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Thread: OTT Early Doors Mission 3 Pricking the Sausage

  1. #1

    Default OTT Early Doors Mission 3 Pricking the Sausage

    Excerpt below from "Eagles in the Sun: A History of Jasta 24, The Kaiser's Eagles" published with permission of the authors, to whom we are deeply indebted

    Chapter 3: Blood On Our Hands: The Fokker Scourge

    As discussed in the last chapter, the Eindecker's introduction to the air war is generally marked as the advent of the first, true fighter. It's appearance may have caused serious concern with the Entente's aviators, but at home it created a feeling best described as hysteria. In the eyes of the public, the "Fokker Scourge", as it became known, was thought to be mostly a consequence of inferior British equipment flown by heroic British pilots who, in the name of one young aviator, were "sent [to the front] to die." The popular British press termed the available British planes "Fokker fodder", and while that may have been true with respect to the severely outclassed RAF BE2, the RAF FE2b and Airco DH2 aircraft that were beginning to make their appearance at the front by early 1916 were more than a match for the Eindecker. As a matter of fact, subsequent flight trials by Entente pilots of captured Eindeckers concluded that the Fokkers were inferior in performance to some of their opponents. The famous Max Immelman, the first pilot to be awarded the "Blue Max", the order Pour Le Merite that was nicknamed after Oberleutnant Immelman, was after all shot down in a dogfight with two Fees in June 1916; surely evidence that the Fee could hold its own against a Fokker. So what caused the Fokker scourge? German tactics surely had something to do with it--Oswald Boelke was to pen down the famous Dicta Boelke later in that year--but the formation of Jastas still was to come. The answer, many modern historians believe, was a combination of superior German tactics and training and inferior training for British pilots, many of which were rushed to the front little or no experience on any flying machine other than a few hours on trainers and possibly led astray by Major Lanoe Hawkers "attack everything". A good example of the level of training that young British pilots received when they had to face their German counterparts can be found in the previously unpublished letter of a young member of what was to become Jasta 24, Leutnant Rainer Maria Rilke (letter part of authors' private collection, and translated by the authors). The illustrations on the following pages are based on the descriptions of the aerial combat by Ltn. Rilke.

    "Dearest Mama,

    Hans has come to visit me on his way home for convalescent leave (I am sure his wound will heal nicely but will leave a scar to make the young girls back home at the next ball swoon--Hans always was the lucky one), and has kindly agreed to deliver this letter to you, personally. This will be much faster than the post, and also will avoid our friends, the war time censors. Just don't tell Papa, you know how he gets whenever he thinks one of this boys is trying to bend the rules. "Military rules! War time!" I can hear him bellowing. Just in case, I will not include a date or location in the letter. Hans can fill in any details.

    I am proud to tell you that I have my first victory under my belt! Four days ago I was chosen to fly one of the rare missions into enemy territory (you may remember me telling you last Christmas how we have orders not to take our fine machines into enemy territory so that the enemy cannot copy our superior technology). The French use balloons to take artillery officers high up into the air with binoculars so they can rain shells on our poor boys in the trenches. So when my colleague Leutnant Thomas Dirnberger and I got the call, we agreed that come what may, we would do everything we could to take down the balloon to spare our boys in the trenches. After all, Hans is there! (Well, I thought he was--I had not yet heard that he had been wounded).

    We made a Bienenstrich [ed: straight line or course] to the coordinates we were given. We had been told that there would be anti-aircraft guns and machine gun nests guarding both the approaches and the balloon itself, but God must have heard your prayers; we did not encounter a single one. When we arrived, the balloon was up in the air, hanging there like a big fat sausage. I couldn't wait to prick it!

    We approached the balloon from the back, Thomas on the left side of it and I on the right.

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    All of sudden Dirnberger cut in front of me, heading to the right. I jerked my rudder and ended up on the left side of the balloon, so he and I changed sides. I was wondering what had gotten into Dirnberger when I saw a lone British fighter to the right. I am not sure what he was doing there, but clearly Dirnberger had seen him and decided to engage. The two planes quickly closed and exchanged fire.

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    In the meantime, I had myself lined up for a strafing run along the side of the balloon to pepper it from back to front.

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    Meanwhile, the British pilot, who clearly was an undertrained novice, rammed poor Dirnberger! (I know that some people may think that the British pilot rammed Dirnberger on purpose, but I can promise you, no aviator in his right mind would risk his craft and life so (except possibly some crazy Russian)--remember what happened to poor Wilhelm in training? You know, the one with the cute Dackel [ed: Dachshund, i.e., Wiener Dog]).

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    Clearly, that collision must have damaged Dirnberger's plane severely. He came around for another pass at the British swine when suddenly his plane just seemed to explode!

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    I had no time to mourn my comrade (later we got a letter from the Red Cross--Thomas Dirnberger was injured severely but survived the crash! He was badly burned when he set his wrecked plane on fire so it would not fall into enemy hands. He will heal completely, but when released from hospital will be shipped to England as prisoner of war. With heroes like him on our side, how can we lose?)

    I kept my finger on the firing stud, stitching a line of holes across the length of it, just like your sewing machine in a piece of fabric. The long burst gave extra damage to the sausage, and gas was streaming out of it like juices from a bratwurst. Ha!

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    The British pilot turned towards me. I could see that the collision and Dirnberger's shooting had damaged his plane--there was fabric flapping in the wind. I have to say that the British pilot was gallant--he closed straight at me ignoring the condition of his plane. Meanwhile, the ground crew was working like mad trying to pull the balloon down.

