The Fox of France - Chapter 536 (Patreon)

Chapter 536: Prison Break

It has been said that in later times, some idle folks on the internet commented on the generals of the once supremely powerful French-Roman Empire. Everyone generally agreed that His Majesty Napoleon, along with Vice-Commander Joseph, were both unparalleled military geniuses. Although there was still debate about whether the Emperor could breach the Vice-Commander's defenses, at least the status of these two as great generals was unanimously recognized. The only regret was that the Empire's two jewels never engaged in a love-hate relationship on the battlefield, bowing to each other under a crescent moon.

As for the other generals of the army, their capabilities were generally acknowledged, although occasionally someone would say something odd like, “Even I could fight the battle at Moulins. It’s nothing but Emperor waving his little flag, bowing his head, closing his eyes, and charging forward. What’s so difficult about that?” However, such comments were usually met with a direct rebuttal: "Marshal Moulins charged forward and could chop down at least a platoon with a single slash; if you charged, you’d just be chopped down by the enemy."

The navy, however, was truly different. When some critiqued the army’s blind charging, at least someone would retort, “If you think he’s no good, why don’t you try?” But when discussing the naval commanders of the French-Roman forces, if someone mentioned that the marshals were not of high caliber, nobody would use that retort. Because as soon as someone said that, a series of follow-up posts would appear, basically saying: “It’s just like beating up little kids. Help me up, I think I could still take on ten of them.”

The French-Roman navy was unprecedentedly powerful, yet it was an army without any famous generals or legendary figures. Its victories were solely due to France-Rome having the world’s most steel and shipyards. It is said that after Britain's eventual defeat, Lord George Cockburn, the former British naval commander, came to teach tactics at the French naval academy. During his leisure, he visited the Lorraine Steel Factory and exclaimed, “Coming to Lorraine, the steel plants are amazing.”

In his memoirs, he also wrote: “When I saw the giant blast furnaces of Lorraine Steel Company, their chimneys towering into the clouds, and the molten steel flowing like rivers from the converters, I understood that our defeat was inevitable. Later, when I visited the French shipyards and saw their production capacity, my belief was further confirmed. Modern warfare has essentially become a battle of industrial capabilities, a battle of engineers and industrial workers, rather than knights and generals... In the war, we did as well as we could, and even our luck was good. But all of this was still not enough to let a baby defeat a fully armed adult.”

Indeed, during the Battle of the English Channel, the British navy was extremely lucky. If the French had been more cautious and had simply arranged their ships in a battle line to bombard the enemy, the British would have stood no chance.

"Our warships, both in design philosophy and specific technologies, were completely outdated. If both sides had engaged in normal combat distances in the most common manner, without focusing our main attacks on the enemy’s battleships and instead prioritizing their super-cruisers and cruisers, then this fight, barely equal in tonnage, would likely have ended with all our ships destroyed, while the French battleships might have only suffered superficial damage.” (From the Memoirs of Lord George Cockburn)

Indeed, the British navy performed well in the "Battle of the English Channel.” Using the French’s oversight, their torpedo boats struck the “Trajan” battleship.

Following a tremendous explosion, a breach over five meters wide was blasted open on one side of the “Trajan,” and seawater immediately flooded in.

Sealing such a large breach on the battlefield was nearly impossible. Fortunately, the “Trajan” was excellently designed with multiple watertight compartments. The breach spanned two compartments, but the ship was divided into fourteen watertight sections. As long as no more than six compartments were flooded, the ship would not sink.

“Water is flooding into the second and third compartments on the right! We can’t seal them!” The distressing news reached the command tower, and Admiral Bruyère felt his heart shatter.

“Immediately order the crew in those compartments to evacuate and prepare to seal the compartments.” Although his heart was breaking, Admiral Bruyère quickly made the decision.

The seawater rushed in too quickly for the sailors to outrun it. Only those closest to the watertight doors managed to escape, and just after about a dozen had escaped, the sound of rushing water could already be distinctly heard.

“Close the watertight doors!”

“Wait, there are still people below…”

“Close the watertight doors!”

Thus, the wat

ertight doors were shut, and a total of 128 sailors were trapped in this rapidly flooding enclosed space. It is said that after the doors were closed, knocking could still be heard through the thick watertight doors.

Later, the issue of whether the watertight doors on the “Trajan” were closed too quickly remained a painful topic for the French navy. Almost every discussion about this incident sparked intense debate. Many believed that if the doors had been closed a bit slower, more sailors could have been saved; naturally, others argued that any delay might have doomed the entire ship.

This issue even reached the French Academy of Sciences. Ultimately, Gauss, a fellow of the academy, through model reconstruction and rigorous calculations, concluded that the watertight doors could have been closed 45 seconds later. However, this conclusion did not quell the debate. Some insisted that with those extra 45 seconds, more people could have escaped, while others believed that not much more could have been done. Moreover, commanders on the scene couldn't perform model reconstructions and calculations; they had to rely on experience. Thus, their decisions couldn't be deemed wrong.

Besides the loss of personnel, due to the flooding, the “Trajan” also lost half its power. Additionally, with two compartments flooded, the ship began to tilt to the right, quickly reaching a fifteen-degree angle. This, combined with the rocking of the ship’s body, greatly hindered the movement of the main guns, temporarily rendering the three main cannons unusable.

“Evacuate the personnel from the third and fourth compartments on the left, prepare to flood these compartments,” Admiral Bruyère decided after a moment’s thought.

