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Marechallannes

Origins Lend Lease 2014 – Day 3

Rating: 5 votes, 5.00 average.
07:30 am Saturday morning. Same procedure as Thursday and Friday. This time the Coffee Shop is a little bit overcrowded and I organized myself a coffee and two Donuts.



08:15 am The USS Yorktown is ready for the setup. Keith and Eric were discussing how to arrange the gaming surface for this big ship.




Cappy Tom prepared his “Heinkel He.111 without cover” mission. It’s a Bob interception mission.

All gamers were flying for the RAF versus automatically flying German bomber formations.




09:05 am Ready for action. The table is full. Thomas (redcoon2) and me were leading the formation with a pair of Hurricanes.




A huge battle. CappyTom released 3 or 4 He.111 formations with 3 bombers each.

The moment Thomas and me made an Immelmann to hunt the leading formation, another 3 Heinkels appeared right behind us…




11:05 am The battle was solved. CappyTom asked me for a beer and something to eat in the restaurant across the street.

I wasn’t shure in this moment and answered, that I had the plan to look at the game company shops in the nearby hall.



It took me exactly 3 seconds to come to the solution: Forget the shopping – go get you a beer with your friends!




We had a lot of fun during the next hour in the restaurant and a good talking.

The restaurant served special Origins meals and I ordered a “Soylent Green Burger” (I’m a Charlton Heston fan) and the mandatory two beers.




12:15 am Time to defend the USS Yorktown. Riley and Keith organized the defense of the carrier. Susan, Charles (guest), me and another guest were the defenders with 3x Grumman F4F-3 and 1x Grumman F4F-4.




01:00 pm After an unlucky boom from Lane’s (a guest) Val rear gunner I had to respawn on the the deck of this amazing ship.

I used one of my own repaints during the game. It's a Grumman F4F-3 with a black cowl and the number 13 on the fuselage. Name of the plane: "The Black Thirteen" of Lt. Kenneth Bowmann from the Midway Rising Campaign. ...I was so proud to see this plane in combat at Origins.

By the way: Thank you Clipper! It was an honor to participate in a mission with this great carrier model.




Keith checked the AA hits.

The Oberst developed special AA range rulers for the heavy and medium AA guns. Beside this he had special dark smoke counters for the area were the AA guns hit.




During our desperate defense of the USS Yorktown, Ken hosted the final WGF mission “Staaken!”.

Three Central Power bombers had to bomb an industrial site and needed to cross a balloon barrage first. Unfortunately I missed Ken’s two WGF missions due to other participations.

You can see Bob, Beth and Thomas on the upper right side in the picture.




Eric lead the last SoG mission of the day: “Escort duty”, a mission were British and French ships try to escort capture merchant ships.



Eric asked me for a picture of this infamous end of a undamaged French 3rd rate. Raking shots through the rear & bow and a final broadside from a third ship.

Party was of course – over.




03:30 pm I was nearly ready with the setup of my WGS Leand Lease mission. Unternehmen Rösselsprung or Operation Knight’s move.

I surprised the participants a little bit with a greeting in German before I changed back to the English language. The look on their faces were awesome.

For a better understanding: My English is far away to be perfect. After three days surrounded by native speakers I felt for myself like I’m the only one with a speech disorder.

But the friends, forumers and guests around never complaint and beared it with patience and friendliness.





04:00 pm Ready for action. From the left: CappyTom (Falco) and Hugh (FW-190D) played for the Axis, Eric (Spitfire IX) and Sue (P51-D) for the Allies.



From the left to the right: Glenn (P51-D), Thomas (P51-D), the guest with the colored shirt (Spitfire IX) and Ann (Spitfire IX) played for the Allies.

Riley get a token from Ken (he needed to clean up after his Staaken mission) and she took part in this mission as a brave Falco pilot.

The Oberst himself get the black Bf.110 and lead the ground attack.




Special thanks to Karl (Jager) who supported me with 3x FW190D, 3x P51-D and 3x gaming mats for this mission. He was in command of two Doras.

Thank you Karl.




The players in battle.

The mission took place in Yugoslavia 1944. The German Falcos and the Bf.110 had to destroy partisan ground troops with bombs or MGs. The P51-Ds had to destroy German tanks with rockets.

Spitfire IXs and FW-190Ds cared for cover from above.




Riley in combat with Partisan ground troops. She showed a lot of engagement.



Her German Falco was nearly indestructible. Have a look at the many zero damages she catched, some of them from Ann’s (MisDomingo) Spitfire XI.

Unfortunately we had to end the game after 2 hours.

Keith earned the most points, but wasn’t on the winning side. I’ll keep my black Bf. 110, he commanded in honor.

I think the players had fun with the most actual WGS fighters.

I had fun myself, watching them.

Nice episode: CappyTom’s Falco lost a landing gear during the mission. After a successful bombing we were wondering where to land his crate after the mission…




The lucky winners: Glenn (destroyed a tank), Susan (destroyed a tank), and Eric (shot down one of the valuable FW-190D of the Reich)

Thomas (redcoon2) destroyed the third tank, but lost during the random determination of the three winners.

Sorry Tom, you already won the Invitational.




06:45 pm Eric & Sue picked Randy & me up for the Aerodrome banket at a restaurant near the Columbus airport.

We were guided by a resolute female voice from Randy’s smartphone.




The restaurant.



This way, pilots, to the Officer’s Mess.



08:45 pm I shared a bottle of wine with Eric. We were all a little bit exhausted and tired from a 3 day gaming marathon with a steady background noise in the gaming hall.

In front of the table you can see a valuable present I received from the Oberst. A 2014 Lend Lease medal in a wooden chest with engravings.




From the left to the right: Riley, Randy, Glenn, Karl, Tommas (TommyZ) and Thomas (CappyTom).

We had a formidable dinner and a good time there, a lot of laughing and talking.

To be honest, the foreseeable farewell for the next day, already casted a (small) cloud over my mood. (sorry - difficult to express in English)




Two Ohio pilots in front of an American WW I fighter ace from Columbus / Ohio. Edward Vernon Rickenbacker.




11:36 pm A last beer with friends at the hotel bar.

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Comments

  1. Flying Officer Kyte's Avatar
    What a wonderful set of memories you have here Sven.
    No wonder you were a little downcast at the thought of leaving the next day.
    Thanks for sharing these moments with us all.
    Rob.
  2. CappyTom's Avatar
    Great recap! Yes in your event Susan blast me almost out of the sky with one pass...she must of shot off my landing gear.
  3. Thomatchef's Avatar
    Thanks for sharing Sven! Looks like a wonderfull time and a great experience!
  4. Oberst Hajj's Avatar
    Another great write up Sven. These posts will preserve the wonderful memories for all of us that were there.

    Your WGS game was the first time that I had flown the Bf. 110, it is quite fast! I took to calling it the "Black Widow-maker" during the game. There were many sad partisan wives in children following that day!
  5. Jager's Avatar
    It was great meeting you Sven, and flying with you. The game you ran was challenging, and lots of nail-biting fun.
    I'm glad you came, and hope to see you again sometime.
    Karl
  6. gully_raker's Avatar
    more great photos & reports Sven.
    You must have had a really great time & you will carry those memories forever.
  7. Nightbomber's Avatar
    Great pics and commentary Sven!
  8. Blackronin's Avatar
    These are great photos and memories to share. Thanks, Sven.