Trafalgar, dear boy.
In Naval battles ships of the line would sail parallel and blow the crap out of each other, as the majority of guns were mounted broadside. If, however, your line could sail across the front of the other's line, all your guns can come to bare, while the opposition has very few guns that can fire at anything important. Its called crossing the T ('Do not cross me'). Much of our phrases and slang come from the sea and Navy, as we were, and should still be, a seafaring nation.
Of course Trafalgar, Napoleonic war, was actually proof that superior seamanship, and fire rate and accuracy, overcomes being crossed. Nelson gambled right, the Spanish and French in Bonny's fleet were unprepared. He accepted that initially the British fleet would sustain unanswered damage, but not significant enough to prevent his less numerous, but better handled ships singling out victims to despatch from battle, before moving on to another, and before the enemy could react in a co ordinated way. Thus against the accepted basic tactics of the day and for the first time, allegedly, this tactic had been accomplished to victory. Napoleon's representatives got 'T boned' by the much better prepared Brits, who proved they were masters of the seas and condemning France to isolation in Europe with the Pax Britannia, strangling her to defeat. T boned almost ranks with the V sign to a Frenchman.
Move on to WW1 and its clear the Brits then forgot that gunnery is the winning element, as despite completely out manoeuvring the German fleet at Jutland, crossing their T twice, German gunnery was far better. So we lost, save that the German's had such a fright, they never came out again, allowing us Brits to claim victory with ships clearly defective in armour and isolation design. The Pax Britannia continued. But we were 'T boned' by our own inefficiency. That we were lucky the German fleet did not press home an attack in WW1 is somewhat proved by the Hood. Laid down in 1916. It was built to the same ideals of Admiral Fisher and was flagship and darling of the fleet. But out of date Hood succumbed very quickly to the much more capable Bismarck in a fashion very similar to Jutland, save both the penetrating shell, and the resulting magazine explosions were bigger, and tore here in half. She went down so fast that the last front broadside she fired was as the bow was sliding under at a considerable angle to the correct waterline. 3 Survivors. Around this time the batton moved to Pax America at sea. Currently they still hold this position, but new contenders are forming up.
Naval war is brutal. So is a T bone car crash, whomsoever the aggressive party was, both suffer damage. A T bone was a victory, but it is recognised as hurting all. It does, therefore describe a car collision of that type really rather well. But I despair of our education system not passing on something so fundamentally British. Its why we diminish as a nation.
