Chapter 19: Bang Bang Bang!
Chapter 19: Bang Bang Bang!
EMERGENCY CABINET MEETING
"Our troops are very ready! Admiral Neville is ready with 8 of his metal boats." Reported our chief of army
He continued: "Now here is our plan, you all know it already right? First admiral Neville would be out with his fleet to engage the Royal Navy, then it is straightforward, we'll land our troops in Britain."
"This plan is simple..." I said.
"My dear sir, this simple plan is difficult enough to carry out, I do not guarantee a success, if we failed step 1, step 2,3,4 would be meaningless."
"How many troops we are landing in Britain?" I asked.
"About 35 divisions of men. All veterans from the previous campaigns."
"OK, I'll sign this war of declaration, approved.**signs**"
"Bloody brits would be punished for their arrogance."
"Hope so."
"Telegraph the HQ at Caen to have our troops ready by mid January, if there are any amendments, we'll telehgraph them about that. Remember that the operation would only commence when we telegraph them. Also, mail the operation plan, don't telegraph it."
"Is there a need to keep this so secret? The brits must have known that we're massing troops..."
"True, but still, a rule of thumb in military operations is to keep it secret, at least the brits don't know where we're landing."
In the English Channel, the French "metal fleet" is sailing to southemton to bombard the british port...
French Seaman A: "Report! British ships sighted! 4 o'clock position!"
Admiral Neville: "Huh, the brits are waiting for us? Darn, how many ships are there? 1,2,3,4,...god, that's more than 50! Switch to V formation! Change course by 40 degrees to the starboard. We'll show them how the French fights!"
French Seaman B: "Yes my admiral, and..., do we need reinforcements?"
Admiral Neville: "Er... we better not be too confident, this battle could last long. Send 20 pigeons as well as a boat."
French Seaman B: "Yes my admiral."
French Seaman A cried: "Admiral! The brits are very close already! They are 1000 metres away!"
Admiral Neville: "Not close enough! We don't have much munitions and we want every shot to count. Bloody wooden ships sink easily."
...
Admiral Neville: "As expected! The brits split their columns! They must not know that our guns can turn, uh, today the sky is clear and wind is mild, perfect time for the British to go to the bottom."
Admiral Neville: "They are well within range! Order our ships to fire at will!"
Monitor no. 1 fired the first shot in the engagement, a direct hit!
Admiral Neville: "Haha the first burning British ship! So far so good."
The british ships soon opened fire, two shells hit the flagship, the Ironclad no. 1.
Seaman B: "We're bloody hit! God they are firing sooo many shells flying to us!"
Admiral Neville: "You think I'm blind? Just fire back! So far those are just scratching our paintworks."
Seaman A: "Life is hard with these many shells flying..."
Admiral Neville: "This is war, young men..."
The first engagement in the war is very bloody yet exciting, the sky is filled with smoke... with all the burning british ships it is blood red in colour, occasionally the French ships caught fire but is soon extinguished and nothing disasterous happened...
Seaman B: "60 ships are approaching!"
Admiral Neville: "What the hell? Let's see... hey you rookie, those are our own ships."
Seaman B: "Ahh! Great!"
Admiral Neville: "It looks like the british are retreating with their few surviving boats. If my arithmetic is correct we have sunk 41 of their boats."
Admiral Neville didn't went onto his bombardment mission as most of his shells are used up in the bloody engagement, about 800 brave French seaman died in the engagement. The sea is filled with burning, sinking ships, as well as drowning british seamans.
"Help!!!!!~~"
Admiral Neville: "What are they screaming about? Tell them to bloody shut up."
Seaman C: "They are screaming for pickups I guess."
Admiral Neville: "Send our clippers to pick them up, our battleships need a refit first."