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The Fox of France - Chapter 537
🕑 Added 2024-05-06 07:38:12 +0000 UTCChapter 537: Prison Break
As the French armored cruisers joined the siege against the "Poitiers," the situation of the "Poitiers" worsened. Although the cannonballs could not penetrate the armor of the "Poitiers," they caused a severe fire on the ship. This fire posed a significant threat to the warship, and if left unchecked, the ship would certainly be doomed. However, to extinguish the fire, the damage control teams had to enter unsafe areas outside the armored protection, where they were continuously killed or injured by cannon fire from the French armored cruisers.
This situation caused severe personnel losses on the "Poitiers." On the other hand, even though the damage control teams braved the cannon fire to fight the flames, the fire was not effectively controlled.
Later, Lord George Cockburn mentioned in his memoirs, "I have to admit, apart from the differences in basic knowledge and technology, the design philosophy of British warships was far behind that of the French. It's not that I'm blaming our designers, who actually did quite well. However, in terms of design philosophy, the French warships indeed had a significant advantage over ours.
For instance, the French emphasis on key defensive design allowed their warships, even those of slightly smaller or equal tonnage compared to ours, to have far superior armor protection.
Moreover, the French warships were far better prepared against fires than ours. Later, as an instructor at the French Naval Academy, I boarded one of their armored cruisers used for training sailors. This cruiser had participated in the North Sea Channel battle, which was a nightmare for me and many Britons, and by the time I boarded it, it had been replaced by more advanced warships. However, for me, this ship still held many curious secrets.
One such secret was the fire prevention on French warships. During the battle in the North Sea Channel, one of the most impressive aspects of the French warships was their fire control. Many of our ships were lost due to uncontrolled fires, like the 'Poitiers' battleship. Many of our cruisers also experienced severe fires after being hit by French artillery. The losses were indeed closely related to these fires.
The French warships also caught fire under our bombardment, but the fires were small and quickly extinguished. Clearly, they had a significant technological advantage in fire prevention and extinguishing. Some of these advantages I knew about, and others I needed to go onboard to understand.
Once onboard, I thoroughly investigated and found that the French warships had significantly fewer flammable materials compared to British warships. For example, there was hardly any wood on French warships; their tables and chairs were mostly made of iron. Although not very comfortable, it reduced the likelihood of fires. In our case, perhaps out of nostalgia for the age of sail, even though we had switched to steel warships, we still hoped to retain as many elements from the age of sail as possible. For example, we liked to use wooden tables and chairs, and even our cabins had many wooden decorations — things you wouldn't see on French warships.
Besides, the French warships had fewer textiles, while we, for aesthetic reasons, even covered our walls with fabrics, which later became a fire hazard. Especially the adhesives used to attach them, which produced a lot of toxic smoke in a fire.
Additionally, the French strategically placed critical pipelines in non-protected areas as little as possible. This also made them less susceptible to fire damage, and they had more fire hoses and extinguishers on their warships compared to ours. This made it much easier for them to deal with fires..."
The fire spread through various ducts into the "Poitiers," which had not been penetrated by shells. Many systems were forced to shut down or were damaged by the fire. In fact, even if the French suddenly retreated for some reason now, the "Poitiers" would not necessarily be able to return safely.
At this time, the "Trajan" had regained its balance and began shifting its firepower towards the "Poitiers." The situation became increasingly unfavorable for the British, and it could even be said that the British fleet was now in despair.
"This battle has already been lost. Even if no more shells fall on our warships from now on, even if a miracle suddenly happens and the French fleet just retreats, like the Mongols who had already crossed the Danube suddenly retreating, we can no longer move forward to carry out the mission to break the blockade against Britain. Now, we should not let the sailors of the navy sacrifice meaninglessly anymore."
Faced with this situation, Lord George Cockburn made such a decision. Because of this decision, after he returned, he was made a scapegoat for the defeat by the British government and was charged with "cowardice" and "ineffective command" and brought before a military tribunal.
Regarding these accusations, Lord George Cockburn denied them all.
However, he was still sentenced to prison. Later, after a new peace agreement was reached between Britain and France, he was handed over to the French as a war criminal...
After Lord George Cockburn issued the retreat order, the remaining British warships began to turn around, trying to escape back to the Irish Sea. Seeing that a complete annihilation of the enemy was just in sight, the French naturally were not willing to just let the British fleet go.
Now, among the British fleet, the "Crecy's" main artillery was completely disabled, and its power was somewhat damaged; the "Poitiers'" secondary guns were completely disabled, and its sighting systems were all out, but its power and main guns were still intact. Additionally, the armored cruiser "Hope" had not been hit by a single shell, and its combat power was fully intact. Thus, these two warships took on the responsibility of covering the other warships' retreat.
The "Hope," an armored cruiser, inserted itself at full speed between the "Crecy" and the "Trajan," continually attacking the "Trajan" with its gunfire. Although its firepower was almost unlikely to cause much damage to the "Trajan," the "Hope," like a buzzing fly, still caused quite a bit of interference for the "Trajan."
The secondary guns on the "Trajan" fired fiercely at the "Hope," but since the "Hope" was moving very fast and kept making irregular turns, the result was that not a single shell hit her (of course, the "Hope," which was still firing while moving at high speed, also didn't hit anything) and the "Hope" occasionally made movements as if it were going to ram the "Trajan," forcing the "Trajan" to constantly adjust its course to evade—after all, the "Trajan" had already had four watertight compartments breached, and if one or two more were opened, it really couldn't afford it.
