While maintaining pressure on France, Germany continued to gain victories on other battlefields.
In mid-May, German Romania signed the Treaty of Galeste.
In this treaty, the Germans continued the short-sighted greed they had when signing the treaty with Russia, and also brutally exploited Romania.
The Romanians were forced to lease their oil fields to Germany for 99 years. In this treaty, the Romanians received almost no benefits, so you can imagine the anger of the Romanians.
After the signing of the Treaty of Garrest, Ludendorff's next plan was finally announced. This time Ludendorff's targets became Reims and Soissons.
Unfortunately, these two places are within Qin Zhiyuan's defense range.
Ludendorff's goal was to threaten Paris and at the same time attract the French troops in Flanders to the Reims area so that Ludendorff could continue his offensive in Flanders to break the deadlock.
In order to ensure that the tactical objectives were achieved, Ludendorff made careful preparations, which took up to a month. Not only did he have to prepare artillery shells, but he also had to mobilize infantry divisions. The troops in the hands of the Bavarian prince soon increased to 50 divisions, and they would fight against foreign troops.
The front line in charge of the legion launches a powerful attack.
In the choice of target, Ludendorff made another mistake. If Ludendorff had not set the target at Reims or Sosonwa, but at Verdun, then the Germans would have been unstoppable.
The force currently responsible for defending the Verdun area is the French 7th Army. This group is a patchwork of troops. Many soldiers have not received sufficient training, and some are even composed of men over 40 years old.
Perhaps it was precisely because Qin Zhiyuan's record against the German troops was so brilliant that Ludendorff could not ignore Qin Zhiyuan, which prompted Ludendorff to regard the foreign legion led by Qin Zhiyuan as his next target.
In early June, the Germans completed all tactical preparations and the offensive was about to begin.
While the Germans were preparing for war, Qin Zhiyuan was not idle. Almost every day, military columns arrived in Reims from Paris, filled with artillery shells and food. Foch also had some plans for the German attack.
I had a hunch, so I stepped up the supply of supplies to Lance.
Throughout May, Qin Zhiyuan stockpiled 7 million artillery shells, nearly 260 tons of various foods, and more than 400,000 bottles of various drinks in Reims.
The supply of wine exceeded Qin Zhiyuan's expectations, so that Qin Zhiyuan had to send a telegram to Bruno Abel Garcia, who was in charge of allocating supplies, requesting that the wine be replaced with diesel.
Garcia has not yet realized what fuel means to the tank troops. Qin Zhiyuan's troops have stockpiled 45 tons of diesel, which may sound like a lot. In fact, if all the tanks are activated, it will only be enough for two days.
On June 10th, the Germans launched artillery bombardments on the defense lines of Laon and Chalon-Champagne almost simultaneously. Including Reims, which was silent in the middle, the width of the German offensive front reached 80 kilometers, and the Second Battle of Reims began.
The Germans have a clear goal, which is to use their usual pincer offensive to break through from both sides of Reims, and then attack Reims from both sides, opening the door to Paris and threatening the security of Paris.
When Paris felt threatened, Foch would withdraw his troops from Flanders, and Ludendorff could successfully annihilate the isolated British troops.
Unfortunately for the Germans who were about to launch an offensive, the Foreign Legion was responsible for the defense from Laon to Chalons in Champagne, which was a tough nut to crack.
Fortunately for the Germans, however, the overly optimistic 84th Brigade of the US Army, which had just arrived at the front line, was responsible for defending the Amifontein area, the focus of the German attack.
Responsible for the defense of the Champagne-Chalons area were two Senegalese divisions that were not strictly managed.
Shortly after the Germans began their artillery bombardment, the air forces of both sides began to fight in the sky.
Qin Zhiyuan has nearly a hundred fighter jets in his hands, which sounds like a lot, but in fact it is far less than the number of fighter jets owned by the Bavarian prince.
Foch discovered Qin Zhiyuan's predicament in time and sent a group of British and French fighter planes to assist in the battle.
The battle was extremely fierce, with fighter planes flying back and forth in the sky. From time to time, fighter planes disintegrated in the air, and more fighters were shot down while emitting black smoke. No matter what the situation was, it was difficult for the pilots to escape.
Bao Deshui, the biggest ace in the Chinese Air Force, also flew with the team and encountered the famous Red Baron over Reims.
There is no way, the Red Baron's plane is too conspicuous. The dazzling red color represents death to cowardly people, but for Bao Deshui, this red color represents challenge and passion.
In the past two months, the Red Baron has racked up 50 wins, and his total record now stands at 92.
This greatly stimulated the pilots of the Allied Powers. The pilots of the Allied Powers also painted the noses of their aircraft red, indicating that they would definitely shoot down the Red Baron.
During the truce, Qin Zhiyuan designed a set of tactics for the Foreign Legion's fighter jets. In each attack, two Foreign Legion aircraft were dispatched at the same time, with one responsible for attracting the attention of the enemy aircraft. When the enemy aircraft began to fight with
While the first plane was fighting at low altitude, the other one dived from a high altitude and dealt a fatal blow to the enemy plane.
