Pricking the sausage,( or pop goes the wurst)
Major Bryant was as serious as he ever seemed to get when he announced the Ops for the following day. The whole Flight with the exception of Kyte and Welland were to give ground support to the early morning push that was long overdue.
"Crackit ,van der Maren I have a special job for you two.
Those Hun Sausages which the Squadron has been popping every day this month must be notable by their absence tomorrow when the push is on.
I am therefore assigning you two to take down Fritz again before he sees anything that we would not want him too. Start out well before dawn and, I'm putting Crackit in a Nieuport we have just acquired from the French. It should be able to manoeuvre better for taking down the balloon.
Get off well before dawn and good luck. Remember that the PBI. are depending upon you to keep the German Artillery blinded."
4.30 the next morning saw Toby Crackit and Pete van der Maren running through their last minute checks with the ground crew and donning their warmest kit as although nearing the end of March, at this time in the morning it was still freezing cold at 20,000 feet in an open cockpit.
They had decided to cross the lines well to the North of the balloon and then swing back out of the rising Sun hoping to catch the observers napping as they searched the Western horizon for signs of activity after the overnight barrage concluded. They were well aware by this point of the war what a protracted barrage presaged.
All went well on the outward trip, and just as the first hint of dawn lit up the sky, the German Observation balloon was winched up into the cloud studded sky.
Dead on cue, Crackit and van der Maren stole up on the gasbag from the East.
However, neither of them spotted a slim shadow dart across the landscape, thrown into relief by the same rising Sun which blinded the Observers in the balloon.
A Fokker Eindecker was on the prowl.
As soon as he had the range van der Maren opened up on the balloon and was chagrined to see the total lack of effect that his hits were apparently having.
Crackit had more luck, and hit one of the observers as he tried to climb out of the basket and parachute to safety.
As Pete turned away to avoid hitting the tether, the Fokker homed in on the British pair.
Undeterred by this sudden intrusion Toby turned in toward the sausage for a better look, but did little further damage as he closed rapidly.
Banking away, he did not see the Eindecker in hot pursuit of van der Maren's machine on the opposite side of the target, but Pete noticed a whining in his ears as, from out of the blue, machine gun bullets suddenly whistled past his cockpit.
Pulling an Immelmann he faced off his adversary, but nothing much happened, except for the jamming of the Eindecker's guns.
Uttering a curse, the pilot immediately tried to unjam the gun as Pete's DH2 sped past him and strafed the target once more with no more success than on his first attempt.
It was now van der Maren's turn to utter a curse of frustration.
Meanwhile Toby was knocking seven bells out of the monster with no better luck than Pete. The darned thing would just not ignite.
With a last desperate shot he was passed as the second observer took to his chute, and the winch men finally started to crank the behemoth down to safety.
As turned for his third attempt and opened fire, the Fokker swept around the rear of the Balloon, and viciously raked the Nieuport from tail to nose.
Before Toby could react, struts cracked and wires were severed as his wing dethatched itself at the root. Going into an uncontrollable spin, the aircraft dashed itself to pieces on the ground before bursting into flames.
Strange to say on the far side of the balloon van der Maren was unaware of his wingman's demise, as he had finally succeeded in igniting the gasbag.
The Eindecker now strove to avoid the burning balloon in an attempt to come to blows with Peter's DH.
Cutting things as fine as possible, both pilots attacked each other head on oblivious to the smoke and flame obscuring their view of each other.
Predictably their bullets missed.
As they swung past avoiding both each other and the conflagration, the sausage continued to fry nicely.
As van der Maren pulled away, the Fokker pilot took a gamble.
Swinging as close to the tether as he dared he caught Peter crossing the chord of his circle.
Blasting away, but with streaming eyes due to the smoke, he was unfortunate enough to miss a sitting target.
Pulling an Immelmann Peter was not so lucky as he engaged again on the next pass.
Although doing substantial damage to the German's bus, the return fire set his aircraft on fire.
As he watched the flame flick along his exhaust pipe Peter reflected laconically that it appeared that he had now joined Crackit and the rapidly descending sausage on the mixed grill menu for the day.
As the Hun swept across his front, van der Maren was so busy with the fire, and commencing an over dive that his attempt for revenge went astray and by sheer chance, hit the balloon again, causing the fire on it to spread rapidly forward.
As he whipped past the turning German, he did manage a small amount of damage, but because his over dive had now taken him below the Hun, it was only a long range glancing shot.
His next shot was no better, but the over dive had done the trick with his fire, which now subsided.
Before he could take this in, the balloon finally exploded with a roar which tossed his aircraft aside like a rag doll. On recovering his composure he realized that whilst his fire had finally guttered, his enemy also caught up in the blast had not been so lucky.
The Fokker was now burning.
van der Maren's own machine was also a bit of a shambles by now, so with his objective achieved, he turned away from his erstwhile antagonist, and nursed his crippled Be back toward the lines.
The German machine picked up a further 3 fire points on his way home but managed to get his machine down intact.
Peter, however now came within range of the German Archie who had only just got the range, but it failed to score a hit,
and he crossed No man's land very relieved to still be in one piece.
Despite losing Crackit, the advance could go ahead, and at least today for the PBI the wurst was over.
The Butcher's bill.
52 Sq. The Bulldogs.
Peter van der Maren RTB. one kill.
Toby Crackit. SD. EXP.ET.
The Eagles.
Unknown pilot R.T.B. one kill.
Observation balloon destroyed.
Rob.
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