Who can introduce the Battle of Trafalgar and talk about its significance? Thank you, military fans.

18051June15th, Villenave learned that Rossilli had set out to replace him. He felt it was a great shame, so he decided to rush out of Cadiz port before Rossiri arrived and go to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar to cooperate with Napoleon's military action in Italy. 10 year 10 month 17 day, Villenave indicated that she was ready to sail. Because of the wind, the fleet didn't leave until 6 am on June 19. Two and a half hours later, Nelson got the signal that the enemy had left the port from the cruiser he was monitoring on the shore. He immediately issued signals such as "full pursuit" and "enemy ship at sea".

1At dawn on October 20th, Nelson was near Gibraltar. At 7 o'clock in the morning, Villenave's fleet was found heading for the Strait of Gibraltar. Before sunset, Nelson ordered his cruiser to keep eye contact with the enemy at night. At the dawn of 65438+1October 2 1 day, when the French-Spanish joint fleet arrived at Trafalgar Sea, which is only 12 miles away from the British fleet, Nelson sent out the signal of "two lines moving forward" and "preparing for war". /kloc-the biggest naval battle in the 0/9th century-the battle of Trafalgar began.

At this time, the French-Spanish joint fleet had 33 battleships, of which 1 was the largest four-deck battleship trident at that time; Three are three-tier battleships; The remaining 29 are double-decker battleships. Besides, there are seven cruisers. Among the battleships, 18 is French and 15 is Spanish. Equipped with 2626 "side guns" and carrying 2 1.580 officers and men.

The British fleet originally had 33 battleships, six of which were ordered to guard a transport fleet bound for Malta before the war. Of the remaining 27 battleships, 7 are three-deck battleships and the remaining 20 are two-deck battleships. In addition, there are four cruisers and two auxiliary ships. There are 2 148 "side guns" with officers and men 16820.

Villenave realized that it was impossible for him to avoid wartime because of the low wind, so he sent a signal at 8 a.m. and ordered all the fleets to turn, so that the port of Cadiz could be at a disadvantage, and the destroyed ships would have only one shelter. This last-minute change of plan is really unfortunate, because it is not only like a retreat, but also enough to affect the morale of the troops. Moreover, it takes more than two hours to adjust the head like this, which leads to a mess in front.

When the joint fleet changed direction, the British fleet was divided into two columns and was at full sail. Nelson commanded the upper column and collingwood commanded the lower column. Fearing that Villenave would flee back to the port of Cadiz, Nelson didn't follow the original plan, didn't aim at the front of the enemy center, but rushed to its avant-garde center. Collingwood attacked the front of the enemy defender. Nelson also issued his famous general order: "England requires everyone to abide by their duties!" " "

At 1 1: 30 in the morning, collingwood approached the rear section of the French-Spanish joint fleet, and Villenave issued "Fire!" Orders. 1 1: 45, the French ship "Vogel" fired its first shot, aiming at collingwood's flagship "Royal". At this point, the two sides are still a quarter mile apart. At this time, the two sides seemed to speak in unison and raised their respective national flags. On the ships of Britain, France and West, drums and music were ringing, and soldiers raised their guns to salute.

So the battle began. The Battle of Trafalgar was divided into three stages: collingwood's attack, Nelson's attack, and the French failed to counterattack Dumarol.

When the Vogox fired at the Royal, the Royal kept its course unchanged and cut in between the French Vogox and the Spanish Santa Ala. The "Royal Family" shelled the port stern of the "Lord Allah" and suffered heavy losses. Then, he fired starboard artillery at the Vogox, then approached the right rear of the Lord Allah and fired at it. Collingwood soon found himself surrounded by enemy ships. After 40 minutes of heavy bombardment, the Royal became an uncontrollable shell and was quickly towed away by the British cruiser Eurasia. At 2: 20 pm, the Spanish ship "Santa Allah" had completely lost its combat effectiveness. 104 people were killed and 236 people were injured, and it began to surrender under the national flag. So Colonel blackwood jumped over the boat and transported Major Alpha, who was seriously injured and dying, through Eurasia.

Eight minutes after the royal family went into battle, the British ship Berry Island also cut into the enemy line from behind the Vogox. Like the Royal, it was immediately surrounded by several enemy ships. The main mast of "Peleliu Island" was blown up, and it was impossible to open a shot for a while. Even so, it nailed the flag to the back mast and continued fighting indomitable. It was only later rescued by three British ships.

A quarter of an hour after the attack on Berry Island, Mars also went into battle. In the future, the British army will cut into the enemy lines in this way at intervals, and slam the fore and aft ends of the enemy ships with side guns, so that every enemy ship will be hit by continuous concentrated fire. By the time collingwood's last warship, Prince, went into attack, it was already 3 pm. By the end of the battle, there were 15 French and Spanish warships at war with collingwood, of which 10 was captured and 1 0 was sunk. Only four ships escaped, including Spain's flagship "Prince of Austria" 1, which was carrying the dying Spanish navy general Gravella.

