Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 614 Jet Engine Technology Cooperation: Strategic and Tactical Analysis by the London War Office

Fang Wen was considering how to respond to the Burmese governor's words.

He could certainly give the British some good advice.

But there must be a reward for doing this.

What Fang Wen wanted was further technical information on the turbine engine.

The turbine engine technology purchased from the UK last time was only basic patent technology, and more experimental data is needed to realize axial-flow jet technology.

Taishan Military Industry now needs time to accumulate experience in developing jet aircraft.

This year, countries around the world with the capability to develop this military technology are all making efforts in this area.

Fang Wen knew the following:
Rolls-Royce in the UK began designing an axial-flow jet engine.

BMW, a German company, acquired the "109-003" axial-flow jet engine developed by Bremer and is also conducting related research.

In France, SRA is also establishing a turbine engine division.

The Soviet Union and the United States entered this field later, and there is currently no relevant information.

Knowing that Fang Wen would definitely be among the first to develop jet engines, it would be in his best interest to obtain technical support from the UK to shorten the research and development process.

Thinking of this, Fang Wen smiled.

“Governor, I can go to London and offer you very effective advice, but on one condition.”

"What conditions?"

"I want to collaborate with aerodynamics companies to jointly develop jet engines."

The governor asked hesitantly, "Aerodynamics Company? I've never heard of it."

Fang Wen explained, “It’s a newly established company that’s collaborating with your military to develop a turbojet engine. I think this technology is very forward-looking, and we also have unique research in this area, so we want to collaborate on the development.”

The British Aerodynamics company he requested as a partner was the source of his turbine engine technology and is currently receiving funding from the British military to develop turbojet engines.

The governor could not give a reply to this, but instead had his assistant send a telegram to London.

Afterwards, Fang Wen and the governor chatted idly in the office while waiting.

Not long after, London replied.

The governor looked at the telegram and smiled.

"Although the military is optimistic about this technology, it cannot be used in war in the short term. They also recognize Taishan Military Industry's technical strength, and you are also the owner of Whittle turbine engine technology. Therefore, the military agrees to this request, but on the condition that Taishan and Aerodynamics Company achieve a technological breakthrough next year and develop an engine that can be used for flight."

Fang Wen readily agreed to this request.

He then agreed with the governor that he would travel to London that day.

After reaching an agreement, Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng went back, packed some travel supplies and changes of clothes, and boarded their company's flight to Europe.

Due to the dramatic changes in the situation in Europe, Taishan Airlines has adjusted the routes of its Asia-Europe flights.

The Asian leg remains unchanged; the main change is to the European leg, with flights passing through Kolkata, Delhi, Kabul, Tehran, Ankara, Athens, Rome, and finally arriving in Paris.

The journey took more than 9000 kilometers and 33 hours, plus stopover time, for a total of 38 hours.

After the plane landed at Paris Airport, a flight attendant went to the front of the cabin and picked up a megaphone: "Dear passengers, welcome to Paris Airport. The airport is currently under temporary military control. All passengers must bring their identification documents to the exit for identity verification after disembarking. Your personal belongings will be searched, and your checked baggage will be transferred to a designated area by airport staff. Please disembark in an orderly manner and do not leave the group without permission."

France today has tightened its security measures due to its declaration of war against Germany.

Some passengers complained, but they still got up and lined up to disembark.

After Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng disembarked at the back of the group, Lin Baoluo hurried over.

"General Manager, this is the plane ticket to London."

Fang Wen took the plane ticket and, led by Lin Baoluo, went to another runway at the airport, where he boarded a plane bound for the UK.

The plane then took off and landed at London Airport an hour later.

In London, compared to Paris, there was no sense of urgency about war.

It's the same as always.

Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng walked out of the airport with the other passengers and met the officer who came to pick them up at the parking lot.

"Hello sir, I am Major Kate from the Army Department, here to take you to the Army Strategic Research Office."

It turned out that this time they were going to the War Office. The British military, which had not experienced war for many years after World War I, still maintained its previous structure, consisting of three departments: the War Office, the Admiralty Office, and the Air Force Office. The three departments were independent of each other, so the one that invited Fang Wen must be one of them.

"Hello." Fang Wen shook hands with him.

The officer opened the back door: "Please get in."

Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng got into the car, and the officer then drove it.

The car drove into the city and headed directly to Westminster, to a street called Whitehall.

There are the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street there, the heart of the British government.

The War Office Building, located at the intersection of Whitehall and Horse Guards Drive, is a traditional Edwardian Baroque building. (The former War Office Building has since been sold and converted into a hotel.)
The car stopped in a parking space some distance away.

The major turned around and said, "Mr. Fang, please come with me."

Immediately, Fang Wen and his companion followed the major out of the car and walked to the entrance of the Army Building.

There, the officer showed his identification before being allowed to pass through the guards and enter.

The three walked through the spacious hall of the War Department. On the wall in front of them hung a huge oil painting depicting British generals during the Napoleonic Wars. The gilded frame gleamed warmly in the dim light of the corridor lamps.

This Edwardian Baroque building is very large; all the senior officers of the army worked here, and you could see officers of different ranks passing by along the way.

Major Kate led Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng up the spiral staircase.

“The Army Department has more than a thousand rooms, and the Strategic Research Office is on the third floor on the west side,” the major said in a low voice as he walked. “Now half of the rooms in the department have been converted into temporary offices, and the staff are working almost all night long—after all, the war in Poland is more complicated than we expected.”

As they spoke, they passed an office with its door half open. Fang Wen glimpsed that the long table inside was covered with military maps, and several officers were arguing around the maps, pointing repeatedly at the places marked "Warsaw" and "Danzig." The ashtray was piled high with cigarette butts.

Then, they arrived at an oak door engraved with "STRATEGIC RESEARCH DIVISION" and the major gently knocked on the door.

"Come in." A deep voice came from inside the door.

Pushing open the door, Fang Wen saw a huge mahogany conference table in the center of the office, around which sat three British men in military uniforms: in the center was an elderly man with gray hair and a monocle, the gold oak leaves on his epaulets particularly striking; to his left was a lieutenant colonel in his thirties, holding an open book; and to his right was White, the general manager of the aerodynamics company.

The white-haired elderly man in the center spoke first: "Mr. Fang, I am Lieutenant General Hawkins, Director of the Strategic Research Office of the Army. Thank you for coming all the way from Myanmar. We do need some new ideas."

He gestured to the empty seat across the desk. “Please sit down. I already know about your plans to collaborate with Aerodynamics, but before we discuss the technology, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the situation in Europe.”

Fang Wen walked to his seat, his gaze sweeping over the map on the table—a European map marked with German troop deployments. Red arrows marked the German offensive routes within Poland, while the Maginot Line on the French border was marked with a solid blue line. Several sticky notes filled with data were also attached to the side.

After sitting down, he organized his thoughts and said, "Lieutenant General, if I may be so bold, the situation in Poland is probably beyond saving. The core of the German strategy this time is 'rapid breakthrough, encirclement and division.' Their tactics in Poland, using tank groups in conjunction with dive bombers, are very mature and have obviously been trained for a long time. Poland, on the other hand, is still stuck in the military technology concepts of World War I and can no longer keep up with the speed of this war. That's why the situation has collapsed in just a few days."

The lieutenant general nodded: "This is also something we didn't expect. The German army took Warsaw in less than a week, leaving us no time to prepare."

Fang Wen feigned surprise: "Has Warsaw already been captured?"

"Yes, we just received news that the German army has occupied Warsaw. Apart from a few resistance fighters still holding out, the city is no longer under the control of the Polish army."

After a pause, the lieutenant general asked, "I'd like to know, how would you assess this if this strategy were applied to France?"

Fang Wen stood up and pointed his finger at the map in front of the lieutenant general, which was the Maginot Line area on the Franco-German border.

“Lieutenant General, if the Germans replicate their Polish tactics in France, the Maginot Line could very well become a ‘useless fortress.’” He deliberately slowed his speech, making each word clear in the conference room. “You see, the Maginot Line was designed as a ‘static defense,’ designed for the trench warfare of World War I. But the Germans are now playing the ‘dynamic assault’ game—their armored divisions can advance at a rate of 100 kilometers per day, and they won’t engage the lines head-on. If the Maginot Line’s rear is cut off, what is the point of this line?”

