Lord George Kirkburn's fleet arrived at the Campbelltown Pass at about ten o'clock. By this time, the fog had begun to dissipate gradually. Because of what happened on the way, Lord George Kirkburn thought that by now the French should have known about his actions. Maybe he had already set up a formation at the exit, waiting for his fleet to rush out, so that he could take advantage of the T-head advantage.

But it was also planned, and Lord George Kirkburn did not feel that his decision to go north was wrong. Because as far as they could tell, the French had more warships near the Strait of St. George, and they were stronger. In addition, although it was easier to deploy the fleet with the support of the batteries at the exit of the channel, there were too many ports nearby, and the French had arranged too many fast warships, and even if they protruded, it would be difficult to escape from the French tracking. The British fleet did not have an advantage in speed, at least not at all when the sea conditions were normal.

But in the north, the situation was different, the fleet on this side should be a little weaker, and if it could break through into the Tenish waterway, the French fleet would completely lose its tracking. By the time they made a big bend and reached the exit of the Tenish waterway, the British fleet had long since disappeared into the vast sea.

In addition, compared to the south, the North Sea has high 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, so in the North Sea region with high sea conditions, the French fleet was mostly inferior to the British fleet in terms of speed - at least the British estimated that. Of course, the French may not agree, and they also feel that the French Academy of Sciences' years of research in the shape of a ship have not been done in vain.

In any case, once they entered the Tenish waterway, at least for the time being, the French could no longer track them down.

However, the question now is how to safely highlight the Campbelltown Passage.

The Campbelltown Pass was twenty kilometers wide, and the British laid a mine array here, and of course the British left the passage, but the width of the passage was not enough for the entire fleet to spread out in formation. If there is an enemy at the exit, he must make a big turn in front of the enemy, under their firepower.

Prior to this operation, the British Royal Navy had conducted at least fifty simulations on nautical charts, all of which proved that if it was intercepted by a fleet of equal strength at the Campbelltown Pass, it was very unlikely that under normal circumstances it would succeed in breaking through the encirclement and still maintain considerable combat effectiveness. As long as the opponent does not make mistakes, the destruction of the whole army is almost the only outcome.

However, this means that under normal circumstances, the situation today is not particularly normal, because there is still heavy fog today. If they had not been spotted as they passed through the waters of Belfast, they had found their way out of the Campbelltown passage under the cover of the fog, and then under the protection of the high tide, they had run all the way to the Tenish waterway, and it would not have been easy for the French to stop them.

Of course, today's situation is not so ideal, but it is not completely impossible to carry the enemy's artillery bombardment and complete the enemy's forward turn under the cover of heavy fog, even if it is dissipating. After all, in the fog, whether the British or the French, the hit rate of the shelling would be very low. Unless the French bring the two sides closer, then something specially prepared by the British might come in handy.

At this time, the British minesweeper unit stationed in Campbelltown had already greeted them. The fog had not yet lifted, but the silhouettes of the other party could already be seen at a distance of three or four hundred meters. Coupled with red anti-collision lights, both sides can spot each other from 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 outside the exit. Of course, the composition of the French fleet was not clear because of the fog. Lord George Kirkburn, knowing that his fleet could not retreat, gave the order to advance. Because of the fog, he couldn't hang blood-red pennants to boost morale, but the tweeter invented by the French could come in handy.

So Lord George Kirkburn made a short pre-war speech to the entire fleet through a loudspeaker.

In his speech, Lord George Kirkburn told the soldiers that the French fleet was waiting outside the passage in the hope of keeping them in the Irish Sea. And Britain is now suffocating under the noose of the lockdown, and their families are already starving.

"For England, and more importantly, for our families to have bread to eat, we have no way back now. As soon as we can rush out, the blockade of Britain will be broken and the noose around the necks of our families will be loosened. So we can't back down.

The kingdom rises and falls, and in this battle, the kings need to fight bravely to kill the enemy in order to repay the country's kindness. ”

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

Then the British minesweepers took the lead and began to guide the British fleet through the minefields.

The British fleet was spearheaded by several minesweepers, followed by two fast cruisers. Because fog at sea is very common during this season, the British have long been prepared for it. One of them was the installation of long masts on these two cruisers that stretched out backwards and forwards. The only function of these two masts is to hang the anti-collision lights used in fog.

Crossing a minefield in fog without crash lights is a no-no, and hanging them will also make it easier for enemies to spot them. However, at a longer distance, enemy ships can only rely on observing the suspension height and spacing of the anti-collision lights to judge the target or something. Battleships are taller and longer than cruisers, so under normal conditions, battleships have higher crash lights and are more spaced. The two cruisers were modified in such a way that the French warships would make the wrong judgment and concentrate their fire on them, thus buying time for the battleships that followed them to complete the turn.

Behind the two cruisers posing as battleships were the battleships "Crecy" and "Poitiers", and unlike the cruisers in front, they deliberately lowered the suspension height of the anti-collision lights, and hung the anti-collision lights that should have been hung in the bow position to the middle of the ship.