Twenty-five minutes after collingwood's column started fighting, Nelson's column also went into battle. Different from the former, it always maintains an irregular formation. Nelson personally took the flagship Victory and led three three-deck battleships, Timmiller and Neptune, to the avant-garde center of the joint fleet. In the afternoon 12: 24, the victorious port gun started firing. Shortly after the exchange of fire, Victory and Timiller began to turn right, and Nelson was looking for Villenave's flagship. Although all the telescopes on Victory searched for Commander Villenave's flag, they found nothing. So, "Victory" attacked "Trident", assuming that Villenave might be on the largest four-deck warship. When the Victory was heading for the Trident, it was found that there was a French double-decker warship with the commander-in-chief flag on the foremast behind the ship, that is, the Bousenthal. "Victory" braved the enemy's gunfire, and soon reached the back of the "Busenthal", and shot at the porthole of the "Busenthal" with its short gun at the bow (68 pounds) and the artillery on the side, causing great damage to it. When the British ships Neptune and Conqueror approached the Busenthal, Victory turned to the right and stood side by side with the French ship Awe.

"Victory" and "Awe" were immediately entangled, and both crew members were ready to jump on each other's deck, but the French attempt was stopped by the British fire, causing many casualties. Almost an hour passed, and the two ships were still twisted together. When Nelson and Captain Hardy were walking on the back deck, a bullet was fired from the mast of the Awe. The bullet hit the epaulettes of his left shoulder, penetrated his chest and landed on his spine. He threw himself on the deck, but when he stood up, he said, "They finally solved me. Hard-working ... my back bone has been shot through. " He was carried into the cabin. At 4: 30 pm, Nelson said, "I am very satisfied." He kissed Captain Hardy: "Thank God, I finally did my duty." Then the heart stopped beating.

When victory was at war with awe, the British ship Timmiller sailed forward, fired at the trident, and then fired at awe. Soon after, after the battle with the British ship Berry Island, the French ship Vogel turned to help the Awe, but was caught by the British ship Timmiller.

The British Neptune first fired at the French Busenthal, and then attacked the Trident. An hour and a half later, Trident's crew killed 245 people and injured 173 people, so this huge four-deck warship began to lower its flag and surrender. Regarding the scene on this ship, Badcock, a crew member of the British "Neptune", said, "I set foot on this big ship to catch prisoners. The number of casualties is between 300 and 400, and there are flesh and blood everywhere. The back deck was crowded with wounded soldiers, some without feet and some without hands. "

The British ship "Britain" followed closely, followed by "Giant" and "Conqueror". After the two ships attacked the Busenthal, at 2: 05 pm, Villenave finally couldn't hold on, ordered the Busenthal to surrender, and Villenave became a prisoner of the British. The tragic situation on the ship was recorded by the British captain on the conqueror: "There are dead bodies everywhere, and the scene is very miserable. The total number of casualties exceeded 400, and most of the bodies had no heads. "

The victory began 40 minutes later, the British ship Ajax began to fight, and the Agamemnon was even later. "Africa" and "Olian" rushed into battle after losing contact with the fleet. When Villenave lowered the flag and surrendered, the last two ships of Nelson's column, Mirotal and Spart, had not yet taken part in the battle.

The final stage of the Trafalgar naval battle was the counterattack of the allied general Duma Rolle, which was barely named.

Dumarol's detachment is the vanguard of the allied fleet. When Nelson entered the Allied Forces Center at 12: 30 pm, Villenave issued a general order that all ships that had not yet participated in the battle should automatically participate in the battle. Dumarol did not respond to Villeneuve's orders, and Villeneuve also ignored him. Half an hour later, Dumarol still sailed north, causing the gap between the avant-garde and the central government. At this time, he still didn't know how to give full play to his initiative, but asked for orders. It was not until 1: 50 p.m. that Villenave ordered Dumarol to come to support the central region, which was being strongly oppressed. However, the wind is very weak and it is very difficult to change course. When Dumarol finally turned to the south, Villenave had fallen. However, Dumarol made a final counterattack. He divided the 10 warship into two parts and went into battle successively. As a result, four of the first five warships were forced to surrender to the British ship, and the rest 1 fled to Cadiz. Of the second batch of five warships, 1 was forced to surrender, and the other four fled south, including Dumarol's flagship "Terrorist".

As the end of the naval battle, at 3: 30 in the afternoon, after the naval battle had been going on for more than two hours, the vanguard of the joint fleet led by Major General Dumanos returned to the battlefield, but on the way back, his two warships actually collided and quit the battle. Facing the embattled British fleet, the counterattack failed in only 20 minutes. The Victory volleyed at the joint fleet that turned around and fled to show off, and Nelson died in the gunfire.

Evaluation: Trafalgar naval battle is a beautiful annihilation battle in the history of sailing naval battle and the largest naval battle in19th century. In this naval battle, Nelson dared to break through the old battle sequence theory and use flexible tactics to make the joint fleet of France and Spain lose ground. Nelson's extraordinary courage and superb command art made him a great star and made him go down in history. The British people are deeply proud of him. His enemy Napoleon admired him, too. When he heard the news of Nelson's death, Napoleon immediately ordered Nelson's portrait to be hung on every French warship to commemorate him and serve as an example for the French army to learn. From an example, this also reflects Napoleon's commander-in-chief temperament and general demeanor. Shortly thereafter, with the appearance of steam-powered warships, a new era is coming.

Fuller, a British military theorist, commented in "Military History of the Western World": "The Battle of Trafalgar is a memorable battle in any respect, which has had a wide impact on history. Thoroughly shattered Napoleon's dream of conquering England. The century-old naval battle between Britain and France came to an end. It gave Britain a maritime empire, which lasted for more than a century.