Chapter 180: Bombardment of Dunkirk Harbor

"Damn it! How could this happen? Are the British already so powerful? I thought even if the French navy couldn't beat the British, the difference wouldn't be this significant. How could we be completely suppressed by the British in today's battle? If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have joined the navy," Bit muttered angrily to himself.

Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a remedy for regrets. From the moment Bit chose to lead the warships into battle, he had already found himself in an unfavorable situation.

"It seems the French are in a panic. Are they trying to escape?" exclaimed an excited British commander aboard the naval vessel.

"Yeah, I see it too. Send orders to the Oxford to intercept the French flagship. The French commander must be on that ship. If we can sink that battleship, the French will fall into disarray," calmly ordered Hood in response to the sudden change in the French formation.

In the command tower of the battleship Oxford, Vice Admiral Evans was also visibly anxious, especially after receiving the urgent signals from Admiral Hood.

"Order the guns to be precise! As long as we can severely damage or sink the French battleship, it will be a great achievement, and we will win this naval battle," commanded Vice Admiral Evans urgently. This first feat of the battle was to be his.

"Fire!" Evans slammed the railings and commanded loudly.

"Fire!" With Evans' command, the flags on the British warships kept changing, and the British sailors, under the command of the flags, kept moving.

"Boom!" With a loud explosion, a 32-pound cannonball shot from the British warship Oxford directly toward the bow of the French naval battleship, hitting the left aft chord of the ship, causing a huge fireball to erupt from the vessel.

The powerful force of the British Armstrong cannons easily tore through the deck armor of the French warship. The explosion inside the ship's hull turned the compartments below into a mess, while igniting a fierce fire.

"Hurrah! We hit them!" exclaimed the British naval officers and sailors on board the Oxford as they witnessed the French warship catching fire. The continuous hits on the French warship ignited their fighting spirit.

"Order all guns to accelerate the attack. We will win this naval battle soon," commanded the officer as they watched the billowing black smoke rise from the French warship.

For the damage caused to their warship, the British were very dissatisfied, but on the other side, the deputy commander of the French Navy fleet, Bit, felt like his heart was in his throat. After all, he was on this warship, and all the attacks suffered by the ship were directly affecting him. This made Bit extremely afraid; he didn't want to end up fish food in the sea.

"Boom!" Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted in the distance. The sound was so immense that even Bit, who was quite far away, felt the shock.

"What's happening? What's going on?" Feeling the intense vibration, Bit anxiously got up to check, only to find that the explosion came from his left front. It was a cruiser that had accompanied him out, now engulfed in thick smoke and already listing heavily, with sinking imminent.

"What are you waiting for? Retreat quickly! Do you want to be sunk too?" The sinking of their own warship further stimulated Bit. He became increasingly panicked, fearing he would suffer the same fate as the cruiser.

Terrified, Bit continued urging the crew to retreat. However, the British would never let a French battleship, especially the flagship of the French fleet, escape so easily.

Upon realizing that the battleship intended to flee, the British warships redoubled their efforts and pursued with full force.

"Haha! The French are trying to run away. Let's chase them and wipe them out!" The French on board the warship desperately fled, but the pursuing British were excited, shouting on their ships.

They continued bombarding the French warship, and after nearly an hour of shelling, the French battleship was heavily damaged, becoming the primary target of the British.

"Boom!" Another round of volley. Countless cannonballs fired from the British warships hit the French warship.

"Bang!" With a loud bang, the warship erupted into fierce flames.

The British bombardment happened to hit the waterline of the ship, causing a large amount of seawater to rush into the hull. The warship immediately began to tilt. Although the French sailors on board were still trying to salvage the ship, their efforts were in vain. Their strength was simply too weak to save the heavily damaged vessel.

Eventually, the warship slowly sank into the sea amidst thick smoke.

"Hurrah! Long live the Royal Navy!" The British naval officers were extremely excited to see the French warship sunk.

"Excellent, General, look! The French flagship has been sunk." At the same time, inside the command tower of the HMS London, a group of British officers cheered happily.

The main force of the French Navy has gone to besiege the British Army at Middelburg. Therefore, at this moment in Dunkirk Harbor, there are not many French naval forces left, only one battleship and three cruisers. Such a force is no match for them at all.

"Although the sinking of the French warship is a very happy thing, now is not the time to cheer. The more critical the situation, the more we need to intensify our attack. Order the ships to gather and destroy the remaining French cruiser. Then, attack the French naval port," commanded Hood.

"Yes, Marshal. Please rest assured, Marshal. Give me half an hour, and I can destroy this French cruiser," a confident British officer said nearby.

At this moment, most of the already limited French naval ships have been destroyed. Now, there is only one cruiser left, struggling on the sea surface. Its destruction is only a matter of time.

Following nearly twenty more minutes of fighting, during which the last French naval ship was also sunk and destroyed, the sea surface is now littered with the wooden debris of French warships. Countless French naval soldiers are desperately clinging to these debris for survival.

This represents the final loss of strength for the French Navy left guarding Dunkirk Harbor.

"Very well, the sea is now clear of our enemies. Now, let us savor the last feast!" On board the HMS London, Hood glanced at the debris on the sea surface, then turned his gaze to the nearby French naval port and said.

"Order all ships to approach the harbor and bombard Dunkirk naval port. I want to erase this harbor from the map with artillery fire," commanded Hood.

"Yes, Marshal."

Following Hood's orders, all British warships once again sprang into action. The gun batteries on both sides of the British warships also started their operations, clearing away the gunpowder residue from the last firing and then reloading with powder and shot.

"Fire!"

After eliminating all French naval forces, the British warships closed in on Dunkirk Harbor. Finally, less than two miles from the harbor, the British warships began to show their claws, aligning their ships sideways and pointing their guns towards the harbor.

"Boom! Boom!"

"Boom!"

Then, the British warships opened fire once again, but this time their target was not the French warships but the Dunkirk naval port.

For a moment, the sea was filled with thunderous gunfire. To the British, it was a spectacular sight. But for the French enduring the bombardment, it was nothing short of a disaster.

Accompanied by sharp whistling sounds, shells rained down from the sky, smashing into the ground with devastating force. The explosions erupted into bright orange flames, sweeping everything around them. Sturdy buildings, easily destroyed in the blasts, turned into ruins. Some of the dormitories of French naval cadets were hit by shells, ending up as rubble. Inside, cadets either perished in the explosions or were buried alive.

"Oh no, it's the British! The British are attacking!"

"Damn it, where is our navy? Why aren't they stopping them?"