Successive assaults in the following days also…
June 1563 CE
Hassan is on June 6 about to order what he intends as the final assault when a relief fleet takes his army by surprise.
King Philip II had ordered a fleet to be organized in Cartagena in order to attack Hasan's army and force it to lift the siege.
Under the command of Francisco de Mendoza, who was seconded by Álvaro de Bazán, thirty-four galleys coming from Barcelona, Naples, Genoa, Savoy, and Malta, had embarked four thousand soldiers and many volunteer knights, and had sailed to Mers el Kébir.
Hasan, fearing to be trapped between the Spanish reinforcements and Mers El Kébir, orders his troops to retreat hastily.
The tents can be saved, but guns, clothing and tools are left in the field.
The Ottoman fleet is not so lucky, and several of its ships, including four of the French carracks, are captured.