The "Spain" telegram for help was soon transmitted to the Port of Gibraltar. This place had long been owned by Spain and was stationed by the Spanish navy. Compared with the British Empire at its peak, the Spanish navy was simply not worth mentioning, and the Spanish also had a clear understanding of their own strength. They wisely used land-based aircraft, fortress heavy artillery, and lightning strike ships to form a three-dimensional Gibraltar cordon.

Interestingly, due to Spain's diplomatic strategy of changing its ruthlessness during this period, the Spanish army had never carried out the mission of blocking the Strait of Gibraltar.

When he learned that his country's supertanker was attacked by a submarine under his nose, General Recio, who served as the commander of the Spanish Navy's Gibraltar fleet, quickly ordered the ship on duty to go to rescue. Within a quarter of an hour, the destroyer "Castilecjo" and the torpedo boats s-115, s-121, and s-129 took the lead in leaving the military port. Immediately afterwards, General Recio boarded the light cruiser "Valencia" that was rushing to anchor, and followed with the destroyer "Alberto" and minesweeper "Horcas".

The incident happened at the "Spain" is only 30 nautical miles away from the port of Gibraltar. When the Spanish warship sailed through Cape Carnero, they could see the black smoke column at the end of the sea from afar. When the destroyer "Castillejo" and three high-speed torpedo boats approached, the hull of this huge tanker had been inclined more than 30 degrees. Smoke was rolling on the deck at the end of the deck, and red flames might occasionally emerge from the hatch. Under the stimulation of the smoke and fire, the deck was in chaos.

The lifeboat hanging on the side of the boat is a life-saving straw in people's eyes, but crew members who have not been specially trained are inevitably making mistakes in the seemingly simple procedure of putting down the lifeboat, so that many lifeboats have been planted head-down into the water, and the order to abandon the boat was not issued in time. The crew members who evacuated from the lower cabin also joined in the ranks of releasing the lifeboat to escape from the ship. Under the stimulation of the flames and smoke, some sailors have already been unable to bear the huge fear in their hearts, and they jumped into the sea to escape with their lifebuoys or life jackets.

"The torpedoes were found sailing towards us on the sea ahead of the starboard side!"

The alarm from the lookout for "Castilecho" brought the crew back to reality from the shock of a wooden chicken. In sight, there was indeed an object that looked almost as different from a sea fish swimming from behind the capsized tanker. The refraction of the sea water and the influence of sunlight made it difficult for people to judge the exact location of this thing.

The captain with neat lips and lip squinted orders hurriedly: "Switch to avoid! Intercept and shoot!"

Under the control of the helmsman, the destroyer with the Spanish flag quickly turned left. In a blink of an eye, the rain of bullets poured out from the guns and cannons on the ship stirred up chaotic splashes on the huge sea surface. The shells with delayed fuses exploded in sea water of different depths, but the violent explosion caused by detonating the torpedo did not arrive for a long time.

"Right full rudder! Right full rudder!"

Accompanied by the captain's high decibels, the sharp bow of the destroyer deflected sideways at an unthinkable speed, and the towering masts particularly fully reflect this inclination. With this extremely fast steering similar to a rowing, the destroyer completely reversed its previous course in less than half a minute. The speed of 30 knots means a displacement of 15 meters per second, which means that the 180-meter warship can only take 11 seconds to complete a full body displacement, and this half minute is more than enough to avoid the torpedoes coming in the forward.

Seeing the terrifying black explosive passing by the rear of the ship at a speed that exceeded the destroyer itself, the officers and soldiers on the ship couldn't help but take a breath.

Death is so close!

Unsure how many torpedoes fired by the attacker, the officers on the ship did not dare to be careless at all. Under the deterrence of unknown location and unknown submarines, they did not immediately approach the tanker wreckage to carry out rescue, but instead took a z-line route on the sea that could effectively evade torpedo attacks. When the "Valencia" light cruiser arrived at the scene, the huge tanker had completely capsized, with full lines and a bottom of the ship that sucked marine life on the outside wall was fully presented to people. If there were still people trapped in the cabin that was being turned upside down, the Spanish Navy had obviously missed the best rescue opportunity.

As the terrible torpedoes were not observed on the sea, the officers and soldiers who sailed on several Spanish warships were vigilantly paying attention to the surrounding waters, while looking at the hopeless tanker with different mentalities.

"Torpedoes were found on the starboard sea, with a distance of two thousand yards"

The alarm comes from the lookout officers of the light cruiser "Valencia". In this position that is gradually replaced by radar and sonar, those assigned to serve as lookout officers are usually people with excellent natural vision and sufficient attention, and are equipped with high-magnitude binoculars.

