During the Battle for Loos I went on three consecutive balloon busting missions.
The first, armed with a single Lewis gun, ended in failure. I simply could not inflict enough damage on the balloon to take it down.
When it dipped low enough that I risked ground fire to get into range I broke off and returned home.
After getting my butt reamed the major for my failure I met with Sergeant Moulton.
Together with his team Moulton mounted a Lewis gun on the starboard side of Huntress. With twin Lewis gun I went into action.
Flying above the Hun guns I swooped down on the balloon getting into a nice circular pattern out of range of the Hun AA machine guns. Round and round I went scoring a good amount of damage to the beast while maintaining altitude.
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When I started my first turn the Hun observer bailed out to safety.
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After pulling an Imelman I fired once again; the balloon exploded. The turbulents from the fireball tossed Huntress around like a ragdoll, but under my forceful hands she steadied.
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Ten days later I was again attacking another observation ballon. I approached the beast like I had in the previous mission. My first pass began well as flames erupted from the behemoth. Unfortunately my port gun jammed as well.
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With the balloon in flames the observer bailed. Meanwhile, I un-jammed my port gun and pulled an Imelman strafing the balloon with my starboard gun causing additional flames to erupt from the beast.
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I made one more pass to ensure the beast's destruction before breaking off.
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The mortally wounded creature was totally engulfed in flames well before it hit the ground.
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