Chapter 957

Three days later, a "Report on Low Altitude Dive Machine Gun Strafing" appeared in front of Governor Fislav.

Recording the process of a battle and summarizing the gains and losses was a fine tradition of the Austrian army. It was also a unique characteristic of the Austrian army in this era.

Recording the process of a battle seemed simple, but it wasn't something that anyone could do. At least, countries that hadn't completed compulsory education couldn't do it.

The benefits of doing this were self-evident. Perhaps most of the battle experience recorded was repetitive nonsense, but as long as one-thousandth of the content was valuable, it would be worth it.

This information was especially important when it came to the use of new weapons and equipment, as well as the exploration of new tactics.

Therefore, only officers wrote reports for the army, but everyone in the air force had to write reports.

Low altitude dive bombing and low altitude dive machine gun strafing weren't new terms. Someone had proposed similar concepts more than a decade ago.

Don't misunderstand, this had nothing to do with the great Franz Majesty. Franz was a noob in military affairs, but he knew that although the military concepts of later generations were good, they were built on specific conditions.

Using dive bombing as an example, it wasn't as simple as dropping bombs at a low altitude. Not all aircraft had the ability to fly at low altitudes and dive.

Even if the performance of the aircraft was satisfied, how to fly at a low altitude had to be explored in actual combat.

While achieving results, the safety of the personnel and aircraft had to be ensured as much as possible. Otherwise, it would be a copy of the Kamikaze Brigade.

Therefore, the great strategic concept of using airships to perform low altitude dive bombing and carpet bombing wasn't Franz's masterpiece.

The Austrian army didn't use this concept without a goal. It was supported by actual combat cases.

When airships had just been put into military use, the Austrian airship fleet had tried it on the Osman and achieved remarkable results.

At that time, this strategic concept had become the mainstream of the world and was recommended by many military figures.

However, with the appearance of anti-aircraft weapons, everyone realized that airships flying at a low altitude were just live targets. This theory was quickly shelved.

Airships not being suitable didn't mean that airplanes weren't suitable. At least, at the current stage, the anti-aircraft weapons of various countries didn't pose much of a threat to airplanes. In theory, low altitude dive bombing became feasible.

Because airplanes didn't have enough weight, the strategic dive bombing became machine gun strafing, and the power was greatly weakened.

With the airship's failure, General Fislav didn't rush to make a decision. Instead, he fell into deep thought.

So far, it was still a mystery as to whether this was an exception or a military concept with long-term development and application prospects.

Seeing that Fislav couldn't make up his mind, Air Force Major General Andrew McCarthy added fuel to the fire.

"Commander, regardless of whether the dive bombing has prospects or not, it's only effective in a short period of time.

We have already conducted many drills, and the existing anti-aircraft weapons pose little threat to aircraft. Diving and strafing is very easy to achieve results.

Even if the French discovered the weakness of this tactic, it will take time to find a way to it. Before that, it will not affect our promotion of this tactic. "

Major General Andrew was actually forced to be so proactive. Compared to Lu Haijun, Air Force was like a little brother.

If the Air Force was strong enough, this tactic that didn't require the cooperation of other units wouldn't even need to report to the commander of the theater of operations.

Soldiers still spoke with their achievements. The Austrian Air Force had only been established for a short period of time and didn't have any outstanding achievements. Naturally, they weren't strong enough.

If it weren't for Franz's support, they would still be the Army Air Force and wouldn't have the ability to form an independent army.

In this context, everyone in the Air Force was eager to prove their worth on the battlefield.

Therefore, the Air Force had always been the most active in the promotion of new tactics. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to immediately verify its feasibility after receiving a battlefield report.

After a moment of contemplation, Fislav nodded. "In theory, it's feasible, but we still need more actual cases to support it before it can be promoted to the entire army.

In the next few days, I'll allow the Air Force to attack on their own to verify or improve this tactic. "

The development of military technology had never been smooth. A large country like Austria had enough capital to pay for the development of military technology. The promotion of any new tactic was piled up with countless failures.

This was also the reason why many weapons, equipment, and tactical concepts couldn't be adopted even after they were born. Without the support of actual combat results, everyone had no confidence!

…

After receiving the support of the theater commander, the Austrian Air Force stationed in the Sinai Peninsula immediately took action.

Egypt became "lively". Not only did the positions and fortresses become the hardest hit areas of bombing, but the streets, alleys, and fields also became the hunting grounds of the Austrian Air Force.

In order to collect more actual combat data, the Air Force didn't care about the cost. No matter where they went, they had to try.

As for the consequences, it wasn't within the scope of Major General Andrew's consideration. Anyway, the bullets would hit the enemy's territory, and it was only a matter of the results.

…

Ever since the airship unit was destroyed, the airspace above Cairo became the territory of the Austrian Air Force. Every day, airships and planes would come to work from time to time.

For the sake of his life, Governor Jacob had to move the command center into the basement. In fact, he initially wanted to find a safer place to defend himself.

Unfortunately, Cairo was in the heart of Egypt, and the French had never considered the threat of foreign enemies. The most recent military threat was the siege of the city by the rebels.