The other cruisers also shifted their targets and began firing at the "Hope." Shells continuously fell around the "Hope," and many times, the water columns raised by the shells seemed to completely engulf this armored cruiser. But in the next moment, the ship would energetically burst out from the water columns, seemingly unscathed except for being drenched.
The French cruisers shifting their firepower gave the "Poitiers" a rare chance to catch its breath. Although the "Poitiers" seemed to have been heavily damaged, its power and main guns were actually not significantly affected. The biggest danger it faced was the fire, but when the French shifted their firepower, the damage control personnel on the "Poitiers" finally had an uninterrupted chance to fight the fire. Although the fire was already severe and difficult to extinguish or even reduce, it was at least somewhat controlled.
Moreover, Colonel Valentin, the captain of the "Poitiers," also had time to make a serious assessment of the situation.
The strongest enemy warship, the "Trajan," obviously had a problem. Its power was clearly damaged, so much so that its speed was embarrassingly slow. Now, the "Poitiers'" power was still intact, meaning the "Poitiers" could outrun the "Trajan."
Thus, the heroic act of Lord Nelson leading the "Queen Elizabeth" to ram the "Invariable" suddenly came to mind for Colonel Valentin.
However, Colonel Valentin also knew that the firepower on the "Trajan" and that of any other French ship was not the same; their large cannons could truly penetrate his armor. And the closer they got, the more likely they were to be hit. If a shell hit the ammunition magazine, the "Poitiers" would be blown up on the spot.
So, Colonel Valentin first issued the following order: "Flood the forward and aft main gun magazines. Increase pressure with the steam ejectors; we are going to ram the Trajan!"
Thus, the "Poitiers," burning with blazing flames, began to accelerate, carrying thick smoke, and rammed towards the "Trajan."
Admiral Bruix and the other officers on the "Trajan" were distracted by the "Hope"; they had never seen a ship so lucky. If it were in later times, someone would definitely shout, "Honey, come out and see God!" or "Network manager, someone's cheating, do you care or not?"
However, Admiral Bruix's thoughts were not like those of later people; what popped into his head was somewhat blasphemous: "God, after thirteen straddling shots, not a single shell hit! The captain of this ship, couldn't he be your second son, Jesus' younger brother?"
Because everyone's attention was drawn by this ship, it was not until the "Poitiers" got quite close and was also quite fast that everyone noticed. Then the "Trajan" tried its best to turn to evade while firing at the "Poit
iers," and other warships also began shifting their firepower to attack the "Poitiers."
But because of the panic, the "Trajan's" first round of attack failed to hit the target, and the salvo from the other cruisers, though luckily hitting once or twice, did not significantly affect the "Poitiers."
The "Poitiers" kept closing in, and the gunners on the "Trajan" showed quite good training. In the third round of shooting, they directly hit the main turret of the "Poitiers" and successfully penetrated it. However, this penetration was meaningless because when the "Poitiers" launched this charge, it had already flooded its ammunition chambers, so its main guns were already unusable.
In the fourth and fifth rounds of salvo, the "Trajan" achieved two more hits, but the distance between the two sides was still shrinking. Now the "Trajan" could only pray that the next round of gunfire would hit and destroy one or a few shells right on the "Poitiers'" steam engine, otherwise...
However, God was not on the side of the French. After that, although the French achieved continuous hits and penetrations, including a shell hitting the "Poitiers'" ammunition magazine, the "Poitiers" still charged forward under gunfire and fiercely rammed the "Trajan."
This collision damaged two more watertight compartments on the "Trajan," creating an opening almost as large as the one blown by a kamikaze torpedo boat not long before. At this moment, the "Trajan" had six watertight compartments severely damaged, and because the opening was too large, it was almost impossible to seal, so the "Trajan" would likely have to abandon ship.
Taking advantage of the two ships still being connected, the French simply grabbed various firearms and jumped onto the "Poitiers." In the previous battle, the "Poitiers" had lost about half of its crew, naturally unable to resist the French attack. The situation seemed to quickly become that the British "Poitiers" had sunk the "Trajan," while the sailors from the "Trajan" had successfully captured the British "Poitiers."
However, the uncooperative British, while raising their hands to surrender, quietly opened the sea valves.
Admiral Bruix was transferred to the "Caesar," by which time the "Crecy" had already sailed into the channel it came out from, and even the "Hope" had turned towards the channel to escape.
The French naturally did not want to just let them go, especially after such heavy losses. So everyone followed the British's tail to chase them, planning to catch up and annihilate them. Then...
Then a situation that could further illustrate that the captain of the "Hope" must have some kind of relationship with God happened again. When the "Hope" noticed the French following, it deliberately left the safe channel and sailed into a minefield, then the French also followed into the minefield, and then, the place where the "Hope" had just sailed through without any issues, when the French navy's ships passed through, suddenly exploded.
Within two minutes, the super cruiser "Hermes" was critically damaged by a mine (sunk an hour later), and the armored cruiser "Lorraine" was directly sunk by a mine.
The rest naturally did not dare to chase anymore, only turning around to retreat. In this process, another armored cruiser sank.
This series of blows made the French suspect whether British mines had an enemy recognition system. However, post-war research showed that the British did not have such black technology. The only reason the "Hope" passed through the minefield without any issues was simply: it was damn lucky.
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