Chapter 120 Machine Gun Shooting Coordinator

(The above picture shows two machine guns at the nose of the machine)

Galieni raised his head high, looked at the congressmen below with contempt in his eyes, and made a concluding speech in a loud voice:

"Gentlemen, which equipment is useful and which is useless on the battlefield, please leave these matters to those who have actually fought on the battlefield and know what war is to judge."

"Just like farmers cannot discuss legal issues, and lawyers don't know how to farm!"

"The military is a special profession. It is not as simple as you think. We should be cautious about it."

"Instead of trying to teach others how to shoot without even holding a gun, or even wanting to teach others how to fight and tell others what they should not buy!"

"Doing this will only bring shame to yourself, and nothing will be gained!"

As he said this, Gallieni didn't even look at the congressmen in the field, and walked off the stage and walked out of the venue with his chest puffed out in their embarrassed eyes, with a smile on his face all the time.

Gallieni had never been as glorious as today. He slapped the congressmen hard, but the congressmen had nothing to say, because Charles had indeed won a victory and turned "impossible" into "possible"!

In fact, let alone the congressmen who didn't believe it, Gallieni didn't believe it when Charles talked about the "machine gun firing coordinator".

"This is impossible!" Even though Gallieni was well-informed, he couldn't help but exclaimed after hearing Charles's idea: "The propeller of the plane rotates so fast that we can't see its blades at all. How can the bullet penetrate it without damaging the blades!"

"We don't need to see it, General!" Charles explained: "We just need to add a small device to make it unable to fire when the blades turn to the muzzle. This is not difficult!"

The key to many inventions is not "difficult", but unexpected.

As long as you think of it, the implementation process may only need to splice several existing things together, such as the "machine gun firing coordinator" uses the hydraulic press that has been realized.

Gallieni still looked confused. He might be good at military theory or command, but he knew nothing about mechanics, which was why he insisted on choosing the Saint-Cyr Military Academy.

However, when Charles really had this thing made a few hours later, Gallieni had to believe it.

The test was done at the flying club, using two Vickers machine guns, one on the left and one on the right, installed on the nose of an "Avro" that was about to be scrapped. Because of the frequent engine failures, no one dared to fly this plane into the sky, so it was just right for the test.

The pilots put a wooden target in front of the plane, but later found that the wooden target was useless. Before people could see whether the bullet hit the bull's eye, it was completely smashed, and it became a pile of broken wood scattered all over the ground.

Of course, the point is not this.

The point is that the two machine guns had a total of 500 bullets, all of which were fired, but the propeller was unharmed.

The pilots stared at the stopped propeller in a daze. Carter even touched the blade with his hand, and then exclaimed: "God, it doesn't even have a scratch, all the bullets avoided the blade perfectly!"

"It's not the bullets that avoided the blade, Uncle Carter!" Charles said: "It's the blade that avoided the bullet!"

According to Charles' understanding, it is the movement of the blade that plays an active role, so it should be placed in front.

"Is there any difference?" Carter asked back: "I just want to know how this is done?"

"This is the charm of machinery!" Charles was confused: "The reaction of machinery is much faster than us humans, we can't use humans to imagine machinery!"

Galieni looked at the propeller with a gloomy face for a while, then looked at the broken wooden target, and the next second he ordered the guards in a stern voice: "Dispatch a guard battalion to block the club, from now on no one can go out without permission!"

"Yes, General!" The guard immediately went to make a phone call.

Gallieni turned around and said to the pilots: "Congratulations, from now on, you are already soldiers!"

Carter asked in confusion: "Who do we mean, General?"

"Everyone!" Gallieni replied: "Everyone in the club, including the cook!"

Carter stared blankly at Gallieni's back as he left, and then turned his eyes to Charles: "Lieutenant, although you told us about this before, I didn't expect it to be so soon!"

Charles was also a little surprised. He thought that at least the pilots should practice military posture and shoot, or cut their hair short, otherwise they couldn't even wear military caps.

Who would have thought that Gallieni would directly declare them "soldiers".

But after a little thought, Charles understood.

The "machine gun shooting coordinator" he had just invented has brought air combat from scratch, completely ending the era of throwing bricks, flying needles or colliding between planes, and directly rising to machine gun shooting, and two machine guns.

This may be a "simple gadget" for Charles, but it is "top secret" in this era.

Gallieni may not understand mechanics or airplanes, but he understands military affairs, and he knows that this invention must be kept absolutely secret.

Charles realized that he was careless, and he should have "invented" this thing in a confidential manner. Now it can be said that he has implicated pilots like Carter, allowing them to skip the running-in period directly.

Gallieni always maintained sufficient caution. He personally led the guards to deploy the blockade of the club, and only breathed a sigh of relief and took Charles back to the headquarters until the guard battalion arrived.

In the car returning to the headquarters, Gallieni asked Charles a question: "Do they need other training?"

Charles knew that Gallieni was referring to sending pilots into air combat.

He thought about it for a while and replied: "Almost no, they don't even need to learn to shoot. Everything is prepared by the mechanics! If there is anything you need to pay attention to, it is to bring a hammer!"

"Hammer?" Gallieni looked at Charles in confusion.

"Yes!" Charles replied: "When the machine gun jams, just hit it with a hammer, but they seem to be unable to do anything else!"

Gallieni laughed: "Then what they lack is the courage to pull the trigger!"

Charles nodded in agreement with Gallieni's words.

For pilots who have never killed anyone, or who are not mentally prepared to kill anyone, when they fly into the sky and face the target and see the German pilot in the cockpit, it is difficult to pull the trigger and shoot him down, even though they know that the other person is. enemy.

"But it doesn't matter!" Ciel said solemnly: "Even if they can't do it, they won't be killed by the enemy!"

Because the enemy aircraft is not equipped with machine guns.

This is different from infantry, who often don't have this opportunity to grow and adapt.

Gallieni smiled and nodded: "But it won't always be like this, they need to learn as soon as possible!"

(The gear structure in the picture above is the main component of the "machine gun shooting coordinator". It accurately determines the position of the propeller when it is blocked in front of the gun muzzle through the engagement of two gears, one large and one small. Then a convex wheel structure controls the hydraulic device to keep the machine gun in position. Unable to launch at this time)