Fox of France

The firepower of the colonial cruiser is actually quite weak, with only one 75mm gun on the bow and one stern. For confidentiality. Under normal circumstances, this gun does not even use the tube retreat technology, but fortunately, the mission performed this time is relatively important. Considering that in case there is an opportunity to perform the mission of ground cover, the three colonial cruisers in this operation are equipped with On the 75 guns with a retreating tube. This has doubled their firepower efficiency several times, but even so, because they cannot move and the warship itself has no armor, the French must ensure that the first strike can succeed, otherwise the British only need to cut into the direction of the bow, and then rely on With the broadside firepower of their twenty guns, they can still have an overwhelming advantage.

In particular, the gun positions of colonial cruisers are not protected by turrets, only a shield, and this shield can barely block rifle bullets (if it is too close, it is unreliable), most likely it will not be able to block the British warships. Grapeshots. Fortunately, the British should not have had time to find themselves at this time. Captain Edmondo felt that the first one or two shells would be decisive.

Edmondo was born as a gunner, and he had been a gunner for a while before he became the captain. So this time he simply threw off his hat and came to the bow of the ship to fire the gun himself.

Saldanha Bay is on the westerly belt, and to its west is the vast Atlantic Ocean. Because of the influence of the westerly belt, the westerly wind blows here all year round. But on the other hand, every night, the temperature of the air on the land drops faster than that of the ocean, which makes the air pressure on the land significantly higher than the air pressure on the ocean, so in terms of microclimate, the air should flow from the land to the ocean . The result of the contest between the macroclimate and the microclimate is that the Gulf of Saldanha is calm at night, just like a large lake.

Such sea conditions are of course very suitable for long-distance bombardment. If it wasn't because of the lack of light at night, the gun scope could not be used, and the naked eye could only be used to range and aim, Captain Edmondo would be fully confident that he would be able to hit the enemy ship first. But now, whether the first shot can hit or not is still a matter of luck and faith.

If the first shot fails to hit, then the follow-up shots are very important. So Captain Edmondo chose a semi-armor-piercing incendiary tracer bomb specially prepared for night battles. After this kind of shell is fired, it can drag out a long light band, clearly showing the trajectory of the shell. This would of course expose him, but considering that the sound of the cannon and the muzzle flame inevitably exposed him when the gun was fired, and adding a band of light, it was actually nothing.

After the shells were loaded, Captain Edmondo looked at the enemy ship again. Unfortunately, the enemy ship was not heading in a good direction, and he only had the bow gun to use. Otherwise, using the bow and stern guns to fire together will give you greater confidence.

Captain Edmondo adjusted his aim again, then prayed to God again, then closed one eye and waved his hand.

With a loud noise, a long strip of light flew straight out and shot towards the British sailing frigate "Lucky".

The "Lucky" was obviously not lucky at this moment, and the shell hit it. But relatively speaking, in the midst of misfortune, he is lucky. The shell didn't hit anything vital, it just hit a small sundry store in the bow of the ship. Of course, the shells ignited these sundries, but the fire was not particularly large, and for the time being, it would not immediately have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the warship.

In contrast, if this shell is a little further back and hits the gun bay, the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bomb with solidified fuel will not only burn quickly (the gun bay is more spacious, better ventilated, and more air), And it can quickly produce a large amount of toxic smoke-that's really terrible.

The shelling revealed the cruiser "Tradewind" in the dark, but although the British spotted him, it took a little time to aim.

"Quick, quick reload!" Captain Edmondo's open eye was affected by the muzzle flame and shell tracer, and he could hardly see anything. He hurriedly opened the eye that could still see. eyes, shouted.

A soldier pulled the handle, and a brass shell fell to the deck with a clang. Another soldier, who had been ready for a long time, quickly stuffed the shell in his hand into the barrel, and closed the bolt smoothly.

Captain Edmondo gently shook the handle with his right hand to make fine adjustments to the muzzle, then closed his only seeing eye again, and waved his hand.

A soldier jerked the firing rope, and another shell flew towards the "Lucky".

The shell hit the gun bay of the "Lucky" and exploded in the gun bay, throwing dozens of tinder all over the gun bay. One of the tinder fell into the powder keg that had been opened, and the fire broke out immediately.

"Okay, it's done!" Edmundo shouted. "Where is the other boat?"

While Edmondo was yelling with joy, there was also a burst of fire from the side of the "Lucky"-every gun had been loaded with shells when the British entered the bay. Now they have also reacted and launched a counterattack.

