I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 87: Revised - Lepriel Rocket

The air squadron was very rudimentary; they didn’t even have a combat meeting room, so meetings had to be held in Major Fisher’s office.

The office wasn’t big, with over a dozen pilots cramming the space full. Eric was among them, his presence filling the entire room with a repugnant smell of alcohol and sweat, causing many pilots to frown tightly.

Ironically, Shire was almost unnoticed among them, yet he was their commander.

Shire sat on what was originally Major Fisher’s "throne", casually drawing marks on the map while saying, "Big Bertha is located here, eleven kilometers east of the Wavre Fortress. Our objective is to destroy it!"

This caused an uproar in the office as if a bomb had been dropped. Soon, some pilots voiced their objections:

"No, Lieutenant! We need General Gis’s orders!"

"Yes, this is war, not a joke!"

"We’d be risking our lives, commanded by a..."

...

Although the words were left unsaid, everyone knew what it meant. They did not trust Shire, even Major Fisher chose to remain silent.

Eric didn’t speak; he just quietly watched Shire. He knew Shire’s plan wouldn’t be that simple.

Shire understood what was going on.

If it were just a normal reconnaissance mission or a task with dangers within their acceptable range, they would acknowledge Shire’s command, just as Major Fisher had said: "We follow your orders."

But now, Shire’s task was to bomb Big Bertha, which they saw as a one-way mission. Entrusting such a significant task, and so many lives, to a child?

It’s too absurd!

Shire ignored them and continued to draw his plan on the map:

"We’ll certainly encounter German interception; they’ll try to ram your aircraft!"

"Avoid them, distract their attention, and lure them here..."

Shire drew a circle at another location with his pencil, as if marking a critical point on a workbook.

"There’s an enemy observation balloon here; destroy it. Its fire will attract everyone’s attention, and then..."

Major Fisher couldn’t help but interrupt Shire’s words: "Wait a minute, sir, how do we destroy the enemy’s observation balloon?"

At this time, destroying observation balloons was nearly impossible, especially with aircraft. Although the balloons were large targets, no weapons could effectively deal with them.

Soon, someone quietly began mocking:

"He thinks just aiming at the balloon with a rifle and pulling the trigger will burst it like a regular balloon!"

"We might even hear the sound of the balloon exploding, ’pop’!"

The others started laughing quietly. Although they didn’t dare to be too presumptuous in front of Shire, their speech and laughter were filled with contempt for Shire.

Eric rolled his eyes and crossed his legs. These fools, did they think someone who could invent tanks and sidecars to defeat the Germans and save Paris would be that simple? Shire would smack them hard and teach them what real intelligence was!

Fisher glanced at the Kingdom Crown Medal on Shire’s chest. He believed he couldn’t treat someone who made special contributions to Belgium this way, so he explained patiently:

"Sir, balloons aren’t that easy to deal with!"

"They have many internal compartments, like the watertight compartments of ships. Rifle bullets, even machine gun bullets, can’t pose a threat to them!"

Someone added:

"A bullet would just create a hole in the balloon, partially deflating it. It could even complete its mission before descending to patch the hole, that’s all!"

"Yes, within a few hours, it would be repaired and re-inflated into the sky!"

Shire didn’t even lift his eyes as he responded softly while still focusing on the map: "Then, how about the Congreve Rocket?"

The room instantly fell silent, everyone looked at each other, unsure how to respond.

Eric laughed heartily, shamelessly cursing at the Belgian officers: "You idiots, all you think about are bullets, shells, and you’ve forgotten the Congreve Rocket. You’ve just received the rockets and didn’t even think about it!"

Fisher’s face was embarrassed. Eric was talking about him. He had just received a batch of rockets and stored them in the warehouse, thinking at the time, what use could these primitive weapons have? They should have been eliminated fifty years ago!

However, he didn’t associate them with attacking balloons!

After considering for a while, Fisher nodded:

"This might work, I mean, the chances of success are high!"

"We all know the balloon is filled with hydrogen. If it encounters a rocket..."

"My God, it will instantly turn into a fireball!"

The more Fisher spoke, the more he felt this idea was genius and bound to succeed!

But then someone raised a question:

"How do we bring the rocket onto the plane and launch it?"

"The rocket might not penetrate the balloon’s flexible outer layer; it might even bounce off and fly in another direction!"

...

Shire gave answers to each question:

"Bringing it onto the plane is easy; you just need to fix it between the vertical struts of the wings!"

"Penetrating the balloon’s outer layer isn’t difficult; you just need to attach a blade to the rocket’s tip, so it can cut through the balloon’s outer layer instead of bouncing off!"

Eric laughed arrogantly again, sweeping the room with a disdainful look, shamelessly cursing: "A bunch of idiots, let me show you French intelligence!"

Although the Belgian pilots were ashamed of being scolded, their eyes were still filled with excitement. After all, they were fighting for Belgium, and no one would reject victory.

Moreover, this was the first time humans ever bombed balloons with aircraft, a battle that might even be recorded in history, marking them as heroes for posterity!

Thinking of this, the pilots’ gaze at Shire changed instantly, filled with astonishment and admiration, they couldn’t believe that such a good method came from this kid, using those equipment that were forgotten and about to be eliminated in the warehouse.

Shire continued to sit calmly at the desk, not feeling there was anything worth boasting about.

This wasn’t his idea. Two years later, a French Air Force Lieutenant, Lepri, came up with this method, using the same approach: attaching sharp blades to the rocket tip, fixing the rocket between the vertical struts of a biplane. Then... Between 1916 and 1918, hundreds of reconnaissance balloons were destroyed.

Until the advent of machine gun incendiary bullets, the primitive combat method of Lepri’s Rocket was eliminated once again.

(Lepri Rocket, with sharp blades attached to the rocket tip, capable of cutting through the balloon’s outer layer)

(A British seaplane carrying eight rockets)