(Chapter to)
It took two hours for the French Air Force airship unit to sweep over Brighton before all the bombs were dropped. After that, the super-large airship, large airship and medium-sized airship all began to return because they had completed their missions. Twenty small airships remained, ready to verify the results of the bombing.
The dense smoke in the sky completely enveloped the Brighton Naval Port. Looking down from the sky, there were burning flames and black smoke everywhere. It was impossible to tell which warships had been destroyed.
A trace of blood left from the palm of his hand, and Nelson felt a little pain at this moment. It turned out that the teacup he was holding in his hand had been broken due to excessive force, and a deep **** was cut in his palm by the porcelain. His office was halfway up a hill next to the only port, where he witnessed the entire bombing. From 9:00 in the morning, French airships began to drop bombs in the port continuously. At this time, the British warships ran out of the port like crazy, but unfortunately, the port was only so big, and a large number of warships blocked the port. The French airship took this opportunity to drop a large number of bombs at the port exit. Watching battleships ablaze and sinking to the bottom of the ocean broke Nelson's heart. The same scene was staged in various places in the port. British warships kept fleeing in the port, most of which were bombs falling from the sky. Although the hit rate of the French airship was not high, many warships were still hit under the intensive bombing.
After more than two hours, the thick smoke on the sea finally dispersed. At this time, the remaining warships in the Brighton Naval Port were only a little more than half of the original number, and there were still many warships burning raging fire.
Nelson gave an order to fight the fire with all his strength. At this time, he couldn't control so much. He could save one more battleship, because he knew that after the attack by the French airship, the next one would be a ship from France. The navy's fierce attack, he must retain the strength of the navy as much as possible, otherwise Britain will be completely at a disadvantage in future wars.
And the French airships hovering in the sky, after counting the results of the battle, all began to turn and flew towards the French mainland. At this time, a group of airships suddenly flew over from the north, not many in number, about 30 or so. Obviously, it was the British Airship Force. They were about the size of a French blimp, but not nearly as fast. The British sailors who were fighting the fire cheered when they noticed the arrival of their airship troops.
Seeing the arrival of the British airship, the French airship not only did not flee, but turned around and rushed towards them. It seems that they intend to deal a severe blow to the confidence of the British sailors. Since airships appeared in other countries, French small airships are no longer engaged in bombing missions, but are specialized in reconnaissance and hunting of other countries' airships. Their weapons are also relatively simple, consisting of heavy machine guns fixed on both sides of the gondola. Compared with the French airship, the British airship is much inferior. The weapons of the British airship are also heavy machine guns, but they are old-fashioned water-cooled heavy machine guns. This kind of heavy machine gun not only has low power, but also has a high failure rate and has a very large recoil. Every time it starts shooting, the British airship will shake in the sky without any accuracy. The French side, although it also exists, is much better.
The air battle was very intense, but it was over after only an hour, because after being beaten down by French airships and 12 airships, the British airships fled like life. The cheers of the British sailors died down as the British airship fell like a ball of fire. They all opened their mouths wide, staring at the **** of fire falling from the sky. The French side was not without losses. In the battle with the British airships, they also lost two airships. But the ratio of 1 to 6 made them an absolute victory in this air battle. The ending of those airships that were hit was the most tragic, because after the airbag of the airship was hit, the hydrogen inside burned violently in an instant, and the entire airship would turn into a ball of fire, and the air force soldiers in the airship would also die. There is no chance of survival. Because of this, airship soldiers have become the bravest people, and they are also a branch of the military with a relatively high death rate. As a result, some people desperately instigated the people they hated to join the airship force.
After defeating the British airship, the French airship retreated swaggeringly over Brighton. At the same time, they also sent back the results of the bombing to Abbeville.
When Xiao Jie announced the results of the bombing in public, the entire Air Force barracks cheered. What the Navy failed to do, their Air Force did it with ease. How could this make them unhappy and proud? In this bombing, the French Air Force lost a total of 11 airships, two of which were destroyed in subsequent air battles, and the other 9 fell into the sea due to malfunctions at sea. But they sank hundreds of warships, and that loss seemed insignificant compared to these battle results.
