Si Caproni.
MEANWHILE:- Somewhere on the Italian Front.
Somewhere behind the Austrian front line is a strategic river crossing protected by a balloon barrage.
The mission involves a Caproni bomber crewed by Tenente Casimiro Buttini and Sergente Luigi Remitti supported by the Ansaldo of Tenente Ricardo Bulimi and Spad flown by Tenente Ernesto Cabruna.
The mission had a twofold interest for me. 1. It was my first test of my Caproni and 2. I had not tried previously to penetrate a balloon barrage, in order to bomb a target.
The opposition would consist of a number of Albatrii DIIIs from Flik 41J and Flack batteries, all determined by dice roll. As it fell out there were two Archie batteries on the Front Lines, three protecting the Balloon Barrage, and only two Albatrii.
As the trio of aircraft crossed the lines they attracted the attention of the Archie batteries but without any effect.
More flack is encountered as they approach the Barrage again with no effect as it is aimed too low.
As the first attack on the barrage is delivered by Cabruna and Bulimi, Buttini alters course in order to try and outflank the left hand balloon.
Meanwhile the Albatrii of Karl Kazala and Frank Linke-Crawford, taking off from their airfield, are desperately trying to climb up to the altitude of the interlopers.
Still climbing they pass on one side of the barrage as Bulimi and Cabruna fly down the opposite side.
As they pass from the shelter of the balloon Cabruna takes a hit from an Archie burst which penetrates his oil line and ignites the leaking oil without doing any other apparent damage.
Whilst this is going on Crawford receives some long range attention from Sergente Remitti which although doing no damage does cause him to brush wings with Kazala causing him some light damage.
More incendiaries enter the balloon from the guns of Cabruna, whilst his fire sputters and seems to die out.
His incendiary rounds now do the trick and starts a fire within the balloon, as Bulimi adds to its woes with a long burst of fire the length of its entire envelope.
Buttini now goes head to head with Kazala winning the exchange of fire in style, as Kazala veers away to avoid a collision.
The balloon takes further punishment from Cabruna and still blazing is given the coup de grace by Bulimi with another telling burst.
This latter, finally sending the gasbag down along with its defensive network of hawsers, giving the Caproni the opening it needs for a bombing run on the bridge.
Buttini times his bombing run to perfection and Remitti lets the full load of bombs go in one release, causing the Caproni to buck in the air like a startled stallion.
All is not well, however, as just at this moment Bulimi comes under the guns of Linke-Crawford and the Ace cripples his machine with a direct hit on the engine.
Butini watches the devastation of the bridge and then turns for home.
Cabruna dives away and the oil fire finally blows out.
It is now Kazala’s turn to take some more attention from the Caproni, and another long range shot from Remitti cuts through a wing member emitting a shower of wood splinters as it does so.
His woes are by no means over as Cabruna pulling out of his dive, stitches a line of holes along his port side at the same time.
Dodging the Archie again, Cabruna’s wingman now delivers more distress on Crawford catching him amidships with another burst of fire.
As the Caproni runs for home it starts to draw the attention of the Archie batteries to itself.
As well as some long range fire from the Albatrii as they try to close in for conclusions with the bomber.
Support is at hand for Buttini and Remitti in the form of their escorts, who emerging from cloud cover now fall upon the pair of Albatrii.
Before Kazala can take cover in the cloud himself, Cabruna delivers the closing rounds and, the Albatros spins down to the ground quite out of control.
As soon as Kazala has jumped clear of the wreck, it ignites in a pall of black smoke and fire.
Job done, our heroes now reunite with the lumbering bomber and run the gauntlet of the Archie over the lines, with Bulimi still nursing his badly running engine.
They finally escape the flack, by entering the cloud base on their own side of the lines, with a job well done and a bottle of Chianti awaiting the return to their home aerodrome.
The Butcher's bill.
AAR.
Flack was a real ordeal, and the outcome may have been very different if I had thrown the dice better and drawn more Austrian Aircraft. As it was, neither Brumowski nor his wingman got off the ground due to engine problems.
The barrage was a success and I may well invest some time in constructing a proper one for demo games.
The one real failure was that the Caproni was hardly tested out, as it seemed to avoid most of the action, and the only real test it got was in my ability to align it for its bombing run which actually was spot on. It must have been purely beginners luck because the 30 degree turns are most awkward when trying to align the plane to a target.
Rob.
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Originally Posted by Niclas
Well done the Italian Flight.
Good job!
Some hoe I missed this one Rob when you first posted it but I really enjoyed the whole 
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