Wild North America 1846

Chapter 816 Skimming the battlefield
July 1916

Western Front Battlefield Verdun

early morning
A biplane roared over the battlefield. Looking down from an altitude of several hundred meters, the vast plains of northeastern France were divided by more than ten clear trenches, which were as ugly as stretch marks on a pregnant woman.

The sound of artillery rumbled, accompanied by the flash of artillery fire, and countless artillery shells exploded on the battle line. This was another bloody and cruel morning on the battlefield of Verdun.

The pilot wore a leather flying hat, a sheepskin and mink-lined flight jacket that could block the cold wind, and large goggles on his face. He flew the biplane steadily over the battle line, looking down from time to time... …

His expression was stern, and he was clearly Richard, who had traveled across Europe. He was currently surveying the entire battlefield from the most realistic and intuitive perspective.

Looking at it from Richard’s perspective

The Verdun Fortress, located on the Meuse Heights, is an obvious protrusion. As the main offensive point of the German army, it is the main transportation artery to Paris. It is known as the "Key to Paris".

General Falkenhayn, commander of the German High Command, believed that strengthening the attack here and forcing the French army to invest all its forces in defense could make France "bleed to the last drop of blood."

From the beginning of November

The German High Command used the convenient domestic railway transportation to mobilize troops on a large scale and secretly prepare for the Battle of Verdun.

The Fifth Army commanded by the German Crown Prince Wilhelm was the main force in the attack on Verdun. Its highest strength reached 50 divisions, accounting for about half of the German army's strength on the western front.

While secretly mobilizing troops in the direction of Verdun, Germany blatantly increased its troops to Champagne and made a gesture of launching an offensive in Champagne.

Marshal Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French army, was indeed fooled. He believed that the German army would attack Champagne and then march to Paris from here, so a large number of French troops gathered here.

In February 1916, the German Crown Prince Wilhelm personally led the 2 German troops of the 5th Army under his command. After nine hours of artillery preparations and millions of artillery shells, they launched a crazy attack on Verdun.

At this time, there were less than 10 French defenders in Verdun. When faced with the frantic German attack, the French soldiers who held their position showed a strong will and vowed to live and die with the position.

in a few areas

The defending French army faced an attack with 5 times or more of the German army. In the face of the tide of enemies, the French soldiers fought fearlessly, holding their position with Hotchkes heavy machine guns and rifles in their hands until all blood was shed. .

In this powerful dialogue
The French army showed iron will and great spirit of sacrifice to defend the Verdun front.

After being fiercely attacked by the Germans for three consecutive days, they were only pushed back 1 kilometer, basically holding most of the front.

It was precisely because the French army refused to retreat on the front line that it left ample time for the French commander-in-chief, Marshal Joffre, who woke up in time to continuously send troops and reinforcements to the Verdun front line through more than 4000 trucks.

The French Third Army, which had 11 divisions, arrived quickly and finally stabilized the Verdun front, launching a bloody trench battle with the Germans.

Richard flew the biplane to the German side, where the German artillery raised a dozen observation balloons to correct the target for artillery bombardment.

He drove a biplane and approached the German observation balloon as if he were in no man's land. He could clearly see the panic look of the German artillery observer on the observation balloon. He pulled out the pistol from his waist and fired at the aircraft.

on the ground
There were also many German soldiers who raised their rifles and shot at the biplanes.

Richard controlled the plane in a light circle and dodged most of the bullets, posing no threat at all.

After several consecutive circles, the biplane quickly approached the outermost artillery observation balloon.

When the distance between the two parties was only more than 10 meters, Richard suddenly picked up a large revolver from the cabin, pointed it at the observation balloon and opened fire.

"Bang, bang..." Two crisp sounds.

Two large-caliber incendiary bombs loaded in the revolver hit the observation balloon, and then the observation balloon exploded. In an instant, half of the aircraft was included in the fireball.

In less than 0.1 seconds, the biplane rushed out of the huge fireball and flew high into the distant sky.

At this time, the German artillery position was filled with screams. An observation balloon on the edge burned with huge flames and fell from the sky.

Some of the more than 10 other observation balloons began to deflate in preparation for descent, while some balloon observers took out their pistols and fired randomly in the air.

Richard flew the biplane with a few light floating movements, then made a sudden U-turn after reaching deep into the sky, and dived down again.

This undoubtedly made the German artillery positions more chaotic. Many German soldiers rushed out of their positions and raised their rifles to shoot at air targets.

The plane controlled by Richard circled again, selecting the observation balloon on the other side of the perimeter as the target, and quickly approached after passing by.

When the distance was only a dozen meters away, he raised his revolver again and fired three white phosphorus incendiary bombs with "bang bang bang", and in a blink of an eye he ignited the observation balloon.

The two observation balloons exploded and burned in the sky. This dazzling sight was clearly visible to German and French soldiers within a dozen kilometers.

