It is said that some boring guys in later generations once made such comments on the Internet about the generals of the once-powerful French-Roman Empire. It is generally believed that His Majesty Napoleon, as well as Deputy Commander Joseph, are peerless military geniuses, although there is still controversy about whether the Emperor can break through the defense of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Covenant, but at least the level of these two famous generals, everyone still unanimously admits that the only regret they feel is that the Imperial Shuangbi did not come to love and kill each other, to "bend each other on the battlefield".

As for the other generals of the army, basically everyone still recognizes their level, although occasionally some people will say something like "I will fight the battle of Murat, but I will also fight it, but I will shake the emperor's small flag, lower my head, close my eyes, and be reckless, what's so difficult". But most of the people who say this will be directly scolded: "Marshal Murat, that is reckless, one by one, can cut down at least one platoon; If you go up recklessly, that's a matter of people getting up and down. ”

But the Navy is really different. When some people criticize some guys in the army for being brainless and reckless in command, some people say, "You say he can't do it, you can do it, you can do it"; But when everyone mentions France, the admiral of Rome, if someone says that the marshal of the navy is not of high level, no one really takes that sentence out of the matter. Because as long as someone says this, there will definitely be a series of posts behind, and the content of these posts is basically like this: "Isn't it just beating children?" Pick me up, I think I can really hit ten. ”

France – Rome's navy was unprecedentedly strong, but it was an army without any famous generals, without any legends. It was a great success, but it was only able to win because of France, which had the largest number of steel mills and shipyards in the world. It is said that after the final defeat of the British, Lord George Kirkburn, the commander of the British Navy, came to the French Naval Academy as a tactical instructor. ”

And he wrote in his memoirs: "When I saw with my own eyes the huge blast furnaces of the Lorraine Iron Company, the towering chimneys, and the rivers of molten steel gushing out of the open hearth, I understood that our defeat was inevitable." Later, I visited the French shipyard, and after learning about the production capacity of the French shipyard, I was even more convinced of this opinion. Today's war, in the final analysis, is a war of industrial power, a war of engineers and industrial workers, and no longer a war of knights and generals...... In war, we've done a good enough job, and even our luck has been good enough. But all this is not enough for a baby, to defeat a fully armed adult strong man. ”

Indeed, in the Battle of the North Sea Straits, the luck of the British Navy was indeed very good. If the French had been more cautious, if the French had only adopted the simplest approach, where everyone lined up in battle lines, and then fought this naval battle against each other, the British would not have had a chance at all.

"Our warships, both in terms of design concept and specific technology, are already completely backward, if the two sides are engaged at normal distances, in the most ordinary way, and we do not put the main target of attack outside the enemy's battleships, that is, on the enemy's supercruisers and cruisers. Then this battle, which is barely evenly matched in tonnage, may end up with the destruction of all our warships, and the French battleships with only a little skin wounds at best. (Memoirs of Lord George Kirkburn)

True, the British Navy distinguished itself in the "Battle of the North Sea Strait", and their pole mineboats, taking advantage of the negligence of the French, hit the battleship "Trajan" at once.

With a huge explosion, a large hole more than five meters wide was blown open on one side of the battleship "Trajan", and seawater poured into it at once.

It is almost impossible to plug such a big hole on the battlefield. But fortunately, the design of the battleship "Trajan" was simply excellent. The boat is designed with multiple watertight compartments. This opening spans two watertight compartments, but the entire ship is divided into fourteen watertight compartments. As long as there are no more than six sub-compartments flooded, the ship will not sink.

"The second and third compartments on the right side are flooded! Can't be blocked! "When the news of the damage reached the command tower, Admiral Bruyers only felt his heart broken.

"Immediately order the personnel of the relevant chambers to withdraw immediately and prepare to seal the chambers." Although his heart was about to break, Admiral Bruyers made a quick decision.

The sea water came in so quickly that the sailors couldn't outrun the water at all. Only the sailors closest to the watertight gate had time to run out, and only a dozen people had just run out before they could clearly hear the sound of the sea rushing in.

"Close the watertight door!"

"Wait, there's ...... down there"

"Close the watertight door!"

So the watertight door was closed, and a total of 128 sailors were locked up in this confined space, which was constantly filled with seawater. It is said that after the watertight door was closed, someone heard a knock through the thick watertight door.

Later, the question of whether Trajan closed the watertight doors too quickly was a wound for the French Navy. Almost every discussion about this matter has led to heated debates. Many people believe that if the watertight door is closed more slowly, more sailors should be saved; Of course, there are also those who believe that if the action is slow, the whole battleship will be saved.

This matter was later caused by the French Academy of Sciences. Finally, through model reduction and rigorous calculation, Academician Gauss came to the conclusion that the watertight door can be closed with a delay of 45 seconds. But this conclusion did not quell the controversy, some people believe that if there are these 45 seconds, a lot of people can run, but others believe that if you have more time, you can't run a few people. Moreover, in the field, it is impossible for the commander to restore the model and make rigorous calculations, and can only rely on empirical judgment. So, the decision they made cannot be considered wrong.

In addition to the loss of personnel, "Trajan" lost half of its power due to being submerged in the sea. In addition, as the two watertight compartments flooded, the warship began to tilt to the right, and the inclination soon reached fifteen degrees, which, combined with the shaking of the hull itself, created a huge obstacle to the rotation of the main guns. As a result, the three main guns of the "Trajan" were temporarily unusable.

"Evacuate the personnel of the three or four sub-compartments on the left and prepare to fill the three or four sub-compartments with water." After a little thought, Admiral Bruyers made such a decision.