Lieutenant General Hawkins frowned and pushed his monocle up his nose. "But Belgium is a neutral country. If the German army wants to bypass the defenses, they must go through Belgium or the Netherlands, which would violate the Locarno Treaty. Are they really willing to take that risk?"

"Once war begins, the convention loses its binding force."

Fang Wen picked up a pencil from the table and drew an arc on the map (starting from Aachen, passing through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, and heading straight to Sedan in France).
He continued, "I participated in the French military's Maginot Line simulation and know some of the situation. In the Ardennes Forest, the French only deployed two infantry divisions. The German armored forces could easily break through here and reach Sedan in less than three days. At that time, the French forces on the Maginot Line would be cut in half, and once the connection between the front and the rear is severed, the entire western defense will collapse."

The lieutenant colonel next to him couldn't help but interject, his voice tinged with skepticism: "The Ardennes Forest is all mountains and dense forests; tanks simply can't advance quickly. Our intelligence shows that the mainstay tanks of the German armored divisions, the Panzer II, have an off-road speed of less than 20 kilometers per hour. How could they possibly reach Sedan in three days?"

Fang Wen did not directly refute, but turned to White: "Mr. White, if your aerodynamics company's jet engines could be installed on reconnaissance aircraft, wouldn't that double the reconnaissance efficiency?"

White paused, then said, "Theoretically, yes. Jet reconnaissance aircraft can reach speeds of 600 kilometers per hour, more than half as fast as current propeller-driven reconnaissance aircraft. But what does that have to do with the situation we're discussing now?"

“What I’m trying to say is that in this day and age, military reconnaissance methods are very sophisticated. Through aircraft and infiltration, we can completely understand the situation there,” Fang Wen steered the conversation back to the war situation. “What the German army lacks now is not speed, but intelligence. Assuming they are very familiar with the terrain of the Ardennes Forest, and they bring engineers to open up passages, the advance speed of the armored divisions will far exceed your expectations. More importantly, the French army has not yet realized the danger of the Ardennes. They have committed 80% of their forces to the Maginot Line, which has given the German army an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.”

Lieutenant General Hawkins fell silent. He picked up the coffee cup on the table but didn't drink it, instead staring blankly at the map.

After a long pause, he slowly spoke: "What you said makes sense. Poland has proven that the German army can do it. But war is complex, and it also involves political maneuvering. I don't think Germany dares to go to war on the Western Front."

Fang Wen wasn't European, but he saw things very clearly and retorted directly: "Why wouldn't they dare? Because of the Treaty of Versailles, two generations of Germans are filled with hatred. They have been armed under the instigation of the Nazis, and this hatred definitely needs to be vented. I think it is very likely that Germany will go to war with France."

His tone was assertive.

It made the other people in the room feel uncomfortable.

After all, this is an Asian's assessment of the situation in Europe.

The British are stubborn and will not easily change their judgment because of Fang Wen's words.

Lieutenant General Hawkins replied, "This is just one of countless possibilities. I don't rule it out, but statistically speaking, it's all possible. We need time to verify it. Now, let's not talk about strategy, but about tactics. As far as I know, you also highly recommend this kind of fast-moving tactic. Could you give us some advice on this tactic?"

This is exactly what they wanted to achieve by inviting Fang Wen over.

In order to get the development of the jet engine started as soon as possible, Fang Wen said, "Okay, but I need some props. They're with my assistant, who's outside the door."

“Let him in,” said Lieutenant General Hawkins.

The major went to open the door and brought Gong Xiuneng in.

Gong Xiuneng handed the suitcase to Fang Wen, who then opened it.

In the suitcase, besides some technical data about Taishan's research on jet engines, there were also maps and props specially prepared for this trip.

Fang Wen unfolded the map and placed the airplane and human models on it.

"This was an airborne flanking maneuver I commanded. We established an anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines here, using the complex mountainous terrain to fight the Japanese army. The target of this operation was here, called Baoding, an important Japanese garrison and a city along the Pinghan Railway. At that time, our planes carrying paratroopers took off from the mountainous seaplane base and attacked Japanese military camps, airfields, and railway stations outside the city, as well as intercepting Japanese troops stationed there."

As Fang Wen narrated, the British soldiers present were completely absorbed in his role, listening intently.

(End of this chapter)