For the French, chickens are cute and sacred animals. The French themselves call themselves Gallic roosters.
Although Qin Zhiyuan is now a French national, Qin Zhiyuan does not like chicken outside the dinner table.
Of course, when formulating the battle plan, Qin Zhiyuan didn't mind using hen as a nickname, because it was really vivid.
The hens are bombers. Since there are not enough artillery, Qin Zhiyuan hopes to have a certain number of bombers as supplementary firepower before launching an attack.
Under the auspices of Qin Zhiyuan, the Renault factory developed transport aircraft. These transport aircraft were slightly modified into bombers. Each bomber could carry eight 100-kg aerial bombs, or four 200-kg aerial bombs.
At this time, Britain and France actually had bombers, but they were basically horizontal bombers. They were limited in bomb carrying capacity and bombing accuracy, and were not widely used.
The bomber Qin Zhiyuan presided over was a standard dive bomber that could not only carry out relatively accurate dive bombing, but also perform horizontal bombing, completely destroying all bombers of this era.
Qin Zhiyuan requested 100 such bombers.
On the day he received the combat order, Qin Zhiyuan asked Old Renault to start modifying aircraft, starting with the dozen transport aircraft that Qin Zhiyuan had already obtained. As of the beginning of August, including newly produced bombers and modified bombers, Qin Zhiyuan
Zhiyuan obtained a total of 60 aircraft, meeting the minimum requirements for launching an attack.
If all these bombers are dispatched, each aircraft can carry about 20 50-kilogram aerial bombs equivalent to the power of a 155mm howitzer. One sortie is equivalent to a salvo of 1,200 155mm caliber artillery, and its killing effect
Can cover 180,000 square meters.
Well, the so-called 180,000 square meters is just a theoretical figure. In actual use, the power may not be that great. Of course, it may be greater than this.
What matters most to Qin Zhiyuan is that among these bomber pilots, there are about 80 Chinese.
These Chinese were all test pilots at the Renault factory. They mastered sufficient flying skills without wasting any effort.
To control the aircraft at this time, you don't need many complicated skills, nor do you need to graduate from college. Compared with tanks, it is not much more complicated, and the requirements for personnel are not even as high as the gunners in the tanks.
No one understands the value of pilots more deeply than Qin Zhiyuan. Therefore, Qin Zhiyuan attaches great importance to the training of pilots. As long as there is an opportunity, he will always let more people give it a try.
The results are very satisfying.
It seems that compared to Westerners, Chinese people's smaller bodies are more suitable for staying in the cockpit. Not only have many people obtained the qualification to drive bombers, but also many people have obtained the qualification to drive fighter jets, and some have even joined the aviation fleet.
Before Nivel launched the spring offensive, the British and French organized 550 aircraft. These aircraft formed 15 aviation squadrons and fought fierce battles with the Germans for air supremacy.
The results of the battle were sad. In the first five days alone, the Allies lost 131 aircraft and 105 pilots killed. In the whole of April, the British alone lost 912 pilots and scouts.
April 1917 was also known as Bloody April.
In this battle, a German named Manfred rose to fame. He shot down 21 Allied fighter planes by himself. Because he often flew a red Albatross D-type biplane fighter, he was called the Red Baron.
The Chinese pilot missed the battle in April due to the disagreement between Qin Zhiyuan and Nivele. This time, it was the first time that a Chinese pilot flew an aircraft on the European battlefield.
In early August, the artillery of the 17th Army began to bombard the German defensive positions between Tadenois and Reims, covering the line to Sassi.
Adhering to the tradition of the French army, pre-war firepower preparations lasted for three days. The battle-high artillery fired 2.5 million artillery shells, including 150,000 poison gas bombs. The total weight of these artillery shells exceeded 100,000 tons.
In the Battle of Ypres that was going on at the same time, the British army fired 4 million artillery shells, with a total weight of only 65,000 tons. From these data, we can see the brutal proportion of heavy artillery in the 17th Group Army.
For three days, the frontline infantry's only task was to stay at the starting position, drinking various white wines, red wines and beers while enjoying the fireworks show held on the German positions.
The Germans had never encountered an artillery bombardment of this scale. According to post-war statistics, at least 12,000 German troops were killed in these three days of artillery bombardment, which was almost the number of an entire full division.
The German army had never experienced such a large-scale artillery bombardment. General Oscar von Hutier was forced to withdraw the two divisions that suffered heavy casualties on the front line to the second line and replace them with new ones before the infantry of the 17th Army went into attack.
Strength prepared for the attack of the 17th Army.
The artillery bombardment commanded by Qin Zhiyuan was very distinctive, based on the terrain covering the line to Saxi.
Qin Zhiyuan ordered segmented artillery attacks.
The so-called segmented bombardment is to divide the enemy's position into different parts for bombardment. If it is a mountainous area, then poison gas bombs will be used. If it is a plain, then high-explosive bombs will be used. Bastian's troops also used indirect bombs.
shooting.
The so-called indirect shooting is to raise the muzzle of the machine gun upward and shoot at the German position in the air. In this way, after the bullet flies into the air, it will gradually drop under the action of the earth's gravity. In this process, the kinetic energy of the bullet will not be lost.
How much, if lucky, was indeed possible to hit the Germans.
However, this probability is not much higher than finding a needle in a haystack, because no one is sure whether the Germans will appear on the other side of the mountain, so this tactic is unlikely to have any vitality, and the War Department will soon stop this wasteful behavior.
After Qin Zhiyuan asked Bastian this question, Bastian's answer made Qin Zhiyuan feel incredible.
Bastian believed that even if such shooting was of little use, it could at least train the machine gunner's proficiency.
What surprised Qin Zhiyuan the most was that even Maxim agreed with Bastian's view. It seemed that this was not a sudden inspiration of one person, but a common understanding of this era.
In this case, what else can Qin Zhiyuan say?
The reason can only be attributed to the fact that the French have too many resources. It is estimated that the British are similar. With the support of colonies around the world, the French and British cannot afford to waste.
It's not just the French who are wasting their money, the Chinese are not much better either.
The Chinese today are a bit like the American soldiers during World War II. When the two armies faced each other, regardless of whether the targets on the German positions were valuable or not, the Chinese soldiers would habitually call for artillery to attack.
Well, the miniaturization of radio stations has not yet been completed, and it is not easy to call. However, there is no need to call for artillery. The front-line infantry units are equipped with a large number of mortars, which have been popularized to the company level. If a target is found
, frontline infantry can directly use mortars to attack, regardless of whether those targets are worth the money of artillery shells.
This makes Qin Zhiyuan quite worried. Now that the French pay for the Chinese ammunition, the Chinese can waste it at will. If the Chinese return to the Far East in the future and lose the backing of the Renault factory, will the Chinese still be able to fight the war and maintain the current situation?
