Chapter 248 Aviation Corps
The matter of recruiting army aircraft and pilots was not what Joffre thought. He nodded and Gallieni accepted it immediately.
The fact is exactly the opposite of what he thought. Gallieni declined time and time again:
"I'm very sorry, Commander-in-Chief, we are already too exhausted to command a flying force. We really can't recruit so many more aircraft and pilots. This is beyond our capabilities."
"What's more, these aircraft are different from those used by the First Flying Group, and their hasty integration is likely to cause chaos."
"Your pilots are also trained under different systems, and their training directions and combat concepts will also conflict!"
"Yes, I'm worried that they are used to your combat mode and will not be able to integrate into the Shire's combat system."
…
The implication is that Xiafei's model of losing battles is not worthy of joining Ciel's victorious army.
How could Joffre fail to hear the irony in Gallieni's words, but since this was the decision of the parliament, he could only suppress his anger and pretend not to understand:
"No, you don't need to worry about this. I believe in Ciel's ability."
"They are actually looking forward to Ciel's command. I think this is the right decision. I had this idea a long time ago."
"The achievements of Ciel are obvious to all, and they are willing to obey Ciel's orders!"
…
But no matter what Jia Fei said, Gallieni refused to take soft and hard advice, biting him to death and refusing to accept it, which made Jia Fei very angry.
Xiafei impulsively thought that he might as well incorporate the Army Flying Corps into the infantry or disband it directly, so that Charles wouldn't get any benefits. Look at Gallieni's hypocritical "rejection"!
But reason prevented Xiafei from doing this.
The instructions given by the parliament to Xiafei were very clear: "Hand over the complete flying force to the City Defense Command, complete, not a single pilot missing."
The purpose of parliament is to satisfy the public in order to extinguish their anger. If Joffre makes small moves in full view of the public, it will only add fuel to the fire and make the public even more angry.
By then, the parliament would even have to sacrifice Xiafei!
Xiafei, who has been struggling in military affairs for a long time, understands this, and he knows that he must swallow this breath no matter what.
After much deliberation, Xiafei could only ask Clemenceau to coordinate.
At this time, Gallieni relented and accepted these army aircraft and pilots with half push and half refusal.
For unknown reasons, news of Gallieni's refusal to accept pilots leaked and reached the media.
The next day, major newspapers rushed to publish this incident on their front pages:
"Xiafei finally admitted his mistake. He agreed to integrate the army aircraft into the Paris City Defense Command, but the City Defense Command refused to accept them because they believed that the pilots in Jiafei's hands could not be called 'pilots' at all!"
"Although the final result satisfies the public, citizens without any command experience know what to do. As the commander-in-chief of France, Joffre made such an obvious decision only after paying such heavy casualties. Does this mean that Is he incompetent?"
“Are the same true for his other decisions?”
"France's taxes and soldiers' lives should not be used as chips in the hands of some people! This is a crime!"
…
Xiafei was in trouble and couldn't tell. He knew that the news was leaked by Gallieni, but there was nothing he could do about it.
All Xiafei could do was to roar in the commander-in-chief and order everyone not to bring in any newspaper, any newspaper!
From then on, for a month, Xiafei, who had the habit of reading newspapers, did not dare to touch a newspaper!
…
Shire then conducted a reorganization of the pilots.
He made a statistics and found that, including the Paris Flying Club, there were a total of 617 pilots who were experienced and capable of performing combat missions.
Charles divided these pilots into 6 aviation regiments, and organized 5 aviation groups under the aviation group, including 3 fighter groups and 2 reconnaissance aircraft groups, each with about 20 people.
These six aviation regiments have a permanent flying club to ensure Paris's air supremacy, a bomber aviation regiment is stationed at Eric Aircraft Factory, and the remaining four aviation regiments are sent to the front line and distributed at four airports to support frontline operations.
For those pilots who have flying skills and experience but are unable to perform combat missions due to injuries, age, health, etc., Charles arranges for them to serve as instructors and conduct technical and tactical training for the remaining more than a thousand students using a strict elimination system.
The airport’s layout is modern:
The airport is located in a location with convenient transportation and is equipped with engineers for road repair. The engineers are trained in targeted emergency repairs of roads and railways. This is to ensure the supply of fuel, ammunition, parts and other supplies to the airport.
The early warning force extends for thirty kilometers in several directions toward the enemy. There is a radio station in each direction, and each force has at least two telephones that keep open lines with the airport.
Each airport must send a staff officer to the infantry unit covering the front, at least one from each corps. They must also be equipped with telephones and radios if necessary.
This is to ensure coordination between infantry and aviation.
In addition, Shire stipulates several ways of air-to-ground contact and ground-to-air contact:
The aircraft can inform ground troops of some basic information through message bottles or flying different postures such as "8" and "0" shapes.
Ground troops use signal flags and signal boards to alert aircraft in the air.
Shire copied the practices of modern aviation, and some of the methods were changed and adjusted to suit local conditions.
For example, a signal board is usually a piece of white reflective board. The ground infantry puts it into a certain shape or an arrow to tell the aircraft in the air the direction and distance of the attack.
But this kind of signal board is obviously not feasible in the European winter. The vast white area below is full of snow. In this case, using a white signal board is a test of the pilot's ability to find mistakes.
The Shire changed them all to either black or bright red, with the infantrymen choosing the color depending on the situation.
In less than a week, France's new aviation corps stabilized and began to function.
The bomber brigade repeatedly attacked, and time and again according to the infantry's requirements, they blew up the German artillery positions into a sea of flames, boosting the morale of the frontline troops.
Gallieni couldn't help but be amazed when he saw Charles's arrangements. He asked Lieutenant Colonel Fernand to record every step of Charles's work in detail.
"This is what the aviation force should do!" Gallieni sighed: "Our aviation force should do the same in the future. This is simply an aviation combat manual!"
After he finished, he complained: "That guy Charles actually said that he has no experience in commanding air combat. He can easily command an entire legion in an orderly manner and with ease!"
