Fox of France

Lord George Kirkburn's fleet reached Campbelltown Pass about ten o'clock. By this time, the fog had begun to dissipate gradually. Because of what had happened on the road, Lord George Kirkburn thought that by now the French would have known of his actions. Maybe he has already formed a formation at the exit, waiting for his fleet to rush out, so that he can take advantage of him with the advantage of T head.

But this is also a planned thing, and Lord George Kirkburn does not feel that his decision to go north is wrong. Because according to the information they got, the French deployed more warships near the St. George Strait, and their strength was stronger. In addition, although there can be the support of the fort at the exit of the strait, it is easier to deploy the fleet, but there are too many ports nearby, and there are too many fast warships deployed by the French. Even if they protrude, it is difficult to escape the tracking of the French. . The British fleet does not have an advantage in speed, at least not when the sea conditions are normal.

But in the north, the situation is different. The fleet on this side should be weaker, and if it can protrude and break into the Tenish Waterway, the French fleet will completely lose track of them. By the time they made a big bend and reached the exit of the Tenish Channel, the British fleet had long since disappeared into the vast sea.

In addition, compared to the south, the North Sea has strong winds and waves, and the sea conditions are quite poor. Because of the pursuit of high speed, the French warships made certain compromises in seaworthiness. Therefore, in the North Sea area with high sea conditions, the speed of the French fleet is probably not as good as that of the British fleet-at least the British estimate this way. Of course, the French may not agree with it. They also feel that the French Academy of Sciences’ years of research on the shape of the ship is not in vain.

But no matter what, as long as they enter the Tenish Waterway, at least temporarily, the French will not be able to continue to track them.

But the question now is how to safely highlight Campbelltown Pass.

The Campbelltown Channel is 20 kilometers wide. The British army has laid mine arrays here. Of course, the British left a channel, but the width of the channel cannot allow the entire fleet to form a formation. If there is an enemy at the exit, he must stand in front of the enemy and withstand their firepower to complete a big turn in front of the enemy.

Before this operation, the British Royal Navy conducted at least 50 simulated maneuvers on sea charts. These maneuvers have proved one point, that is, if it is intercepted by a fleet of its own strength in the Campbelltown Passage , under normal circumstances, the possibility of successfully breaking through the encirclement and maintaining considerable combat effectiveness is very small. As long as the opponent does not make mistakes, the destruction of the entire army is almost the only ending.

However, this refers to normal circumstances, but today's situation is not particularly normal, because there is still heavy fog today. If they are not found when passing through the Belfast waters, they will find out the Campbelltown Passage under the cover of fog, and then under the protection of high tide, they will rush all the way towards the Tenish Waterway. The French want to stop them , that is not easy.

Of course, today's situation is not so ideal, but under the cover of heavy fog, even the fog that is dissipating, it is not completely impossible to resist the opponent's shelling and complete the turn in front of the enemy. After all, in heavy fog, whether it is the British or the French, the hit rate of the shelling will be very low. Unless the French bring the distance between the two sides very close, but in this case, something specially prepared by the British may come in handy.

At this time, the British minesweeper unit stationed in Campbelltown had already greeted them. The fog hadn't dissipated yet, but the opponent's silhouette could already be seen at a distance of three or four hundred meters. Coupled with the red anti-collision lights, the two sides can detect each other at a greater distance.

The two sides communicated with each other by light signals, from which Lord George Kirkburn knew that the minesweeper force had spotted the French fleet just outside the exit. Of course, because of the fog, the composition of the French fleet is unclear. Knowing that his fleet could not retreat, Lord George Kirkburn gave the order to advance. Because of the fog, he couldn't hang the blood-red pennant to boost morale, but the tweeter invented by the French could come in handy.

Lord George Kirkburn then delivered a short pre-battle speech to the whole fleet through the tweeter.

In his speech, Lord Kirkburn told the soldiers that the French fleet was waiting outside the passage, hoping to keep them blocked in the Irish Sea. And Britain is now suffocating under the noose of blockade, and their families are starving.

"For the sake of England, and more importantly for our families to have bread, there is no turning back now. If only we could rush out, the blockade of Britain would be broken and the noose around our families' necks will be relaxed. So we cannot back down.

The kingdom rises and falls, and in this battle, the kings need to bravely kill the enemy to repay the country's favor. "

After his speech, Lord George Kirkburn gave the order to advance.

Then the British minesweeper took the lead and began to guide the British fleet through the minefield.

The British fleet was led by several minesweepers, followed by two fast cruisers. Because in this season, heavy fog at sea is very common, so the British have already made relevant preparations. One of them is the installation of long masts that lean forward and backward on these two cruisers. The only function of these two masts is to hang the anti-collision lights used in heavy fog.

It is absolutely impossible to cross a minefield in heavy fog without anti-collision lights, and hanging them will also make it easier for the enemy to find yourself. However, at a longer distance, the enemy ship can basically only rely on the observation of the suspension height and spacing of the anti-collision lights to judge the target. Battleships are taller and longer than cruisers, so under normal conditions, the anti-collision lights hung by battleships are placed at a higher position, and the spacing is also larger. These two cruisers made such modifications in order to make the French warships make a wrong judgment and concentrate their firepower on them, thus gaining time for the battleships following them to complete the turn.

Behind the two cruisers pretending to be battleships are the battleships "Cressy" and "Poitiers". The anti-collision lights at the bow position are hung to the middle of the ship.

