In the past, Britain was a country busy with colonial expansion, and in its long history of war, there were naturally many generals with outstanding military achievements, and Britain, as a country that had conquered the sea in the past, was also indispensable to the royal navy. Among these many famous admirals, the most famous admiral is Horatio Nar. The famous naval general, who is well known in Europe, was once revered as "the first great man of the navy". In the most glorious and final battle of his life, the Battle of Trafalgar, he annihilated the Combined Franco-Spanish Fleet, which Napoleon had high hopes for, and ensured British maritime supremacy.
Nelson was born in 1758 in the village of Burnham, Norfolk, England, the son of a Protestant priest and a young lady of a prestigious family. Nelson's mother died of illness when he was 9 years old, so he attended a neighboring school with his brother as a child. Nelson was weak but brave, and when he returned to school after one winter break, he encountered a snowstorm, and was forced to return home halfway by the threat of wind and snow. But his father encouraged him: "No matter how difficult it is, as long as you have the courage, you will be able to succeed." Nelson was encouraged to hear this, and without saying a word, he re-planned his way to the school on time.
At the age of 12, when Nelson learned that his uncle Maurice Sokling had become a captain of the Navy, he decided to emulate his uncle and dedicate himself to the Navy, and ran to his uncle's warship as a trainee crew member. But there was no war at the time, and the warships had to stop in port and do nothing, so Nelson, in order to increase his sailing experience, first ran to a merchant ship sailing to the West Indies as a sailor, and then went to the Arctic with a small fleet of ships. One day, the fleet was ferociously attacked by a group of sea lions in the Arctic Ocean, and a small boat was about to be overturned, and Nelson rushed to the sea lions in a boat to disperse and rescue his companions. At this time, Nelson had sailed to India with a warship, where he was seriously ill and thin enough to have only a skeleton left.
At this time it was already 1776, and the seriously ill Nelson saw that most of his contemporaries were flying yellow, but he was sick, which made him once discouraged and planned to commit suicide by throwing himself into the sea, fortunately, his sanity finally prevailed before he did not look for short-sightedness, otherwise Britain would lose a famous admiral in the future. It was also in this year that Nelson's uncle became the head of the Admiralty, and When Nelson learned of this, his mood was suddenly excited, and his illness quickly subsided, which allowed him to return to his beloved navy
The following year Nelson took the Royal Navy's examination for the selection of officers, and it was his uncle who served as chief examiner, but his uncle did not say that he was Nelson's uncle, but followed military discipline to make Nelson take the exam strictly. Nelson excelled in this exam and was officially appointed captain in the Navy and served as first mate on a cruiser. During this time Nelson gained the approval of his superiors by his abilities rather than his connections, and was promoted to captain in June 1779 as captain of the cruiser Hinchinbrook, at the age of 21.
Soon after, Nelson led his army to participate in the expedition to Honduras, during which Nelson nearly lost his life twice. The first time was when he passed out in the woods out of exhaustion, and the local natives were about to kill him, when a poisonous snake was squirming on his lap, and the natives mistakenly thought that Nelson had the blessing of the gods and fled. Nelson, who had regained his life, encountered a second dangerous situation shortly after, when he drank a few sips of water in the creek, but unexpectedly contracted a fatal tropical disease and returned to China for three months to recover. In 1784, he became captain of a battleship. Soon after, he led a ship to the Quebec area of North America to escort the smuggling.
At that time, the British soldiers regarded the North American continent as a paradise for windfall wealth, and his colleagues who used anti-smuggling profits to make a lot of money encouraged Nelson to make a big profit, but Nelson respected his reputation and did not take a single bit of ill-gotten gains, which made his colleagues begin to exclude Nelson. Fortunately, his uncle had a friend who introduced him to Prince William Henry, and Nelson's unique insight into the events of the situation won the attention of Prince William Henry, and he was relieved of the fate of exclusion. After the end of the North American Revolutionary War, Nelson anticipated that there would be another war between Britain and France, so he used his vacation to travel to France for a tour. Soon after, the French Revolution broke out, the situation in Europe became increasingly unstable, and Nelson was sent to the Mediterranean to command a cruiser to participate in the war.
On 1 February 1793, France declared war on Britain. Nelson was neutral in the landings of the two important cities of Bastia and Calvi in French Corsica, but also lost his right eye due to wounds. Who knows that when judging the merits, Nelson not only failed to be listed on the merit list, but even the list of wounded people was not included. In this regard, he did not care, but became more and more determined to establish a lifelong achievement with action. At the end of 1795, the new commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Jervis, promoted Nelson to commander of the detachment fleet. The following winter Napoleon's victory on the Italian battlefield and the resolute resistance of the Corsican people prevented the British fleet from gaining a foothold in the Mediterranean and had to withdraw to Gibraltar, where Nelson was the main organizer of the retreat, the success of which made him famous in the navy.
