Chapter 248 Aviation Corps
The matter of recruiting army aircraft and pilots was not what Joffre had expected. Gallieni accepted it immediately after he nodded.
The fact was exactly the opposite of what he thought. Gallieni declined again and again:
"I'm very sorry, Commander-in-Chief. We are already overwhelmed by the task of commanding a flying unit. We cannot recruit so many aircraft and pilots. This is beyond our capabilities."
"What's more, these aircraft are different from the models used by the First Flying Squadron. If we rashly recruit them, it will likely cause chaos."
"Your pilots were also trained under different systems, so there will be conflicts in their training directions and combat concepts!"
"Yes, I am worried that they are used to your combat mode and cannot integrate into the Ciel's combat system."
…
The implication was that Joffre, with his pattern of losing battles, was not worthy of joining Charles’ victorious army.
Joffre could not 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 that. I believe in Ciel's ability."
"They are actually looking forward to Ciel's command. I think this is the right decision. I have had this idea for a long time."
"Charle's achievements are obvious to all. They are willing to obey Charles' orders!"
…
But no matter how much Joffre tried to persuade him, Gallieni refused to accept the contract and Joffre was furious.
In his impulse, Joffre thought that it would be better to incorporate the army's flying unit into the infantry or disband it directly. This way, Charles would not get any benefit. Look at you, Gallieni, who is still hypocritically "refusing"!
But reason prevented Xiafei from doing so.
The parliament's instructions to Joffre were clear: "Deliver the entire flight unit to the city defense headquarters. Completely, without losing a single pilot."
The purpose of parliament was to satisfy the public in order to quench their anger. If Joffre played tricks in public, it would only add fuel to the fire and make the public even more angry.
By then, Parliament might even have to sacrifice Joffre!
Xiafei, who had been involved in military and political affairs for a long time, understood this point. He knew that he had to swallow his anger no matter what.
After much deliberation, Joffre could only ask Clemenceau to coordinate.
Only then did Gallieni give in and reluctantly accepted these army aircraft and pilots.
For some unknown reason, news of Gallieni's refusal to accept the pilot leaked to the media.
The next day, major newspapers rushed to publish this incident on the front page headlines:
"Joffre finally admitted his mistake and agreed to transfer the army aircraft to the Paris Defense Command, but the Paris Defense Command refused to accept them because they believed that the pilots in Joffre's hands could not be called 'pilots' at all!"
"Although the final result satisfied the public, citizens without any command experience knew what should be done. As the commander-in-chief of France, Joffre made this obvious decision only after paying such heavy casualties. Does this mean that he was incompetent?"
“Is the same true of his other decisions?”
"French taxes and soldiers' lives should not become bargaining chips in the hands of certain people! This is a crime!"
…
Joffre was in deep pain; he knew that it was Gallieni who leaked the news, but he could do nothing about it.
All Joffre could do was roar in the commander-in-chief's room and order everyone not to bring in any newspapers, any newspapers!
From then on, for a whole month, Xiafei, who had the habit of reading newspapers, did not dare to touch a single newspaper!
…
Charles then reorganized the pilots.
He made a statistics and found that there were 617 experienced pilots who could perform combat missions, including those from the Paris Flying Club.
Charles divided these pilots into 6 aviation regiments, each of which was divided into 5 aviation squadrons, including 3 fighter squadrons and 2 reconnaissance squadrons, with each aviation squadron having about 20 people.
Among these six air regiments, one is stationed at the flying club to ensure air superiority over Paris, one is a bomber air regiment stationed at the Eric aircraft manufacturing plant, and the remaining four are sent to the front and distributed at four airports to support front-line operations.
For those pilots who have flying skills and experience but are unable to perform combat missions due to injuries, age, physical conditions, etc., Charles arranges them to be instructors and provides technical and tactical training to the remaining more than 1,000 trainees using a strict elimination system.
The airport is deployed in a modern way:
The airport is located in a convenient location and is equipped with engineers for road repair, and the engineers are trained in road and rail repair in a targeted manner to ensure the supply of fuel, ammunition, spare parts, etc.
The early warning force extends out thirty kilometers in several directions toward the enemy, with a radio in each direction, and each unit has at least two telephones that are open to the airport.
Each airport must send a staff officer to the infantry unit that provides frontal coverage, at least one per army, and be equipped with a telephone and, if necessary, a radio.
This is to ensure the coordination between infantry and aviation.
In addition, the Shire also stipulated several ways of air-ground communication and ground-air communication:
Aircraft can inform ground troops of some basic information through message bottles or by flying in different postures such as "8" or "0" shapes.
Ground troops use signal flags and signal boards to give prompts to aircraft in the air.
Charles copied the practices of modern aviation, and made changes and adjustments to some of the methods according to local conditions.
For example, the signal board is usually a piece of white reflective board. The ground infantry puts it together 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 expanse of white below is all snow. In this situation, using a white signal board is testing the pilot's ability to find errors.
The Shire changed them all to black or bright red, and the infantry could choose the color according to the situation.
In just a week, France's newly formed air corps stabilized and began to function.
The bomber brigade attacked repeatedly, and according to the infantry's request, they bombed the German artillery positions into a sea of fire again and again, greatly boosting the morale of the front-line troops.
Gallieni was amazed at Charles' arrangements. He asked Lieutenant Colonel Fernand to record in detail every step taken by Charles.
"This is what aviation should do!" Gallieni exclaimed, "Our aviation should also do this in the future. This is simply an aviation combat manual!"
After he finished, he complained: "That guy Charles actually said that he had no experience in commanding air combat, but he could easily command an entire legion, in an orderly and effortless manner!"
(End of this chapter)
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