The soldiers on the French front cheered and their morale was boosted.

The soldiers on the German front were wailing and feeling depressed.

After Richard blew up the two observation balloons, he lifted up the biplane and left the area. The incendiary bombs in his revolver had been used up.

During the second dive, Richard could clearly feel the "bang bang" sound in the cockpit several times. He should have been hit by a stray bullet.

Although these stray bullets that lost kinetic energy did not have much impact on the aircraft, there was no need to continue to stay.

Rifle bullets are still quite lethal in air-to-air shooting at a distance of more than [-] meters.

Fortunately, his plane was a special biplane. The entire cockpit was made of bathtub-shaped aluminum. The bottom was 15 mm thick, and the outside was wrapped with a 5 mm steel plate, which could protect against most stray bullets.The Albatross biplane produced by the Tang Empire was originally a two-person aircraft, but was modified into a single-person aircraft. The additional weight of more than 210 pounds was all used to strengthen the pilot's defense.

Pulling the plane up again, Richard felt very happy at the moment and drove the biplane straight into the clouds.

He saw a few small black dots flying from behind the German army from a distance, so he continued to fly the plane higher, hid the plane in the clouds, and turned back.

The biplane driven by Richard did not have any suitable weapons, and the incendiary bombs had been fired, so there was no use staying here.

He didn't want to fight with the German planes. Apart from ramming each other or firing pistols at each other, current planes had no other way to fight.

The German pilots were very crazy. In desperation, they flew back and collided with each other, which eventually led to the death of both parties.

This situation has occurred more than once on the Western Front battlefield. Anyway, it is a cruel war between the white people between Germany, France and Britain, and Richard is not willing to be entangled with these mad dogs.

He flew the plane in a large circle and returned to the airport behind him.

ten minutes later

Richard had already seen the airport building nearby and was about to land the plane when he suddenly looked back as if aware.

I saw two German biplanes tracking not far behind.

"It's really haunting. It's a bit troublesome." Richard said with a frown.

He glanced at his watch. It had been 42 minutes since takeoff, and the remaining fuel in the plane could only last for about 10 minutes at most.

But this cannot be fully calculated, and a margin of two or three minutes should be left.

In other words, it must land within 8 minutes.

Richard can now fly the plane to land, and the two German planes behind him have no effective way to stop him.

Either throw a grenade from the aircraft or fire a gun, but the German aircraft will face the ground defense heavy machine gun fire, which is more dangerous.

"Forget it, let's play with you two." Richard was not in a hurry to land, but began to summon the birds around the airport.

He controlled the biplane to circle over the airport, and soon passed by two German biplanes.

up in the air

Richard could clearly see the angry face of the German pilot. What was he shouting in his mouth?
Obviously, he had previously attacked the German artillery observation position, which aroused the wrath of the Germans.

A German pilot took out a revolver and fired. Richard immediately steered the plane to the left to avoid it and put some distance between him and the German plane.

In fact, it's okay if they don't pull apart. The two sides are about 300 meters apart and are flying at high speed.

The bullets fired by the German pistols posed almost no threat at all. At most, they could only vent the anger in their hearts.

The three planes circling over the airport attracted the attention of many people.

Xu Jinxun stood next to the building by the woods, his nervous hands and feet were cold, staring intently at the fighter planes circling in the sky, screaming in his heart, "Land quickly, land quickly."

Han Huachen and Ma Fengtu beside him also turned pale, staring nervously at the plane in the sky but unable to do anything.

just then

A flock of birds flew in the woods and in the distance, flying towards the airport runway with a roar.

Richard piloted the plane in a beautiful circle and dive before landing towards the runway.

And this direction is exactly the direction that the flock of birds is facing.

The other two German planes obviously didn't want to let go easily, and the plane chasing Richard also began to enter the landing route, which instantly caused people at the airport to exclaim.

The landing plane and the black flock of birds were heading towards each other. Richard quickly lowered the nose of the plane, aimed at the runway and rushed down.

The two German aircraft were in a higher position. On the German aircraft in front, the pilot had already taken out a grenade and was preparing to throw it.

His opportunity to throw a grenade was fleeting. When Richard's plane landed on the ground and its speed suddenly decreased, the German plane passed by and dropped the grenade.

The explosion of the grenade will affect the smooth landing, and even a slight overturn is a fatal hazard.

The German planes didn't need to land, so the flight path was slightly higher. All they had to do was fly over the runway and drop grenades.

The idea is good, but the reality is very cruel.

Richard drove the plane steadily into the descent route, and came face to face with a dense flock of black birds, which aimed at the German plane and slammed into it.

After only hearing a "crackling" explosion, the two German aircraft rolled and fell from the sky in the blink of an eye, hit the ground and exploded into a fireball.

Richard landed steadily on the ground and began to slide forward, facing Xu Jinxun and others running towards him, shouting excitedly with his hands open...

(End of this chapter)