Fox of France

As the armored cruisers of the French army also joined the siege of the "Poitiers", the situation of the "Poitiers" became worse and worse. Although none of those shells could penetrate the armor of the "Poitiers", they caused a serious fire on the "Poitiers". This fire poses a big threat to the warship. If the fire is left unchecked, the warship will definitely be finished. But to put out the fire, it is necessary to enter the unsafe area outside the armored defense. Then the damage control personnel were constantly killed and injured by the shells of the French armored cruiser.

This situation has made the "Poitiers" very serious attrition. On the other hand, even though the damage control personnel tried their best to put out the fire under artillery fire, the fire was still not effectively controlled.

Later, Lord George Kirkburn mentioned in his memoirs: "I have to admit that apart from the gap in basic knowledge and technology, British warships are far behind the French in terms of design thinking. I am not here If we want to shift the responsibility for the defeat to our designers, in fact, they have done a very good job. However, in terms of design thinking, the French warships are indeed far better than ours.

For example, the French's key defense design thinking makes the French warships have a tonnage comparable to or even slightly smaller than our warships, but their armor defense power far exceeds ours.

In addition, French warships are far more prepared than ours in terms of fire prevention. Later, as an instructor at the French Naval Academy, I boarded one of the armored cruisers they use to train sailors. This armored cruiser used as a training ship participated in the battle of the North Sea Strait, which was like a nightmare for me and many British people, and when I boarded it, she had been replaced by a more advanced warship . But for me, this boat still has a lot of curious secrets.

One of the secrets is the fire protection of French warships. One of the most impressive things about French warships during the Battle of the North Sea Channel was their fire protection. In naval battles, many of our ships were lost due to uncontrolled fires, such as the battleship 'Poitiers'. Many of our cruisers also suffered serious fires after being hit by French artillery. Their loss is actually inseparable from the fire.

The French warships also caught fire under our bombardment, but the fire was small and quickly extinguished. Obviously, they have a great technical advantage over us in terms of fire prevention and fire suppression. Some of these advantages I know, and some advantages just need to go to the ship to see it.

When I got on the ship, I studied it carefully, only to find that the French warships had much less combustibles than the British warships. For example, there are almost no wooden things on the French warships, and their tables and chairs are basically made of iron. It's certainly not comfortable, but it reduces the chance of a fire. In our case, perhaps out of nostalgia for the age of sails, although we have replaced steel warships, we always hope to retain as much as possible the shadow of the age of sails on the warships. For example, we like to use wooden tables and chairs, and we even have a lot of wooden decorations in our cabins-these things are not seen on French warships.

In addition, there were very few textiles on the French warships, and we even used wall coverings to cover the walls because of aesthetic considerations. These wall coverings later became a fire hazard. Especially the things they are pasted on will produce a lot of poisonous smoke in a fire.

In addition, the French arranged as few vital pipelines as possible in non-protected areas. This also makes the fire less of an impact on them, and they have more fire hoses and fire extinguishers on their warships than ours. This makes their warships much easier than ours when facing fire..."

The fire went along various pipelines and entered the interior of the "Poitiers" ship that was not penetrated by shells. Many systems were forced to shut down or were damaged by the fire. In fact, even now the French suddenly for some reason After retreating, the "Poitiers" may not be able to return safely.

At this time, the "Trajan" had also regained its balance and began to shift its firepower towards the "Poitiers". The situation became more and more unfavorable to the British, and it can even be said that the British fleet has fallen into despair.

"This battle has already failed, even if there is no more shells falling on our warships, even if a miracle happens suddenly now, the French fleet suddenly retreats, just like the Mongols who have crossed the Danube, they suddenly retreated." As if we retreated by ourselves, it is impossible for us to move forward and carry out the task of breaking the blockade of Britain. Now, we should not let the soldiers of the navy die meaninglessly. "

Against this situation, Lord George Kirkburn made such a decision. Also because of this decision, after he returned, he was used as a scapegoat for the defeat by the British government, and was sent to a military court on charges of "fear of war" and "poor command".

These accusations were all denied by Lord George Kirkburn. But he was still sentenced to prison. But later, after the new peace agreement between Britain and France, he was handed over to the French as a war criminal...

After Lord George Kirkburn gave the order to retreat, the remaining British warships turned in an attempt to escape back into the Irish Sea. Seeing that a great victory to wipe out the enemy army was imminent, the French naturally refused to let the British fleet go like this.

In the British fleet today, the main guns of the "Cressy" are completely useless, and the power is also somewhat damaged; the secondary guns and sights of the "Poitiers" are all useless, but the power and main guns are still intact. In addition, the armored cruiser "Hope" missed a single shot, and its combat power was complete. So these two warships took on the responsibility of covering the retreat of other warships.

The "Hope" armored cruiser inserted between the "Cressy" and the "Trajan" at the top speed, constantly attacking the "Trajan" with his guns, although its firepower is almost impossible. How much damage it caused to the "Trajan", but the "Hope" that was strung together like a fly still caused a lot of interference to the "Trajan".

The secondary guns on the "Trajan" fired fiercely at the "Hope", but because the "Hope" was very fast and kept turning irregularly, the result was that none of the shells hit her. (Of course, the "Hope", which was still firing its guns while sailing at high speed, also missed nothing.) And the "Hope" still made the posture to hit "Trajan" from time to time, which made "Trajan" It is even necessary to constantly adjust the course to avoid - after all, the "Trajan" has already had four watertight compartments flooded, and if one or two more are knocked open, it will really not be hurt.

