Two Hundred and Twenty Seventh New Order

After the tragedy of Le Francois, Nelson, who felt that the matter was of great importance, immediately recruited fishing boats to report all the details of the Halloween operation to Sir Parker's desk.

Sophisticated jazz saw an opportunity from this.

With the survivors of Lefrancois in hand, especially the mayor who has a rare commodity to live in, Great Britain does not need to worry about being responsible for the tragedy.

On the contrary, when he has the initiative to refute the rumors, it means that he already has enough capital to let Fort de France dance with his baton.

He immediately adjusted the war plan for the Battle of the Windward Islands, based on the Halloween operation, a new Christmas operation came into being.

Christmas, the birthday of the Lord, resurrection after death, light to all ages...

In the first step, Sir Parker connived at the rumors about the British, and fanned the flames from the sidelines, constantly aggravating the details of the night of the Le François tragedy, and turning the whole direction of the wind to the argument that "Britain presides over everything".

In the second step, after learning that the Halloween Fleet, dragging a lot of burdens, had left Grenada, he concocted a false report of Nelson's entry into St. George's Port and sent it to Fort-de-France through a Spanish businessman.

In the third step, the British main fleet was secretly split.

Under the leadership of a destroyer, four frigates formed a formation to confuse the enemy and continued to stay off the coast of Grenada. The battle formation, whose number was reduced to 17 ships but whose strength was basically intact, was freed.

Led by Jazz, they dived out of the Windward Island Chain at night and swam in the waters between Grenada and Barbados, waiting for the further fermentation of the incident.

On June 8, that is, after the declaration of "France's noble blood cannot be shed in vain", the French plan finally completely lost its cover in the eyes of the Jazz.

Mount Pele, St. George's Port, Sir drew two red circles on his own chart, thought for a while, and drew a blue circle on the mail address he left for the French in the waters west of Grenada.

The Halloween Fleet is the target of the French, and the slave army fleeing into the mountains is the fog. The United Fleet will be divided into two, one going north and one going south.

The Jazz have no way of guessing how they will split.

But the Halloween Fleet has a bad reputation, and there is also a Tier 4 frigate equipped with heavy artillery. To be on the safe side, the French must respond with battle.

Therefore, the French line of battle will go south to Grenada. As for whether the entire battle line goes south collectively or is divided into two, it is not important to the Jazz.

The purpose of this deception is to separate the United Fleet and weaken their strength, so that Jazz can open up the battlefield in the selected sea area and have an absolute advantage on the battlefield.

This battlefield...

Jazz drew a heavy circle off the northern coast of Martinique.

There is a war motto in the East called doing the opposite, Jazz once saw it in a travel book.

The learned adventurer's translation of this is "Don't let people guess your thoughts, implement your rule where the other party thinks they have control".

There happens to be a similar saying in the West, which is called hiding a leaf, and the woods are the safest place.

Martinique is an overseas province of the Kingdom of France. Compared to other colonies in the Caribbean, they have absolute dominance over it.

However, due to the activity of the Halloween fleet, there was a gap in this dominance temporarily.

Northeast of Martinique, the destruction of the Atlantic Defense Fleet caused the military to lose its minions, and the escape of the slave army to the north affected the fishermen in the northern ports. The sea there is now almost a vacuum, but in the eyes of the French, It was still their back garden, and indeed it was their back garden.

The United Fleet going north will undoubtedly choose this route, because in their hearts, this route is comfortable and comfortable, and they don't even need to arrange scouts to work hard to guard the itinerary of the army.

Godsend!

The Parker fleet was in action earlier than the French. number seven

They headed north from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and then cut out the mid-ridge route, and in the middle of the night of June 11, they rushed to form before the United Fleet passed, and stuck the throat of the route.

Seven hours later, the French Revenge Fleet, led by the Fury, occupied Grenada.

29 hours later, Jazz received his award, led by the Glory, the main force of the combined fleet with a total of 20 ships and no defense.

The time was at noon on June 13, 1779, at 11:38, and the place was off the coast of northern Martinique. The decisive sea battle of the Battle of the Windward Islands between Britain and France officially began.

