I Became a Tycoon During World War I - Chapter 245

Chapter 245: The Bomber Squadron

Major Immelmann hid in the clouds, never revealing his position. He watched the battlefield below with satisfaction as his first flying squadron went on a rampage against the unprepared French aircraft.

He knew these French planes were organized by Joffre.

Charles's aircraft were "Avros," and they were the true enemies to be "carefully handled." The ones below were nothing more than practice targets.

However, Major Immelmann noticed something unusual—one of the enemy planes, despite being ambushed, launched a counterattack and successfully shot down a German fighter!

Major Immelmann let out a thoughtful "hm," then pressed the nose of his aircraft down and dived towards the "Newport 10."

(Note: The tactic of using cloud cover to ambush enemy aircraft in a dive was invented by Major Immelmann, but he was eventually shot down by British planes using this very strategy.)

Soon, Major Immelmann realized this "Newport 10" was different. Its flight maneuvers were incredibly nimble, shifting left and right without any discernible pattern. A series of feints almost fooled him.

This was a skilled pilot, Major Immelmann thought to himself. I need to make sure I take him down, or he'll become a potential threat.

What Major Immelmann didn’t know was that Major Godfrey, who was being chased, was already terrified and his limbs were shaking. He had used every trick he knew, but he couldn’t shake the tail behind him.

Suddenly, the enemy plane opened fire.

Bullets flew so close to Major Godfrey’s head that he could feel the breeze from them. His aircraft was hit by several rounds in the body and tail, and splinters from the wood even struck his face, causing painful stings.

Fortunately, the bullets didn’t hit any vital parts, and Major Godfrey was still able to control the plane.

This was thanks to the years of experience Major Godfrey had accumulated. The moment the plane wobbled, he could sense something was wrong and knew whether it was still under his control.

At this point, Major Godfrey knew his plane wasn’t badly damaged. He planned to continue evading.

But then, he thought about it—there was no way the tail would give up on him. At this rate, only one outcome was possible: death.

Unless the "tail" ran out of bullets and he was still alive.

But that was impossible.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in Major Godfrey’s mind. He slightly reduced speed, and then, controlling the plane to wobble, aimed for the ground.

This was one of the tricks he often used in airshows, intended to create a dramatic moment where the plane seemed to fall to the earth, only to pull up at the last second.

This move had earned Major Godfrey many cheers and francs. Many people came specifically to witness this thrilling and exciting moment.

In his desperation, Major Godfrey resorted to this trick.

He was also taking a risk, though, because it required reducing speed. If the "tail" didn’t fall for it and continued attacking, Major Godfrey would be doomed.

Luckily, the "tail" didn’t follow. It turned and pursued other planes instead.

Major Godfrey breathed a sigh of relief, and once the "tail" flew off, he quickly accelerated, returned to a normal flight posture, and fled the battlefield.

On the other side, Major Immelmann also noticed this. He muttered to himself in frustration, "Coward, using that trick to escape. What's the difference between this and desertion?"

Major Immelmann believed this opponent was not worthy of being a soldier.

But Major Godfrey didn’t think about it so much. All he cared about was surviving and escaping this terrifying place, never to return.

In the end, only three out of the 29 planes returned to the airfield, and all three were riddled with bullet holes. One pilot had been shot in the shoulder, bleeding profusely. Even if he survived, he would have to give up his flying career.

Colonel Igg, however, still naïvely asked Major Godfrey, "Where are the others? Did you get separated from them?"

...

Once the German air forces showed their teeth, they relentlessly pursued the French Air Force.

It seemed they knew the French Air Force’s situation well. In a single day, they launched surprise attacks on three French airfields close to the front lines.

As Charles had said, these airfields were too close to the front. Most were just 10 kilometers from the front, and some were only 7 kilometers or even closer.

This made them vulnerable to German surprise attacks. Waves of planes were destroyed on the airfield or runway before they even had a chance to take off.

One of the airfields was even hit, and the fuel depot ignited in a massive fire.

The fire raged throughout the night, destroying many planes that hadn’t been able to take off, along with the fuel depot.

This also ignited the anger of the French people, who criticized Joffre:

"We should have entrusted the planes to those who know how to command them."

"This is the result of the army having control of the planes. This approach is just wasting planes and the lives of pilots!"

"Clearly, Joffrewas wrong. Now, shouldn’t he be held accountable for his mistakes?"

...

But the media, controlled by the capitalists, continued to defend Joffre:

"This might be because the Germans have surpassed us in training pilots. They’ve found an effective combat method."

"There might be another reason—Germany’s newly introduced 'Albatross B' fighter has outperformed our planes."

"It’s likely that their planes are also superior to the 'Avros' used by Charles!"

...

These statements subtly suggested: Although Joffre had suffered a defeat, given the new German planes and tactics, even Charles first flying squadron might not have won. Therefore, this was not Joffre’s fault.

Gallieni, reading these reports in the newspapers, felt the timing was right. He smiled and raised his head toward Charles: "Ready?"

"Ready for what?" Charles replied. "To send the first flying squadron to fight those German pilots? No, I’m not going to do that!"

Gallieni looked at Charles in confusion. Wasn’t this what they had planned?

Charles explained, "I have a better way to defeat them, General. They are still planes."

...

The next morning, Charles’s Caproni bomber squadron took off from Paris.

The squadron consisted of twenty aircraft, split into two squadrons of ten planes each. They flew towards the German airfields at Schmemsen and Elklay.

These airfields had been exposed during the battles between the German and Charles’s army planes. Most of the German planes and pilots were concentrated there, and Schmemsen also had a newly opened flight school with more than two hundred trainees and instructors.

Charles ordered the bombers to boldly fly towards their targets, in broad daylight with no attempt to hide.

He knew that, at this time, people didn’t expect much from bombers. They thought bombers were just planes that dropped small bombs manually, with low accuracy and little power, making it nearly impossible to cause significant damage to a target.

The Germans, seeing ten "Capronis" approaching from a distance, would assume they were just transport planes.

What they didn’t expect was that the Capronis could indeed be considered transport planes—only these "transport planes" were delivering bombs to them!

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