Chapter 927: When Airship Meets Airplane
Chapter 909 When Airships Meet Airplanes
On November 1, 1890, Archduke Albrecht and Leopold II had a historic meeting in Cologne, where they exchanged in-depth views on anti-French issues.
Well, these are official words. What really happened was that after the collapse of the Luxembourg defense, the situation in Belgium was so bad that Leopold II could no longer hold his ground and had to go into exile.
Deadly defense of Brussels, just think about it. With the strength of Belgium, there is no ability to hold out under the strong attack of the French.
However, the situation is not desperate, although the Luxembourg defense line collapsed, the German Confederation suffered heavy losses, Belgium is about to fall, but still can not change the war against France, the fact that the curtain has just opened.
Essentially, this war is France and Austria in order to fight for hegemony in Europe, as for Belgium and Germany are completely pregnant with their own sins.
The strategic location of Belgium and the resources of the Rhineland region of the German Confederation are the root causes of their involvement.
Belgium and Germany suffered heavy losses, but Austria, the leading brother strength is still there. In the southern front, the Austrian army still occupies the advantage; African battlefield, Austria is the French pressed on the ground ravaged.
Only the Austrian army did not make substantial breakthroughs on the southern front, and the African battlefield was not valued by everyone, and everyone focused their attention on the Central European battlefield, which made them think that the French had the upper hand.
Not to the time when they must fight for their lives, Leopold II is not reckless, after getting the assurance of Archduke Albrecht, decisively chose a strategic shift.
As the war progressed, Leopold II’s fate, or rather Belgium’s fate, was tied to Austria.
If the war was won, Belgium could recover all the losses it had paid from the French, and might even take a small step forward; if the war was lost, Leopold II would be a full member of the army in exile.
Open the history books, you will find the history of the continent of Europe, the exile of the royal family has long been more than a hundred, can be restored but very few, most of the royal family have disappeared in the long river of history.
What happened behind the scenes, other people are not clear, Leopold II is heard.
It may be impossible to say exactly what happened. In any case, except for a few royal families that were naturally disinherited, most of them were disinherited.
Of course, behind all these tragic figures, there is no shortage of fancy death. The content is so brainless that ordinary novel plots wouldn’t dare to describe it that way.
In a political system like Europe, as long as the king doesn’t die himself, then he won’t die.
Napoleon is an example, play so high also just exile, Bonaparte dynasty have not been wiped out.
From the standpoint of Leopold II, to defend Brussels is to die. On the battlefield, guns are blind and do not distinguish between high and low status, and are not responsible for the kind.
This is not the most important thing, the king does not need to go to the battlefield, the chance of being mistakenly injured is still very low.
The key is that the French have the motive to kill him, France wants to annex Belgium, this king will be in the way.
Regicide was very serious in Europe, and without taking him out on the battlefield, the French had no way to do anything about it afterward.
The Kingdom of Sardinia is a ready-made example of a royal family that was let go by international pressure back in the day, and is now jumping out to give them a hard time.
Politics is bloody, Leopold II dare not bet on the French modesty. Besides, the French may not be the only ones who want him to be finished.
In addition to domestic opponents, the British and Austrians were equally likely to lay their hands on him.
Although Leopold II and the British royal family is the family, with the Austrian royal family is in-laws, but the reality has proved that in front of the national interest, any kinship is not reliable.
……
After pacifying Leopold II, Archduke Albrecht breathed a sigh of relief. In his opinion, doing a king’s thought work could be much more troublesome than fighting a war.
Regardless of the strength of Belgium, they were a member of the anti-French alliance, and if Leopold II could not think straight and surrendered to the French, Austria would have suffered a great political loss.
According to Franz the Great, the essence of war is: to make more allies and less enemies.
In order to realize this goal, even Montenegro and Greece, which could only play the role of soy sauce, were forced onto the chariot by the Vienna government.
Of course, they could not be counted on on the battlefield. But they were needed politically. The more countries that participated, the more it proved that the war of aggression initiated by the French was unpopular.
As long as more countries participated, when the international community characterized the war in the future, Austria would have to be the righteous one, and the one without any blemish.
……
“Wooooooo ……”
The air-raid siren suddenly sounded, and Archduke Albrecht frowned and instructed his guards, “Go out and see what’s going on.”
The French airships were rampant, and Archduke Albrecht had heard about it, but it was the first time he had experienced it personally.
Don’t look at Austria was the first to use airships in war, in fact, the French were the founding fathers of airships. As early as 1784, the French made the first airship.
Many people will not believe that the world’s first airship, except for the power system is not good, a little more dangerous, but other things are okay.
It was 15.6 meters long, with a maximum diameter of 9.6 meters, and could generate more than 1,000 kilograms of uplift force after filling with hydrogen, with a continuous flight time of seven hours.
