or the fog of war.
Max Immelmann waved to his wingman Hugo Kurtz, and as pre-arranged, the two Eindeckers separated in the twilight which proceeded the dawn and sped towards the enemy lines, using as much cloud cover as they could. Max's ruse du guerre was to cross well away from the British Observation Balloons and then swing East again, to catch them from behind as they were being winched up for the day.
At just about the same time on the Allied side of No man's Land, a two seater One and a half Strutter from 52 Sq, crewed by Lt Edward "Teddy" Leaford, and his Observer Sgt. Noah Claypole took off.
It was trundling its way past the rising balloons, and trying to climb above the extensive cloud cover.
Six weeks into the battle, Leaford reflected, and after an advance to the area behind Montauban and Hamel in their sector, things had ground to a halt. So here he was on patrol once again protecting the Observation balloons so necessary to the information gathering process, prior to the next Big Push.
As the early morning clouds began to disperse Teddy turned onto his by now well known patrol path towards the Hardecourt sector, where the advance had been the slowest.
Turning at the end of his patrol boundary, he was unaware that on the opposite side of the clouds a lone Eindecker was approaching.
At the opposite end of his sector the second machine flown by Immelmann was also fast closing on the balloon lines.
The appearance from the clouds of an enemy aircraft on his eight o clock took Teddy totally by surprise. fortunately it also took the German aviator the same way.
Quickest to react was Claypole who sent a stream of bullets from his Lewis winging towards the Hun machine, but missing by a hairs breadth.
Now fully alerted, Kurtz, for it was none other than he, returned fire and was gratified to see a roil of smoke issue from the Strutter's engine cowling.
Uttering a curse, Leaford turned to face a new peril as, Immelmann appeared straight in front of him with gun blazing.
However, in the exchange of fire that now took place it was not Max, but Kurtz who again scored a hit.
The smoke issuing from the Strutter now turning to flames as Leaford tried to extricate his machine from the devastating crossfire.
Suddenly as the early morning clouds broke up everything changed. The stutter of a machine gun from the ground defences broke into the drama being unfolded above, not only announced that they were now aware of the action, but also that they had a crack shot at the helm. Max's aircraft staggered under the hail of bullets and his engine started to run rough.
Totally undeterred, Max assailed his opponent with a withering fire, but put off his stroke by the misfiring engine just as he tried to close on the Sopwith, he misjudged his attack totally, and smashed right into the British plane.
Whichever blow was the telling one, the Strutter just could not deal with the stress, and with its wings folded, it simply dropped out of the sky like a blazing meteorite, ploughing into the ground some hundred yards in front of the balloon winch lorry.
With the balloon line now totally at their mercy, Max, his own aircraft now burning, and Hugo headed towards their new prey, just as two parachutes blossomed below the nearer of the pair of Caquots.
Before Hugo could get within striking distance of the nearest Caquot it was his turn to feel the wrath of the AA gunners.
Incoming fire ripped several holes in his wings and splintered one of his struts.
Max, however, was on the case and flying over his victims blazing aircraft he attacked the balloon.
Kurtz, despite further damage from the ground attacked the next balloon and immediately set it on fire.
Max was having little success with the other Caquot.
As the first Balloon blazed merrily he was again hit from the ground and himself in turn set on fire for the second time.
As he finally lost control of the blazing aircraft, his final thoughts were that at least no other pilot had ever bettered him up here in the clouds. The true environment of the Eagle of Lille.
Kurtz saw his leader fall and with a heavy heart turned his machine away, still under fire from the AA.
As his battered Eindecker took cover in the last of the remaining clouds, the Balloon continued to burn on.
The Butchers' bill.
52 Squadron Bulldogs.
One Caquot Balloon severely damaged by fire.
One and a half Strutter. Lt. Edward Leaford. EXP. FLM. FT.
Sgt. Noah Claypole. EXP. FLM. FT.
Kaiser's Eagles of Lille.
Fokker Eindecker. Ltn. Max Immelmann. SD. FLM. ET.
Ltn. Hugo Kurtz. RTB.
Rob.
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