And the two cruisers that went in the front were normal single columns, but the fleet that followed them was changed to a double column. This undoubtedly increases the level of danger when crossing minefields. However, the formation was compressed, making it easier to turn immediately after leaving the strait. In addition, it is easy for the enemy to misjudge the size of his fleet and to cover some special-purpose warships, for example, on the side of the battleships "Crecy" and "Poitiers", there are two small warships of about four or five hundred tons each. These warships are so special that they don't even have a cannon on them. Only in the position of the bow of the ship there was a long, long pole sticking forward.

The fleet sailed forward, and at this time, the sea fog continued to dissipate.

At about half past ten, the fleet was already approaching the exit of the strait, and the sea fog had dispersed considerably. By this time, the French could already see the British crash lights two kilometers away.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of smuggling, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Truth have found a lot of data about the new British warships, so according to the condition of the anti-collision lights on the British warships, the French can reluctantly carry out target identification and distance judgment.

"The first few ships were minesweepers, and judging by the proportions, the two ships behind should be the battleships "Crecy" and "Poitiers". Behind it were two armored cruisers, then a supercruiser, and then the targets behind remained to be seen. The distance between us and the enemy battleship was about 2.5 kilometers. "On the bridge of the battleship Trajan, Chief of Staff Coppa said to Admiral Bruis.

"According to the plan, concentrate fire on enemy battleships." Admiral Brueus ordered.

At 10:40 a.m., the 203-mm guns of the battleship Trajan opened fire first, and the 150-mm guns of the battleship Caesar, which followed Trajan, also began to fire at the British, followed by the 150-mm guns of the supercruiser Hermes and Artemis, and then the 100-mm guns of the armored cruiser.

The fog did cause a certain amount of interference to the range, coupled with the interference caused by the error of target identification, which reduced the hit rate of the shells, but the salvo of dozens of warships, hundreds of shells fell, and one or two shells still hit the target by chance. The armored cruiser "Resolve" at the forefront was hit first by a 100-mm shell. The shell landed on its side. If it really was a battleship, it would have been impossible for a 100-mm shell to penetrate the armor of its position. However, she was not a battleship, just an armored cruiser. Because the armor-piercing capacity of the French artillery was underestimated, the armor of the armored cruisers of the British could not stop the semi-armor-piercing shells of the 100-mm guns of the French at such a close distance.

If it wasn't in the fog, but at night, the 100-mm shell that hit it would have immediately exposed the identity of the British as a fake battleship - after the shell hit the armor, the fire that broke through and hit it without penetration was different, and the fire that burst out of each caliber shell on the opponent's armor was also different. An experienced lookout can see at a glance that the armor of the enemy ship has been pierced by our 100-mm guns, and then, the identity of the ship is naturally revealed.

But now it's in the fog, so the sparks that pop up when you break through the armor can't be seen here at all. Therefore, all the French warships still concentrated their fire and opened heavy fire on the two "battleships".

One of the problems posed by the fog was that at this distance, the French could not see whether they had hit the enemy or not, nor could they observe the landing point of the shells, so they could not make corrections, so they could only rely on the combined rangefinder to interpret the distance of the fog lamps and then shoot blindly.

Soon the "Determination" was shot again, and this time, his luck was very bad, the 100-mm semi-armor-piercing bullet that had just hit, although it pierced the armor, but the charge of the 100-mm semi-armor-piercing bullet was quite small, not even much more than a grenade, so the damage caused was actually very limited. But this time, it was a 203-mm shell fired from the battleship "Trajan" that hit her. The shell easily penetrated her armor from the port side, and then exploded after crashing into the armor plate on the starboard side after passing through layers of internal structure. The explosion tore a one-meter-sized hole in the underwater part of the starboard side, and a large amount of seawater rushed in at once.

Then a few more shells fell, and the Resolve began to roll sideways, with a noticeable drop in speed. In order not to block the ships behind it, the "Determination" began to turn in order to make way for the ships behind it.

But at this time, the "Resolve" had not yet sailed out of the minefield, so her maneuver was very dangerous.

Perhaps because there were so many people on the Resolve who forgot to pray to God when they got up today, the ship was particularly unlucky today, and she hit a mine just a minute after turning. And 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 in less than a minute, it sank into the sea. She also became the first battleship to sink today.

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

The French continued to concentrate their firepower on another "battleship", but perhaps because the "Determination" was too unlucky, God now had to find a balance, so the other "battleship" "Hope" never hit a single shell. Although the French fired six or seven volleys at her, she just didn't stick to a leaf, as if she was possessed by some auspicious rui in later generations. At this time, the British drove out of the minefield and began to turn under the fire of the French. At the same time, because they had driven out of the minefield, they also turned off the anti-collision lights.

By this time, however, the fog had dissipated even more, and as the two fleets approached each other, the two sides could already see each other's faint outlines. also knew that at this time, the French realized that what they had been shooting at was not a "battleship", but the two ships that they had always recognized as armored cruisers were the real battleships.

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