I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 90 Leprechaun Rocket
The flying squadron was so rudimentary that they didn't even have an operations meeting room, and meetings could only be held in Major Fisher's office.

The office was not big, but it was filled with more than a dozen pilots. Eric was one of them. His presence filled the entire office with the unpleasant smell of alcohol and sweat, causing many pilots to frown.

Ironically, Ciel was almost undetectable among them, yet was their commander.

Charles sat on the "throne" that originally belonged to Major Fuscher. He marked a point on the map and said casually: "'Big Bertha' is here, 11 kilometers east of the Wavre Fortress. Our goal is to destroy it!"

This was like a bomb that caused a commotion in the office, and soon the pilots expressed their objection:
"No, Lieutenant! We need orders from General Giss!"

"Yes, this is a war, not a joke!"

"We're going to get killed, and the one commanding us is..."

……

Although the words were not finished, everyone knew what they meant. They did not trust Charles, and even Major Fisher chose to remain silent.

Eric didn't say anything, he just looked at Charles quietly. He knew that Charles' plan would not be so simple.

Charles understood what was going on.

If it was just an ordinary reconnaissance mission, or a mission with an acceptable level of danger, they would recognize Charles' command, just as Major Fisher said: "We obey your command."

But now the mission given by Charles is to blow up "Big Belsa", which is a one-way mission in their view. Such a big thing and the lives of so many people are handed over to a child?
This is ridiculous!
Ciel ignored them and continued to draw his plan on the map:

"We are sure to be intercepted by the Germans, who will try to crash your plane!"

"Avoid them, attract their attention, lead them here..."

Charles drew a circle in pencil at another location, just like circling a key point in a homework book.

"There is an enemy observation balloon here. Blow it up. Its fire will attract everyone's attention, and then..."

Major Fisher couldn't help but interrupt Charles: "Wait, sir, how can we blow up the enemy's observation balloon?"

It was almost impossible to blow up observation balloons during this period, especially with airplanes. Although observation balloons were large targets, no weapon could deal with them.

Someone immediately started to mock in a low voice:

"He thought he could just aim his rifle at the balloon and pull the trigger to pop it like a normal balloon!"

"We might even hear the balloon pop, 'pop'!"

The others laughed quietly. Although they did not dare to be too presumptuous in front of Charles, the "boss", their words and laughter were full of disdain for Charles.

Eric rolled his eyes and crossed his legs. These fools thought that the savior of Paris who could invent tanks and tricycles to defeat the Germans would be so simple? Charles would give them a hard slap and teach them what wisdom is!
Fescher looked at the Royal Crown Medal on Charles' chest. He thought he couldn't treat a man who had made special contributions to Belgium in this way, so he patiently explained:
"Sir, balloons are not that easy to deal with!"

"It has many compartments in the middle, just like the watertight compartments of a ship. Rifle bullets and even machine gun bullets can't pose a threat to them!"

Someone added:
"The bullet only made a hole in the balloon, causing it to partially leak air. It can even come down to fill the hole after completing its mission, that's all!" "Yes, it will be repaired within a few hours and will be back in the air!"

Without even raising his eyes, Charles continued to stare at the map and asked softly, "So, where's the Congreve rocket?"

The room fell silent in an instant, and everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

Eric laughed loudly and scolded the Belgian soldiers without any hesitation: "You idiots, you only think about bullets and shells, and forget about Congreve rockets. You even just received the rockets, but you didn't even think about it!"

Fisher looked embarrassed. Eric was talking about him. He had just received a batch of rockets and put them in the warehouse. At that time, he thought, what use are these primitive weapons? They should have been eliminated fifty years ago!

However, he just didn't connect it to attacking the balloons!
After thinking for a while, Fisher nodded:
"This might work. I mean, there's a good chance that this will work!"

"We all know that balloons are filled with hydrogen. Once they encounter a rocket..."

"God, it's going to turn into a ball of fire in an instant!"

The more Fisher talked about it, the more he felt that this was a genius idea and it would definitely succeed!
But some people raised questions:

“How can we get the rocket onto the plane and launch it?”

"The rocket will most likely not be able to penetrate the balloon's flexible outer layer, and it may even be ricocheted off in other directions!"

……

Charles gave the answers one by one:

“It’s easy to bring onto the plane, we just need to attach it to the vertical struts between the wings!”

"It's not that hard to penetrate the outer layer of the balloon. All you need to do is fix a blade to the tip of the rocket so that it can cut through the outer layer of the balloon instead of being bounced off!"

Eric laughed triumphantly again. He raised his head and scanned the whole audience with a disdainful look, and cursed without hesitation: "A bunch of idiots, let me show you the wisdom of France!"

Although the Belgian pilots were ashamed of being scolded, their eyes were still full of excitement. After all, they were fighting for Belgium, and no one would refuse victory.

What's more, this was the first time in human history that a balloon was blown up from a plane... This battle might even go down in history, and they would undoubtedly become heroes and go down in history!

Thinking of this, the pilots' eyes suddenly changed when they looked at Charles, full of surprise and admiration. They couldn't believe that the child in front of them could think of such a good idea, and he used equipment that had been forgotten in the warehouse and was about to be completely eliminated.

Charles still sat at his desk calmly. He didn't think this was anything to brag about.

This was not his idea. Two years later, a French Air Force lieutenant Le Prier came up with this idea using the same method: adding a sharp blade to the tip of the rocket, fixing the rocket on the vertical strut between the two wings of a biplane, and then... Between 1916 and 1918, hundreds of reconnaissance balloons were destroyed.

It was not until the emergence of machine gun incendiary bullets that the primitive combat method of Lepril rockets was eliminated again.

(Leprier rockets, rockets with sharp blades added to their tips, which can cut through the outer layer of the balloon)

(British seaplane with eight rockets)
(End of this chapter)