The naval battle of Trafalgar opposed on October 21, 1805 the Franco-Spanish fleet under the orders of Admiral Villeneuve, to the British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Nelson. Nelson was to find death there, but the brilliant tactics he had implemented earned the British a total victory despite their numerical inferiority. Two-thirds of the Franco-Spanish ships were destroyed, and Napoleon, for lack of a sufficient fleet, had to give up all hope of conquering the United Kingdom.
This victory also marks British supremacy at sea, which would remain unchallenged until the First World War.
October 21 is still celebrated across the UK as 'Trafalgar Day'.
The French Navy always wears mourning for the defeat by the black color of the uniform tie.
Context
Following the resumption of hostilities between France and the United Kingdom, on May 18, 1803, after the short-lived Peace of Amiens, Napoleon I began to assemble an army, at the camp of Boulogne, with the aim of invading the islands. Britons, and put an end to his toughest enemy.
But to allow the transport flotilla to cross the Channel, he must obtain a superiority, at least temporary, against the Royal Navy. To achieve it, he had to bring together his two main fleets, that of the Atlantic, based in Brest and that of the Mediterranean, then based in Toulon. But these two fleets are under the constant surveillance of the Royal Navy, which makes their junction difficult. In addition, other fleets can be mobilized for this action, namely the Spanish fleet, now allied with France, and the other squadrons, present on the Atlantic coast, such as that of Rochefort.
The fleet at Brest, commanded by Vice-Admiral Ganteaume, twenty-one ships of the line strong, was closely watched by Admiral William Cornwallis and his squadron, and could not sail without a fight. However, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, who commands the Mediterranean Fleet which faces the Toulon squadron, has decided to apply a very loose blockade, as he hopes to induce French Admiral Pierre deVilleneuve to put to sea, and that he will thus be able to fight. Despite the reluctance of Villeneuve, who had already experienced defeat against Nelson at Aboukir in 1798, Napoleon pushed him to sail towards the West Indies, where the Spanish fleet and that of Ganteaume, also forcing the blockade, would join him. Thanks to storms which prevented the British ships from maintaining their watch positions, Villeneuve sailed on March 29, 1805, escaped from Nelson's trap, passed the Strait of Gibraltar on April 8, and arrived in the West Indies on May 12, with eleven vessels. A Spanish fleet, nine ships strong, joined him there. With its twenty ships of the line, Villeneuve, however pressed by the officers of the French army to participate in the recapture of the islands conquered by the British, remained inactive for a month, waiting for Ganteaume, who had not even left his port. . On June 7, following the capture of a British merchant ship, he learned that Nelson and his fleet, despite the headwinds that held them back, had finally arrived in the Caribbean. Villeneuve then decided to set sail to return to Europe, which he did on June 11.
On July 9, he arrived at Cape Finisterre, but contrary winds prevented him from reentering the Bay of Biscay before the 22nd. the Frenchman's return, and on the 22nd he assembled his fleet of fifteen vessels to wait for him at Cape Finisterre. The battle that followed, on the 23rd, in which Villeneuve lost two Spanish ships, dissuaded him from continuing north. Despite the advantage of the wind, he turned around and arrived in La Coruña on August 1. Napoleon's orders awaiting him are clear:sail north, towards Brest, but nervous in front of the demonstrations of the Navy, Villeneuve decides to join Cadiz.
On the 15th, Cornwallis made the difficult decision to detach twenty of his ships to reinforce Calder against Villeneuve, which left him with only eleven to guard the Channel. But, in the meantime, with the threat of Austrian and Russian troops on the eastern borders, the three army corps of Napoleon I, without news of their fleet, left the Camp de Boulogne on August 26, and began the great march to the east that leads them to Austerlitz.
Horatio Nelson, returned to the United Kingdom after two years at sea, is in charge of commanding this new fleet. Delayed by the repairs of HMS Victory, he did not set sail until September 15 and did not rejoin his fleet until the 29th. He only placed a flotilla of frigates in front of Cadiz under the command of Captain Blackwood. His ships of the line wait, out of sight, about 50 miles away. He must detach six of them from October 2 to 15, to fetch supplies from Gibraltar; moreover, the HMS Prince of Wales left the fleet to bring Calder back to the United Kingdom, where he must answer for his lack of audacity on July 23.
Admiral Villeneuve, for his part, seems reluctant to leave Cadiz:his captains oppose it and he fears Nelson. He received orders from Admiral Decrès, commanding the French fleet, to return to the Mediterranean, but only the announcement of the arrival of his replacement, Vice-Admiral François Rosily, in Madrid on October 18, added to the intelligence report indicating six British ships in Gibraltar, decides it. On October 20, suddenly in favor of departure, he left the port after a rapid preparation of his ships, and formed in three columns, headed for the Strait of Gibraltar. That same evening, the Achille reported eighteen British ships pursuing them in the northeast. During the night, Villeneuve decides to form his fleet in a line and prepare for battle.
A famous message
Horatio Nelson devised a message intended to galvanize his men, just before the battle, he had flags hoisted the message "England expects that every man will do his duty" ("England expects everyone to do his duty") . Following the result of the battle, this sentence will remain famous in the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary.
The battle
Admiral Nelson's victory was due to a brilliant manoeuvre, consisting of a reversal of the usual battle tactics at sea. hence the term vessel of the line), and sailed towards each other. They were both slowly going upwind and crossing each other, they cannonaded each other. The two fleets usually turned around for a second pass face to face. The victory was mainly due to the number of guns available, the speed of maneuver of the crews and the coordination between the different units of the fleet.
In Trafalgar, Nelson found himself facing two heterogeneous fleets that had never sailed or fought together. Their order of battle was approximate. He then decided, finding himself in numerical inferiority, to shake up habits. Instead of orienting his fleet perpendicular to the wind, he places it downwind, which gives him a lot of speed (also making hits more difficult), and arranges his ships in two rows side by side. These two rows form a sword which pierces the Franco-Spanish fleet at right angles in the middle; it is then cut in two and unable to react. After having hit the enemy hard, Nelson's fleet turned around and returned to make a second passage in the disorganized line of the Franco-Spanish.
The consequences
The English victory is total, the French and the Spanish lose 22 ships, 4400 sailors killed or drowned, 2500 wounded and more than 7000 prisoners.
This maritime defeat will lead Napoleon Bonaparte to refocus his efforts on continental Europe.
In the longer term, this battle will contribute to the creation of a myth, the decisive naval battle saving the United Kingdom. Thus, during the First World War, the Battle of Jutland, and its mixed results, would cause great controversy, this battle between dreadnoughts being appreciated in the light of Nelson's victory.
Commemoration of the battle
One of London's most famous squares, Trafalguar Square, is named after the battle. It is adorned with a statue of Admiral Nelson.
In 2005, a series of official ceremonies commemorated the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalguar in the United Kingdom. Six days of celebrations were held at St. Paul's Cathedral, where Nelson is buried. The Queen of England attended the biggest fleet review of modern times on June 28. A fleet of British, Spanish and French ships conducted naval maneuvers on October 21 in Trafalguar Bay, near Cádiz, in the presence of many descendants of combatants from the battle.