Chapter 239 A Subject
The military organization usually follows these principles:
Due to poor communication equipment and insufficient command capabilities, the military branches should be separated as much as possible. This can reduce command pressure and avoid confusion.
On the contrary, if the communication equipment is good and the command level is high, the various arms can be mixed and commanded in a unified manner.
The latter is the concept of a "combined battalion". A modern battalion is composed of infantry, artillery, armored forces and even aviation. The various arms can work closely together and form a strong combat capability.
But this can only be achieved on the basis of modern communication equipment and high command level. Otherwise, not only will it be impossible to form combat effectiveness but it will also fall into chaos.
The most typical example is the Russians in the early days of World War II, who dispersed tanks, artillery, and aircraft among the infantry for use.
This approach is very advanced in concept and the idea is very good: any division has tanks, artillery and even air force, it has everything, so of course its combat effectiveness is strong.
But the reality was... they were in chaos under the German attack. Each branch of the army didn't know what to do or how to do it. They fought around like headless flies and were eventually defeated one by one by the German army and even surrounded and annihilated.
Charles wanted to incorporate the army aircraft and unify their command for this reason.
During World War I, communication equipment was extremely backward, radio stations were not popular, and even telephones were unreliable. If the infantry and air force were forcibly combined, it would be a nightmare for the air force.
They should be independent, form unified tactics under unified training, and cooperate with other arms in an orderly manner under unified command, so that they can play a role on the battlefield.
But then, problems arose.
Gallieni sat in his chair and replied helplessly: "It's useless for you to convince me, Colonel. You should convince the French commander-in-chief. I can only command two armies, and other than that I only have the right to make suggestions... I can submit your idea as a suggestion to the general headquarters, but don't think about it, you know what the result will be."
"Yes, General," Charles replied.
Needless to say, Joffre would never cooperate with Charles and easily hand over the troops to Charles' command.
Seeing Gallieni's indifferent expression, Charles was a little angry: "General, if we can't recruit the army planes in time, they may be defeated one by one by the Germans!"
Gallieni spread his hands. "You are the captain of the flight group, Colonel. You are the one who came up with this idea. I am not sure which one is right."
Lies, you just agreed to it.
Lieutenant Colonel Fernan, who had been listening nearby, interrupted: "If we cannot obtain the commander-in-chief's direct consent, can we go through Parliament..."
Gallieni shook his head and rejected the plan.
Although Charles has achieved some results through his efforts during this period, it is still far from enough when facing the alliance of Schneider and the entire right wing.
The two right-wing factions occupy more than 200 seats out of more than 500 seats. They may not be able to compete with the left, but as long as they unite with any left-wing group, they can occupy the "majority".
Ciel knew this, and so he was not considering the Council, at least not yet.
Then, perhaps the only thing that can work is... Charles turned his gaze to Kobdo who was concentrating on writing something at his desk.
Gallieni and Fernando also understood, and their eyes turned to Kobdo at the same time.
At that time, Kobdo was troubled by the "Christmas Truce" incident, which was originally a good news topic. He had already written a bunch of articles and even roughly sorted them out.
But at this time the commander-in-chief issued an order of "media control": all media must not report the "truce" incident, otherwise they will be charged with "endangering national security."
(Note: The media blackout on the Christmas Truce was not limited to France. Media in the UK, US and other countries were also blacked out. It was not until six days later that the New York Times broke through the blackout and reported on it, followed by the UK.)
So, what should be reported during this time?
Christmas food and joy?
There seems to be none of these on the front line, which only stimulates the soldiers' hearts that are already on the verge of collapse!
Fight bravely?
They were already sick of war, this seemed out of place!
Maybe we can popularize some knowledge about 37mm guns...
At this time, Kobdo felt the gazes of others. He turned to Xia Er and the others and asked in confusion, "What happened?"
"A topic, Kovdo!" Charles said with a mysterious expression: "You will be busy now!"
Very good, Kobdo thought, he needed a subject!
…
The snow is white and the whole place is covered with silver.
The airport of the 9th Army of the French 2nd Army was located in the town of Morphy, seven kilometers away from the front line.
The airport was very simple. It had only one runway and seven planes, all of which were old "Gaudron" and "Pigeon" aircraft. They were parked randomly in the corner of the airport. The roof was made of several pieces of canvas, and wooden strips were used to support the top of the planes to keep out the snow.
There is no wall around the airport. Only a few fences and barbed wires form a cordon with a sign saying "Military Area, No Entry for Unauthorized Persons" inserted.
After Kovdo arrived with two reporters, he took a lot of photos of the airport facilities with his camera. He asked the airport director, Major Langev, with emotion:
“Has this always been the case at your airport?”
Major Langevin, who was in his 50s, looked very old: "No, that's not the case, sir. Everything you see now is the result of our hard work, and it should be in its best condition now!"
"Is this the best situation now?" Kobdo expressed surprise.
Major Langev nodded:
"Of course. This place was originally a mess of mud, with many craters and even dead bodies that needed to be cleaned up."
“See that runway?”
"We built that ourselves with an engineer shovel. Now we have to shovel away the snow every day, otherwise we can't perform any tasks!"
Kobdo quickly directed the reporters to take some close-up photos of the runway. It already had obvious potholes, which was obviously a hidden danger to the aircraft taking off.
Kobdo cast a sympathetic look at Major Langev: "Is it the same in other units? I mean, other aircraft units."
"Of course!" Major Langev nodded confidently. "Most of our troops are fighting on the front lines. We are short of manpower everywhere. Of course, no one will help us build the airport. So, yes, the other aircraft units are in a similar situation. We are relatively lucky."
Then Major Langevin added: "Except the Flying Club in Paris!"
"Really?" Kobdo seized the opportunity to ask, "Why is the Paris Flying Club an exception?"
"Do you even need to ask that?" Major Langev laughed. "That's Charles's unit. Charles is different from others! He is willing to spend money on his own flying squadron. Their pilots receive at least 60 francs in allowances per month, which is three times as much as ours!"
Thank you for the reward after 15 digits, thank you very much!
(End of this chapter)
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