Ships in the Battle of Trafalgar
Before the war, both sides formulated strategies in line with the national conditions and the war situation, and a series of preparatory work has been completed. After Britain blocked the French military port and mocked Napoleon's landing plan, and Napoleon was crowned emperor, a decisive battle was inevitable off Cape Trafalgar, Spain, on June1805+1October 2 1 day. The Battle of Trafalgar lasted for five hours, and it was roughly divided into three stages: one was collingwood's attack, the other was Nelson's attack, and the third was the failure of the French counterattack against Dumarol. Because the British army was superior in command, strategy, tactics and training, the French joint fleet suffered a decisive blow, including the capture of commander-in-chief Villeneuve and 2 1 warship. During the whole battle and storm, Britain never lost a ship. And the British commander in chief, that is, Horatio? Nelson vice admiral was also killed in the battle. After this war, the French navy lost a large number of elites and never recovered. Napoleon was also forced to give up his plan to attack Britain. At the same time, the position of British maritime hegemony was established and consolidated.
This battle was the biggest naval battle between wooden sailboats equipped with solid shells, and Britain got rid of the threat of Napoleon's invasion. Some people say that a Trafalgar and a Moscow brought down the powerful Napoleon.
Trafalgar naval battle background
In the history of the British navy, there was a great victory-the Battle of Trafalgar. The background of a war is often the most worth studying. The following is the background of the battle of Trafalgar.
Pictures of the Battle of Trafalgar.
1793 One day in June, King Louis XVI of France was executed by the First Republic of France. On this ground, Britain took measures to expel the French ambassador to Britain. In February, France declared war on Britain, and Britain immediately responded by uniting Austria, Naples, Prussia and Sardinia, thus forming an anti-French alliance. On land and at sea, the two sides fought fiercely and refused to give way to each other. In these wars, France won a series of victories on the European continent. However, because the French navy expelled a large number of old aristocratic officers in the Great Revolution, its strength was greatly weakened and it was defeated in several contests with the British navy.
1799165438+1October 9, under the leadership of Napoleon, a military coup was launched, and the incompetent governor * * * was dissolved and * * * was established. Napoleon naturally served as the first consul and mastered the military and political power of France. After Napoleon came to power in France, France defeated Austria in June 1800. Later, Russia, Turkey and other countries also successively concluded peace treaties with France, and the anti-French alliance completely disintegrated. The signing of the Amiens Peace Treaty had a purpose for both Britain and France. Among them, Britain wanted to form a new anti-French alliance, while France wanted to buy time to rebuild its navy. Obviously, the peace treaty exists in name only, but it is only an armistice treaty, and both sides have never stopped destroying it. Taking advantage of the gap between wars, Napoleon began to rebuild the French colonial empire. On the other hand, Britain refused to withdraw its troops from Malta.
1803, the anti-French alliance led by Britain and France broke out again. Napoleon planned to March into England. In order to contain the powerful British navy, Napoleon sent vice admiral Villenave to lead the Franco-Spanish joint fleet and the British navy.
Strategies of both sides in Trafalgar naval battle
Every battle must have a strategy, command the overall situation and win by surprise. As a great battle, Trafalgar naval battle also has its strategic guiding significance. The following are the strategies of both sides in the battle of Trafalgar.
Trafalgar naval battle picture
British Nelson's strategic plan surfaced at a birthday party. 1805 On September 29th, Nelson's 47th birthday, he hosted a banquet for all the captains, and announced and explained his long-considered battle plan. Specifically, the whole fleet is divided into two teams, and the other team is used as a reserve. One of the teams rushed to the center of the enemy fleet under its own command, cutting off its front and back contact and disrupting the enemy formation, making its head and tail unable to correspond; The other team, led by collingwood, attacked enemy defenders. The task of the reserve team is to attack the enemy flagship in one fell swoop, disrupt its command organs, leave the enemy ships in a state of complete chaos, and finally annihilate the divided enemy ships.
At the same time, he gave great confidence to the captain's attack mode, and only asked them to give full play to the spirit of courage, enterprising and not afraid of sacrifice. This strategy has been well received by the captains, who are extremely excited and think that such a novel, special and simple strategy will be successful. In addition, they called this tactic "Nelson's secret". 10 year 10 On September 9, Nelson officially issued the operational instructions.
However, the background of Villeneuve's strategic plan is not optimistic. At that time, Villenave found that his situation was unprecedented. His till was empty and food and supplies were scarce. To make matters worse, French and Spanish officers and men often quarrel. At this point, Napoleon had given up the invasion of Britain, and he gave "poor" Villenave a new instruction, that is, starting from Cadiz in Naples, Italy, to complete the containment movement and then return to Toulon to destroy the fleet. But because he lost confidence in Vilnav, he replaced Vilnav with Admiral Rossili.
65438+1 October1,Villenave began to make final preparations. It is expected that/kloc-0 will go to sea on June 7, 0, but due to the sudden change of wind direction, it stayed for 10 days. At a combat meeting on October 8th, 65438/KLOC-0, Villenave accurately predicted Nelson's tactics: cutting off the front and rear links of Faxi Fleet, encircling the rear areas and attacking them one by one. However, Villenave can't come up with feasible countermeasures. He can only be forced to order that if the French-Spanish joint fleet has the upper hand, it will approach the enemy and fight one-on-one.
It can be seen from the strategies of both sides in Trafalgar naval battle that this war will surely go down in history.
Evaluation of Trafalgar naval battle
The evaluation of Trafalgar naval battle mainly comes from its influence on later generations.
Trafalgar naval confrontation map
Trafalgar naval battle is a war of annihilation in the history of world navigation and the largest naval battle in19th century. Its beauty lies in the commanding art of General Nelson.
In the Battle of Trafalgar, British general Nelson abandoned the traditional concept of naval battle, broke through the old theory of battle sequence, and used flexible tactics at sea to defeat the joint navy of France and Spain in one fell swoop. General Nelson's tactical theory showed his superb command art, and in addition to this battle, he finally became a celebrity in history. The British people are all proud of General Nelson. Even his enemy Napoleon had great respect for Nelson. When the news of Nelson's death reached France, Napoleon ordered the French army to hang Nelson's head on every ship, not only to commemorate Nelson's greatness, but also to inspire the French navy to learn from Nelson.
The battle of Trafalgar has a great influence in history. Destroyed Napoleon's elite navy that attacked Britain and completely destroyed Napoleon's dream of conquering Britain. At the same time, it also marks the end of the maritime hegemony struggle between Britain and France in recent 100 years. Britain won an absolute victory. In the next century or so, Britain became an empire that would never dominate the ocean.
The evaluation of Trafalgar naval battle is not only a battle, but also an epoch-making symbol. Napoleon's ocean dream was completely shattered, which prompted his ambition to move eastward and changed the historical track after 19 century.