Vol 2 Chapter 539: , Prison Break Action (7)

As the French armored cruisers joined the siege of Poitiers, the situation of Poitiers was getting worse. Although those shells were unable to penetrate the "Poitiers" armor, they caused serious fires to the "Poitiers". This fire posed a considerable threat to the warship. If the fire is left alone, the warship will definitely be destroyed. But to put out the fire, you must enter the unsafe area outside the armored defense. Then the damage control personnel were repeatedly killed and wounded by the French armored cruiser shells.
This situation made the "Poitiers" attrition very serious. On the other hand, even if the damage management personnel braved artillery fire to put out the fire, the fire was still not effectively controlled.
Later Lord George Kirkburn mentioned in his memoirs:
I have to admit that apart from the gaps in basic knowledge and technology, the British warships are also far behind France in terms of design ideas. I am not here. We should transfer the responsibility for the defeat to our designers. In fact, they have done a very good job. However, in terms of design ideas, the French warships are indeed far better than us.
For example, the French's key defensive design ideas have made the French warships whose tonnage is comparable to or even slightly smaller than ours, but the armored defense power far exceeds ours.
In addition, the preparation of French warships in terms of fire protection has far exceeded ours. Later, as an instructor at the French Naval Academy, I boarded an armored cruiser they used to train seamen. This armored cruiser as a training ship once participated in the North Sea Strait naval battle, which was a nightmare for me and many British people, and when I boarded it, she was replaced by a more advanced warship. . But for me, this ship still has many curious secrets.
One of the secrets is the fire protection of French warships. One of the most impressive aspects of French warships during the Battle of the North Sea Strait was their fire protection. In naval battles, many of our ships were lost because of the fire out of control, such as the battleship "Poitiers". Many of our cruisers suffered serious fires after they were hit by French artillery. Their losses are actually inseparable from the fire.
The French warships also caught fire under our shelling, but the fire was not big and was quickly extinguished. Obviously, they have great technical advantages over us in fire protection and fire fighting. I know some of these advantages, and some of them need to be seen on the ship.
When I arrived on the ship, I studied carefully, and only then discovered that on the French warships, there are much less flammable materials than the British warships. For example, there is almost no wood on the French warships, and their tables and chairs are basically made of iron. This is of course uncomfortable, but it reduces the possibility of fire. And for us, perhaps out of nostalgia for the sailing age, although we changed into a steel warship, we always hope to retain as much of the sailing age as possible on the warship. For example, we like to use wooden tables and chairs, and even our cabins have a lot of wooden decorations-these things are invisible on French warships.
In addition, there are very few textiles on the French warships, and because of aesthetic considerations, we even covered the walls with wall coverings. These wall coverings later became a fire hazard. Especially the things used to paste them will produce a lot of poisonous smoke in the fire.
In addition, the French try to arrange as few vital pipelines as possible in non-protected areas. This also makes the fire impact less on them, and they have more fire hoses and fire extinguishers on the warships than our warships. This makes their warships much easier than ours when facing fire..."
The fire followed various pipelines and entered the interior of the "Poitiers" ship that was not penetrated by artillery 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 returned to balance and began to shift its firepower toward the "Poitiers". The situation has become more and more unfavorable for the British, and it can even be said that the British fleet has fallen into despair.
"This battle has been defeated. Even if there is not even one shell falling on our warship, even if a miracle occurs now, the French fleet suddenly retreats, just like the Mongols who have passed the Danube, suddenly After retreating ourselves, it is impossible for us to move on and carry out the task of breaking the blockade against Britain. Now, we should not let the soldiers of the navy sacrifice meaninglessly."
Not to this situation, Lord George Kirkburn made such a decision. Because of this decision, after he returned, he was regarded as a scapegoat for defeat by the British government and was sent to a military court on charges of "fear of war" and "ineffective command."
Lord George Kirkburn denied all these accusations. But he was still sentenced to prison. But later, after Britain and France reached a new peace agreement, he was handed over to the French as a war criminal...
After Lord George Kirkburn gave the order to retreat, the remaining British warships began to turn around and tried to escape back to the Irish Sea. Seeing that a big victory for annihilating the enemy is already in sight, the French naturally refuses to let the British fleet go.
Today, in the British fleet, the main guns of the "Crecy" are completely depleted, and the power is somewhat damaged; the secondary guns of the "Poitiers" are completely depleted, and the sights are completely depleted, but the power and main guns are still intact. In addition, the armored cruiser "Hope" missed a shot and its combat power was complete. So these two warships assumed the responsibility of covering the retreat of other warships.
The "Hope" armored cruiser inserted between the "Crecy" and the "Trajan" at the fastest speed, continuously attacking the "Trajan" with his artillery fire, although its firepower was almost impossible How much damage was caused to the "Trajan", but the "Hope" strung like a fly still caused a lot of interference to the "Trajan".
The secondary artillery on the "Trajan" fired violently at the "Hope", but because the "Hope" was fast and kept turning irregularly, it was natural that none of the shells hit her. (Of course, during high-speed navigation, the "Hope" of the gun was not hit.) And the "Hope" also made a posture to collide with the "Trajan" from time to time, making "Trajan". It even needs to constantly adjust its course to avoid it-after all, the "Trajan" has four watertight compartments flooded, and if it is knocked out one or two more, it will really not hurt.
