Interestingly, in general, the people on the ships who died became panic and fled, or shared their hatred for the enemy to make their final efforts to save the ship. The performance of the Italian sailors was ridiculous. The military discipline of the sailors who remained on the ship was gone. They rushed into the officer's cabin with a roar, smashed open the officer's lockers, threw things everywhere, took out a bottle of good wine from it, and poured it into their mouths.

Soon, most of them became drunk, some were talking nonsense, and some hummed decadent little songs. Oh! Cute Italian naval soldiers, the British navy likes opponents like you, so lovingly.

The news that the Bora had completely lost its motivation reached General Aquino at 20:15. At this moment, he felt upset because the battle had not been smooth. Three minutes later, he used a signal to order Major General Catanio to lead the First Cruiser Squadron to carry out rescue. However, according to the naval customs, such tasks were generally handed over to the destroyers.

So Major General Catanho immediately expressed his opinion with a signal - sending a cruiser was a luxury, and only two destroyers were enough. Although General Aquino considered the opinions of his subordinates, he finally insisted on his own point of view. At 20:38, he used the signal to give a detailed explanation to Major General Catanho.

Because he felt that in the face of the situation like the "Pola", a general squadron commander needed to have sufficient authority and qualification to evaluate the degree of damage to the Bola and the time required for repair, and to make a decision on the spot. The order came into effect at 21 o'clock. Major General Catanho accepted the order with the obedience of the military. He led his squadron out of the main array and advanced southeast at a speed of 16 knots in a row.

The poor "Pola" was discovered by the British cruiser "Orion" equipped with a sea search radar. Lieutenant General Wiper, commander of the British cruiser detachment, reported to the flagship: "The ship is unknown at a distance of 240 degrees and is 5 nautical miles away. It has obviously stagnated. My location is 35 degrees and 21 degrees and 5 minutes east longitude." Admiral Cunningham, commander of the British fleet, believed that this might be the battleship "Veneto" injured in the previous air strike, and immediately led the main force to come here with murderous intent. "Pola" became a cub wailing in the trap, attracting hunters and more prey.

At around 22:00, the British main fleet approached him from the northeast of the Bola. Four large ships formed a horizontal line, from south to north, the Battleship of the Baalam, the aircraft carrier of the Bola, the Battleship of the Junquan and the Battleship of the Rodney. At 22:03, the figure of the Bola appeared on the screen of the 279 radar on the Rodney.

The radar operator judged the distance of about 6 nautical miles based on the signal, which was a large ship more than 600 feet long. After 7 minutes, Admiral Cunningham, who received the radar report, was very excited and directed the fleet to enter the shelling. At 22:20, the radar of the "Rodney" locked the "Bora" again and obtained tactical data of 191 azimuth and 4.5 nautical miles. Since the "Bora" was located on the port side of the British fleet, the destroyer on the port side was asked to start transferring positions to the starboard side to free up the space for the warship to shoot, and the "Kewei" also received the order to leave the queue.

However, just when the British destroyer received the transfer order, the destroyer "Stuart" on the starboard side issued an alarm at 22:23 because he found about 2 nautical miles at 250 degrees on the bow of the ship, and found six warships traveling from the port to the starboard side in the night. The second and third were large ships, and the rest were small ships. At 22:25, British Fleet Chief of Staff Brigadier General Edelston observed these shadows with a telescope, and he calmly issued almost the same report. Lieutenant Colonel Ball, an expert in the contour identification of warships who had been the captain of a submarine, judged with a glance that the two large ships were 8-inch Zara-class heavy cruisers with a main gun caliber.

The British army reacted very quickly, and General Cunningham quickly ordered the fleet to line up through the ultra-short wave transmitter. At the same time, the artillery began to rotate and aim at the direction of the enemy ship. Since the distance was about 4,000 yards, it was suitable for close-range flat shooting, so the British artillery was shaken to the flat shooting position.

Soon, the entire fleet was adjusted, with 280, 24 15-inch, 20 6-inch and 20 4.5-inch guns aimed at the Italian fleet heading 130. The gunner's fingers had already pulled the fire trigger. At 22:27, the British fleet, which completed the preparation, turned on the searchlight by the destroyer "Hunter", and covered the Italian Formation No. 3. The killing was about to begin.

Why didn't General Aquino expect that his order sent his fleet into the gates of hell? Although Major General Catanho obeyed the order, he still lacked the risk. Because the Italian fleet did not make any effective preparations for night battles. They only equipped the torpedo tube with flame-removing equipment, but the cannon was not on it. It is said that the Italian officers believed that it was impossible to use the main gun in night battles.

In addition, since they do not pay attention to the research on night combat communication fire control equipment, their equipment is not suitable for use at night. Why do such a fleet dare to return to a dangerous sea area at night to rescue friendly ships? This is because they believe that the British fleet has no possibility of catching up, and even if they catch up, it is impossible to send large ships like battleships to pursue them at night.

According to Aquino, he believed that the British army would only leave destroyers to move around. Therefore, when the British had already targeted the Italians, the Italians had almost no ideological preparation for the battle to begin, and Major General Catanho was worried about the actual situation of the "Pola".

In fact, as early as 21:55, the Catanio squadron was discovered. The one who detected them was the British light cruiser "Ajax" equipped with a 279 radar. The radar screen of the "Ajax" showed that there were three unknown ships 5 nautical miles ahead of it, and immediately reported it up.

Colonel Mike, who was commanding the destroyer fleet to pursue the "Veneto", received the report. At this moment, he was 10 nautical miles northeast of the Catanio fleet. The navigator analyzed the telegrams and charts and found that the location of the unknown ship reported by the "Ajax" was only 4 nautical miles away from his position at 21:55.

Since the radar positioning accuracy was not high at that time, it was common for several nautical miles to be different, so Mike judged that the "Ajax" was discovering him and ignored it. In fact, not only did the radar have errors, but there were also errors in the chart operations in the shaking warship at that time. The double error of radar and charts superimposed, resulting in the Catanio squadron, which was 10 nautical miles away from the Mike fleet at 21:55, a distance of 4 nautical miles. This is really a coincidence. The Catanio squadron seemed to have escaped this disaster, but a greater disaster was waiting for it.

The Catanio squadron, who was ignorant, continued to advance in the darkness. At this time, the destroyer "Alfieri" was headed in the queue, followed by the "Zarra", "Fum", "Betty", "Karduchi" and "Oriyani". At 22:26, ​​two red signal flares rose in front of their bow.

… (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, novels are better, updated and faster!

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