The British side had the upper hand and dispatched a total of 17 warships, including the second-tier ship Duke of Wales, the third-tier ship Endeavor, the Son of Poseidon and four fourth-tier ships, with a total of 470 battleships. The flagship HMS Duke of Wales, The commander-in-chief is Sir Peter Parker, Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy and Admiral of the New World Fleet.

The Franco-Dutch joint fleet hastily responded to the battle, with a total of 20 warships, including the third-class ship Glory, San Van Nitel and 4 fourth-class ships, with a total of 370 battleships, the flagship Glory, and the commander-in-chief of the Navy Vice Admiral, Viscount Ross Belfort, Vice Admiral of the New World Fleet.

The British had an absolute advantage in this decisive battle from the very beginning, the outer small ships outflanked and attacked, and the central battle line remained motionless.

The French were tired of coping, and a fourth-tier ship was destroyed within two hours of the battle and was forced to withdraw from the battle line.

Another hour or so, the stern of the Dutch flagship St. Van Nitero was severely damaged, and half of the deck was destroyed by the explosion of gunpowder.

Her departure from the battle declared the combined fleet's defeat.

At 3:22 in the afternoon, Viscount Belfort ordered the escort formation to attack the retreat route, and with two slightly injured fourth-class ships in the rear, the fleet slowly withdrew from the battlefield.

Sir Parker also dispersed the battle soon after and ordered the whole army to wipe out the remnants of the enemy, thus entering the end of the war.

By 7:45 pm, as the two Brig-type ships 82 kilometers east of the main battlefield disengaged, the decisive battle in the Windward Islands ended.

In this campaign, the British side used 17 ships against 20 French and Dutch ships, sank 1 ship, seriously injured 4 ships, sank 5 enemy warships of all levels, and captured 6 ships.

The captured ships included the Dutch third-tier ship St. Van Nedroux and three French fourth-tier ships. The St. Van Nedroux was in the process of being towed back to Kingston because of excessive damage. Immediately sank.

Great Britain wins!

The Battle of the Windward Islands ended with Britain's only victory. On the branch, the Halloween fleet led by Nelson destroyed the French Atlantic Defense Fleet, and on the main line, the main fleet commanded by Sir Parker defeated the United Fleet.

This means that the new order of the sea that Sir Parker pursued has been established.

In the vast Caribbean Sea and the broader Atlantic coast of North America, Great Britain dominates its sea power, especially the battle firepower of rank four or above, which accounts for almost half of the total sea power of all countries.

France continued to occupy the second place, but lost four fourth-tier ships and a large number of small ships. In terms of absolute strength, the French were no longer stronger than the Spaniards behind them.

The Spaniards, who are no longer great, no longer glorious, and no longer aggressive, still stay safely among the top three. Their power is concentrated in the Caribbean Sea, and they are almost invisible on the Atlantic coast of North America.

further back...

Portugal, Russia, Denmark, and of course the nascent America...

They more or less embody a sense of presence in the fertile New World, neither to make people forget them, nor to make people specifically remember them.

The Dutchman, who was fully prepared to restart his glory in the New World, suffered a disastrous defeat. His New World flagship became a corpse on the seabed, and he sank into the seabed with his unrealistic ambitions and dreams, and was buried in the belly of the fish.

On June 24, the Martinique garrison confirmed that its militia had killed the leader of the mob who came to rob, Lachamon, an Indian slave, during a transport of luggage. Fort-de-France announced that the battle of revenge had won a complete victory.

On June 25, the French colonial authorities sent a note to Kingston, hoping to end the protracted maritime dispute between the two countries, to be independent from the situation in North America, and to restore peace and tranquility in the Caribbean Sea.

The British colonial authorities strongly agreed with this. As a matter of sincerity, they voluntarily released the captured defense fleet admiral, Count Gervaudan, and offered to send back the Lefrançois refugees rescued during the war, including Including the Honorable Lord Mayor of Le François Sir Allende.

The world was in an uproar. _