After the Austrian airships were used in the war, all European countries realized the importance of airships and began to install them in their troops.
But this thing, after all, is a high-tech products, the cost is very expensive, the real strength of large-scale equipment only a few big countries.
After the outbreak of the war against France, the French airship troops on the great power, easily defeated than the German two countries of the airships, and seized the air rights on the battlefield.
These days anti-aircraft weapons have limited range and accuracy depends on luck, as long as the airships don’t lower their flight altitude, they are still very safe.
Of course, high altitude bombing safety is safe, the hit rate is also very touching, the war record all depends on God’s blessing.
A few moments later, the guard returned and reported, “Marshal, the enemy airships are coming over, they seem to be scouting for information.”
“Hmph!”
After giving a cold shout, Archduke Albrecht said expressionlessly, “Got it!
Pass the order down, order the Corps of Engineers to rush the work immediately and complete the construction of the airport in the shortest possible time.”
……
Colonel Lane was shocked and said, “What, let’s go fix the field for the airships? Major are you mistaken, we are not engineers.”
The young officer helplessly explained, “I’m sorry, Colonel Lane. We don’t have enough engineers, and we can’t draft enough folk in a short period of time, so you’re the only ones left who don’t have a mission right now.”
The Austrian advance troops were naturally the main force, and the engineers were only a very small number; most of these people were junior engineers trained in bulk, mainly to solve the problems of airfields and road transportation.
Originally the labor problem had been coordinated, with the German Confederation supplying the militia. However, the sudden collapse of the Luxembourg defense line resulted in the loss of not only a large number of troops, but also a large number of civilians.
Most of them were young and strong laborers drawn from the local area, and if they wanted to continue to recruit them, they had to have enough young and strong people in the local area to be able to do so.
In the end, the honorable and great task of repairing the airfield fell to the Bremen Army Corps, which had just completed its reorganization.
Without any surprise, the Bremen Regiment had only one battalion, and Colonel Lane, who was the highest ranked and had combat experience, became the battalion commander.
Whether he wanted to or not, Colonel Lane had to accept the reality of becoming an engineer.
Not only the Bremen Corps, but also the subsequent integrated units, one after another, were turned into engineers, building roads, digging trenches, digging trenches.
Combat duties?
Archduke Albrecht said that he was not crazy, he knew very well how garbage the combat power of this temporarily integrated miscellaneous troops was.
Not only was the morale of the army lacking, even the training of the soldiers was seriously lacking. What’s more troublesome is that many of the officers are the sons of the nobles who were recruited temporarily.
It is not true that the nobles in Germany have a tradition of joining the army, but it does not mean that all noble children are qualified officers.
Not all states have military schools, and not all noble children have attended military schools, many noble children have only received family military education, and all kinds of combat experience and concepts are stuck in the last century.
Sending such troops to the battlefield could not be expected to do anything other than add to the enemy’s war record.
It’s fine to pit your teammates, but not your own people. Since these guys were willing to accept the integration, it meant that they recognized Austria.
These men were the future link for Austria to rule the North German region. In order to strengthen the ties with the local area, Archduke Albrecht also could not let these noble sons die in large numbers.
……
At this moment, Colonel Lane, who knew nothing about it, was sweating with his troops for the construction of the airfield.
Looking at the hardened large area of land, Colonel Lane said with great regret, “Captain Henry, it’s too extravagant not to have to harden it all.”
Concrete is not cheap these days, and the cost of hardening dozens of hectares of land at once is not a small amount.
Captain Henry shook his head, “Right now it’s about rushing, in reality this airfield construction, is not qualified at all.
But it’s also temporary, make do for now, there’s reconstruction later.”
This was the truth, the airfield was not built as a dam and that was the end of it. A temporary stop is able to make do.
“Airfield, what’s that? Isn’t it said to be a field for airships?”
Colonel Ryan asked suspiciously.
It wasn’t that he was alone, not many people knew about airplanes these days, and even fewer knew about airfields.
Realizing the slip of the tongue, Captain Henry replied coldly, “Colonel, you should have memorized the troop secrecy regulations, don’t ask what you shouldn’t.”
The question of whether the “airport” was classified or not was also unclear to Captain Henry. In any case, there was no gag order from the top, and no information was given to Colonel Ryan.
Without knowing the situation, Captain Henry naturally would not explain. As for the difference in rank between the two sides, it was not a matter of concern.
Didn’t you see the captain commanding the colonel during the construction of the airport?
In other places, this would never happen, but in the technical field, it’s commonplace.
The Austrian army is characterized by professionalism, so that the most important person in charge of the construction of airports is Captain Henry, who has a great deal of experience in construction.
After getting bored, Colonel Lane directly turned his head and urged the soldiers to work, ignoring the rigid engineer.
……
(End of chapter)