Filling the watertight chamber on the left side can restore the balance of the warship, thus restoring the battleship's combat effectiveness. Of course, doing so will allow the warship to enter more water and less buoyancy in reserve, and if there is a problem with water ingress somewhere, then the entire warship will be in danger.

It took about half an hour from the evacuation of personnel to the filling of water to restore balance and restore the combat effectiveness of the main gun. During this half hour, the situation did not change much, the "Crecy" still had no combat effectiveness, and the British tried to use it to ram the "Trajan", but although the power of the "Trajan" was damaged, the power of the "Crecy" was also damaged. No one can run fast. It is not easy for a turtle to hit another turtle.

On the other side, the French fleet was still trying to wash the deck of the battleship "Poitiers", and the "Caesar" lost half of its firepower, but the remaining firepower of the other warships was still very dense. At the same time as the battleship confrontation, the French armored cruisers gained a clear advantage in the confrontation with the British armored cruisers, and the armor of the French armored cruisers with key defenses was enough to withstand the British artillery at a normal distance, while their cannons could easily penetrate the British armored cruisers, coupled with the advantage of high rate of fire brought by the tube retreat, so that the French armored cruisers quickly gained the upper hand in the duel with the British armored cruisers.

Because the cruisers' guns had a higher rate of fire and weaker resistance to strikes, the battles between armored cruisers were more intense and the winners were determined earlier than the engagements between battleships. There were a total of six armored cruisers on the French side, and a little more in number on the British side, a total of ten cruisers.

But all six French cruisers were armoured cruisers, while five of the ten British cruisers were so-called unprotected cruisers. And although it seems that the British cruisers were more numerous and had more guns, the French six armored cruisers were almost twice as large as the British in terms of the weight of the shells that could be fired per unit of time.

Moreover, the British deceived the French by posing as battleships with two armored cruisers, and although they succeeded in fooling the French, they also made these two armored cruisers have to face the terrible firepower of the battleships for a period of time, and the armored cruiser "Determination" sank first at the beginning of the battle. Although the other "Hope" was never shot, it was also separated by the battleships of both sides, and could not effectively support the battle between the cruisers behind.

So the battle between the cruisers of the two sides was not five British armored cruisers plus five unprotected cruisers against six armored cruisers of the French, but the British with three armored cruisers and five unprotected cruisers against six French armored cruisers, the British had a limited numerical advantage and were even inferior in displacement.

In addition, the French blocked the passage entrance, although due to the influence of the fog, the British battleships did not suffer much damage before completing the turn, but when the fog dispersed, the cruisers did not have time to complete the turn, and as a result, the unarmed cruisers behind were first attacked by the French cruisers.

The unprotected cruiser "Longbow" was first hit by four 100-mm shells, one of which hit the boiler of the steam engine, as a result of which the "Longbow" lost all power and became a dead target. Five minutes later, another shell hit the ammunition depot of the "Longbow", so the unprotected cruiser "Longbow" exploded and sank.

Having been paralyzed, the "Longbow" blocked the passage of the three cruisers behind, which had to go around the "Longbow". As a result, the unprotected cruiser "Morin" unfortunately sank by a mine, and it sank even faster than the "Longbow". And until it sank, she couldn't even fire a shot at the French.

The other two unprotected cruisers were not much better, although they were not sunk on the spot like the "Longbow", but they were hit more than once during the turn, and by the time they finished turning, they were no longer fully combat-ready to engage the French.

After entering the battle line, the distance between the two sides continued to close, and both sides continued to have shells hitting their opponents. At this time, the better defense of the French armored cruisers was revealed. The British finally hit the French warship with one or two shots, but they either failed to penetrate or overpenetrated.

On the contrary, the shells of the French were always able to form an effective blow as long as they fell on the cruisers of the British. After about half an hour of firing at each other, the British cruiser was completely crushed.

The armored cruiser "Revenge" was sunk by a 100-mm gun concentrated in the powder magazine, which then exploded; The armored cruiser "Sharp" was hit by more than ten shells, and the whole ship burst into flames, and the fire was uncontrollable, so the captain was forced to give the order to abandon the ship; The armored cruiser "Ferocious" was in the best situation, its superstructure and turret were damaged and it lost its combat effectiveness, but because of this, the French ignored him and directly transferred their fire to other warships.

As for the remaining three unprotected cruisers, the situation naturally did not get any better, and now these three ships have sunk another, and the remaining two are also burning.

On the French side, although all six armored cruisers suffered one or two shots, all of them were very well equipped. So after the British cruisers had completely lost their combat effectiveness, these six cruisers joined the siege of the battleship "Poitiers".

Even at zero distance, the 100-mm guns had no chance of penetrating the armor of the Poitiers, so the French simply used high-explosive or incendiary bombs to attack the Poitiers.

Six armored cruisers, plus two supercruisers, and the battleship Caesar, having lost half of its firepower, began to surround the "Poitiers" one. Or to put it another way, the battleship "Poitiers" is now single-handedly taking on the French fleet of warships.

Raindrops of shells continued to fall next to the "Poitiers", and the sea around the "Poitiers" seemed to be boiling, and everywhere there were columns of water from which the shells fell. And the superstructure of the "Poitiers" was almost completely beaten into a hornet's nest, so that when the French raised their binoculars to take a closer look, they almost developed a dense phobia.

Although the "Poitiers" were still resisting, almost all the sights of the warship were destroyed, so their shooting was almost entirely blind, and the hit rate was comparable to that of the AK in the hands of Uncle Black in later generations - anyway, their hits could basically only rely on faith. However, Uncle Black's AK is fully automatic and has a high rate of fire, even if you are blind, it is easy to be blinded with one or two shots; But the rate of fire of the 305 guns of the British was quite low, and it was really not easy to cover one or two shots.