Chapter 175 Beirut Naval Battle (Part 2)

Chapter 175 Beirut Naval Battle (Part 2)

The coast of Beirut is full of traces of exploding shells, and almost all the artillery on the four forts have been silenced. Next to the burning artillery, there were countless corpses of gunners stacked up.

Many of them died with their eyes open, because the shells they fired could not reach the British warships at all. However, the supervising team behind them threatened their lives and families, forcing them to resist pointlessly.

The situation on the pier was even more tragic. A shell landed on the pier of the pier. The old wood suddenly turned into debris and flew towards the surrounding crowd. People at the center of the explosion were directly blown away by the shock wave. In the air, there was a free fall.

The British army fired not only blooming artillery shells, but also incendiary bombs and solid shells. Compared with destroying the trestle, the effect of solid shells was still more important.

A solid bullet hit the trestle, ricocheting and destroying a large number of wooden structures, just like water wasted.

Since the British army launched an indiscriminate attack, the warships and merchant ships in the harbor were beaten to pieces.

The British fleet fought very well, but after pouring dozens of tons of artillery shells, the Egyptian navy also began to counterattack.

Egypt knew very well that its artillery was not as good as that of the British army, and shooting from a long distance was for nothing, so it just attacked them.

One by one, the two-masted sailing ships sailed towards the British fleet.

The other captains of the fleet asked Commander Helmut if they wanted to retreat and keep shooting at a distance.

Helmut sneered. Now that he had seized the T-head, there was no reason to give up, and those Egyptian warships posed no threat at all.

In addition to the two-masted warships, the Egyptian Navy also has a large number of light gunboats. These gunboats often only have one or two carronets. They use their own lightness to quickly approach enemy ships, directly attack the bottom of the ship, or use grape bombs. Kill and injure deck personnel.

This was the tactic of the Barbary pirates back then. France, Austria, Sardinia and other countries also had a large number of light gunboats to counter the Barbary navy's fast attack tactics.

In addition, the Egyptian Navy also has a large number of sampans. These sampans usually only have 10-20 people and carry items such as hooks, machetes, and kerosene. The purpose is to get close to enemy ships and fight with them. The same is true of Barbary. Pirate tactics were later inherited by Somali pirates.

"Tell the captains to stop the bombardment and move closer to attack. Don't let any fish slip through the net."

The messenger immediately raised the flag, and the British fleet's bombardment stopped. This was not a fair contest in the first place, and they did have the right to be proud.

But where the British couldn't see it, four huge winches were turning, and four artillery pieces, which the Egyptians called "Hades", were being pulled out of their emplacements.

At the same time, Egypt's main fleet, a total of twenty-eight battleships, plus nearly a hundred auxiliary ships, the flagship has broken through the fog and arrived on the battlefield.

However, due to the heavy fog, there was a problem with the command of the Egyptian Navy. Instead of launching a battle formation immediately, it rushed directly towards the British fleet.

The sudden appearance of a huge fleet caused confusion in the British. The captains asked Helmut for instructions whether to leave the battlefield.

Lieutenant General Helmut was also caught in a dilemma. At this time, the number of Egyptian warships was unknown. If they continued to fight, they would most likely be surrounded.

But if you just run away, if the other party follows and pursues you, your own losses will not be small. Although this can save the fleet, your reputation and future may be completely ruined, and it will also affect the British Navy's reputation of always fighting the enemy.

The most important thing is that the British fleet is now at the T head of the battle, but after escaping, it will become the T tail. The surrounding fog makes it impossible for Helmut to judge whether there are enemy troops in other directions.

His intuition told him that this was a trap specially prepared for him, and his experience told him that it was time to make a contribution!

"Tell them, don't panic and remember Nelson!"

Every time the British Navy faces life and death, it will think of this hero who saved Great Britain several times.

On March 13, 1811, in the Battle of Lisa, Captain Horst led a British squadron of four battleships and was surrounded by a French fleet twice as many as his own.

At the critical juncture, Horst hoisted the flag "Remember Nelson" on his flagship, boosting the morale of the British ships and defeating the United Fleet in one fell swoop.

The mention of Nelson really stabilized the morale of the British army and did not collapse due to the two-sided attack by the Egyptian navy.

Helmut took a deep breath and put down the telescope.

"Tell the fleet to wait until the enemy ship enters five hundred meters before shooting."

Battleships of this era mainly rely on broadside firepower output, so there is talk of grabbing the T head. But light gunboats are obviously not included in this category. They only have one or two guns, and their positions can often be adjusted.

The Egyptian light gunboats started shooting at the extreme distance of 800 meters between the two sides, and the warships started shooting at an exaggerated distance of 1,000 meters. The result was of course a splash of water around the British fleet.

Soon the Egyptian light gunboats and sampans entered within the 500-meter firing range of the British warships, but the British fleet did not open fire.

As mentioned before, battleships below level three cannot be counted as battleships, and Britain's target has always been those Egyptian battleships.

However, the Egyptian navy on the Beirut side did not have that kind of luck. There were no valuable targets anyway, so the British ships opened fire at will.

A rain of bullets fell, and all the sampans and light gunboats hit by the shells were instantly broken into pieces. Even if the ship did not sink, the people on the ship were stunned by the explosion.

A brigantine was directly hit by more than a dozen cannonballs. There were howling ghosts on the deck, and even the mast was blown off. The fallen mast directly crushed the sailors below into meat pies.

However, the morale of the Egyptian navy has not collapsed yet, which surprised Helmut. In fact, at this time, the families of the Egyptian navy were captured by Mohammed and taken to Cairo. If they failed, Ali would expose their families. Adult fuck.

The sailors of the Egyptian Navy all rushed towards the British fleet with red eyes and gritted teeth.

The British army and the Egyptian navy also came into contact on the other side. The first round of shelling by the British army woke up the crazy Egyptian navy.

The British army poured half a ton of artillery shells on the Egyptian main fleet at once, causing the latter's fleet to fall into chaos instantly, and began to turn hastily and bombard them from the side.

As the number of Egyptian navy ships increased, the fighting became more and more fierce.

Helmut knew that he could not win this battle no matter what, but he was not willing to retreat. He also wanted to create his own legend.

But several loud noises suddenly came from the shore, which made him determined.

The four "Pluto" cannons blew up two of them, but the other two giant cannons actually hit a frigate at the same time. The shells easily broke through the hull of the frigate, and the huge shells exploded in the cabin.

Along with two loud noises, the gunpowder on the bottom of the frigate was also ignited, and the huge explosion directly tore the hull. This moment aroused the bloody spirit of the Egyptian navy, especially those sampans that even planned to board British warships directly for hand-to-hand combat.

However, their courage did not bring them continued good luck.

The carronade guns at the bow and stern of the British warship worked. A round of grapeshot hit the sampan. A layer of blood mist instantly filled the sampan. After the blood mist dissipated, only the sampan was left alone.

However, Helmut was no longer in the mood to continue admiring the enemy's misery at this time. He had to retreat, otherwise his fleet would become the first British fleet to be annihilated in the nineteenth century.