Almost at the same time, the sonar-equipped "Castilecjo" and "Alberto" also detected the torpedoes flying. The officers quickly looked at the corresponding direction and distance and saw two looming white lines appearing northwest of the "Spain". Obviously, the attacker had been ambushing the north side of the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, which was a long-planned attack!

Unlike shells, they usually sail underwater at a speed of about 40 knots, which means it takes about one minute to travel a distance of one thousand meters (the shells are only a little more than a second). When a maneuverable and flexible ship often has enough time to avoid the steering under advance warning, which is also the main reason why submarines find it difficult for them to sink light ships in broad daylight.

The "Castilecho" closest to the torpedo always maintained its speed at about 30 knots. It turned right quickly with a flowing posture of almost tail-shaking, avoiding the two torpedoes very easily. On the sea not far away, the "Valencia", which was more than twice as large as the destroyer, was also evading in a hurry.

After successfully avoiding the torpedo, the "Castillejo" turned again. At this time, it was like a provoked bull, heading towards the northwest of the "Spain". Just waiting to approach the suspected position of the attacker, the hedgehog deep bombs on the ship were fired one after another, and then there were dull explosions on the sea.

In the process, another destroyer, Alberto, always guarding the Valencia. Three torpedo boats and the belated minesweeper were doing nothing, and none of the warships ventured to approach the capsized "Spain".

The bearded captain of the "Castilecho" was still heavy at this time, but his thinking did not become slow and clumsy. He picked up the telescope and observed the surrounding sea surface. He ordered with a strong face: "Reduce the speed, approach the tanker from the west, keep fighting alert, and keep the sonar equipment running!"

The staff officer felt that he had guessed the captain's intention, and he reminded him from the side: "The enemy did not use a periscope during the attack. He must have used a sonar system with a sensitive accuracy. They must have been able to detect our existence. They must have just been swimming nearby and would not float to the surface randomly."

The bearded captain looked at the sea with a calm expression, and after a while he responded to the staff officer's words: "If we cannot force it to float on the surface of the Shanghai area, or sink it here, we will not be able to determine its identity."

This sounds quite meaningful. The staff officer, who is much younger than the captain, has been thinking for a long time and sighs: "The enemy is probably fearless."

The captain did not say anything, but stood quietly on the edge of the railing, allowing himself to be directly exposed to the sun. At this time, the sky was still blue and the sun was still so clean. Without the sound of gunfire and explosions, the sea seemed to have returned to its previous tranquility and peace. The breeze blew the waves, the waves slapped the hull, and the eyes were frozen at a certain period of time. The trend of the huge mountain tanker sinking became less obvious, and even made people feel that it would float down.

Before the "Castillejo" approached the tanker, an alarm suddenly came from the sonar chamber: "The torpedo was found on the port side! A distance of 1,500 yards!"

On the bridge, several officers scanned the sea with telescopes, but still did not find the periscope. It seems that the attacker was able to measure the accurate position of the target through sonar equipment, and then fired torpedoes to carefully observe the torpedo’s trajectory. It is not difficult to determine that this is a traditional direct flight torpedo.

After finally returning to his normal expression, the captain couldn't help but frown. Although he had not experienced the fierce confrontation of two world wars in person, he still had a deep understanding of the attack power and destructive power contained in such a seemingly inconspicuous weapon. Although the sea surface in front of him was quite calm, there was a sinister murderous intent hidden under the sea. If the destroyer was commanded to force himself to carry out rescue, even if the speed did not decrease and the vigilance was not relaxed, he might hit the enemy's muzzle, and was fired by the opponent's torpedo volley at a distance of one thousand yards or even shorter, which was almost not enough to avoid the attack.

"Look, Major, the 'Valencia' orders us to withdraw our guards. We should have to let the torpedo boats and minesweepers pick up the crew members who evacuated the tanker!"

Hearing the report of the officers of the subordinates, the captain of the beard quickly picked up the telescope. After being attacked by torpedoes, the Spanish light cruiser made a circle and then stayed five or six kilometers away from the tanker to watch from afar. Indeed, the current situation of the "Spain" has lost the possibility of emergency repair and tow. Rationally, there is no need to take any Spanish warship. However, warships are Spain's wealth, and sailors are also Spain's wealth. In order to ensure that the warships are completely abandoned, there is no need to rescue the sailors on the oil tanker. How can the Spanish phalanx be so domineering that the Spanish phalanx is so powerful that the Spanish invincible fleet is scattered across the ocean? Is the Spanish bloody nature really sinking into those eras shining with silver?

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!