Chapter 359: The Largest Ironclad Battle in History

Chapter 359: The Largest Ironclad Battle in History

Chapter 359: The Largest Ironclad Battle in History
The Bay of Cadiz was filled with the roar of cannons and the sea was filled with smoke. The largest naval battle since the birth of ironclad ships was taking place.

The number of ironclad ships participating in the battle between the two sides reached seventy-four, which was more than half of the world's total number of ironclad ships gathered here and fought fiercely.

This was a contest between the second and third largest naval powers in the world, with the number of Qing and French ironclad ships participating in the battle being 36:38.

In addition to ironclad ships, France also had more than a dozen sailing ships as auxiliary vessels to supply coal and water.

They set out from the Cherbourg naval base and did not stop at any port in order to conceal their journey and avoid being detected by the enemy.

However, the huge fleet consumed more than 500 tons of coal every day, so it had to carry some supply ships.

When they arrived off the coast of Cadiz, the French Republican government had already fallen. But in the days without wireless telegraphy, they knew nothing at sea, but they still started the attack as planned.

The Toulon fleet did not arrive as scheduled for the reunion, and Fleet Commander-in-Chief Frischamp estimated that the Toulon fleet must have been defeated by the enemy.

It doesn't matter. Toulon has three broken ships in total. Even if they don't participate in the battle, our score will still be 38:36. The advantage is in my hands.

The Nanyang Fleet went out to fight. They did not use the coastal defense artillery to help, and went to the sea for a decisive battle. On the one hand, it was because the coastal defense artillery in Cadiz was relatively backward and could not help much.

On the other hand, there are a large number of unprotected transport ships in the port. If they are blocked and attacked by the enemy, they are likely to suffer heavy losses.

The wide Bay of Cadiz served as the battlefield. More than seventy ironclad ships slowly approached, then turned their rudders and faced each other sideways.

The nine-inch caliber cannons of the Dingzhen II ship roared, and the naval battle began.

The Minotaur-class battleship was the newest type of ironclad ship and the last type of battleship with broadside gun positions, later having rotating turrets.

Big cannons, huge ships, multiple rivet steel and multiple turret confrontations are the romance of men on the sea.

It was still the dawn of ironclad ships. There were no dreadnoughts, and even the Devastation was still being fitted out in the dock. There was no dispute over single-turret or multi-turret battles.

The naval battle also continued the line tactics of the sailing age, with broadside cannons firing at each other.

The sailors on the deck adjusted the sails, the sailors in the bottom hold stripped off their shirts and shoveled coal, the boilers were running at full capacity, and the battleship was spewing black smoke.

The helmsmen kept their eyes on the enemy ships, adjusted the direction of the ships, and turned their bellies towards the enemy. The professional gunners used slide rules to measure the distance and fired their guns.
More than 30 ironclad ships from each side circled in the sea, and their huge cannons kept bombarding each other. It was a bit like a duel between oriental martial arts masters, watching each other walk in circles and looking for opportunities to punch and kick each other.

The advantage of the Nanyang Fleet is that it has many large-tonnage new warships. The two Minotaur-class ships are 10,000 tons each, and the four Wangfu-class ships are more than 7,000 tons each.

The advantage of the French fleet is that it has a large number of 6,000-ton Provence-class battleships, reaching ten ships, and only one Ocean that is over 7,000 tons.

Liao Rong made a decision right away, and the two Dingzhen ships besieged the Ocean, and captured the thief and the leader. The four Wangfu-class ships faced the ten Provence-class ships.

The shrapnel shells of the Nanyang Fleet were TNT high-explosive bombs. When the shells hit the enemy ships, there was an earth-shattering explosion, which was extremely powerful.

However, TNT has the greatest advantage in land bombardment, but in naval battles, its advantage is not obvious.

Because there were no armor-piercing shells with gunpowder, the shells had no ability to penetrate into the enemy ship and explode. To sink the enemy ship, solid bullets were needed to hit below the enemy's waterline and fill the enemy ship with water.

The purpose of shrapnel bombs is to clear the enemy's deck and reduce the combat effectiveness of the enemy ship.

In the naval battle of the Crimean War, the Russian Navy's high-explosive shrapnel shells defeated the Turkish Navy. This was because the Turkish Navy's ships were all wooden-hulled warships, which were set on fire by the shrapnel shells.

When facing ironclad ships, the power of shrapnel shells was immediately offset.

After two hours of naval fighting, there were constant gunshots on the sea and black smoke covered the sea surface. The battle looked extremely fierce, but the result was - zero.

This was the dilemma of naval warfare in the ironclad era. The capability of the shells was not much improved compared to the era of sailing wooden ships, but the defense capabilities were abnormally high.

The confrontation between ironclad ships at sea became a fight between two powerful warships with insufficient attack power.

The world's first battle between ironclad ships took place between the Confederate Army's USS Virginia and the Union Army's USS Monitor during the American Civil War.

The latest battleship confrontation taking place at the mouth of the James River at that time attracted a large number of spectators to watch on the shore. The crowd was very excited and ready to watch the show.

As a result, after six hours of fighting, both sides suffered minimal damage and neither could kill the other, so they had to end the battle because it was getting dark.

