The assault assembled ten floating batteries, dozens of line-of-battle ships, gunboats, bomb vessels, land guns, and tens of thousands of sailors and soldiers. Spectators gathered on the Spanish heights because the allies expected Gibraltar's walls to be pulverized. Instead, the leading batteries moved too far ahead and the formation spread out, preventing the concentrated fire needed against Green's reinforced works. Heated rounds lodged inside the layered hulls until smoke and fire overcame the water system, while the Spanish land batteries ran short of powder and shot. Scale could not compensate for poor alignment, weak fire concentration, and an opponent that had already prepared the right countermeasure.
Chapter · 2:07:52-2:12:48
The grand assault loses its advantage through poor concentration
An enormous allied force cannot concentrate its floating batteries, exhausts land artillery ammunition, and discovers that buried hot shot defeats the promised fire protection.