The other cruisers also shifted their targets and fired at the "Hope". Shells continued to fall around the "Hope", and many times, the water column splashed by the shells seemed to completely engulf the armored cruiser. But in the next moment, the boat rushed out of the water column again in high spirits, except for being splashed with water, she was still unharmed!

The transfer of firepower by the French cruiser gave the "Poitiers" a rare chance to breathe. Although the "Pois" seemed to have been beaten badly, there were actually no major problems with its power and main guns. The fire was the greatest danger she faced, but damage control personnel on the Poitiers were finally able to put out the fire undisturbed when the French diverted their firepower. Although the fire is already very large, it is very difficult to extinguish it or even reduce it, but the fire is at least more or less under control.

Moreover, Colonel Valentine, the captain of the "Poitiers", has time to make a serious judgment on the current situation.

There is obviously something wrong with the strongest enemy ship today, the "Trajan". Its power was so noticeably compromised that it was horribly slow. Now the power of "Poitiers" is still intact, which means that "Poitiers" runs faster than "Trajan".

So the feat of Lord Nelson leading the "Queen Elizabeth" to hit the "Imberado" immediately came to Colonel Valentine's mind.

It's just that Colonel Valentine also knows that the firepower of the "Trajan" is different from that of the "Caesar" or any other French ship. The cannons on her can really penetrate her armor. And the closer you get, the more likely you are to be hit by them. In case a shell hits the ammunition depot, the "Poitiers" will soar on the spot.

Therefore, Colonel Valentine first issued such an order: "Inject water into the front and rear main gun ammunition depots. The steam engine is forced to pressurize, and we will sink Trajan!"

As a result, the "Poitiers" burning with raging flames began to accelerate, and with billowing thick smoke, it rammed towards the "Trajan".

The attention of Admiral Brues and other officers on the "Trajan" was attracted by the "Hope". They had never seen a ship with such good luck. If it was changed to later generations, someone would definitely shout: "Wife, come out and see God!" or: "Network administrator, someone is hacking, you don't care!"

However, Admiral Brues' thoughts are different from those of later generations. What popped up in his head was a somewhat blasphemous idea: "God, there are thirteen straddle shots, and one shell None! The captain of this boat is probably your second son, the younger brother of Jesus, right?"

Because everyone's eyes were attracted by this ship, it was not noticed until the "Poitiers" got quite close and the speed was quite fast. So "Trajan" turned to avoid with all its strength, and fired at "Poitiers" at the same time, while other warships also began to shift their firepower to attack "Poitiers".

But because of panic, "Trajan" failed to hit the target in the first round of attack. Although the salvos of other cruisers hit one or two shots by luck, they had little effect on "Poitiers".

The "Poitiers" got closer and closer, and the gunners on the "Trajan" showed a fairly good level of training. In the third round of shooting, they directly hit the main turret of the "Poitiers" with one shot. Successful breakdown. However, this penetration is of little significance, because when the "Poitiers" launched this round of charge, it had already filled the ammunition bay with water, and now her main gun is useless.

In the fourth and fifth rounds of salvo, "Trajan" got two more hits, but the distance between the two sides was still shrinking. Now "Trajan" can only pray that in the next round of shelling, one or a few shells will just destroy the steam engine of "Poitiers", otherwise...

However, God was not on the side of the French. Since then, although the French have been hit and penetrated continuously, and one of the shells even hit the "Poitiers" ammunition depot, the "Poitiers" still He rushed up against the gunfire and slammed into the "Trajan".

This impact damaged the two watertight compartments of "Trajan", and opened a gap that was about the same size as the gap made by the kamikaze blow of the mineboat not long ago. All of a sudden, six of the watertight cabins of the "Trajan" were severely damaged, and because the opening was too large, there was almost no way to seal it. Therefore, the "Trajan" probably had to abandon the ship.

While the two ships were still connected, the French simply took various guns and jumped aboard the "Poitiers". In the previous battles, "Poitiers" almost killed or injured about half of the sailors on the ship, so it was naturally unable to withstand the French attack. It seems that the situation will soon become that the British "Poitiers" crashed and sank "Trajan", but the sailors on Trajan successfully captured the British "Poitiers".

However, the British, who were unwilling to cooperate, quietly opened the sea valve while raising their hands to express their surrender.

Admiral Bryes was transferred to the Caesar, and at this time the "Cressy" had sailed into the passage when it came out, and even the "Hope" had turned to flee towards the passage.

The French are naturally unwilling to let them go like this, especially after paying such a big loss. So everyone followed the British ass. Going to catch up and wipe them out. Then……

Then there is a situation that more fully demonstrates that the captain of the "Hope" must have some kind of relationship with God. After the "Hope" found that the French were coming, it intentionally left the safe passage and drove into the minefield, and then the French also followed into the minefield. Then, just now, the "Hope" sailed past, fart Where nothing happened, when the ships of the French Navy passed by, there was a sudden explosion.

Within two minutes, the supercruiser "Hermes" was seriously injured by a mine (and sank an hour later), and the armored cruiser "Lorraine" sank directly after being struck by a mine.

The rest naturally didn't dare to chase anymore, so they had to turn around and retreat. In the process, another armored cruiser sank.

This series of blows made the French wonder whether the British mines have an identification friend or foe system. However, research after the war showed that the British did not have such black technology at all. The only reason why the "Hope" passed through the minefield and nothing happened was: he was so lucky.