At about 10 am on 22 July 1921, the 5000 men of the Annual started to march out of the fort without being told why. As the Spanish marched in such a disorganised fashion with no officers to give them direction or orders that in the words of the British historian Admiral Cecil Usborne: "Units broke up and became incoherent", as men started to head off in every direction amid "the terrible heat and dust of the Moroccan summer". With Spanish having no order, the Moroccans had no trouble cutting them down with writhing fire, which, in turn, led to the Spanish taking off helter-skelter with every man for himself to the mountains. The Rif tribesmen cut them down with their swords, and others were "shot down like rabbits" with the smiling tribesmen openly standing up to shoot down the Spanish as if it was all a game to them. The Rifians used up almost all of their ammunition, but they captured so many Spanish guns and ammunition as to come out of the battle with more ammunition than they had started with. In the meantime, the Rifians had smashed through the gates of the Annual and went about killing every Spaniard they encountered. The Rifians gave no mercy and cut down not only the Spanish soldiers but also the Spanish prostitutes, who had followed the troops up into the Rif. While that was happening, Silvestre stood on the parapet of the Annual fortress, watching his army being destroyed. With the exception of one cavalry unit, the Cazadores de Alcántara, the entire garrison of about 5000 men were lost. Silvestre reportedly further demoralised his men by yelling at them, "Run, run, the bogeyman is coming!" as they attempted to rally following their initial defeat. Silvestre's comments about the "bogeyman" were his only contributions to the command of his army during the Annual battle. Of the 570 Spaniards who survived the "Disaster of Annual", the 326 who were taken prisoner were released in January 1923 after the Spanish state paid a ransom of four million "pesetas". The survivors consisted of 44 officers, 236 soldiers, 10 civilians and 33 prostitutes and their children.