Posted on 03/07/2010 8:11:59 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
1. SLUYS FRANCE, 1340
The English defeat the French at the naval Battle of Sluys, June 24, 1340 The first naval battle of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). The French king, Philip VI, was preparing to invade England from Flanders, but his fleet was surprised at dawn at Sluys.
The English attacked from the east with the rising sun blinding the French crossbowmen, while illuminating their own ships perfectly for the English archers. Conservative estimates put the French losses at about 190 ships and 16-18,000 men, including both admirals.
Such was the scale of the victory that the English joked the fish were speaking French because of the number of bodies in the sea. It was one of the most crushing victories in naval history, and ensured that the rest of the war would be fought on land.
2. QUIBERON BAY FRANCE, 1759
Never was such a bold decision made as that of British admiral Sir Edward Hawke at Quiberon Bay to give chase in a rising gale as night fell. After several setbacks in the Seven Years' War (1756-63) the French had decided to risk all on an invasion of Britain.
Troops were gathered in Brittany and the French navy sent to escort them across the Channel. Hawke chased them into the rock-strewn Quiberon Bay.
There he destroyed or captured seven French ships; only two Royal Navy ships were wrecked.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
bump for later
The trouble with citing Valcour Island as an American victory is the name of the colonial commander, General Benedict Arnold.
Both ships? Must of taken 11 hours to find the second ship’s hiding place.
In that case, Saratoga must also have been a ‘loss’ for the American colonists, because Benedict Arnold was responsible for that Victory as well (yes, I know the English-Born general Horatio Gates was officially the most senior general on the American side, but BA did most of the heavy lifting in that battle before his wounds forced him to hand command over to Gates)....
Its usual :0
Anyway, this isn’t the ten greatest, its the ten best known. Jutland was a marginal at best. What about Lowestoft?
Yeah, it looks like the writer had to scrape to come up with ten “greatest”.
Which says more for the authors lack of research rather than a lack of naval actions to choose from.
He could have mentioned the 1st and 2nd battles of Narvik, which gutted the German destroyer fleet and had important repercussions for Operation Sealion.
Or the Battle of Cape Matapan where the Italians lost 3 cruisers, 2 destroyers, a Battleship heavily damaged along with thousands of sailors at cost of 3 dead.
Or The Battle of Camperdown 11 Dutch ships captured for no lost ships, or Battle of Copenhagen against the Danes 14 ships sunk or captured against no loss.....the list goes on...
Mers-el-Kébir was certainly a bigger victory than Bismark.
Umm. Not sure I’d want to include that Battle of Copenhagen. It was hardly our most glorious hour against a worthy and deserving opponent...
There are a few similar stories--the Emden in WW1 and the Graf Spee come to mind--that mostly seem to consist of the Germans sending out a single ship which causes havoc for a while, followed by the British hunting it down and sinking it.
Why ? Whatever the background, superior gunnery, strong command and good luck saw us victorious in a situation that could easily have gone the other way.
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