The rebel army only had a few cannons at most, and the cannons couldn't hit the governor's mansion at all. There was no need for cannons, so naturally, there was no gun-proof cave.

After the outbreak of the Fao War, Governor Jacob only considered the problem of the canal defense line. He didn't think about the threat from the sky at all.

When the crisis came, it would be too late to dig out the cannons. After all, a gun-proof cave that could accommodate the French command center wasn't just a large cave.

"Governor, the enemy's air force is too arrogant. They don't take France seriously at all. We must fight back."

Of course, the French soldiers wouldn't say something like this. All the officers present knew that it wasn't that they didn't want to fight back, but that they didn't have the ability to fight back.

Governor Jacob looked at the angry middle-aged man and frowned. After a moment of silence, he slowly said, "Senior Officer Abraham, please take a look at the war report, or should I say, pay attention to the current political news in the country.

Don't mention us, even the domestic air force can't do anything to the Austrian air force. Just a week ago, Paris was also attacked by the enemy. "

When they heard the news of Paris being attacked, everyone's expression changed. It was obviously the first time everyone received this news.

Seeing everyone's expression, Jacob knew that he had a problem with his concept. Before the outbreak of the war, the news that happened in Paris could be transmitted to Egypt in only a few hours.

The telegraph business in France was run by capitalists. The first consideration was how to maximize profits, and all strategic considerations had to be put aside.

In this context, it was naturally impossible to lay a special submarine cable for the telegraph from France to Egypt.

Instead, they took the land cable route through the Algerian region and passed through Austrian Africa in cooperation with the Austrian Telegraph Company.

This was also in line with international practice. The reason why the telegraph could be promoted to most parts of the world within a few decades was because of regional cooperation.

If they were to do it alone, no telegraph company would have the ability to connect the world.

The outbreak of the European war was too sudden. It only brewed for a few months before the war suddenly broke out. The Government of France was stunned for a short period of time, let alone the telegraph company.

The economy also had to make concessions for politics. After the outbreak of the war, the original cooperative Austrian Telegraph Company naturally stopped providing them with information transmission services.

Now, the communication between Egypt and the mainland was mainly through the transmission of information by warships between the two places. Even the most well-informed people in the past would find it difficult to receive news from within the country.

After pausing for a while, Abraham came back to his senses and said in shock, "Mr. Governor, are you sure you're not joking?"

These days, Paris had a very sacred status in the eyes of the French. The news of Paris being attacked was too shocking. It was not comparable to the daily bombing of Cairo.

Jacob nodded cautiously, "Do you think I would joke about such a thing if it didn't happen?"

"However, things are not as serious as you think. The enemy had only flashed past Paris, and had not caused us much damage.

I think everyone has also discovered that the enemy's air force is not that terrifying. In addition to the appearance of great momentum, the bombing did not cause much real damage to us.

The domestic has already prepared to produce aircraft. As long as we persist for a period of time, the enemy's advantage will no longer exist.

Now we … "

The bombing was terrible, but not terrible. Although the French army's air defense forces were rubbish, they still made the Austrian airships not dare to fly at low altitude with their outdated air defense weapons.

The hit rate of dropping bombs from a height of a few kilometers was almost like winning the lottery.

Purely in terms of lethality, the occasional dive-strafing of the aircraft caused more casualties to the French army than the bombing of the airships.

Abraham interrupted, "Mr. Governor, I have to correct you here. The enemy's air force has brought us a lot of losses.

Since the beginning of the enemy's bombing, the factories, shops, and entertainment venues in Cairo have been unable to operate normally.

The people have fallen into panic, and those with a little bit of money are desperately running outside. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 15,000 people have left Cairo in the past week.

Not only has Cairo's economy been hit hard, but other parts of Egypt have also suffered to varying degrees. The casualties are even more shocking.

After analyzing the news from various places, the initial estimate is that the number of civilian casualties caused by the enemy's air force has exceeded five digits. "

There was no other way. No matter how bad the bombing was, as long as the bombs were dropped, there would always be an effect.

The area of activity of the army was limited, and they knew how to survive under the enemy's bombing. Other than the initial discomfort, the casualties of the army were not too high.

Civilians were different. In this day and age, when the enemy bombed, everyone's first reaction was to run. Very few people had the awareness of air defense.

With the chaos of running, the number of casualties naturally increased. Especially after the Austrian aircraft began to strafe at low altitude, the situation became even more serious.

Governor Jacob slammed the table and said, "The Austrians are too despicable. How can civilians be involved in a war?

Abraham, you're in charge of collecting relevant information. We're going to expose their atrocities to the international community. "

After receiving this answer, everyone was silent again. Diplomatic protests in this day and age were the last struggles of the weak. The strong preferred direct means of threats.

Naturally, no one had high expectations for Jacob's proposal of using the international community to exert political pressure.

There was no other way. In this terrible era, any colonial empire had a dark history that couldn't be seen. If it was really revealed, no one would have a good life.

In contrast, the civilian casualties caused by the war were not a problem at all. Especially since the battle took place in Africa, the impact on the European world was even smaller.