There are 20 guns on one side of the "Lucky". Because I don't know the level of protection of the French colonial cruisers, these guns use spherical shells with the strongest armor-piercing ability for them. Because the gun compartment was already on fire and the fire was still expanding, the British counterattack was relatively hasty, and the order of the salvos was not neat enough. Of course, the hit rate could not be compared with that of Edmondo's gun. But because the distance between the two sides was only about 300 meters, and the British fired enough shells, many shells still hit the "Trade Wind".

Although the thin hull of the "Trade Wind" is made of metal, in terms of defensive capabilities, it is actually not as good as the sailing frigate of the British army. Therefore, these iron balls easily penetrated the hull of the "Trade Wind" and gave The crew members who were preparing to fire the boiler suffered a lot of damage.

However, the British artillery shells are too backward, and the aftereffects are completely incomparable with the French tracer armor-piercing incendiary bombs. Therefore, although the French only hit two British shells, while the British hit more than a dozen shells on the French warship, but in terms of damage caused, the damage caused by the French shells was significantly greater. Now the fire on the "Lucky" has obviously expanded. Flames emerged from several gun ports, illuminating the ship at once.

The rumble of guns also alarmed the other ships. The passenger and cargo carrier "Atlantic Transporter" was the first to respond. The "Atlantic Transporter" is a steam-powered ship. Of course, she has turned off the fire at this time, and it must be too late to restart the fire. However, new steam-powered ships often have one thing that old-fashioned sailing ships do not have-arc searchlights.

The steam engine didn't start, and the small generator on board naturally couldn't run, but there were batteries on board, and these batteries could still support the searchlights for a while.

Captain Aguero is a retired French naval officer who is now the captain of the "Europa Shipping Union". His ship is now employed by the government of the Republic of the Netherlands, flying the flag of the Netherlands, (this flag and The French flag kinda) When the cannon went off, he knew right away what was going on. So he immediately sounded the alarm bell, roused all the crew, and gave them the order to abandon ship.

This order was very sudden, and it seemed that it was issued a little earlier. However, the crew did not intend to question the captain's order. Anyway, they were not far from the coast, and they could swim there. Moreover, abandoning the ship earlier was safer. isn't it?

The sailors lowered the boat, and some of them were a little impatient, so they just hugged a wooden barrel or something and jumped off. But Captain Aguero came to the side of the searchlight by himself.

The searchlight was turned on, and the snow-white lamppost pierced the darkness like a sharp sword. Aguero knew where the ships on his side were anchored. He carefully operated the searchlights so that the light beams avoided the ships on his side and swept across the dark sea, so as to hide the other ship in the dark. Find out the British warships in it.

The beam of light swept across, and a warship suddenly emerged from the darkness. Here is another British warship, the sailing frigate HMS Miracle. At this time she was about to go around in the other direction, and then surprise the "Tradewind" with broadside guns at extremely close range.

But a beam of light illuminated her, making her plan come to nothing. And because the searchlights were so bright, the British troops on the "Miracle" couldn't see what kind of ship the "Atlantic Transporter" with the searchlights on was. But even if you think about it with your heels, you can understand that it must be a French warship that can make such a move at this time!

The British knew very well that the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs equipped by French warships were almost the nemesis of wooden warships. The arson effect of this weapon was originally comparable to that of the original red-hot iron ball. Once hit by one or two rounds, if luck is not good enough, the entire warship may be confessed here. So the "Miracle" immediately made a sharp turn, not only to get rid of the beam of searchlights, but also to align the side of the "Atlantic Transporter", although under the strong light, they couldn't see the "Atlantic Transporter" at all. The outline of the "Atlantic Conveyor" cannot even be pinpointed accurately. But they fired as hard as they could as fast as they could at their estimated position.

Like the "Lucky", the "Miracle" also uses solid shells, and because they can't see the "enemy ship" at all, the hit rate is lower than that of the "Lucky" salvo.

But the "Miracle" had better luck. Although it only hit a few shells, one shell hit the coal bunker and ignited the coal.

If there are crew members on board, this kind of small fire can be extinguished completely. The coal does not burn quickly. Of course, once it does burn, it will be difficult to put out the fire. However, in order to reduce the casualties of the crew, Captain Aguero drove them all off the ship, so damage control could not be done, but for the time being, the flames in the coal bunker were not enough to destroy the ship.

Just as the "Miracle" was frantically firing at the "Atlantic Transporter", the other two French colonial cruisers also began to point their guns at the "Miracle".