Over The Trenches Mission 9 "Gun Ho" The Raid. Bulldogs Squadron.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

“Gun Ho” The raid.


Kyte almost sped into the Ops. room where the pilots were all gathered.
Thanks to the Mobile Photographic Unit we have the shots we need to identify the position of the Big Gun. From the photos it looks as if it is mounted on a railway wagon for rapid deployment. No wonder the observers could not get an accurate fix on it.










Turner, Wood, and the fitters and riggers have worked miracles to patch up your buses in the short time available, so let’s get stuck in and show these Huns how to fly.
Oh! By the way, I will be leading this show myself.


Within fifteen minutes the flight was approaching the lines with the SE5’s of Kyte and Hawkwood leading the two RE8’s of Bouncer-Smythe and Farmer just behind and below them.



Even before they could cross No man’s land they were bounced by five aircraft from Jasta Raban.
The first fire was very telling. Hawkwood managed to put a few holes through the Jasta Leaders plane, but Kyte, although suffering rudder damage from his opponent, shot it down with his first burst of fire.



The exchange now became manic with a fusillade of machine gun bullets flying everywhere as the two Harry Tates now added their fire to the melee that was rapidly unfolding.



As Hawkwood side slipped to avoid another Albatros, Kyte watched as his Lewis raked the next aircraft he came up against. Its Pilot slumped forward in his seat and the Dv. Banked and fell away from the rest of the Flight.
Meanwhile Smythe had exchanged fire with Muller’s Pfalz and suffered slight damage.



By this time Farmer, Hawkwood and Kyte who had Immelmanned to get on the tail of his quarry were in the thick of it.



An unknown pilot in a Dv. with the old style cross on a white square upon his wings was bracketed in a fusillade of fire from all of them. First wounded by Hawkwood, and set on fire by Farmer, he was then shot twice through the body by Kyte to become his second victim in as many minutes.




Farmer’s RE was , however, also set on fire by the Dv pilot in his death throes even as he plummeted to his doom.


Nigel could not avoid colliding with his main adversary in the crazy dance of death,



and whilst it damaged his engine, for Muller it was more dramatic as his top port wing shed its fabric, and he was forced to crash land on the edge of his own forward trench line, to be extracted from the wreck by a pair of German sappers.



Things were now looking Black for the Germans, as Nigel turned onto his bombing run just as an Archie burst exploded in front of his aircraft.



Although the shrapnel whined overhead the shock wave flung the Harry wildly to one side and ruined the aim of the bombs which fell only partly onto the target. As the smoke cleared the massive gun was still on the rails.






It was now Farmer’s turn to jettison his bombs,




but even as he did so the flames finally engulfed his aircraft and it fell in a flaming ball close to where the bombs had exploded, well short of the target.




With the mission in tatters, Nigel now turned for home, whilst Kyte and Hawkwood decided to extract vengeance on the remaining Jasa 18 machines.
Raban was the first to go as Kyte pulled a stall turn and then as the Triplane crossed his line of fire shattered his prop in a welter of bullets. Three in one afternoon.




Hawkwood was by now on the tail of the burning DV with the unknown pilot and shot part of it away in the chase.




Nigel on his run for home had finally taken some serious damage when his plane was bracketed by Archie fire, and a small oily flame was licking up the side of his fuselage.



It was not the only flame that was causing concern, for despite continuing to tail the Albatros Hawkwood could not get another clear shot for the smoke issuing from his adversary’s kite.



Nigels run for the lines was still fraught with peril but he managed to dodge both the attentions of more ground fire and another pass by a roaming Albatros of Jasta 18.









Kyte and Hawkwood were still also getting the attentions of ground fire but continued to hunt down the remaining enemy still flying.






Kyte now attacked head on an Albatros with a striped tail, and despite receiving no return fire failed to hit it.
Following up, Hawkwood was equally unsuccessful.







After some more desultory manoeuvring during which time Kyte was the only aircraft to manage an exchange of shots with the well handled Hun machine, and seeing that Nigel was now well to the West of the lines, he fired a red very flare to inform Hawkwood to break off the action.










This was none too soon for just as he broke for the lines Kyte was bracketed by another burst of Archie fire, bringing his machine very close to the limit of its tolerance.





With reluctance, both machines abandoned the duel and headed for Bentangles aerodrome.

The Butcher’s bill.
Big Bertha only damaged by bombs.
Hawkwood. Returned to drome slight damage.
Kyte. Aircraft written off. Three victories.
Nigel Bouncer Smythe. Severe damage to RE8. One enemy destroyed in collision. Failed to destroy objective.

Farmer/and Dodgson. Shot down over enemy territory.









Rob.