Nelson's Battle for Fame was fought in the waters off Cape St. Vincent in the English Channel. On 13 February 1797, when the Nelson squadron met the main force of the Jervis fleet, it found a Spanish fleet that was twice as numerous. Contrary to conventional tactics, he led his flagship directly into the middle of the two columns of the opposing fleet, dividing the enemy in two, and then concentrating on attacking the rear of the enemy. During the battle, he personally led the sailors to jump on two enemy warships in a row, and captured two enemy ships in a fierce battle. In this battle, the British Royal Navy captured 4 enemy ships and damaged 10 of them, creating an example of the British Navy winning more with less. When the news came, Nelson became a hero in the hearts of the British. In July of the same year, Nelson lost his right arm during the Tenerife landings, but boldly said, "I still have two legs and one arm!" ”
In August of the following year, in search of Napoleon's fleet for Egypt, he fought a beautiful ambush in the bay near the mouth of the Nile, in which only two of the 15 French ships escaped, and the commander of the fleet was killed, and the British king awarded him the title of baron. In July 1800, he returned home after two years as an adviser to the King of Sicily, and the government held a grand triumphal ceremony for him in the port and capital. The following year, as deputy commander of the Baltic Fleet, he skillfully commanded the Battle of Copenhagen and was awarded the Viscount's Medal.
In 1803, the short-lived Amiens Peace Treaty between England and France broke down, and Napoleon concentrated the main french navy on Toulon in preparation for an invasion of the British Isles. British Prime Minister Pete recalled Nelson, who had retired from active service, and appointed him commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, ordering him to lead an army against the French Navy. After decades of arduous conquest, Nelson's body had already contracted a serious illness, and with the loss of one eye and one arm, it was difficult to withstand the life of naval warfare. But he said: "The French ship is not destroyed, and I cannot fall."
After more than two years of chasing deer at sea, the two sides fought a decisive battle in the waters off Cape Trafalgar in 1805. In this decisive battle, the combined French and Spanish fleets had 33 warships, while the British army had only 27 warships. In the early morning of October 21, Nelson ordered his flagship Victory to fly the flag that would become famous in the future – england expects that every man will do his duty! Meaning: England expects everyone to do their duty! Nelson himself had already written a suicide note, and wearing a conspicuous naval dress, he went up to the deck to personally command the battle.
All the officers and men of the Royal Navy were encouraged by Nelson to fight, although they only had 33 warships, and the French-Spanish combined fleet had a total of 41 warships, but the british Royal Navy officers and men did not retreat in the battle. Nelson also personally led three warships, including the flagship Victory, into the center of the Franco-Spanish fleet, and severely damaged the flagship of the French-Spanish combined fleet, the Busenthauer. The rest of the British warships took advantage of the situation and completely disrupted the formation of the Combined Franco-Spanish Fleet, and the two sides launched a brutal jump gang battle.
But in this chaotic battle, Nelson was unfortunately shot, and the bullet that hit his left shoulder passed through his lungs unabated, severely injuring his pulmonary arteries and continuously injuring his spine, and finally stopping at the spine. Although the doctor went all out to rescue Nelson, it could only alleviate Nelson's injuries, Nelson himself knew that his life was imminent, and after confirming that the battle situation was clear, Nelson faced the fact that he was going to die with an almost calm attitude, but he could not rest assured of his wife and daughter. At 4:30 p.m. that day, a generation of naval admirals, Nelson, died, and the victory in the Battle of Trafalgar belonged to Britain.
In the Battle of Tralfalga, the British Royal Navy destroyed 22 enemy ships in one fell swoop, and 13,781 officers and men of the Combined Franco-Spanish Fleet were killed, the Spanish general Federico Gravina was killed, and the commander of the French fleet, Pierre Charles Vernaf, was captured. This glorious victory completely bankrupted Napoleon's plan to destroy Britain, but it was a pity that Nelson, as the founder of this victory, was unable to witness the most glorious victory he had ever won since joining the army.
After the battle, Nelson's body was brought back to England for burial in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, while the wood for the coffin came from the French flagship "Orient", which he had sunk at the Battle of the Nile. Nelson's flagship, victory, was designated as a historical relic of Britain, and has since been moored at the Royal Navy's Portsmouth Naval Base for people to pay homage to and visit. To this day, a bronze statue of Nelson still stands on top of the tall columns of Trafalgar Square, an indelible tribute to the famous naval general.
References: Modern and Contemporary World History, British History, Famous Generals in the Napoleonic Wars