cruiser "Ajax" equipped with the 279 radar 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 this moment, he was 10 nautical miles northeast of the cruiser 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, there were errors not only in the radar, but also in the nautical chart operations carried out in the rocking warship at that time.

The superposition of the double error of radar and nautical charts caused the cruiser squadron at a distance of 10 nautical miles from Mack's fleet to become a distance of 4 nautical miles at 21:55, which is also really a mistake.

The cruiser squadron seemed to have escaped this fate, but an even greater calamity awaited it.

The detachment of cruisers, who were in no doubt, continued in the darkness of the night, with the destroyer "Alfieri" at the head of the queue, followed by "Zara", "Fum", "Betty", "Karducci", and "Oriani". At 10:26 p.m., two red flares were raised in front of its bow.

The cruiser commander knew that it was launched by the "Bora" and was making contact with himself.

However, not long after he saw the flare, a bright light suddenly shone 3,000 yards away, covering the No. 3 ship "Fumu" in the formation.

The silhouettes of the "Zara" and "Alfieri" were also very clear in the night sky, and for a moment the Italian naval officers and men were stunned.

"Boom", the panicked Italians saw a line of flames rising from the British ship and heard a deafening sound.

"Battleship!" The experienced men shouted, and the cruiser commander's hopes were completely dashed - he had thought that it might be the British destroyer that attacked them. In an instant, the will of the Italian naval officers and sailors collapsed.

[Thank you brothers for your monthly passes, brothers! ] Ask the brother who has the financial ability to give the chapter. (To be continued.) )