The onlookers said that it was too boring and uninteresting and they wanted to refund their tickets!
Just like the confrontation between the South China Sea Fleet and the French Fleet, although it was huge in scale, it was also very unspectacular.

The sound of the cannons was deafening, the sea was filled with black smoke, the vision was blurred, and then no one could hit anyone. The current situation was that the Dingzhen and the two ships were chasing the enemy flagship Ocean, and they had an absolute advantage, but they could not sink the enemy.

The Nanyang Navy was well-trained, but even so, a hit rate of 11% with solid bullets was already very high.

The Haiyang was smaller than the Dingzhen II and more agile. It was hit by more than 30 bullets, all of which were above the waterline. The warship was covered with scars, all of which were large holes made by solid bullets. It was useless, and it was still alive and well and ran very fast.

It is extremely difficult to hit a moving enemy warship below the waterline with a solid bullet and deal a fatal blow to the enemy.

Captains Liao Rong and Liu Buchan changed their tactics at the same time and switched to shrapnel shells. They were going to flatten the equipment on the deck of the enemy ship first to make it lose its combat effectiveness.

Then, the Ocean fired a shrapnel shell that hit the ammunition depot of the Dingyuan...

Nothing happened.

The shells of the Nanyang Navy were filled with TNT, not picric acid or black powder. TNT is extremely safe. It can be used as a heating material directly with fire without a detonator. It will not explode at all.

It was a false alarm. Then the Ocean was hit by a large number of shrapnel on the deck, the surface of the warship was in a mess, the ability to fight back was greatly reduced, and the mast was broken.

The result was that the Dingzhen and two ships were safe, but the sails of the Ocean were all destroyed, and the enemy sailors hid in the cabin behind the armor, so nothing happened. Only less than twenty people were killed by shrapnel that flew in through the windows.

The Ocean has lost its sails, but it is still alive and kicking with steam power. I can't hit you, and you can't kill me.

The flagship was playing hide-and-seek, the French ran away, and the Dingzhen and two ships chased. The French had a big advantage in the main battleships, with ten Provence-class ships chasing four Wangfu-class ships. The situation was similar to the flagship duel, except that the roles were reversed.

The Nanyang Fleet had twenty thousand-ton ironclad ships, while the French fleet had twenty-four. The Nanyang Fleet had the advantage in firepower with shrapnel shells, while the enemy had the advantage in numbers. The battle was back and forth, and neither side was willing to give in. It seemed that the fight would not produce any result until dark.

In another group confrontation, the Nanyang Fleet had the upper hand. Ten Janssen-class cruisers targeted the three old warships of the French fleet, the Glorious, the Invincible, and the Corona.

These three ships are all giant ships. The Glorious and Invincible are both over 5,500 tons, and the Corona is over 6,300 tons. They are battleships and much larger than the Johnson-class ships of over 3,000 tons.

However, the Glory was the world's first steam ironclad ship, and the Invincible was of the same level. The Glory was commissioned in 1860, and the Invincible was commissioned in 1862. Both were old, underpowered, and lacked firepower.

The Corolla was a slightly more advanced ship, but it also entered service in 1862.

Although these three warships were large, they could not fight. The Johnson class was small, but its firepower was the latest, and there were as many as ten of them, so they used their small size to fight against the big ones, surrounding the three old French warships and beating them.

Ten Johnson-class warships, led by Deng Shichang's Zhiyuan and Zeng Xiaoyi's Haiqi.

They observed the entire battlefield and found that the confrontation between the flagship, main battleship, and thousand-ton small ships would not have a conclusion for a while.

If we want to win this naval battle, it depends on whether we two brothers can capture these three old guys.

The three old French ships were in a difficult situation. They couldn't defeat the enemy, they lacked power, and they couldn't escape. They could only barely hold on under the siege of ten Janssen-class ships.

Finally, the oldest ship, the Glory, could not bear it anymore and turned to escape. Zeng Xiaoyi led three Johnson-class ships in pursuit.

The Glory panicked and ran head-on into its own support ship, the Folfe, behind it.

The Folfe was a wooden, unarmored sailing cruiser that hid behind, not daring to participate in the duel between the ironclads. As a result, it suffered an unexpected disaster and was hit by the fleeing ironclads. Its side was immediately smashed to pieces and it slowly sank.

Ahem, the Nanyang Fleet finally achieved some results, but the embarrassing thing is that the enemy lost wooden ships that they themselves were too lazy to attack.

Zeng Xiaoyi led his men to chase the Glory, and Deng Shichang led the remaining seven Johnson-class ships to besiege the Invincible and the Corolla.

Seeing that their own TNT high-explosive bombs had smashed the opponent's deck to pieces and solid bullets had made holes everywhere in the opponent's ship's side, the two old French ships were crumbling and seemed to be destroyed at any time.

But another four hours passed, and it was almost afternoon. Everyone's stomachs were rumbling, but the two old French ships still seemed drunk, but not drunk, and were very strong.

Deng Shichang looked around with a telescope, and everyone was still arguing with each other. Was this unprecedented naval battle going to end with no one being able to defeat the other until dark?

We saw the shabby hull of the enemy's Invincible turning sideways again, with the side facing our side, and it was still firing.

Deng Shichang gritted his teeth and said, "Zhiyuan, speed up, target the Invincible, ram it!"

(End of this chapter)