Sorry for lack of updates, but now is time to summarized the construction of the Breguet 14, preparing the parts for the construction of the gluing jig, landing gear, tail ski and smaller parts are glued in this stage.
As we mentioned previously, the Breguet 14s were used for observation and because they were already quite worn-out second-hand aircraft, they did not survive long. Although the Military Brigade established a landing field in Varzea de Gravataí with a guard corps, hangars, offices and workshops, with the fall of the BM-1 and the lack of parts to keep the BM-2 operating, the Military Brigade's air service It was extinguished in 1924 and was only reestablished in the 1960s.
In the two photos we see a soldier carrying a 35 kg stun bomb launched by the Breguet 14 and in the second photo, Ensigns Noemio Ferraz and Osório de Oliveira Antunes, the Service's main pilots, note that Osório uses BAR rifle used both from the air , as a defense in case the plane suffered a breakdown. The two planes made more than 50 reconnaissance sorties in search of Caudilho Honório Lemes, this rebel leader commanding an army of 1000 soldiers on horseback had not yet been defeated in the central region of the state, making use of his in-depth knowledge of the region dominated by mountains, hills, valleys and coxilhas (small rolling hills) escaped the legalist forces. In one of these missions, the BM-1 suffered an engine failure between the cities of Cachoeira do Sul and Caçapava do Sul, crashing and catching fire, the pilot Noemio was seriously injured and Osório burned to death in the wreckage of the plane. Despite their limited use, the Breguet 14 planes were fundamental in clarifying and anticipating movements of rebel troops, in a certain way forcing peace in the State as a strategic asset, which would only occur in 1924 with a political pact, where Governor Borges de Medeiros could not compromise. running again for the state, this opened the way for a young man called Getúlio Vargas, but that's another story.
Continue soon...
