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

Chapter 970 Aerial Combat Trap
The village of Düssel is 79 kilometers from Saarbrücken.

This is a small village with fewer than 100 households. It has flat terrain and fertile soil, and the villagers live a self-sufficient life.

On this day, the villagers were working in the fields as usual.

Farmers who are able to cultivate the land are the least likely to starve, provided they are not affected by war.

In some ways, they are still beneficiaries, because the shortage of supplies has led to soaring food prices, and their agricultural products can be exchanged for more things.

The issue is……

All the men had been drafted into the army, leaving only the elderly, women, and children to do the heavy manual labor in the fields.

Valerie pulled up a clump of potatoes and gently tapped it to remove the clumps of mud. Just then, she heard something strange in the wind.

Curious, she stood up straight and listened for a while, then called out to her sister, who was digging up the remaining potatoes in the field a few meters away with a small hoe, "Laura, I heard something."

Then she added, her voice filled with fear: "The enemy may be coming; that's the direction of Saarbrücken."

Laura turned around, her face, covered in mud and grime, looking exhausted in the sunlight. She glanced in the direction Valerie had indicated and offered a comforting word:
"Don't worry, they said the enemy won't reach here."

"Have you forgotten? Our soldiers are winning battles, and they are advancing towards the enemy!"

"So, that must be our troops!"

Valerie relaxed a bit; Laura was right, she had been too nervous.

She refocused her attention on the potatoes at her feet.

Before they had even pulled up two plants, the sound of an engine suddenly rang out at the corner of the road, and the sisters turned around in surprise.

Other people working in the fields also stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

Those were tanks, one after another, with a long, thick cannon barrel rising high from the turret, the dark muzzle pointing to the sky, as if it could fire a devastating shell at any moment.

There were armored vehicles behind them, but they were too far away to tell whether they were friend or foe.

Getting closer, getting closer...

An armored vehicle sped up and pulled up, and an officer emerged from the armored rear compartment. He shouted to the villagers in broken German, "Hey, ladies, this is... Düsseldorf?"

The Frenchman was wearing the Adrian helmet, a distinctive feature of the French army.

The villagers were all terrified, their faces pale. They wanted to run, but they were too scared to move.

“Yes, yes,” Laura answered bravely, fearing she would be shot if she didn’t.

The French officer looked at the map in his hand, nodded, and said, "Thank you very much, but I suggest you leave here as soon as possible, do you understand what I mean?"

“Yes, sir,” Laura replied, but her feet didn’t move.

The French officer glared at her: "Didn't you understand? This place will soon become a battlefield. Leave now, immediately!"

Finally, he even shouted loudly so that everyone could hear him.

The villagers were terrified and quickly dropped their tools, running back towards the village.

There was a hint of helplessness in the French officer's eyes.

Villages are not ideal hiding places; they should hide in places like trenches, riverbeds, ditches, air-raid shelters, or basements.

But people who don't understand these things will immediately think "go home," close the door, and assume that's safe.

Suddenly, the whistling sound of artillery shells rang out in the sky.

But what arrived before the artillery shells were the planes flying low overhead at high speed.

German aircraft, a new type of fighter jet.

They swooped down and unleashed a barrage of fire on the French troops, creating a scene of carnage. French officers managed to escape by ducking their heads into armored vehicles. Then, shells exploded all around, the barrage sending dug-up potatoes and farm tools flying into the air, leaving a trail of destruction as they fell to the ground.

The farmers screamed in terror and stumbled as they hurried away.

"Prepare for battle!" the French officer shouted.

The soldiers on the armored vehicle immediately jumped off and scattered, but still held their guns on both sides of the road as the tank continued to advance.

……

Richthofen observed this scene from the sky, secretly praising the French First Armored Corps for its composure and orderly command in the face of danger.

By this time, Richthofen had been promoted to major and was commanding the most advanced German "Fokker D.VII" battalion.

His mission was to seize air superiority and protect the "radio bombers".

However, Richthofen had just risked being shot down by strafing French troops at low altitude in his Fokker D.VII.

This looks silly and doesn't fit the mission.

Because there are only 50 Fokker D.VIIs at present, it is a true king of the air.

However, he used this aircraft to dive-bomb French ground troops.

Doing this would not kill many people, but it would put valuable fighter planes within range of French machine guns.

However, only Richthofen himself knew the significance of doing so:
He hoped to create some commotion in front of the French troops to deter them from advancing, while the troops behind them would keep pushing forward, crowding together so that the artillery could achieve greater results.

But the result disappointed him.

The French army ignored his attack without any noticeable pause or organization of air defenses; their tanks and armored vehicles continued to advance along the road.

This is the composure of an iron-willed army.

Envy and jealousy welled up in Richthofen's heart. How wonderful it would be if Germany had such an army!
At that moment, the wingman flying beside him gestured to Richthofen and pointed southwest.

Looking in the direction indicated by his teammates, a dozen or so red triplanes appeared in Richthofen's field of vision.

This was a trap set by Richthofen targeting the French air force.

……

"In terms of performance data, our aircraft are superior to French fighters." Richthofen, who had test-flown the new fighter, appeared quite confident in the pre-war meeting.
"Whether it's the French 'Camel' or 'Spittle' type."

"The only problem is that we don't have enough fighter jets, only 50."

"The top speed of 200 km/h is not much of an advantage compared to the 'Shovel's' 190 km/h, while the enemy has far more 'Shovels' than we do."

Wilhelm II asked, "How many 'Piper' planes do they have?"

“I’m not sure, Your Majesty,” Richthofen replied. “There are at least two hundred.”

He then added, "At the same time, we don't have much of an advantage compared to the 'camel's' speed of 187 kilometers per hour."

The number of "camels" has increased, now there are four or five hundred.

Therefore, although the German army had the most advanced fighter jets on the surface, it was still very difficult for them to gain air superiority.

After a moment of silence, Richthofen said:
There is only one way.

"Use our triplanes as decoys to lure enemy aircraft, and then the 'Fokker D.VII' will suddenly join the battle."

"This could potentially yield the greatest results in the shortest amount of time, and the enemy would be unaware of the reason."

(End of this chapter)