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The Fox of France - Chapter 463
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 05:40:36 +0000 UTCChapter 463: Financially Strapped
The situation of the "Queen Elizabeth" in Halifax Harbor was about what the French had expected. Although Halifax is the most important naval base for the British in North America, its port facilities cannot compare with those on the mainland. At most, it could maintain cruisers, but a warship like the "Queen Elizabeth" would find it difficult to receive proper maintenance here.
"A navy's strength largely comes from the ports that support it. Without suitable ports, if ports lack the capability to maintain warships, then the navy's combat effectiveness is significantly reduced. Once a navy's ships are damaged in battle, their combat power cannot be effectively restored. Thus, a seemingly powerful fleet becomes a kind of one-time fleet. In fact, besides us and the French, the world's other naval fleets can essentially be considered one-time fleets. This is because once they engage in combat, they inevitably sustain damage, and their damage cannot be recovered, so the fleet only has complete combat power in the first battle. After one major battle, the entire fleet loses its fighting capability. Indeed, far from Europe, in North America, our British fleet has largely become a 'one-time fleet'... I heard that the French have rather luxurious port facilities in New Orleans, capable of maintaining 'Indomitable-class' battleships. The French are again ahead of us in this aspect. If our forces and the French fleet were to battle in North America, our disadvantage would be even more pronounced. Moreover, the general backwardness of today's coastal defense systems is also a major problem, especially the fortifications of military ports, because of outdated equipment, often lack the capability to combat enemy warships..." Nelson wrote down some notes in his notebook, then sighed and put down his pen.
A few days ago, he received orders from home via courier. The orders instructed the fleet to return to the mainland as soon as possible after delivering the army to Canada. Although the letter did not specify the situation at home, Nelson could guess with his heels that it must be the French causing trouble for the United Kingdom again.
Now the "Queen Elizabeth" was not fully repaired. In fact, in Halifax Harbor, the "Queen Elizabeth" could never be fully repaired. The British still haven't figured out what caused the explosion. However, because the "Queen Elizabeth" was designed with compartmentalization during its construction, although the bottom of the ship was blown open, the timely closure of compartments meant that the water ingress was not significant. The ship was only slightly listing.
After arriving in Halifax, the British first patched up the big hole blown by the bomb from the outside, then used pumps to remove the water from the cabins. Thus, the listing was also gone.
However, due to the lack of equipment in Halifax, this temporary patch was not watertight, and the leaking was quite severe; the pumps had to keep running. Moreover, the patch was not sturdy enough; if encountered with higher sea conditions, there was a very high probability that the patch would fail.
But this was the limit of what Halifax's maintenance capabilities could achieve. So, the "Queen Elizabeth" had to return home ailing.
Worried that high speeds might damage the patch, the "Queen Elizabeth's" speed was restricted to below six knots, so the entire fleet's speed was slowed down by this old virgin. Their speed had dropped back to the era of sail.
When the British fleet arrived in Halifax, the "Free Trade" and "Common Market," which were lent to the U.S. Navy, had already received radio intelligence from the French cruisers that had been tracking the British fleet all the way. So they left the Cabot Strait and returned to New Orleans for repairs.
These two ships even approached Halifax under the American flag. Last time they passed through Halifax, they already knew that Halifax's batteries were still using old cannons, so Halifax's batteries were not to be feared. Steam-powered ships have an obvious weakness: boilers take a considerable time to start up—boiling water is not instantaneous, and even more so for steam engine boilers. If the British were unprepared and the warship boilers were not pressurized, it meant they might be without power for nearly an hour. In such a situation, although the British fleet was far stronger than those two French super cruisers in terms of strength, the French could take advantage of this vulnerable period to brutally assault them under the guise of the U.S. Navy.
Because both the "Free Trade" and the "Common Market" were steam-powered warships, they would have black smoke while sailing. The enemy could spot them from a considerable distance by this smoke and thus prepare in advance, so the French chose to approach the port at dawn. However, they were still discovered by the British patrol ships arranged by Nelson—Nelson had long been wary of such situations.
The British patrol ship fired warning flares into the sky and rushed towards the two super cruisers, trying to use their fearless attack to buy more time for
the fleet in the port.
The end of the British patrol ship was not much different from that of the American patrol ship that had launched an attack on the British fleet outside Savannah Harbor. The French cannons easily turned the British ship into a burning torch.
However, the sacrifice of the British patrol ship indeed bought time for their fleet. By the time the two "American warships" approached Halifax, some British warships had already left the port and began to form a battle line outside the port. More columns of smoke rose inside the port—clearly, the plan to beat them while they were heating their boilers had failed.
So, the two American warships made a light turn outside the range of the British guns and then headed south.
As for the British fleet, they did not attempt to pursue—they could not catch up with these two "American warships."
A few days later, Nelson and General Wellesley bid farewell and set off on the long journey back to Britain with their fleet.
