When the destroyers approached, Gneisenau was 5,500 yards ahead of Prinz Eugen. Fein, obeying his orders to save his ship at all costs, fired his guns at the shadowy shapes of the destroyers. Although Gneisenau was still in the fight she disappeared from Prinz Eugens sight, which led Captain Brinkmann to believe he was fighting the battle alone.
Aboard Prinz Eugen, while Bohsehke's heavy guns were firing, the flak guns were also in continual action. In the Luftwaffe fighter operations room, Lt. Rothenberg and Lt. von Kuhlberg kept reporting RAF aircraft on all sides. The specially installed quadruple 2-cm guns scored many hits. Their shells were seen to explode against several RAF aircraft, but they continued to fly despite being filled with holes. They seemed to absorb the small shells but Lt. Paul Schmalenbach, the flak commander, wondered if they all got back.
Meanwhile Pizey s five destroyers were still racing forward at thirty knots, replying with their own guns and firing pom-poms at attacking German aircraft. Shells began to fall very close, straddling them. Pizey held his course, waiting for the right time to launch his torpedoes. He stood on the bridge of Campbell watching the German aircraft and ships as calmly as if he were on manoeuvres, leaning forward every second or so to give orders to his navigator or the yeoman of signals.
Aboard Whitshed, Ted Tong, being one of the tallest men in the crew, stood on a steel table with one arm round a stanchion hauling up shells for the 4.7 after-gun. He had hoisted up several dozen shells when he heard a yell from the gun crew above. "There they are!" and the guns started firing. The ship rumbled and rocked with explosions, but Tong still could see nothing. Even those on deck could see very little through the blinding spray and splashes of bursting shells, but as Mackay turned towards the Germans, Hutchings on duty above her bridge saw two shapes glinting a beautiful silver in a sudden patch of sunlight.
It was getting towards dusk as the destroyers went into open battle order to attack. Waves broke green fore and aft and even officers on the bridge were drenched with spray. The torpedo crews, knee deep in water as the destroyers rolled heavily, tried to train their tubes. Flotilla-leader Campbell was followed by Vivacious with Worcester last of the line.
On their starboard beam were Mackay and Whitshed, who were to attack first. As he hauled round to starboard to launch his torpedoes, Captain Wright in Mackay saw a big German ship steering directly towards him. He recognized the Prinz Eugen. But she was not going to attack. Her commander, Captain Brinkmann, had altered course thinking Mackay was a German destroyer. For two minutes Whitshed, rolling in the great seas, followed Mackay towards the German ships under heavy fire. Visibility was still bad and the destroyers came under attack from everything the Germans had, but by a miracle there were no hits. Neither Kahler on Gneisenau nor Jasper on Prinz Eugen had their range. The nearest German shells fell a quarter of a mile away from Mackay and Whitshed.
It was 3:45 p.m. when Mackay and Whitshed launched their torpedoes together from 4,000 yards. As Mackay launched hers, Prinz Eugen again altered course. This was not to avoid what she still thought was a German destroyer, but to dodge an RAF plane that was trying to bomb her.
Hutchings watched Mackay's torpedoes drop into the sea like a diver making a belly flop, and as they began to run she swerved sharply away. With the ship shuddering and turning at full ahead, Hutchings had to cling to the two brass handles of his sight-setter to keep upright.
Aboard Whitshed, Tong heard the gun crews shouting, "We are attacking the Prinz Eugen. We can see her. I think we have hit her!" But Whitshed's torpedoes also missed Prinz Eugen, as German shells fell into the sea around the destroyer, the near-misses rocking the ship. Immediately after she had fired, cloud descended to nearly sea level and the German battleships disappeared from the destroyers' view in a rain squall.
At this moment Pizey decided to attack. In his report he said, "As we closed to 3,500 yards I felt our luck could not last much longer. The ships were being well straddled."
What finally decided him was a heavy shell fired by Kahler's guns aboard Gneisenau which failed to explode, bounced off the waves and then dived under Campbell like a porpoise. Pizey turned to navigator Fanning and said, "Pilot, we are turning. What retiring course do you recommend?" Fanning had already worked this out, and the course was instantly radioed to the two destroyers astern. This was so that the ships would all turn together, firing their torpedoes simultaneously to give the greatest arc of fire. There was hardly a second's interval between Pizey's decision on the bridge of Campbell and the information being received by the other destroyers. As the torpedo gunners waited tensely to receive their orders by voice pipe and telephone, Pizey, half-blinded by spray on the bridge, said tersely, "Torps, we go in to attack the enemy with torpedoes… now!" The yeoman of signals on the bridge called down to the radio room, "Give the executive signal." This was three short dots and a long in Morse. As the Morse signal bleeped to the other destroyers, Pizey ordered, "Turn to fire."
It was forty-seven and a half minutes past three when Campbell and Vivacious turned to port and fired together from 3,500 yards — about two miles. Campbell launched six torpedoes but Vivacious only three, because half her torpedo tubes had been removed to fit a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun.
Midshipman Bohsehke aboard Prinz Eugen saw Campbell fire her torpedoes and called out a warning. Captain Brinkmann at once turned the ship hard to starboard away from their foaming wakes. At the same time, Campbell was once again straddled by shells from Bohsehke's forward guns, and every other gun the cruiser could bring to bear.
The foretop was obscured by smoke blown forward by a heavy stern wind, so the German gunners could not see where their shells were landing. As the shells ringed his ships, Pizey was watching for the result of his torpedo attack. When he saw German destroyers appearing ahead of the Gneisenau, he hoisted the flag signaclass="underline" "Disregard." This meant; "Act independently," which gave individual ships freedom to either attack the destroyers or take evasive action.
But one destroyer had not yet attacked. While cascades of water from high waves and near-misses were showering over her, Worcester, shuddering from her labouring engines, pressed even closer than the other two destroyers. She steamed so near that as she ran parallel with the two German ships, the officers on her bridge could clearly make out their triangular masts and massive grey shapes. Lt.-Cdr. Coats, a very brave and determined man, muttered through his teeth, "I am going to sink one of those damned ships." He passed the message to his crew, "Everyone must do their best."
In front of him towered the leading battleship of the Squadron — the Gneisenau. Coats steamed closer, ignoring the shells which were now raining down on him as the German gunners began to get the range of his tiny destroyer. Their broadsides cut a foaming swathe through the water fifty feet ahead of him.