and. behind the walls of st elmo there s feverish activity the knights of the order of sin john the trying to organize the lines of defense a feat of two hundred turkish men of war has been sighted off the coast of molten forty thousand heavily armed autumn and are about to attack seven thousand christians by the knights of malta with attempts to withstand the onslaught. on the eighteenth of may fifteenth sixty five the tux attack the despite their superior numbers they meet unexpectedly determined resistance the attempt to take the full by surprise fails the defenders put up a dog fight within a month the texas lost eight thousand men and then does fulton elman full.