At this time, a rumor spread like wildfire in the United States. The rumor claimed that the federal government had sent a special envoy to Europe. However, the mission of this envoy was not to seek European support for the United States but to negotiate peace with the British government.
The rumor stated that after suffering a series of defeats, the federal government had completely lost confidence in victory. They were preparing to cede territory and pay indemnities, as well as unconditionally open their markets to Britain, in exchange for the British king's forgiveness for their daring offense against Britain.
In fact, anyone with a bit of sense, aware of Britain's current situation, would not believe such a rumor. With the state Britain was in, the Americans' willingness to seek peace and end the conflict would likely make the British pinch themselves in joy. There would be no need for the Americans to cede territory and pay indemnities.
But making such a judgment requires one precondition: the person making the judgment must have a brain. However, among the Americans, especially those of that era, there were not many people with brains, particularly in the southern states.
This is actually normal. Plantation owners, because of their outdated modes of production and living, tend to be relatively unsophisticated and know little about the outside world. A direct consequence of an insular life is a dulling of the intellect.
Secondly, the South suffered severe damage in this war. Yes, the war seemed to be a matter for the North. But unexpectedly, the British navy came from the South, committing arson and murder along the coastline, causing heavy losses in the South.
Because the federal government's emergency purchase of mines later played a significant role, preventing the British from achieving victories like Savannah again. But by the time the mines arrived, several southern states had already been ravaged by the British.
The southerners wouldn't think that the northern coastal cities were less attacked because the mines arrived in time. They believed that the northern cities were less attacked because the federal government had more troops there. And the reason the North had more troops was that the federal government had transferred the southern states' troops to the North, leaving the southern states virtually defenseless against British ravages.
Now, with such great sacrifices made by the South, the federal government was about to betray the country?! This was simply unbearable even for an aunt, let alone an uncle!
As a result, a large number of media reporters surrounded Jefferson, bombarding him with questions about whether he intended to make peace with the British, even at the cost of ceding territory and paying indemnities.
Of course, Jefferson knew that if he showed any intention of compromising with the British at this time, he would immediately face a political storm. Not to mention, if peace were made with the British in such a manner, Georgia would probably immediately declare its withdrawal from the federation.
Therefore, President Jefferson naturally denied it. He told reporters that although the British, by despicably attacking civilians, had temporarily gained an upper hand, the American people, blessed by God, would surely win the final victory. As for the envoy he sent, he had never had any contact with the British. His actions in Europe were all aimed at gaining more support.
However, President Jefferson's statement did not reassure all Americans, as various rumors continued to emerge. This situation persisted until the president's special envoy, Speer, returned from Europe, bringing back various public and secret treaties he had signed with the French, Spaniards, and Irish.
These secret treaties could not be disclosed, such as the Americans fighting in Spain now; but just the public treaties, such as the alliance with the Irish, clearly showed that the president's envoy was indeed working to win the war, not to surrender.
This certainly cleared President Jefferson of the suspicion of being a "traitor." But to clear himself of this suspicion, President Jefferson had to slightly exaggerate the support he received in the diplomatic field, such as claiming that the Irish would launch a large-scale counterattack to win independence completely. This exaggeration made
the American people firmly believe that they would surely win, making the possibility of peace talks even smaller.
Of course, the Irish launching a large-scale counterattack was not entirely an exaggeration. After the previous failures, the Irish recently received a lot of aid and indeed needed to launch an offensive to improve their offensive capabilities and boost morale.
However, this offensive was not the "large-scale," "decisive" action that the Americans advertised. Chairman Russell and their French friends did not think that the time was ripe for such an action. This could be seen from the operation being named the "Learning Plan."
In short, the goals of this offensive were quite limited, which was to continuously attack the railway crossing Ireland and ultimately make it unsustainable.
"The British railway is a noose around our necks. But the railway line is so long, they cannot maintain enough troops at any point. Now that we have received more weapons, our capability to storm has clearly strengthened. Although we still do not have the ability to quickly take down those most fortified core positions, we do have the ability to destroy a few small outposts and damage a section of the railway before they can react, as well as conduct small-scale ambushes." Chairman Russell said, "We launch such an attack on the railway line every day, killing a few, a dozen, dozens, or even more British soldiers. If this continues, how long can this railway last?"
Russell's confidence largely came from another new weapon they received from the French—a light infantry cannon.
This was a cannon that could fire directly, designed with a series of weight-reduction measures, such as having two types of barrels, a shorter 60 mm barrel (which limited its initial velocity and gave it a relatively curved trajectory) and a longer 40 mm barrel. Moreover, every component was designed to be quickly disassembled and carried by soldiers.
Although the shorter barrel meant that the cannon's initial velocity was not high, it was still a genuine direct-fire cannon, more suitable for attacking bunkers than recoilless rifles, with longer range, higher accuracy, and faster rate of fire. Even, if necessary, by switching to the 40 mm long barrel, this weapon could be used to ambush British armored trains from a relatively safe distance.
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