(Chapter to)

On March 11, this day is destined to be recorded in history. Especially for the British, this day is particularly important, and the generations after that will not forget this day, because this day is the beginning of their disaster. On this day, the British Royal Navy's Atlantic Fleet, the only fleet among the three existing Royal Navy fleets that did not suffer losses, was ambushed by the French Navy on this day and suffered heavy losses. Since then, the British navy has been unable to stop the advance of the French navy, and the vast ocean has since been controlled by France.

Let's go back to the day, for France, it was the beginning of the rise, and for the UK, it was the beginning of the decline.

Under Kirkbride's order, the French Atlantic Fleet launched a fierce attack on the British Atlantic Fleet with the "Hero", "Knight" and five other "pre-Dreadnought" warships as the vanguard. The roar of the giant cannon resounded through the sky and the earth, and the fiery red light flickered at the muzzle of the cannon.

"General, the enemy's artillery fire is so fierce that we can hardly stand it anymore." A major general officer reported to Brian. Although the current British Atlantic Fleet is slightly stronger than the French Atlantic Fleet in terms of strength, they could not hold on under the fierce artillery fire of the French Atlantic Fleet. Because of the power and range of the artillery, it was destined to be an unfair naval battle from the beginning.

"The ships speed up and close the distance with the enemy ships. For the sake of the British Empire, charge." Brian waved his fist and ordered. At this point, retreat was impossible, and retreating at a slower speed than the French fleet would only lead to the rout of the fleet and ultimately the complete defeat of the war. At the same time, he is also very clear that if he cannot win, or in other words, if he does not severely injure his opponent, then the opponent will have an absolute advantage in the future naval battles. So he has now made up his mind to severely damage the French Atlantic Fleet, even if the price is his entire fleet.

Under Brian's order, the British warship rushed towards the French fleet bravely. Soon, the distance between the two sides was completely shortened, but in order to shorten this distance, the British Atlantic Fleet also paid a heavy price for this.

The shells flew across, and the hit battleships on both sides were burning and sinking.

"Do you want to defend us hard?" Kirkbride said to himself with the corners of his mouth slightly raised. "Send a report to the Mediterranean Fleet, asking how long they can go into battle." Kirkbride ordered.

Fifteen minutes later, they received a reply from the Mediterranean Fleet, and they could rush to the warring sea area to fight in about two hours.

"Okay, order the ships to give me a hard lesson on those arrogant British guys, let them know how powerful we are." Kirkbride ordered frantically. Under his command, the French Atlantic Fleet also launched a fierce attack on the British fleet.

"Turn 30 degrees to starboard, 'Knight', 'General', 'Marshal', 'Centurion', 'Marine' and 'Marauder' all follow." Kirkbride A new order was issued. Since the number of warships is less than that of the British fleet, many warships are under the siege of the opponent after the loss of the advantage of the range of naval guns, which is very unfavorable to the French Atlantic Fleet. Although the French warships are thicker than the British warships, especially the "dreadnought" class warships and the "pre-dreadnought" class warships can be described as steel and iron. In addition to the fact that the superstructure of warships is easily destroyed, it is almost impossible for British warships to break through their thick armor. Even so, the French warships still suffered a bit. Although most French warships catch fire after being hit hard, as long as they are not hit on the waterline or important parts such as ammunition depots and engine rooms, it is generally difficult to lose combat effectiveness. However, if the British warship is hit, it will not be so lucky. As long as it is hit by a shell with a caliber of 105mm or more, it will basically be severely damaged. It worked out. Not to mention those large-caliber shells, as long as they are hit, it is generally difficult to escape the fate of the shipwreck.

The powerful hull and super speed make the "Dreadnought" class warships of the French Navy have a strong impact. Under the leadership of the "Hero" and the "Knight", 7 powerful warships rushed out of the British warships The formation came to the left rear of the British fleet. There, they hit the hull horizontally, and launched a devastating blow to the British battleship with the powerful main gun and the secondary gun on the right side of the battleship. In the northwest corner of the entire British fleet, within half an hour, there was no longer a warship, and at least more than 20 warships were sent to the bottom of the sea by them.

After solving the British warships in the northwest corner, the seven sea steel fortresses headed by the "Hero" and "Knight" turned again, and turned to the rear of the British fleet in the direction of the instant hand, so the killing started again.

