Mission 10 - Three Bridges to Victory - 19th October 1916. 52Sq. The Bulldogs.
or a bridge too far.
Jock McKendrick sat back in his chair and let the CO. ramble on about one more push, breakthrough, victory and…………. He had heard it all before. The warm afternoon Sun of late Autumn lulled him into a pleasant sense of tranquility.
He idly watched a fly settle, and crawl across the map of the Front Lines that the CO was indicating with his cane. The fly moved. The CO. was quicker with his cane. Another red smudge on an already blood soaked front Line.
"Well McKendrick"…… Jock realized that the CO was addressing him.
"Yes Sir!"
"So you think you can handle the three bridges, and the underground Hun supply line?"
"Yes sir." Jock answered, without knowing exactly what he was letting himself in for.
"Good man! Take Brownlow and Dawkins in the One and a Half, and Fagin and Sykes in the FE. Hit 'em at dawn tomorrow. Pick up the aerial recon photos of the bust bridges from the Ops. room, and good luck.
So it was that Dawn found Jock, Paddy, and Bill Sykes well over the lines of the stalled British advance looking for three demolished bridges and any signs of the entrance to an underground supply route under the river below them.
No Archie was present so at least that was one relief, but finding any signs of a tunnel was like looking for a very small mouse hole in a very large haystack.
After surveying the three sites McKendrick decided to bomb the lot and be done with it.
Gesturing to Brownlow to attack the Northerly Bridge site first, he spotted just what he had hoped to avoid. A trio of Albatros Scouts were homing in on his position.
They had used cloud cover and the grey light of dawn to get closer to the Spad and FE.
They now bore in with a relentless sense of forthcoming mayhem for the outnumbered Brits.
Fortunately for the Strutter they had failed to pick him out in the dawn sky through the thinning clouds.
At extreme range, both sides opened up a withering fire hoping to make their opponents flinch first.
Damage was done on both sides.
Even as they closed Dawkins had let his first bomb go over the Northern most bridge, and was relieved to see a flash of flame and a direct hit.
The FE had also bombed the middle bridge, but in the heat of battle, Fagin
only managed a partial hit to the river embankment.
The combat was now intense, and the Germans took a bit of a bashing, suffering from jammed guns, a pilot wounded, and very little to show for it in return fire.
As the planes swept past each other and Immelmanned, Fagin took a poke at the nearest Albatros DII, but jamming his own Lewis.
The Fracas continued, as Sykes made another run at the centre bridge. This time forced to dive away to his right to avoid a collision, the bomb again only scored a partial hit, but in combination with the first attempt it was enough to finish off the remaining piles of the bridge.
Having returned from his mission on the Northern Bridge, Brownlow in the Strutter took an optimistic squirt at a DII in front of his machine. He was overjoyed to see its propeller just come apart in the air in front of his nose as the pilot took several rounds through his body.
The Albatros winged over and plummeted into the ground with no one at the controls.
Meanwhile Mckendrick was in pursuit of another Albatros trying to keep it away from Sykes' FE. which was now somewhat the worse for wear.
With all bombs dropped, Brownlow headed for home as Dawkins had a last pot at a departing DII.
By a clever bit of flying Sykes turned the tables on the pursuing Albatros, and he and Jock got it bracketed in a hail of bullets.
With little room for manoeuvre the DII headed into a cloudbank and thus restricted the accuracy of both British machines final fusillade before they had to reload.
Whilst this was taking place Brownlow and Dawkins were well out of trouble and on their way home.
At this juncture catastrophe struck the combatants!
Having chased the DII through the cloud bank, Sykes emerged to see that his adversary had Immelmanned and was almost in contact with the FE. Instinct took over and with consummate skill Sykes banked and dived avoiding a collision by inches.
At the same moment as the DII pilot was distracted by this near miss, Jock found himself in the perfect position to deliver the coup de grace to the unlucky German. One short burst from the Vickers and the hapless German pilot took one through the chest.
The front part of his nose exploded, whilst the now lightened fuselage, climbed uncontrollably for a few seconds, then stalled and went into an irretrievable dive.
Unfortunately, Sykes and Fagin were so close to the doomed Albatros, that the explosion caught their FE and tossed it aside like a straw in the wind setting it on fire in the process.
The stricken Albatros ploughed into the ground.
Recovering from the blast Sykes tried in vain to deflect the flames by throwing the damaged FE all over the sky.
This unfortunately left him prey to the remaining Albatros who far from having gone home was lurking in the clouds waiting for an easy kill.
His victim now presented itself a sitting duck as the German got on its tail. In spite of his accomplished aerobatics to try and throw him off, Sykes could do little to save himself.
Even McKendrick's attempt to insinuate his Spad between to two protagonists failed.
Eventually succumbing to a combination of bullets and fire damage the FE went down, having first jettisoned its last bomb which took out two cows in a field below.
With no more to achieve the two remaining aircraft in the sky, broke off the combat,
and headed for their home airfields.
The Butcher's Bill.
52 Sq. Bulldogs.
2nd Lt. Frank "Jock" Mckendrick. RTB. one kill.
Lt. William "Bill" Sykes. SD. F. ET.
Sgt. Patrick "Paddy" Fagin. SD. F. ET.
2nd Lt. Oliver Brownlow RTB. one Kill.
Cpl. Jack "Artie" Dawkins. RTB.
Kaiser's Eagles.
Two Albatros DIIs shot down.
One Albatros.RTB.
Afterword.
As the number of supplies to the German front lines showed no signs of decreasing it was assumed by British Intelligence that the South Bridge was in fact the supply line and therefore that in spite of the heroic efforts of the RFC. the mission had failed.
Now the D. word is really banned! Two out of three bridges destroyed. How could I be that unlucky with my roll?
Rob.
Reply With Quote
Well I know exactly how you feel Rob.
Let me know what ace ability he has developed !
Originally Posted by flash
Bookmarks