French Trafalgar, British Waterloo (Portal Page)

In 1805, Napoleon looked across the English to the one enemy that he had remaining: Great Britian. Her army, although experenced in subduing the citizens of the territories acquired by the British, was no match for the massive French Grand Army. In any battle, Napoleon would for certinly win. But the Royal Navy, the strongest and proudest navy in the world, stood in the way. No invasion, or even threat of invasion, could proced without first of all destroying the fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Nelson.

Napoleon turned to his Spanish allies, who agreed to help assemble a massive fleet to deal with the British. Under the overall command of French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, The commbined Franco-Spanish Fleet set out from Toulon on August 5, evading the Britsh blockading fleet. Sailing to the West Indies, Villeneuve hoped to lure Nelson to the Carribean, where he would simply turn around and sail back to Europe with his 32 ships, to break the British blockade of Brest, where another fleet of 21 ships, under the command of Vice-Admiral Ganteaume was held up. Together, the two fleets, plus five ships from Captian Allemand, would total 58 ships of the line.

When Villeneuve arrived outside of Brest, the Battle of Cape Finisterre commenced on September 7, where, in opposite of our timeline, the Franco-Spanish Fleet captured two British Ships, forcing the blockading fleet of British Ships to pull out, allowing the Brest fleet to join the larger fleet.

By September 15, Nelson had returned from the West Indies, completley duped by the French. The British Fleet, with only 20 ships of the line, was completley outnumbered by the Franco-Spanish Fleet of 58, But was still devidied between the two commanders. Villeneuve decided to use this to their advantage, where he would start to engage the British Fleet, while Ganteaume would supprise the British from the North, and hopefully destroy Nelson's ships.

On November 1, Nelson finnaly engaged the Franco-Spanish Fleet under Villenuve near Cape Trafalgar, and the Battle began. The British fleet reorganized themselves into two coloumns, which were then supposed to sail in the Franco-Spanish line of battle. Admiral Villeneuve was confident this was to happen, and decided that the force under Vice-Admiral Ganteaume would attack from the north when the two coloumns were formed, and then sail straight from the North, and encircle the Britsh Fleet. The Main Fleet he knew would suffer some dammage, but Neslon would be surrounded, and the British will be crushed, he reasoned.

Although Ganteaume arrived the British Fleet earlier than planned, the French Fleet from Brest was able to destroy and captured five ships, which severly reduced the chances Neslon had possesed before.

The British still sailed to the French Fleet, but, as the British ships came up, Villeneuve ordered his ships to turn shaply, and engage the British ships as the came up. Although this resulted in a few colisions in the two fleets, in the End, Nelson had been tricked. His belief that the French and Spanish would adere to the centeries old tradition of the line of battle had made him confident of victory. A French sharpshooter, however, shot Nelson, but the Victory and eleven other British ships were able to retreat to Britian, for the loss of six of the Franco-Spanish Fleet.

The Battle of Trafalger was Napoleon's greatest victory, destroying the stronger and more proffesional Royal Navy in Battle. Now, Napoleon must decide what to do with his victory...