November 3, 1915
"Oberleutnant Joachim Lisbon! The British and French are preparing a major offensive! They are sending every plane they have to bomb tactical targets. Take off and protect the railroad station north of our airfield." "Jawohl Rittmeister Schlesinger!" "Take only one wingman. Your other pilot must join Leutnant Bergmann and defend our airfield while we are away. Who will you take?" "I'll take Neumann, Rittmeister." "Very well. Get to the air."
And off we went. Quickly taking to the air, Leutnant Neumann wasn't able to finish his breakfast, running to his plane, his mouth full, helped dressing his flight vest by Leutnant Thorsten Müller, who stayed behind to guard the airfield and laughing at the comic tragedy of Neumann running, dressing and eating at the same time. Then, as the wheels left the ground, a strange serenity fell upon us. We moved quickly to the railroad station. And of course we saw them coming, two bombers and a scout.
As we had trained dozen times before we both opened up to encircle the enemy. Two heavy and slow Avros 504's and one Saulnier.
The Avros maintained their course and the Saulnier kept with them. Probably he wasn't sure on whom to engage.
Our encirclement was perfect but as we closed in I saw that the Avros had two machine guns. That was new to me. And the gunners were already aware of us. Five machineguns against three...
The first Avro opened up fire against Neumann but failed to hit him and jammed his weapon.
Leutnant Neumann fired back with accuracy. He hit squarely the Avro's tail and the pilot fought with the commands to keep the plane steady.
We finally crossed each other's path and that was advantageous to the gunners.
Both 504's fired at Neumann but failed most of it.
Then we were behind them. We needed to make them lose the will to bomb their target. And only a lot of lead fired against them would achieve that.
Their gunners fired at us with terrible accuracy. We had to endure.
We both fire at them and damaged the 504's. But would that be enough?
They kept going and the railway station was getting closer. "Were in no position to suffer another offensive", said Rittmeister Schlesinger, "we must make sure that the British understand that we are stronger. Another offensive like the Battle of Loos can make us lose the war." The Battle of Loos...
They kept firing, but couldn't train well their machine guns on us.
We fired back. And what a shot!
Leutnant Neumann broke the 504 in two. The fuel or the bombs exploded and a ragtag of wood, metal and canvas fell to the ground. I made small damage against the 504 I was pursuing. But damage does add up...
In the last moment the remaining 504 lost its grip and turned sharply to the left abandoning the bombing pass.
The gunner fired again against me and my plane complained. For a while I lost the control of the plane.
We both fired against the 504 and we pierced him with trails of bullets.
The Saulnier finally returned and was on my back. Neumann turned to face him. I kept my eyes and crosshairs on the 504.
Both enemies fired against me, but their accuracy was poor.
I fired back and failed to connect.
But the Saulnier didn't. The damage done to my machine was adding up.
Neumann put himself between me and the Saulnier. I kept trailing the 504 that was clearly breaking up in the air.
Then he got lucky and my bird caught fire.
Then he got unlucky as my twin weapons fired again and the damage was more than the 504 could support. It broke its spine.
I tried to follow him with my eyes as it fell into the lake, but the fire eating my plane immediately took my attention.
The Saulnier fired against Neumann and his Eindecker suffered more damage. But the Frenchman was flying half-heartedly.
The Frenchman tried to escape. I tried to put out my fire turning right and descending.
Fire damage was killing my Eindecker. I didn't want to burn alive.
And then the fire died. And the Frenchman escaped and Neumann's plane was almost broken. But we did it. We saved the railway station.
I just hoped, as I saw the Frenchman returning to his lines, that the others had done a job as good as we've done...
When we landed we heard the news. Leutnant Anselm Bergmann defended bravely our airfield scoring one more kill before crashing, burning to the ground. Died with the crash. Was a master of three kills. Leutnant Thorsten Müller destroyed a bomber, but only after the bomber dropped the bombs over our hangars.
In the end, with everything added up, we made it better than worse. If there was an offensive brewing the Etante called it off.
Scenario Briefing:
I wanted to play with my new two Avro 504's.
I decided to use some simple rules:
1. Loaded with bombs, the Avros would have to use a stall manoeuvre each turn;
2. The bombers would go against their target and wouldn't deviate unless they were damaged. If a 1 or 2 was rolled on a D6 they would try to avoid enemy fire and;
3. During a turn that no damage is suffered by the bomber it resumes his bombing run.
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