This combat method that was popular in World War II was invincible in World War I. In just two months after the war began, eight ace pilots were born in the Chinese Air Force.
Bao Deshui is still the most dazzling one. Now Bao Deshui's fighter planes have achieved 37 victories, and even his wingmen have become ace pilots.
Precisely because of the threat from the Chinese Air Force, the Bavarian prince maintained a high degree of caution. He wanted to retain an air force to deal with the Chinese Air Force.
As a result, the Red Baron did not die in the Somme area.
But in the Reims area, life was not easy for the Red Baron either.
On the 10th, the Red Baron led his hunting brigade to fly over Omenancourt, preparing to expel Allied fighter planes in the area.
The Bavarian prince has enough intelligence to prove that Qin Zhiyuan's headquarters is in Blimont, which is only five kilometers away from Omenancourt.
At Omenancourt, the hunting brigade led by the Red Baron met the First Air Combat Regiment led by Bao Deshui.
There is no radar now. If pilots want to detect enemy aircraft, they can only rely on visual inspection. Compared with ordinary people, pilots' eyesight is abnormal.
Red Baron and Bao Deshui discovered each other almost at the same time. Like Red Baron, Bao Deshui also spray-painted his plane red, and not just the rear half, but the entire fuselage, including the huge wings.
Inside.
So all the fighters began to climb immediately, intending to occupy a more favorable position to launch an attack.
Unlike the Germans who fly bi-wing or tri-wing fighters, Chinese fighters are almost all single-wing. This is due to the advancement of materials and the development of more powerful engines. Qin Zhiyuan now also has an aircraft factory, and the aircraft he builds will definitely be more powerful.
Priority is given to the use of its own troops, which is not under the control of the French Army Ministry.
Monoplanes have great advantages when facing biplanes, especially after the surface of the aircraft has been optimized to minimize various bumps and convexities, minimizing the air resistance to the aircraft, and it is installed on both wings at the same time.
The machine guns have stronger firepower, more than twice that of the Germans.
From the beginning of the climb phase, the Chinese fighters have a clear advantage. They climb faster and can climb to a higher altitude in the same time. This way, when the war begins, the Chinese fighters will have a greater advantage.
This advantage was reflected on the battlefield, and the result was that German fighter planes were shot down one after another.
The Red Baron was not shot down immediately, but he was also targeted by Bao Deshui, and had to use all his strength to try to get rid of him. He was in a state of confusion.
When fighter jets are fighting in the air, low-altitude performance is very important.
The streamlined Foreign Legion fighters are actually not as good as biplane fighters in the low-altitude combat field because they are too fast and will fly over and miss the attack position if they are not careful.
This is not a hopeless solution. You can open the spoilers to increase air resistance and control the aircraft more accurately. You can also choose light cavalry tactics to run away at a touch without giving the enemy a chance to counterattack.
Bao Deshui chose light cavalry tactics.
To put it simply, light cavalry tactics are to use the faster speed of fighter planes to repeatedly harass the enemy. Just like the Mangujie of the Mongolian light cavalry, they occupy the target at high speed and carry out dive strikes on the enemy planes. If the enemy planes are destroyed, they will look for the next target.
If it is not destroyed, then quickly break away at high speed, circle around the far end and continue to dive from a dominant position.
The Foreign Legion fighters, which have better fighters and better tactics, are almost invincible with this tactic. In the past few months, the German fighters have suffered a lot, and now it is finally the Red Baron's turn.
Bao Deshui's air combat group had 48 fighter planes. In the first wave of attacks, they shot down 11 German fighter planes, two of them were shot down, and two were damaged.
Then comes the chaotic air battle. At this time, there is no need to pursue any tactical formations. It doesn't matter what method is used, as long as it can defeat the enemy planes.
After Bao Deshui discovered the Red Baron, he made a gesture with his wingman Dou Yongyi, then lowered the nose of the plane and rushed away in the direction of the Red Baron.
Dou Yongyi and Bao Deshui had been working together for more than half a year, and they understood each other's intentions and understood Bao Deshui's meaning. Therefore, seeing Bao Deshui dive, Dou Yongyi continued to climb and prepared for the second dive.
The Red Baron is a big target. At the same time as Bao Deshui dived, three fighter planes were charging towards the Red Baron's plane. No one wanted to let go of this big piece of meat.
The Red Baron's flying skills are indeed powerful. Although he was unscathed in the first wave of attacks, his good luck ended there, because soon, the wingmen also began to dive, and the main engines had already separated at high speed, preparing to seize a favorable position to continue.
dive.
The cycle goes on and on without a moment's pause until the tactical goal is achieved.
This is Bao Deshui's tactics. If they can't defeat you, they will kill you.
The members of the hunting brigade under the Red Baron discovered the commander's dangerous situation. They rushed over to support them regardless of their own safety, but to no avail. The remaining fighters of the air combat group were not idle. They were also conducting skillful two-plane formation operations. Soon
Then he shot down the hunting group's fighter planes one by one.
The hunting brigade, the devil that made pilots on the Western Front change their minds, finally became someone else's prey.