Flooding the corresponding compartments on the left could restore the ship’s balance and thus its combat effectiveness. Of course, this would cause the ship to take on more water and reduce its reserve buoyancy. If any other area began to flood, the entire ship would be at risk.

From evacuating personnel to flooding compartments to restore balance and reactivate the main cannons, it took about half an hour. During this half-hour, the situation did not change much. The “Crécy,” lacking combat power, tried to ram the “Trajan,” but while the “Trajan” was damaged, the “Crécy” was equally impaired. Neither could move quickly. One turtle trying to ram another isn’t easy.

Meanwhile, the French fleet continued to “clean the decks” of the “Poitiers” battleship. The “Caesar” had lost half its firepower, but the remaining firepower of other ships was still very dense. While the battleships engaged each other, the French armored cruisers gained a clear advantage in their duel with the British armored cruisers. The heavily defended French cruisers could withstand British cannons at normal distances, while their own cannons could easily penetrate British armor. Additionally, the high rate of fire from quick-firing guns gave the French armored cruisers a quick upper hand in the cruiser duel.

Since cruisers have a higher rate of fire but weaker resistance to hits, cruiser battles are fiercer and conclude quicker than battleship engagements. France had six armored cruisers, while the British had ten cruisers in total.

However, all six of the French cruisers were armored, whereas among the ten British cruisers, five were so-called unprotected cruisers. Although the British appeared to have more cruisers and more cannons, in terms of the weight of shells fired per unit time, the firepower of the six French cruisers was nearly double that of the British.

Moreover, the British used two armored cruisers to masquerade as battleships, tricking the French. Although this initially fooled the French, it also forced these two cruisers to face the terrible firepower of battleships for a while. At the start of the fight, the armored cruiser “Determination” was the first to sink. The other, “Hope,” although it never got hit, was separated by the battleships from both sides and couldn’t effectively support the remaining cruiser battle.

Thus, the cruiser duel wasn’t just the British five armored cruisers and five unprotected cruisers against the six French armored cruisers. It was three British armored cruisers and five unprotected cruisers facing six French armored cruisers. The British’s numerical advantage was limited, and they were even at a disadvantage in terms of displacement.

Moreover, with the French blocking the channel, although the British battleships managed to turn around without taking too much damage due to the fog, the cruisers hadn’t completed their maneuvers when the fog lifted. As a result, the first few unarmed cruisers immediately came under concentrated fire from the French cruisers.

The unprotected cruiser “Longbow” was first hit by four 100mm shells, one of which struck the steam boiler, causing the “Longbow” to lose all power and become a sitting duck. Five minutes later, another shell hit the “Longbow’s” ammunition storage, and the unprotected cruiser “Longbow” exploded and sank.

After the “Long

bow” was crippled, it blocked the path for the three cruisers behind it, which had to navigate around the “Longbow.” Unfortunately, the “Morin,” another unprotected cruiser, hit a mine and sank even faster than the “Longbow,” and it hadn’t fired a single shot at the French by the time it sank.

The remaining two unprotected cruisers fared no better; they were hit multiple times during their turn and had lost their combat effectiveness by the time they had completed their maneuver.

Once the battle lines engaged, the distance between the two sides kept decreasing, and hits were continuously exchanged. At this point, the superior defense of the French armored cruisers became blatantly obvious. The British could hardly damage the French ships with one or two hits, either failing to penetrate or over-penetrating.

Conversely, whenever French shells hit British cruisers, they always caused effective damage. After about half an hour of exchange, the British cruisers were completely overwhelmed.

The armored cruiser “Vengeance” was hit in the ammunition storage by a 100mm shell and then exploded and sank; the armored cruiser “Sharp” was hit by more than ten shells, caught fire throughout, and the fire was uncontrollable, forcing the captain to order the ship abandoned; the armored cruiser “Ferocious” fared the best, as its superstructure and turrets were damaged, losing its combat effectiveness, but precisely because of this, the French ignored it and shifted their firepower to other ships.

As for the remaining three unprotected cruisers, their situation was naturally no better. Now, one more had sunk, and the remaining two were ablaze.

On the French side, all six armored cruisers had taken one or two hits, but all their combat capabilities remained very intact. After the British cruisers had completely lost their combat power, these six cruisers then joined in the assault on the “Poitiers” battleship.

Even at point-blank range, the 100mm guns couldn’t penetrate the armor of the “Poitiers,” so the French simply used high-explosive or incendiary shells to attack the “Poitiers.”

The six armored cruisers, along with two super-cruisers and the “Caesar” battleship, which had lost half its firepower, started pummeling the “Poitiers.” Or, to put it another way, the “Poitiers” was now single-handedly taking on a group of French ships.

Like raindrops, shells continuously fell around the “Poitiers,” turning the surrounding sea into a boiling spectacle with plumes of water where the shells landed. The “Poitiers’” superstructure was almost turned into a beehive, causing those French observers who raised their telescopes for a closer look to almost develop trypophobia.

Though the “Poitiers” continued to resist, its rangefinders were almost all destroyed, so their shooting was nearly all by guesswork, with a hit rate comparable to an uncle with an AK in later generations—basically, their hits were purely based on faith. However, the uncle’s AK was fully automatic, with a high rate of fire, making it easy to accidentally hit a shot or two; but the British 305mm guns had a very low rate of fire, making it really difficult to accidentally hit even one or two shots.

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