CHAPTER 244: AFTER MODIFICATION: CHAPTER 244 AIR CORPS

Incorporating army planes and pilots is not as simple as Xia Fei thought; he nods, and Gallieni immediately accepts them.

The reality is exactly the opposite of what he imagined, as Gallieni repeatedly refuses:

"I’m very sorry, Commander-in-Chief. We are already struggling to command a flying unit and truly cannot absorb so many planes and pilots as it is beyond our capacity."

"Moreover, these planes are different from the models used by the First Flight Brigade. Hastily incorporating them may cause confusion."

"Your pilots are also trained under different systems; there will be conflicts in training directions and combat concepts!"

"Yes, I worry they are accustomed to your combat mode and cannot integrate into Shire’s combat system."

...

Implicitly, it means Xia Fei’s lost battle mode doesn’t deserve to join Shire’s victorious army.

Xia Fei could clearly hear the sarcasm in Gallieni’s words, but as it was Parliament’s decision, he had to suppress his anger and pretend not to understand:

"No, you don’t need to worry about this; I trust Shire’s abilities."

"They are actually looking forward to Shire’s command. I believe this is a correct decision; I had this thought a long time ago."

"Shire’s achievements are evident, and they are very willing to follow Shire’s orders!"

...

No matter how much Xia Fei tries to persuade him, Gallieni is unyielding and adamant in his refusal, making Xia Fei rage with indignation.

In his impulsiveness, Xia Fei thought of incorporating the Army Flying Corps into infantry or disbanding them directly. In that way, Shire would get nothing, and let’s see Gallieni pretend to "refuse" again!

But reason stopped Xia Fei from doing so.

Parliament’s instructions to Xia Fei were very clear: "Transfer the Flying Corps intact to the City Defense Command, intact, not a single pilot less."

Parliament’s goal was to satisfy the public and extinguish their anger. Any small maneuver by Xia Fei under public scrutiny would only fuel the fire and make the public even more furious.

By then, Parliament might even have to sacrifice Xia Fei!

Having been through the military and political struggles for a long time, Xia Fei understood this. He knew that he had to swallow his pride at this time.

Finally, after much thinking, Xia Fei could only ask Clemenceau for coordination.

Then Gallieni finally relented, grudgingly accepting those army planes and pilots.

For some reason, Gallieni’s refusal to accept pilots leaked out to the media.

The next day, major newspapers raced to publish this event on their front pages:

"Xia Fei finally admitted his mistake. He agreed to transfer the army planes to the Paris City Defense Command, but the Command refused to accept them as they believed the pilots under Xia Fei are not ’pilots’ at all!"

"Although the final result satisfied the public, any ordinary citizen without command experience knows what to do. Xia Fei, as France’s Commander-in-Chief, took such a long time and heavy casualties to make this obvious decision. Does this imply he is incompetent?"

"Are his other decisions made the same way?"

"France’s tax revenue and soldiers’ lives should not become someone’s bargaining chips! This is criminal!"

...

Xia Fei had no way to express his grievances. He knew Gallieni leaked the news but had no way to deal with him.

Xia Fei could only order everyone in the headquarters not to bring in any newspapers, not a single one!

For a whole month, Xia Fei, who regularly read newspapers, dared not touch a single paper!

...

Shire subsequently reorganized the pilots.

He did a statistics report, including the Paris Flying Club, tallying a total of 617 experienced pilots capable of executing combat missions.

Shire divided these pilots into six aviation regiments. Each regiment included five aviation brigades, three fighter brigades, and two reconnaissance brigades, with about 20 personnel each.

Among these six regiments, one was stationed at the Flying Club to ensure Paris’s air control, one bombing regiment situated at Eric Aircraft Factory, and the remaining four regiments sent to four airports to support front-line operations.

For pilots with flying skills and experience but unable to execute combat tasks due to injuries, age, or physical reasons, Shire arranged them as instructors, implementing a strict elimination system for training the remaining over a thousand trainees in technical and tactical proficiency.

The airport deployment then utilized a modernized approach:

Airports were located at places with convenient transportation and equipped with road construction engineers, who received specific training for hurried road and railway repairs, ensuring the supply of fuel, ammunition, and spare parts.

Warning units extended outward thirty kilometers in several directions facing the enemy, with each direction having one radio station and each unit maintaining at least two telephone lines back to the airport.

Each airport had to dispatch an advisor to the infantry cover force at the front; each army at least one, with a phone and, if needed, a radio.

This ensured coordination between infantry and aviation forces.

Additionally, Shire defined several methods for air-to-ground and ground-to-air communication:

Aircraft could use message bottles or various flying gestures such as the shapes "8" or "0" to notify ground forces of basic information.

Ground forces would use signaling flags and signal boards to give cues to aircraft in the air.

Shire implemented contemporary aviation practices, making some region-specific adjustments.

For instance, the signal boards, typically white reflective boards. Ground infantry arranged these into shapes or arrows to indicate attack direction and distance to the aircraft.

But such signal boards would be impractical in Europe’s winter, as the ground would be covered with snow, and using white signal boards would challenge the pilots’ ability to make errors.

Shire replaced them entirely with black or bright red boards, allowing infantry to choose colors based on conditions.

In just a week, France’s newly organized aviation regiment stabilized and started functioning effectively.

Bombing brigades frequently launched attacks, repeatedly transforming German artillery positions into infernos as requested by infantry, boosting the front-line troops’ morale.

Gallieni, observing Shire’s arrangements, was utterly amazed and asked Major Fernan to meticulously document each step Shire had taken.

"This is exactly what aviation troops should be doing!" Gallieni exclaimed, "In the future, our aviation troops should also follow this. This is practically an aviation combat manual!"

Then he complained, "That Shire fellow, he actually claims he has no experience commanding air battles. He can smoothly command an entire regiment orderly and efficiently!"