"Rush up, rush up for me, even if you hit them, you will sink those damned big ships." Brian ordered like crazy. Seeing the battleships being destroyed one after another, his heart seemed to be bleeding. It is already 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and the battle has only lasted for an hour, and the British Atlantic Fleet has lost more than 50 warships. Although he does not know how much the French Atlantic Fleet has lost, it is obviously much lower than them. To be precise, the French Atlantic Fleet has now lost nearly 20 warships, most of which are weakly armored 'Iberia' class warships. In the hard defense with the British fleet, the weakly armored 'Iberia' Super battleships always suffer. Of course, no matter how weak their armor is, it is much thicker than the British 'British' class. Therefore, from the beginning of the battle to the present, the warship that sank the most will belong to the British "British" class warship.

"Damn, the British are crazy. Order the ships to distance themselves and break away from contact with the British fleet." Watching those British warships rushing towards their own warships without fear of death, they would not retreat even if they were hit by artillery fire , Kirkbride was a little timid. He is also a lunatic, but today he met someone crazier than him.

With a speed much faster than the British fleet, the French Atlantic Fleet threw off the British Atlantic Fleet. The roles have been changed unconsciously. The French Atlantic Fleet, which was still chasing the British fleet, is now being chased and beaten by others. This conversion made Kirkbride a little blush, but, in order to reduce the loss of the fleet, he ordered the ships to keep a distance from the British fleet, and consume the British fleet through the advantages of range.

Seeing the French fleet adopt such a 'rogue' tactic, Brian was so angry that his teeth itch. Looking at his fleet of less than 70 warships, many of which still bear dark scars, Brian sighed helplessly. He knew that his goal of severely injuring the opponent would be impossible to achieve. As a last resort, he ordered a retreat, anyway, let's keep some seeds for the Royal Navy.

However, Kirkbride certainly would not agree to the retreat of the British Atlantic Fleet, and ordered his fleet to lean in and continue to attack the British fleet. Helpless, Bryan had to order 20 warships to stay and drag the French Atlantic Fleet, and he led the main force of the British Atlantic Fleet to retreat.

Watching the British fleet leave, Kirkbride was not angry, and did not send the fleet to chase, but ordered the ships to hurry up and clean up the 20 abandoned warships. Because Bryan did not return along the same route, but retreated towards the English Channel. Because they are low on fuel and other supplies and need to be resupplied. And this direction is exactly the direction in which the French Mediterranean Fleet came. Kirkbride knew that the Mediterranean Fleet would entangle the British Fleet, so he had enough time to solve the immediate troubles, and then cooperated with the Mediterranean Fleet to completely wipe out the British Fleet.

Sure enough, an hour later, the British fleet, which was fleeing northeast, encountered the French Mediterranean Fleet. Although the Mediterranean Fleet now only has 19 warships~lightnovelpub.net~ and the Bryan Fleet has nearly 50 Zhanjiangs, it is basically impossible for the Bryan Fleet to destroy the French Mediterranean Fleet. After knowing that the Atlantic Fleet was not far to the southwest, the Mediterranean Fleet did not fight head-on with the Bryan Fleet, but continued to harass the periphery and delay time.

Brian felt that he was about to collapse. Now there are only less than 50 warships left in the British Royal Navy's Atlantic Fleet, and this number is still decreasing. This failure must have come too soon. In order to get rid of the harassment of the French Mediterranean Fleet, he had to send 10 warships to stop the French Mediterranean Fleet again, while he led the remaining warships to flee frantically.

Perhaps his prayers were answered, this time, the French warships did not catch up with them. They fled back to Plymouth Harbor in southwestern England in embarrassment. Because one of the accidents happened, that is, those "abandoned" British warships still heroically launched an attack on the French fleet, which made the French fleet spend a lot of time on it. This allowed the Bryan fleet enough time to escape.

The fierce naval battle finally came to an end. In general, the ambush of the British Atlantic Fleet by the French Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet was very successful. Although the British Atlantic Fleet was not wiped out, two-thirds of the opponent's warships were also eliminated, and only 28 ships were lost. Only warships, and most of them are 'Iberia' class warships. Since then, the French navy has had an absolute advantage.