I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1149: Let's see who can outlast whom.
Therefore, Britain had to do everything in its power to prevent France from occupying Egypt.

Historically, after learning of Napoleon's landing in Egypt, Britain immediately dispatched Nelson with a fleet to Egypt. In the Battle of Aboukir Gulf, Nelson destroyed 11 French battleships and killed the commander, Bruyès, cutting off Napoleon's retreat.

At present, the British fleet has 45 steam warships—only 60% of the original planned production due to insufficient supply of steam engines—which, although fewer than the 60 ships of the French Navy, is enough to protect the main battleships from attacks by French steam warships.

This allowed the British Mediterranean Fleet, with its superior number of third-class and higher battleships, to regain the ability to enter the Mediterranean.

Subsequently, if the French supply lines to Egypt were cut off, the French would have no choice but to abandon Egypt.

Britain could even use this opportunity to extend its influence there.

Of course, compared to Egypt, Gibraltar was the most important strategic core of the empire, and ensuring the supply of goods there was the top priority.

Pixar impatiently put away the Navy Department's orders, and the "Victory" beneath his feet began to slow down.

He went up to the deck and, without using binoculars, saw that the area around the Gibraltar fortress was filled with the smoke of gunpowder.

Dozens of small boats carrying British Royal Marines had already reached the shore. Hundreds more were also gathering on the hillside inside the fortress, preparing to attack the Franco-Spanish artillery positions.

Just over ten minutes later, French shells landed on the beach where they had landed.

This is a masterpiece of a 32-pound howitzer.

These long-barreled heavy guns, when fired at high angles of elevation, had a range of up to 2.5 kilometers. French artillery could threaten ships anchored in the harbor from the northwest side of the Gibraltar peninsula.

As the cannons on the Gibraltar fortress began to fire back, thousands of British soldiers, steeling themselves, charged toward the Allied artillery positions.

They were met with a volley of rifled gun fire from the surrounding skirmishers.

However, due to the threat of the fortress cannons, the French soldiers were spread out very far, so the cannons had to be moved back temporarily to avoid being caught by lucky British cavalry.

The August 1790 hunting rifle caused heavy casualties to the British troops who rushed forward rashly.

In less than 20 minutes, the British troops abandoned two or three hundred corpses and retreated in panic.

French heavy artillery then advanced and continued firing based on the positions reported by the hot air balloons.

Colonel Curtis was forced to order the second wave to launch another assault on the Allied positions.

Then, another volley of gunfire erupted from the hunters, leaving corpses strewn everywhere. They retreated, and another group took their place to continue the assault...

Finally, Colonel Curtis heard the long-awaited trombone sound behind him, a signal that all the supplies had been moved to the reverse slope of the fortress.

Without a second's delay, he immediately ordered a retreat.

In just over an hour, he lost more than 800 soldiers.

The recent supply operation delivered approximately four months' worth of food and ammunition to the Gibraltar fortress, finally allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

Once the British soldiers withdrew, the artillery of the Franco-Spanish allied forces also retreated, and began bombarding the town of Gibraltar from outside the range of the fortress cannons. Gibraltar was home to more than 8000 British people, including relatives of fortress soldiers, as well as merchants and fishermen. These were immigrants specifically sent there by the British government to consolidate its rule over Gibraltar.

Yes, Joseph knew very well that it was virtually impossible to take Gibraltar fortress by force.

Twenty years earlier, taking advantage of the American Revolutionary War tying down the British, the Franco-Spanish forces amassed tens of thousands of troops and 50 battleships to besiege Gibraltar. French designers even constructed 10 floating gun emplacements, encased in 1.8-meter-high oak armor, equipped with heavy artillery, to approach the fortress and bombard it. The fighting lasted for over three years, yet they failed to capture the fortress defended by only 5,000 British troops, and the Allied forces suffered over 5,000 casualties.

Therefore, Joseph's strategy from the beginning was to use Gibraltar to contain and weaken Britain.

Under no circumstances should soldiers be allowed to launch a direct assault.

There was no need to build any expensive floating gun emplacements. The British set these things on fire with red-hot shells, and six out of ten were burned and sunk, resulting in almost zero combat success.

Now, dragging out the remaining four floating batteries is to attract the attention of the British Navy—you'd have to send at least four battleships to keep an eye on these batteries.

As for the main attack force, it was all deployed on land.

Seventy 32-pound howitzers didn't actually cost much... well, mainly because the Spanish paid for them, so there was no need to worry about the cost.

Guided by hot air balloons, these cannons were able to accurately fire shells into the fortress. They used explosive shells with detonation fuses [Note 1].

Although the explosive power of black powder was very weak, a dozen or so shots could still take the life of a British soldier.

Do you British people dare to all cower inside the fortress to hide from cannonballs?

Then I'll have to send the Spanish suicide squad to launch a strong attack.

Based on firing 100,000 shells a year, it would take seven or eight months to exhaust all the defending troops.

Of course, the British would also send transport ships to continuously replenish their forces.

This gives the French another opportunity to attack supply convoys—just a few hundred men at a time.

The destruction of the town of Gibraltar meant that its inhabitants had to enter the fortress for food, further exacerbating the British supply burden.

Joseph wasn't in a hurry to take Gibraltar anyway. The Franco-Spanish forces could fire from a great distance with virtually no casualties—the fortress cannons could indeed reach the Allied artillery, but at a distance of more than two kilometers, the probability of directly hitting a cannon was no different from winning the lottery.

Let's just keep at it and see who suffers more.

It's important to understand that the British Army only has about 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers. Placing 10,000 men in Gibraltar is equivalent to withdrawing 15% of their mobile forces.

Pixar breathed a long sigh of relief upon receiving the report that supplies were complete.

He didn't dare waste time resting, and the next morning he ordered the fleet to head to Egypt, hoping to block the French landing fleet there and make up for all the losses of the previous day.

However, just as the mighty British Mediterranean fleet reached the vicinity of Malta, a British merchant ship from Alexandria reported to Pix that the French army had withdrawn from Egypt four days earlier, the Mamluks had been defeated, and the Ottoman Sultan had regained control of the country.

[Note 1] Shells with a round wooden base and a fuse for detonation appeared decades ago.

However, this era only had black powder, and the explosive power was very limited—usually only enough to kill enemies within a range of two or three meters—and after the shell exploded, it could not continue rolling, so its destructive power was not as good as that of a solid shot.

This led to the fact that, until the American Civil War, armies around the world preferred to use solid shot – a ricocheting shell could travel 60 meters and sometimes kill a dozen or so people.

(End of this chapter)