How could I have ended up alone? Though Gavin. One second, the entire flight was together in formation. The next 4 German fokkers were tearing through their flight guns blazing. He saw his flight leader going down. Turned to his right to avoid flying into another of his flight mates and then he was alone. The sky that was full of planes only a moment before was barren. No Germans and none of his mates could be seen anywhere. He gave his camel a quick once over to be sure he didn't take any damage and decided the best course of action would be to head for home.
Everyone had told him just stick to your flight leader for this first flight chances are you won't even run into the boche. Just get used to flying your crate. Now here he was alone slowly crossing over no mans land alone. He didn't even have a chance to fire his guns everything had happened so quickly. As he replayed the events in his mind he caught a glimpse of a plane flying straight towards him. Oh thank god someone has come to help me. Turning slightly left to get a better view he noticed the plane flying towards him had 3 wings and then he saw the distinctive black crosses.
The sight turned his blood cold. His heart was beating out of his chest. The thoughts of lessons were flowing through his mind. I can run for it he thought briefly. There would be no shame in a greenie pilot making a dash to escape. Then again he is alone too. This could be my first kill!!
His mind was almost mad edit him as the Dr.I made almost a head on pass with him both machines firing at one another. Gavin saw the German pass under him and begin a slow turn to the right. Gavin had his plane in a tight turn to the right. Trying to get on the tail of the Fokker.
For almost 23 minutes both planes turned and danced in the air. Gavin felt bullets ripping into the camel. For a brief moment smoke trailed his plane. His rudder was stuck to the right for a bit then briefly to the left but he managed to keep the plane in the fight. He had no idea if his bullets were even doing any damage to to Fokker. Twice his guns jammed and he fought to unjam them. Then both planes ended up flying almost wing tip to wing tip. The boche made a hard right fighting for a position behind Gavin's camel. Gavin immelmanned and when he leveled out found the German plane directly in front of his guns. He was so close he could see every detail of the Fokker. He held the trigger down and could see the bullets striking the Fokker's fuselage bits were flying off in every direction. The Fokker slowly dipped to the right and started to spiral down to the ground.
Oh god thought Gavin. Oh god he was going to be sick. Fear had a strong grip on him as he watched the German plane fall into the ground. He scanned the sky expecting to find Germans everywhere coming after him for what he had done. Then he started looking for landmarks on the ground. He had to get home his fuel had to be close to empty.
As Gavin approached the aerodrome fear was building up in him again. They will never let me fly again because I lost my flight. I'm going to be courtmartialed for sure. His plane bumped into the ground and he could see people walking from the hangers. As he switched off the engine. He saw the squadron co and other pilots walking towards his shot up camel.
"Dear god old boy, we thought you were lost for sure", said the CO. "The rest of your flight made it back nearly an hour ago". Gavin still fearing the worst was in the middle of relaying the exploits of his first flight, the initial contact, how he lost everyone, the battle with the Dr.I, when a mechanic came out of the hanger at a sprint. "Lt. Whyte, Lt. Whyte" he yelled. "Infantry just called. They watched your whole battle from the ground and wanted to confirm your kill. Congratulations sir," said the mechanic. Then the other pilots were on him in a flash patting him on the back and dragging him towards the mess tent. Even the CO was there laughing at how lucky the boy was.
This was my first attempt at the solo rules and an AAR. Hope this was appropriate. The rules do take some getting used to. The camel I was flying took 11 damage before the immelman that put me in close range of the Dr. I. He had 7 damage the close range 2 card draw was a 3;4 and he was done for. Overall this was great. Really fun way to kill some time today. I do apologize for the grammar and spelling I had to write this up on the iPhone.
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