In 1967, Israel's largest warship sailed into Egypt's territorial waters and unscrupulously blockaded the port, and the Egyptian navy angrily fired four missiles, directly sinking the Israeli warship, and the Israeli army suffered 138 casualties in an instant.
On an early evening in October 1967, tensions in the Middle East escalated further when the Israeli Navy sent its flagship destroyer, INS Eilat, straight to Port Said in Egypt with the intention of unilaterally blockading this vital port.
This act is undoubtedly a blatant provocation and violation of Egypt's sovereignty and poses a serious threat to Egypt's port security.
When the destroyer "Eilat" crossed the territorial waters and entered the 13-nautical-mile range of Port Said, Egypt discovered this invading fleet, and in the face of this outrageous and unreasonable act, the Egyptian navy bravely dispatched several "Mosquito" class missile boats, although this kind of boat has only a displacement of 75 tons, but after being refitted, it is equipped with SS-N-2 "Styx" ship-to-ship missiles with a range of 40 kilometers and high accuracy, and the firepower is very amazing.
However, the Israeli military turned a blind eye to these miniature missile boats and became full of self-confidence in the 1,800-ton destroyer "Eilat" piloted by itself.
In their eyes, the destroyer's six 40-mm guns and three 114-mm guns were capable of destroying those boats in one fell swoop, even as they got closer and closer to Egyptian ports.
And the truth was far from what they expected, just when the Israeli radar spotted several Egyptian boats, the situation was already somewhat unusual, these boats did not seem to be in a hurry to evacuate, but wandered in the sea area, as if looking for something, the Israeli commander immediately realized the seriousness of the situation, he ordered the fleet to maintain the highest state of alert, just in case.
At this moment, a shining "Styx" missile had been launched from the direction of Egypt and dived towards the "Eilat", and the speed of the missile was extremely fast, almost making the reaction time of the Israeli army insignificant.
However, what was surprising was that the missile did not directly hit the target, but suddenly flew upward, avoiding the fire of the ship's guns, a move that surprised the Israeli officers and men present, who had never seen such a cunning attack.
Although the Israeli army tried to avoid the risk by adjusting its course and speed, it was too late, and after the missile crossed an arc in the air, it again locked onto the target and hit the destroyer directly, causing severe shaking and heavy damage, and this blow caused the deck of the "Eilat" to be torn apart, flames rose into the sky, and thick smoke billowed out.
Immediately after that, a second missile followed, which accurately hit the power system of the "Eilat", causing it to completely lose power, and this once majestic battleship is now floating on the surface of the sea like a huge iron box, unable to move, and can only watch the sea water pour into the hull of the ship, watching its proud flagship suffer this catastrophe, and the Israeli army is full of heartache.
When night fell, the Israeli army had to go all out to rescue and plug the leak, hoping to survive the catastrophe, they quickly organized a rescue team, using lifeboats and helicopters to move the wounded sailors to safety, and the engineers were also working hard to repair the damaged equipment, hoping to restore the normal operation of the ship as soon as possible.
The Egyptian navy was overjoyed and decided that the destroyer could no longer support it, so it immediately launched a second round of onslaught, and sure enough, the third "Styx" missile hit the target again, causing a raging fire. The fire spread rapidly, and the entire ship was caught in a sea of flames, and in this situation, the Israeli commander had to make a difficult decision and all the men abandoned the ship and escaped.
As the last sailor left the Eilat, the once heroic battleship was eventually sunk in a sea of fire. The Israeli army eventually had to abandon ship and escape.
However, just when the Israeli soldiers thought they had escaped, a fourth missile was fired at the escape boat, killing 47 people on the spot and injuring 91 others.
On the other hand, the Egyptian side easily destroyed this behemoth, but it itself was unscathed, and the battle shocked the whole world, and no one expected that a small boat could annihilate a huge destroyer so easily.
This naval battle marked the arrival of the era of missile boats, which displayed their extraordinary combat effectiveness in fighting the big with small fights, and became an excellent weapon for "defeating the strong with the weak."
Since then, various countries have developed missile boats one after another, and Israel has immediately ordered a large number of new missile boat equipment from France; it can be said that the victory of the missile boats is entirely due to the advanced missiles they are equipped with, and in the face of this new weapon, the traditional warships will be powerless if they lack sufficient anti-missile capabilities.
Source: "With only four bombs, Egypt's 75-ton runabout suddenly sank an Israeli 1,700-ton destroyer, setting a precedent for modern naval warfare!"
