Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Captain Edward Rickenbacker of the USAS 1st Pursuit Group. craned his neck around and scanned the skies. The late afternoon Sun glinting off the scattered clouds gave him no help as he watched for the re appearance of his wingman Sammy Kaye. He last saw Kaye shepherding the damaged Spad of Lt. Ray Evitt out of a brush with two Fokker DVIIs.
Eddie was now shadowing the two Fokkers, waiting for an opportunity to jump them as they crossed the lines.
Slowly the two machines drew closer together, as if seeking mutual protection from the Archie fire which they expected to erupt at any minute.
Rickenbacker took this as his best chance to catch them off guard, and screamed down upon their flank like an avenging angel.
Before either knew what had hit them, Eddie banked behind them and punched a severe hole in the left hand machine, damaging both rudder and pilot in one short but telling burst from his twin .303 Vickers.
Maintaining his advantage Rickenbacker continued to hose the rear of the Hun machine.
The surprise and ferocity of Eddie's onslaught caused both pilots to seek evading tactics.
Unfortunately they both chose to turn into each other's path, and collided.
Rickenbacker's original victim escaped unscathed, but severe damage was inflicted upon his wingman's machine.
Whilst the DVIIs were thus distracted, Eddie tried his luck on the second machine, but the click, click, of his guns indicated the inevitable jam that was a part of many battles.
Forced to disengage, each pilot moved apart trying to assess what damage had been sustained to his machine, whilst Eddie frantically tried to clear his guns.
Within a minute Rickenbacker had cleared his jam and returned to the attack with a sideslip which brought his enemy back into close range.
The first burst with the cleared guns surprised even an experienced pilot such as Rick was.
Obviously damaged far more by the collision than was apparent, the Fokker's wing simply folded up, and the aircraft spiralled into the ground exploding on impact.
Rick now sought out his other opponent.
As he drew closer, he spotted a new player in the game. A red and white DVII slipped out of a nearby cloud formation and headed for the dog fight.
Before it could intervene, a vicious little encounter was underway, in which Eddie only escaped injury due to using one of his formidable Ace skills.
Diving towards the action the new pilot assessed the situation.
The damaged German machine seemed to be heading for the security of the cloud base, whilst the Spad was heading towards his own aircraft.
Being no coward he went head to head with Eddie's Spad and exchanged a sustained burst with the American Ace.
Having passed, Eddie performed an Immelmann turn just in time to catch the other DVII re-emerging from the cloud in an attempt to tackle him from behind.
Eddie made a frontal pass mauling the Hun, and then continuing toward the Red Fokker, who had circled to meet him.
The sudden turn almost brought the two aircraft into contact, and had it not been for Eddies consummate skill in avoiding his enemy the situation could have been dire for both pilots.
Pulling an Immelmann to complete his manoeuvre, placed him ideally on his enemies tail but slightly above him.
He was thus annoyed when after a short burst which damaged the German's tail the guns jammed once again, allowing his quarry to slip away.
Whilst clearing the deformed round, Eddie was now assailed by the second DVII who turned in to his flank and put a round through the oil feed pipe causing oil to drip onto the hot engine.
The resulting smoke obscured Eddie's view and made it even harder to extract the miscreant bullet case.
At last with his guns cleared Eddie turned the tables on the Hun machine and brought it down in one pass, raking it from nose to tail.
As the German machine went down, the red Fokker swept across in front of Rickenbacker. Another fusillade from Eddie's guns set this aircraft smoking.
These last two gladiators of the air now commenced a final confrontation wreathed in the smoke eminating from the two machines.
First blood went to Eddie, but once more his guns jammed, and he was forced to break off.
Fortunately the DVII pilot did not follow up and both aircraft separated, allowing Eddie the breathing space he needed to attend to the third stoppage of the encounter.
As if by tacit agreement that they would put an end to the fight, both pilots turned towards each other and made a head on approach with guns blazing.
Eddie held his nerve, and after the German machine flinched away, was gratified to see the smoke of his adversary turn to fire.
Turning to give chase, Eddie peppered the DVII with bullets, but was unable to get a clear view of his antagonist through the flames and smoke enveloping the German kite.
Finally as the German twisted and turned his aircraft in an attempt to keep the flames away from the cockpit, Rickenbacker got in one clear shot, which was enough to finish the contest.
The DVII started a slight climb, stalled, lurched over and nosedived into the ground some 5000 feet below.
With hardly any ammunition left, and in a battered aircraft, Eddie decided to return to his airfield, rather than have a crack at the German Observation Balloon hovering tantalizingly close at hand.
The Butcher's Bill.
Captain Edward Rickenbacker of the USAS 1st Pursuit Group RTB. 3kills.
Three unknown German Machines shot down.
Rob.
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