What Could Have BeenMetz, which stands in the Alsace-Lorraine territory, has been a coveted strategic asset between France and Germany for centuries. Under the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt, Metz was annexed into the newly created German Empire. Controlling this city's railway station, which was directly linked to Berlin, was actually written into Germany's Schlieffen Plan. As such, Metz was remained a strategic military target throughout the Great War (and again in WW2).
The nearby
Toul-Croix De Metz Airfield was acquired by American Expeditionary Force in April 1918. Several US aviation units spent time there, including the 1st Aero Squadron (image below). Today's report likely pertains to ongoing support of the Meuse–Argonne offensive that was a bloody part of the final Allied advance of the conflict, which stretched along the entire Western Front.
(from the Arizona Republican, 30 October 1918):
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(the second photo from the album of famous photographer Edward Steichen, via archive.artic.edu)
What if?: Had the war continued past the November 11 Armistice into February 1919, Billy Mitchell (often considered the father of the US Air Force) might have made military history with the first planned large-scale paratrooper operation:
"
Mitchell... had already employed aircraft in mass formations to clear the skies of enemy aircraft and to strafe and bomb enemy troop positions and supply lines. In September 1918, he had commanded more than 1,400 Allied aircraft, an unprecedented total, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The next month he approached Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, with an idea to break the trench stalemate. Mitchell proposed using British-made Handley Page bombers, as well as Italian-built Capronis, to drop infantrymen plus medium-size machine guns behind enemy lines. He argued that such a surprise attack would catch the Germans manning the trenches in a deadly vis —Allied infantry would attack from the front while the paratroopers would attack from the rear. The Germans would undoubtedly break and flee, and mobility would finally be restored to the battlefield after nearly four years of stalemate.
Mitchell said, “We had a plan, which we were going to try this spring if the war had not stopped, and it would have worked, too. We were going to send our men over the German lines in airplanes and drop them down in parachutes and let them attack the enemy in the rear, while our men were attacking the front.” He said he planned to use the 1st Infantry Division—12,000 men—to be dropped at Metz. His plan was superior to those being drawn for a major ground offensive against Metz, because that city was guarded by “division after division of the crack troops of the German army, anticipating our move.” Using the ground plan, Metz would eventually have fallen, Mitchell argued, but at tremendous cost—yet another bloodbath for which the Western Front had become infamous." (Phillip S. Meilinger,
Billy Mitchell’s Parachute Plan, Air Force Magazine, 2014)
Read more on this 'could have been' situation here:
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Magazine%20Documents/2014/August%202014/0814mitchell.pdf. An earlier application of the concept paratrooper operations headlined here last January:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg252040#msg252040That looks like a Bréguet XIV in the background of todays article. Check out this 1/48 Hi-Tech build of a similar Bréguet in French service by forum member andonio64:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=9965.msg181414#msg181414