Moreover, the two cruisers at the forefront were in a normal single file, but the fleet following them was changed to a double file. This approach undoubtedly increased the degree of danger when crossing the minefield. However, the formation was compressed, making it easy to turn immediately after leaving the strait. In addition, it is also easy for the enemy to misjudge the size of their own fleet and cover some special-purpose warships. For example, on the side of the "Cressy" and "Poitiers" battleships, there are two approximately A small warship of four or five hundred tons. These warships are very special, they don't even have a cannon on them. It's just that there is a long pole protruding forward at the bow of the ship.

The fleet sailed forward. At this time, the sea fog continued to disperse.

At around 10:30, the fleet was already approaching the exit of the strait, and the sea fog had dispersed a lot. At this time, the French could already see the British anti-collision lights two kilometers away.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of smuggling, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Truth have obtained a lot of data about the new British warships. Therefore, according to the status of the anti-collision lights on the British warships, the French can barely perform target recognition and distance judgment.

"The first few ships are minesweepers. Judging by the proportions, the two ships behind should be the battleships "Cressy" and "Poitiers". Then there are two armored cruisers, and then a The supercruiser, and the target behind it remains to be seen. The distance between us and the enemy battleship is about 2.5 kilometers." On the bridge of the battleship "Trajan", Chief of Staff Copa asked Admiral Brues Said.

"According to the plan, focus on attacking the enemy battleships." Admiral Brues ordered.

At 10:40, the 203mm gun of the "Trajan" battleship fired first, kicking off the prelude to this naval battle. The 150mm gun of the "Caesar" battleship following the "Trajan" also fired. Start firing at the British army, followed by the 150mm guns of the 'Hermes' super cruiser and the 'Artemis' super cruiser, followed by the 100mm guns of the armored cruiser.

The fog did cause some interference to the distance measurement, coupled with the interference caused by the wrong target recognition, which further reduced the hit rate of the shells, but the salvo of dozens of warships and hundreds of shells fell, still one or two The shells hit the target by chance. The front armored cruiser "Resolution" was hit first by a 100mm shell. The shell hit its broadside. If it is really a battleship, it is impossible for a 100mm shell to penetrate the armor at its position. However, she is not a battleship, but an armored cruiser. Because the armor-piercing ability of the French cannons was underestimated, the armor of the British armored cruisers could not stop the semi-armor-piercing shells of the French 100mm guns at such a short distance.

If it was not in the fog, but at night, the 100mm shell that hit would have immediately exposed the identity of the British fake battleship-after the shell hit the armor, the punctured and unpunctured shells came out. The flames are different, and each caliber shell hits the opponent's armor, and the flames that burst out are also different. Experienced watchmen can tell at a glance that the armor of an enemy ship has been penetrated by my 100mm gun, and then the identity of that ship is naturally exposed.

But now it is in the fog, so the sparks that pop out when the armor is penetrated cannot be seen here at all. Therefore, all the French warships concentrated their firepower and fired fiercely at the two "battleships".

One of the problems caused by the fog is that at this distance, the French can't see whether they have hit the enemy, nor can they observe the impact of the shells, so they can't make corrections. The distance of the fog lights is interpreted, and then the blind shooting is carried out.

Soon the "Resolution" was shot again. This time, his luck was very bad. Although the 100mm semi-armor-piercing projectile hit just now penetrated the armor, the charge of the 100mm semi-armour-piercing projectile was quite equal. Small, not even much more than a grenade, so the damage caused is actually very limited. But this time, it was a 203mm shell fired from the battleship Trajan that hit her. The shell easily penetrated her armor from the port side, and then exploded on the starboard armor plate after passing through the layers of the internal structure. The explosion tore a one-meter-sized hole in the underwater part of the starboard side, and a large amount of sea water rushed in all at once.

Then a few more shells fell, and the "Resolution" began to roll, and its speed dropped significantly. In order not to block the battleships behind, the "Resolution" began to turn to give way to the warships behind.

But at this time, the "Resolution" has not yet sailed out of the minefield, so her action is very dangerous.

Perhaps it was because too many guys on the "Resolution" forgot to pray to God when they got up today, so the ship was particularly unlucky today. She hit a mine just after turning for a minute. The charge and power of the mine are not comparable to the shells, so the armored cruiser was directly blown into two sections by the mine, and sank into the sea in less than a minute. She also became the first battleship sunk today.

Even through the thick fog, the French noticed the loud noise of the mine explosion and the disappearance of the enemy's "battleship". All the French were inspired by this great victory, and they all believed that a great victory was in front of them.

The French continued to concentrate their firepower to attack another "Battleship", but perhaps because the "Resolution" was too unlucky, so God now has to find a balance, so the other "Battleship" "Hope" has never had a single shell hit. Although the French fired six or seven rounds of volleys at her, she didn't touch her body at all, as if a certain auspiciousness from later generations had possessed her body. At this time, the British drove out of the minefield and began to turn against the French artillery fire. At the same time, because they had driven out of the minefield, they also turned off the anti-collision lights.

But at this time, the fog dissipated even more. As the two fleets approached each other, the two sides could already see the faint silhouette of each other. I also knew that at this time, the French discovered that the one they had been shooting at did not seem to be a "battleship", but the two ships that they had always recognized as armored cruisers were the real battleships.

At this time, the British battleships had completed the ranging work by observing the muzzle flames of the French warships, and the 305mm guns on them were ready to fire at the French.