Marechallannes

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Since the very first Wings of Glory Summer Con in 2012, my friend and wingman Andrzej, the „Nightbomber“ invited me for a stay in Poland. After a long term planning I arrived the morning Dec. 4th in Kepa/Opole for a 3 day inspection of the Opole Wing

A European Union Flag marked Nightbombers HQ. A promising blue sky was over Upper Silesia.



After a hearty welcome by him and his family, he served us a premium pilot breakfast with ham, eggs, coffee and much more.
2 hours later, after a short power rest I my guest room, we went to Opole and Andrzej, showed me his home city. He used a nice book with old pre WW I postcards, to show me the still existing buildings that were displayed in the book.



You could feel this charming atmosphere by walking through the old town of Opole.



Andrzej surprised me with his detailed knowledge about the city, showed me many places and a museum of living in the 20th century in the city and had organized a special tour in the old castle tower (Piastenturm) in German, just for me.
We had an excellent view over Opole on this tower.



We returned to his HQ and prepared for the visit of the Opole wing for a Wings of Glory game. I brought my special Pfalz D.III with me and the German high command had authorized me to assign the Pour le Merite to the best pilot of the evening.

For easier communication I had a special card with me that displayed some basic command in Polish and German.



A first Polish beer was tasted and we hold on the moment with a picture of us with the good spirit of the Opole HQ, Andrzej’s wife Edyta.



We came together for a group picture before the game.
To the left you can see the victory chart, on the right on the table of the living room you can see a few of the goodies to eat, Andrzej’s family, friends and neighbors arranged and brought to eat for this evening.



My only wish for this visit was to taste some original Polish/Silesian food and they really cared for me. So don’t wonder if you found some pictures of meals in this report. (You can’t eat miniatures and drink aviation petrol, you know.)

This was the famous Pirogi, with different tastes, like potatoe, Kraut, meat, cheese and spinach, served with lard and onions.

Very tasty!



Beside this we had two kinds of Bigos, a meal with spiced Kraut & sausage. I can still smell this delicious meal through the picture.
Do I need to talk about the Polish sausage, Silesian bread, Sushi, Pizza, cheese, muffins, fruits, gingerbread and the many other things, like the different Polish beers we tasted?



Ater eating, talking, drinking, the women and girls left the men and boys alone for gaming and went to the cinema. So we were ready for a nice game between US Expeditionary forces on the one side and flight of the German Luftstreitkräfte lead by Leutnant von Oppeln (Andrzej) and Leutnant von Zirndorf (me).

The Nightbomber explained the rules to the Opole wing. We had an US flight of one S.E.a.5 and three Nieuport 28 and a German flight of four Pfalz D.III and Pfalz D.IIIa. We used altitude rules, limited to level 1-4, aim optional rule and collisions.



Here you can see von Zirndorf (red/white/black) and von Oppeln (light grey/black) in combat, flying side by side.



3 victories for the German side and a few beers later, things became serious and we put on our flying caps and googles.



The end of the day saw a victorious German side with 8 planes downed versus 4 aerial victories of the US side. The Yankees had bad luck with explosions and collisions and lost the fight.
But they had the best pilot on their side, that played the whole game with his primary plane and scored 2 victories. All German pilots scored 2 aerial victories too, but were shot down once or had to leave the battlefield due to heavy damage.

Well done!



At midnight we finished a wonderful first day.