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    But gallant though he may have been, the British pilot was a fool, or untrained, or both--in order to get a shot at me, he flew straight at the balloon and collided again, this time with the balloon!

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    He did not make it this time.

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    Which left me with plenty of time to take another pass at the balloon.

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    It finally collapsed into itself and came down in a hail of flames. The ground crew were running like little ants! I was considering peppering them a bit for good measure, but decided that getting my plane back home was more important. [ed. note: middle row is +1 damage]

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    I made it home without any problems. The Kommandant included me in the day's dispatches, and my victory is now official! So I think I can say that your "little boy" has gotten a tiny measure of success to add to the family laurels. That should please Papa!

    Hans is eager to get on the way, and so I will close this letter,

    With my dearest affections,

    Your son,

    Rainer


    Last edited by flash; 07-29-2014 at 01:32. Reason: Added Prefix

  2. #2

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    Great intro story. great pics and story following the action.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  3. #3

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    Butcher's Bill:

    Ltn Rainer Maria Rilke: RTB, 1 kill
    Ltn Thomas Dirnberger: EXP, ET, WIA, injured skip 3 (rolled 9-3=6, injured skip 1-3, rolled 6, skip 3), POW (rolled 3-1=2 POW)

    2Lt Gerald Milman: COL, FT, WIA, 1 Kill. (Dirnberger was shot down due to drawing boom card as a result of shot by Milman).
    Severely wounded skip 5 (rolled 6-2=4, severely wounded, skip 1-6, rolled 5, skip 5), almost home, skip 1 (rolled 8), total skips 6
    Last edited by flash; 07-29-2014 at 01:17.

  4. #4

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    Some comments on the scenario:

    it was a nice scenario, definitely want to replay this. I got lucky because (a) I kept rolling low, so no MG or AA appeared and (b) the two collisions pretty much destroyed the DH2 (total of 12 points) and did a dent on the balloon (6 pts). I shot down the balloon at alt. 3, and that was with one plane basically shooting at the balloon without any opposition and help. So just like the others that won because of the boom card, I am not sure if I could have "won" this scenario if I hadn't gotten a lot of the breaks.

    Also, am not sure if there was an AI rule that I did not know about, but once there is an obstacle between you and an AI plane, it is almost certain that the AI plane will collide with the obstacle since the AI moves are designed to bring the AI plane closer to you, even if that means flying straight through the obstacle.

    Side note: glad that the German plane that got the boom card was the AI plane: it got shot at (0 damage), then collided (0 damage), then drew the EXP card next time it got shot at. Talk about a disappointment!
    Last edited by tusekine; 07-28-2014 at 19:08.

  5. #5

    Thumbs up

    That was a masterful story Anthony & a great AAR.
    Your game mirrored mine in that no AA guns appeared.
    Perhaps if we play a similar scenario again we should have B firing M/guns appear automatically after a certain number of turns.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by gully_raker View Post
    :
    Perhaps if we play a similar scenario again we should have B firing M/guns appear automatically after a certain number of turns.
    Yes, that would make the game more challenging. I barely managed to get it done. I think one MG and one AA would make it just about impossible.

  7. #7

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    Anthony where did you get that amazing map? Or did you make it?

  8. #8

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    Great AAR Anthony - and loved the presentation (note to self - must get a copy of this book )

  9. #9

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    Great story line Anthony and well done getting Rainer's first fill - number four for your flight !

    Quote Originally Posted by tusekine View Post
    ...Also, am not sure if there was an AI rule that I did not know about, but once there is an obstacle between you and an AI plane, it is almost certain that the AI plane will collide with the obstacle since the AI moves are designed to bring the AI plane closer to you, even if that means flying straight through the obstacle.
    Sometimes you will find that you really have to play the I in AI ! In these circumstances you could argue that the balloon blocked the line of sight so the AI would not have reacted as it did, or, you could have done what was best for that aircraft and steered it around the balloon. An alternative is to allow that the aircraft can pass over or under the balloon to get where it wants to be, counting a collision only where the peg prevents placement of the base as per the OTT rules for aircraft collisions.

  10. #10

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    Neat little action Anthony.
    Yes very much what Flash said.
    Story line added greatly to the interest.
    Even with M/c gun fire and Archie in my game they never hit anything.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by rkwright View Post
    Anthony where did you get that amazing map? Or did you make it?
    My neighbors made it for me as a Christmas present (we go over to them for Thanksgiving every year, and after dinner the "guys" play a WOW game). Nice, huh?

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    Great story line Anthony and well done getting Rainer's first fill - number four for your flight !
    Thanks! Lost my first pilot, though--out for the rest of the war! Though given the longevity of pilots, perhaps he will be one of the few that actually survives the war.

  13. #13

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    Nice AAR Anthony. When I designed the mission I did think of adding fixed AA and AAMG but I thought it might be a little one sided , what with nasty aircraft to contend with as well: I would be interested in see how a What If mission with AA and AAMG pans out


    I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
    Coming down is the hardest thing

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by tusekine View Post
    ...Though given the longevity of pilots, perhaps he will be one of the few that actually survives the war.
    Think you might be right - though historically speaking most of our pilots have already lived longer than expected !

  15. #15

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    Too true dave , but none of them made it out without an injury or 5!! :lol;


    I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
    Coming down is the hardest thing

  16. #16

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    Very Good AAR Anthony,
    liked the Letter home approach.
    Glad everyone survived

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by rkwright View Post
    Anthony where did you get that amazing map? Or did you make it?
    My neighbors made it for me as a Christmas present!



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