After that, Xiao Jie ordered the Navy Channel Fleet to engage in a full-scale counterattack against the British Navy. At the same time, the French Atlantic Fleet also took action immediately, preparing to ambush the British Channel Fleet with the cooperation of the Mediterranean Fleet. A large net was silently deployed to the British Atlantic Fleet. And he himself returned to Paris, because the army was fully prepared. A new battle is about to start.
On March 10, British Prime Minister the Earl of Liverpool held another cabinet meeting. In just over a month, he has ordered three cabinet meetings. Every time, it means that Britain has suffered a major blow.
Looking gloomyly at the ministers attending the meeting, Liverpool's eyes finally fell on Halbuher, the Minister of the Navy. "Your Excellency Halbuher, I need an explanation, a reasonable explanation. Why did the Royal Navy of the British Empire suffer heavy losses within a month? The huge Channel Fleet and the Home Fleet lost more than half, how do you want me to tell His Majesty the King Explain? How to explain to the people?" Liverpool roared angrily.
Halbuher was frightened into a cold sweat, kept wiping the sweat from his forehead, and stammered in reply: "Your Excellency, this... this is not the fault of our navy at all, and no one expected that the despicable The French will use airships to attack Brighton?" Halbuher is very aggrieved now.
Although it is known that the main responsibility for the failure of the navy is not on Halbuher, Liverpool has no other way now. It's not just Halbuher alone, I'm afraid even he himself will be unlucky. "Your Excellency Halbuher, you are just trying to quibble. You should be responsible for the mistakes you made, instead of blindly shirking responsibility." Liverpool said very clearly.
Suddenly, Halbuher understood Liverpool's true intentions. Afterwards, he froze all over. However, no one sympathized with him. As a last resort, Halbuher finally had to admit that it was his own fault that caused the navy to suffer huge losses. Everything that happened next was logical. His position as Minister of the Navy was relieved, and the position of Minister of the Navy was replaced by Willendorf, the former Deputy Minister of the Navy. And Halbucher was also exempted from prosecution because he voluntarily admitted his mistakes, but his name was completely destroyed.
The resignation of a minister of the navy blocked the mouths of the king and the people, allowing the Liverpool cabinet to continue to govern with trepidation. As soon as Willendorf came to power, he introduced a series of new measures to strengthen the strength of the navy, and the cabinet also gave him full cooperation. For example, the Ministry of Finance once again allocated a huge sum of money to the Navy to build more warships. At the same time, in order to avoid being bombed by the French Air Force again, a large number of British airships were also purchased. At the same time, in order to strengthen the control over the strait ~www.mtlnovel.com~ Willendorf strongly advocated returning the Atlantic Fleet to aid the strait.
"Your Excellency Willendorf, do you want the kingdom to lose North America? Without the support of North America and Canada, I doubt whether we have the strength to continue to fight against France." Willendorf proposed After accepting the proposal to withdraw the Atlantic Fleet, someone immediately refuted it.
"Your Excellency, Foreign Secretary, this is only temporary. As long as we defeat France, we can return to North America at any time. Our allies are already on the move, and what we have to do now is to prevent the French before our allies win Landing on the British mainland," Willendorf said loudly.
The Foreign Secretary had to refute, but at this time Liverpool spoke. He clearly expressed support for Willendorf's opinion, and temporarily withdrew the British Atlantic Fleet to the English Channel, and then transferred the Atlantic Fleet back after the situation in the channel stabilized. In his opinion, the British mainland is much more important than the North American colonies.
However, what they absolutely did not expect was that the French Navy had been closely watching the actions of the British Atlantic Fleet, ready to wipe out the last British fleet and destroy the last resistance of the British Navy. After the British Atlantic Fleet set off from ports on the west coast of the United Kingdom and North America that day, the remaining warships of the French Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet also took action.