The other cruisers also shifted their targets and fired on the "Hope". Shells continued to fall around the "Hope", and in many cases, 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 in vigor again, except for the splashed water, she was still unharmed!
The transfer of firepower from the French cruiser gave the Poitiers a rare respite. Although the Poitier seems to have been beaten badly, his power and main guns are actually not a big problem. The fire was the biggest danger she faced, but when the French army transferred firepower, the damage management personnel on the "Poitiers" were finally able to put out the fire without interference. Although the fire is already very big, it is difficult to extinguish or even reduce the fire, but the fire is at least somewhat controlled.
Moreover, the captain of the "Poitiers", Colonel Valentin, had time to make a serious judgment on the current situation.
Today's strongest enemy ship, the "Trajan", is clearly out of order. Its power is obviously damaged, so that its speed is so slow. Now the power of "Poitiers" is still intact, which means that "Poitiers" runs faster than "Trajan".
The feat of Lord Nelson leading the "Queen Elizabeth" to hit the "Inberdoll" suddenly came to Colonel Valentin's mind.
Only Colonel Valentin knew that the firepower of the "Trajan" was different from that of the "Caesar" or any other French ship. The cannon on her could really penetrate her armor. And the closer you get, the more likely you are to be hit by them. In the unlikely event that a shell hit the ammunition depot, the Poitiers would soar on the spot.
Therefore, Colonel Valentin first issued this order: "Fill the front and rear main gun ammunition depots with water. The steam engine is forced to pressurize the exhaust, let's hit Trajan!"
As a result, the "Poitiers" burning with raging flames began to accelerate, and with billowing smoke, they ran into the "Trajan".
Admiral Bruce and the other officers on the "Trajan" were all caught by the "Hope". They had never seen a ship whose luck was so good. If you switch to a later generation, someone will definitely shout: "My wife, come out to see God!" Or: "Network administrator, someone has opened it, you don't care!"
However, Admiral Bruce’s thoughts are not the same as those of the later generations. What came out of his head was quite a sacrilege thought: "God, there was a cannonball for thirteen times. No hits! The captain of this boat, isn't it your second son, the brother of Jesus?"
Because everyone's sight was attracted by this ship, it was not until the "Poitiers" got close, and the speed was quite fast, that everyone noticed. So "Trajan" did his best to turn to avoidance, and at the same time fired at "Poitiers", while other warships also began to shift firepower and attack "Poitiers".
But because of panic, "Trajan"'s first round of attacks failed to hit the target. The volleys of other cruisers, although they were lucky enough to hit one or two shots, had little effect on "Poitiers".
"Poitiers" got closer and closer, and the gunners on "Trajan" showed a fairly good level of training. In the third round of shooting, they directly hit the "Poitiers" main turret with one shot. Successful breakdown. However, this breakdown is of little significance, because when the "Poitiers" launched this round of assault, it had already filled the ammunition compartment with water, and now her main gun was useless.
In the fourth and fifth rounds of the volley, Trajan got two more hits, but the distance between the two sides is still shrinking. Now "Trajan" can only pray for the next round of shelling, one or more shells will just destroy the "Poitiers" steam engine, otherwise...
However, God did not stand on the French side. After that, although the French were continuously hit and penetrated, one of them even hit the "Poitiers" ammunition depot, but the "Poitiers" still Rushing up against the artillery fire, she slammed into the "Trajan".
The impact damaged the two watertight compartments of Trajan, and opened a large opening that was about the same size as the gap exploded by the kamikaze of the minecraft not long ago. All of a sudden, the six watertight compartments of the "Trajan" were severely damaged, because the openings were too large to be blocked, so the "Trajan" was estimated to have to be abandoned.
While the two ships were still connected, the French simply jumped on the "Poitiers" with various guns. In the previous battle, "Poitiers" nearly killed or wounded about half of the sailors on the ship, naturally unable to resist the French attack. It seems that the situation will soon become the British "Poitiers" crashing and sinking, "Trajan", and the sailors on Trajan successfully captured the British "Poitiers".
However, the British, who was unwilling to cooperate, quietly opened the sea valve while raising his hand to express surrender.
Admiral Bruce was transferred to the Caesar. At this time, the "Crecy" had already entered the passage when it came out, and even the "Hope" had already turned to flee toward the passage.
The French are naturally unwilling to let them go like this, especially after paying such a big loss. So everyone followed behind the British butt. I plan to catch up and wipe them out~EbookFREE.me~ and...
Then there is a situation that more fully shows that the captain of the "Hope" must have some relationship with God. After the "Hope" found that the French were following, it deliberately left the safe passage and drove into the minefield, and then the French followed into the minefield. Then, the "Hope" sailed past, fart. Where nothing happened, when the French navy ships passed by, there was a sudden explosion.
Within two minutes, the super cruiser "Hermes" was seriously injured by a mine (sinking one hour later), and the armored cruiser "Lorraine" sank directly.
The rest naturally didn't dare to chase anymore, so they had to turn around and exit. In the process, another armored cruiser sank.
This series of blows made the French doubt whether the British mines had an identification friend or foe system. However, post-war studies have shown that the British have no such black technology at all. The only reason why the "Hope" crossed the minefield and then nothing happened was that he had too much luck.
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