Chapter 175 Beirut Naval Battle (Part 2)

The coast of Beirut was full of traces of explosion shells, and the guns on the four gun platforms were almost all misfired. Next to the burning guns, there were countless bodies of gunners.

Many of them died with their eyes wide open, because the shells they fired could not reach the British warships at all. The supervisors behind them threatened their lives and their families, forcing them to put up a meaningless resistance.

The situation on the dock was even more tragic. A shell landed on the pier of the dock, and the old wood suddenly turned into debris all over the sky, flying towards the surrounding crowd. The people at the center of the explosion were directly blown into the air by the shock wave and had a free fall.

The British army fired not only explosion shells, but also incendiary bombs and solid bombs. Compared with destroying the pier, the effect of solid bombs still depends on it.

A solid bomb hit the pier, bouncing and destroying a large number of wooden structures, just like skipping stones on the water.

Because the British army launched an indiscriminate attack, the warships and merchant ships in the harbor were hit and sawdust flew everywhere.

The British fleet had a lot of fun, but after pouring dozens of tons of shells, the Egyptian navy also began to counterattack.

Egypt knew very well that its guns were not as good as the British ones, and long-range shooting was equivalent to giving it away, so they just went close to fight.

One by one, the two-masted sailboats set sail towards the British fleet.

Other captains of the fleet asked Commander Helmut whether to retreat and continue shooting at a distance.

Helmut sneered. He had already seized the T-head, so there was no reason to give up, and those Egyptian warships did not pose any threat at all.

In addition to the two-masted warships, the Egyptian Navy also had a large number of light gunboats. These gunboats often had only one or two carronades. They used their own light advantages to quickly approach enemy ships and directly attack the bottom of the ship, or use grapeshot to kill the 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 quick attack tactics.

In addition, the Egyptian Navy also has a large number of sampans, which usually have only 10-20 people, carrying hooks, machetes, kerosene and other items. The purpose is to get close to the enemy ship and fight with it. This is also the tactic of the Barbary pirates, which was later inherited by the Somali pirates.

"Tell all the captains to stop the shelling and let them get closer before firing, so that there will be no fish that slip through the net."

The messenger immediately sent a flag signal, and the shelling of the British fleet stopped. This was not a fair contest, and they were indeed qualified to be proud.

But in a place that the British could not see, four huge capstans were turning, and four guns called "Pluto" by the Egyptians were being pulled out of the gun position.

At the same time, the main fleet of Egypt, a total of 28 main battleships, plus nearly 100 auxiliary ships, the flagship had already penetrated the fog and arrived at the battlefield.

However, due to the heavy fog, there was a problem with the command of the Egyptian Navy. It did not immediately deploy the battle formation, but rushed directly to the British fleet.

The sudden appearance of the huge fleet caused confusion among the British. The captains asked Helmut whether to leave the battlefield.

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

But if he fled, if the enemy followed and chased him, his losses would not be small. Although this would save the fleet, his reputation and future would probably be ruined, and it would affect the reputation of the British Navy to fight the enemy.

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

His intuition tells him that this is a trap specially prepared for him, and his experience tells him that it is time to make achievements!

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

Whenever the British Navy is at the moment of life and death, it will think of this hero who has saved Great Britain several times.

On March 13, 1811, in the Battle of Lissa, Colonel Horst led a British detachment of four warships and was surrounded by a French fleet twice its size.

At the critical moment, Horst sent a flag signal on the flagship "Remember Nelson", which boosted the morale of the British ships and defeated the combined fleet in one go.

Mentioning Nelson did stabilize the morale of the British army, and it did not collapse due to the two-sided attack of the Egyptian navy.

Helmut took a deep breath and put down the telescope.

"Tell the fleet to wait until the enemy ships enter 500 meters before shooting."

The warships of this era mainly rely on side firepower output, so there is a saying of grabbing the T head. But light gunboats are obviously not included in this list. They only have one or two guns, and they can often adjust their positions.

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

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

As mentioned before, battleships below level 3 cannot be counted as capital ships, and the British target is always the Egyptian capital ships.

However, the Egyptian navy on the Beirut side was not so lucky. Anyway, there was no valuable target, so the British ships opened fire at will.

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

A large two-masted sailing ship was directly hit by more than a dozen shells. There was a ghostly howl on the deck, and even the mast was blown off. The fallen mast directly crushed the sailors below into meat patties.

However, the morale of the Egyptian Navy had not collapsed yet, which surprised Helmut. In fact, at this time, the families of those Egyptian navy were captured by Muhammad and taken to Cairo. If they failed, Ali would dry their families.

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

On the other side, the British and Egyptian navy also came into contact. The first round of British artillery fire woke up the crazy Egyptian navy.

The British army poured half a ton of shells on the main Egyptian fleet at one time, causing the latter's fleet to fall into chaos in an instant, and began to turn hastily and bombarded with broadsides.

As the number of Egyptian navy ships increased, the battle became more and more tragic.

Helmut knew that he could not win this battle anyway, but he was unwilling to retreat. He also wanted to create his own legend.

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

Four "Pluto" cannons blew up two people, but the other two cannons hit a frigate at the same time. The shells easily broke through the frigate's hull, 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 instantly inspired the bloodiness of the Egyptian navy, especially those sampans who even planned to board the British warships directly for hand-to-hand combat.

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

The carronades at the bow and stern of the British warship played a role. A grapeshot hit the sampan, and a layer of blood mist instantly filled the sampan. After the blood mist dissipated, only the lonely sampan was left.

However, Helmut was no longer in the mood to continue to appreciate the enemy's miserable situation. He had to retreat, otherwise his fleet would become the first British fleet to be annihilated in the 19th century.