Chapter 989 The Navy Should Not Fight a Land War with the Army

However, the old sailing warships could not outrun the steam ships of the Austrian Navy.

Although this method was inefficient in killing, it was safe.

Even if there were a few brave British captains who wanted to fight back, they had to face the entire Austrian Imperial Navy.

So they could only be heroes for a few minutes at most, and then they had to abandon their ships to escape or sink with their ships in the depths of the sea.

Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. thought that the Austrian Navy was just lucky, but in fact there were intelligence personnel of the Austrian Navy in all the ports along the way.

The actions of the British fleet were under the surveillance of the Austrian Navy, so Edward Hobart Seymour Sr.’s fleet was attacked only a few hours after he split up his troops.

At night, the British were attacked in Valletta, the main port on the island of Malta.

At least more than fifty patrolmen were killed, but what was more deadly was the fire in the port area.

Dozens of warehouses caught fire at the same time, and the fire spread to one-third of the port. Thousands of people died in the fire, and the loss of materials could not be counted.

Old Edward Hobart Seymour could conclude that this must be the work of the Austrians, and no other organization or individual would have the need to do such a thing.

However, before he could remember to get angry, new bad news came.

The Austrians landed and were heading towards the center of the island.

Yes, it turned into a land battle in the end.

The Austrian Navy took advantage of the chaos last night to send the Austrian Army to Malta.

The British garrison on Malta was no match for these professional armies, and the medieval defensive buildings were useless in the face of modern artillery.

Compared with the Austrian Army, which was marching towards the center of the island with great fanfare, the Austrian Marines, which were divided into small teams and were almost everywhere, were more difficult to deal with.

The mission assigned to these Marines was destruction, and they attacked lone British sailors and small stations everywhere.

The British Empire could not lose Malta, so Old Edward Hobart Seymour's response was to send his own army to annihilate the enemy who landed on the island.

Then the navy patrol was sent to prevent Austria from sending reinforcements to Malta, and at the same time, the Austrians were completely trapped on Malta.

Edward Hobart Seymour Sr.'s response was quite standard, but he overlooked a problem.

The Austrian army was closer to Malta than he thought, and there were four Austrian barracks on Sicily at that time.

Sicily was only 48.5 nautical miles away from Malta, and even an old-fashioned sailing transport only took four hours.

After Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. fought a week-long land battle with the Austrians on Malta, not only was the British Marines almost wiped out, but even the sailors suffered heavy losses.

The Austrian army on Malta was increasing, and at this time he finally understood a truth.

The navy should not fight a land battle with the army!

However, Malta was too important to the British Empire, and Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. gritted his teeth and fought the Austrians for three days hoping for a miracle.

However, the miracle did not happen. He got nothing except more casualties and more failures.

The Austrian army that landed on the island was not satisfied with occupying the center of the island, but set a new target on the British military port.

Even with the cover of warships, the defense battle of the port was very tragic.

In fact, in theory, the Austrians did not bring many cannons when they landed on the island, and they should not have the ability to attack the city.

However, the overwhelming rockets broke their fantasy. In the absence of mules and horses, they might not be able to carry hundreds of kilograms of cannons, but they could still carry more than ten kilograms of rockets.

Whether it is the ancient buildings on Malta or the wooden structure of the port, the protection against rockets is almost zero.

At this time, except for the Austrian Empire, the main purpose of rockets is to burn buildings.

So when the overwhelming rockets fell into the port, the British finally felt the despair of the Danes back then.

Even if the sea is right next to them, even if the sea water is inexhaustible, they still can't put out the fire.

Finally, after paying an extremely tragic price, Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. and the Governor of Malta, Earl Solon, made a difficult decision.

Give up Malta.

In the morning, as the last cable was cut, the New Mediterranean Fleet finally left the bloody and smoke-filled island.

However, what awaited them was not the beautiful sunrise, but the main fleet of the Austrian Navy that had been waiting for a long time.

The fleet of the Austrian Empire slowly appeared from the distant horizon, and the black and gold flag slowly rose.

Both sides knew that the time for a decisive battle had come.

The sailors of the British New Mediterranean Fleet had long wanted to vent their anger, and the soldiers of the Austrian Navy had long been tired of eating salted fish by the sea.

Because Sicily was in a famine, the army of the Austrian Empire could only eat dry food.

Dry food and canned food are good for the army, but in the eyes of the navy, even dogs would not eat them.

In particular, there are a large number of nobles from the Italian region in the Austrian Navy. They are very picky about food, and the British on the opposite side are undoubtedly the culprits of everything.

This was the first time that Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. saw the full picture of the Austrian Imperial Navy. The number and quality of the enemy's warships were far beyond his imagination.

The number of warships alone was twice what was reported in the intelligence, not to mention that more than half of them were steam-powered giant ships, and there were even ironclad ships that were still in the experimental stage.

At this time, the ironclad ships designed by the Austrian Empire were still very simple and primitive, but their protection was no longer comparable to that of old warships.

Friedrich's flagship, the Prince Eugen, was fully equipped with the latest steel cannons, and its firepower only required two close-range salvos to destroy a British warship.

The damage caused by the British warships to it was almost negligible, and neither shrapnel nor solid bullets could penetrate its heavy armor.

At this time, Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. thought of a way, which was to directly attack the paddle wheel of the "Prince Eugen".

The biggest weakness of steam warships is the paddle wheel, so it has never received enough attention.

However, the British gunners did not find the Austrian paddle wheels.

After six hours of continuous fierce fighting, Edward Hobart Seymour finally gave the order to retreat.

But Friedrich obviously did not want to let them go, and led the Austrian Imperial Navy to chase them.

Edward Hobart Seymour was in an unprecedented dilemma, unable to fight and unable to escape.

Unless he could run to Gibraltar in one breath, the New Mediterranean Fleet would definitely be wiped out under the pursuit.

Now Edward Hobart Seymour could only hope for a miracle.

At this time, the lookout suddenly shouted, and another fleet appeared on the distant horizon.

"It's the French Grand Orient Fleet! We are saved!"

Even Edward Hobart Seymour shed excited tears and hugged his subordinates.

"Thank God."

For the first time, he believed that God existed.

On the other side, Friedrich saw the flag of the French Grand Orient Fleet and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"They are finally here!"