OTT The Early Year - Mission 9 (diceslinger)
As Joe flew toward the front he unconsciously shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to shrug off the enormous burden on them. Joe had accustomed himself to a certain lightness about his work. He was a fighter pilot, and that meant shooting down planes, every one with a man in it. Sometimes two. It meant living on the knife’s edge, balancing on instinct with danger bearing down on all sides. It meant life or death for every man in the sky. This mission was different. For one reason, it had been shrouded in secrecy. Even when it was revealed, it was difficult to understand this new type of invasion device. Metal vehicles with treads and engines called “tanks.” The grainy photographs pinned to the briefing board were perhaps intentionally vague. It was hard even to figure out which end was the front. Another reason, and this reason weighed on Joe far more than even the iron tonnage of the tanks, was that this was a big push. It wasn’t just Joe’s life in his hands, it was thousands of men on the ground. The Germans would no doubt be attacking these tanks, and the advancing infantry. Every German that wasn’t shot down meant death for scores of his countrymen on the ground. Joe fidgeted in his seat, loosening his shoulder straps.
As Joe, Gordon and John Henry approached the lines, they spread out. The advance had begun and already the tanks were advancing. Infantrymen advanced beside and behind the tanks, ensorcelled by the choking black exhaust of the tanks. At the first sight of German planes Joe’s keen mind reflexively started to analyze the situation. He broke left to close up behind John Henry’s silver Nieuport. Joe had also kept the silver colour, but had painted a V on each wing in a personal remembrance he was reluctant to talk about. Joe wasn’t sure if his squadron mates had noticed the Albatros D. Is approaching, but Joe knew the twin guns they carried made them the priority targets.
Gordon’s muzzles flashed as he opened fire. He had clearly surprised the German Halberstadt who had been focused on the rumbling iron monstrosities below.
IMG_2695
In front of Joe, John Henry also opened fire, however the Albatros D.I, was only surprised for a moment, and a quick yank of the stick brought those twin Spandau machines guns up to meet his attacker.
IMG_2696
Joe, was quickly focused back on his position as a sharp tang! tang! rang off his motor. Bullets ricocheted bright sparks and smoke started obscuring Joe’s vision.
IMG_2697
Unable to see, Joe turned in the direction he imagined his attacker approached from. Smoke choked his lungs and stung his nostrils. Catching a glimpse of the tan Halberstadt he saw the pilot was taking aim and preparing to fire. Joe quickly saw that the guns weren’t trained on him, but on the densely formed advancing infantry. Knowing those bullets would mow down swaths of soldiers, Joe drove his stick forward instinctively. Joe would mull that moment over in his mind for months to come. Why had he done such a move? The sudden dip indeed forced the Halberstadt to dive, throwing off his aim, but the dive came too slow and Joe saw in a split second that a collision was inevitable. Joe pulled back on the stick with all of his strength, and his plane staggered sickeningly as the undercarriage smashed into his opponent’s upper wings. Joe fought his plane as it fluttered and bucked. For a moment his Nieuport hung in the air, the lack of movement in in any direction more unsettling that any bucking that preceded the calm.
IMG_2701
While Joe floated, waiting for fate, luck, or whatever divine will decided if it were his time to fall off of the thin knife’s edge he existed on, the other German planes passed the Nieuports and strafed the infantrymen below.
IMG_2702
As Joe reclaimed his rightful place on the knife’s edge and his wings reluctantly began to support his plane groaning and complaining as the motor drug them along, Joe checked his six, and saw the Halberstadt engulfed in a roaring conflagration!
IMG_2704
Knowing the army below needed his protection, Joe threw his plane into a dive, then a steep turn to whip around on the burning Halberstadt’s tail. He saw quickly that the fate of the Halberstadt was sealed. The burning plane spiraled to the ground.
IMG_2708
However, Joe couldn’t follow it down, even visually. To his left Joe caught movement. Snapping his head he saw a green and brown Halberstadt firing at the tanks below.
IMG_2707
Joe’s approach from above hadn’t been observed. As the Halberstadt banked Joe opened fire. At first Joe’s tracers burned streaks to the German’s side, but with the barest touch of his foot on the rudder his trusty Nieuport yawed just a few degrees and the bullets struck the cockpit area.
IMG_2709
Joe kept on the Halberstadt’s tail, ducking and weaving instinctively as the German tried to escape. Burst after burst tore holes in the green and brown canvas.
IMG_2710
As Joe chased the Halberstadt, something made him snatch a glance towards his six. He was immediately glad he did, as he saw John Henry in trouble. A Halberstadt and an Albatros had reversed directions and were screaming towards John Henry’s oncoming Nieuport. Joe broke off his attack, putting his plane nimbly on its wingtip. Barely in range, Joe opened fire. He knew he was too late however as he as he saw John Henry go into a wild spin plunging towards the ground.
IMG_2713
Joe swung around on the two German’s tails, firing short bursts. He blanched however when he depressed the trigger and his gun was silent. As the two Germans spiraled and swirled they tried to both avoid Joe, and shoot at the infantry below. Joe guessed that they didn’t know his gun was seized up, and with a grin made a slashing feint just as he saw the Albatros pilot look over his shoulder. Such was his bold move’s conviction, the Albatros flinched and jerked his stick without looking forward. The Albatros veered sharply, its propeller chewing into the tail of the brown Halberstadt. The Halberstadt immediately plunged toward the ground.
IMG_2723
Joe’s game was up however. He hammered on his guns with the small steel tool he carried and the Albatros pilot saw this. Ignoring Joe on his tail, he poured bullets into the infantry on the ground. Joe saw them fall, but could only hammer harder.
IMG_2725
Seeing a bent cartridge fly out of the gun, Joe let loose on the Albatros as it targeted another tank. We was rewarded with a stream of smoke trailing from the German’s Mercedes engine.
IMG_2726
Meanwhile, Gordon was jousting with and Albatross of his own. Trading fire, the green Nieuport and the yellow Albatros twisted and spiraled through the air at each other.
IMG_2712
Gordon’s nimble Nieuport flicked around, and Gordon harassed the Albatros, emptying his wing mounted gun at the Boche. Sunlight shone through the punctured fuselage all around the cockpit area of the Albatros.
IMG_2716
The Albatros, focused on the tanks he was quickly overtaking, ignored the hail of bullets tearing through the air around him. The German’s determination paid off as Gordon’s fuselage gun jammed, leaving the Hun to strafe his target.
IMG_2717
IMG_2719
Across the landscape the two planes twisted and dove, until they both turned, nearly missing each other and gained a breath of space.
IMG_2727
Gordon, seeing Joe closing, hemmed in the Halberstadt with an incandescent stream of tracer. The Halberstadt dodged the other way. While the dodge kept Gordon’s bullets from biting into its frame, as many inexperienced pilots do, the German forgot his vertical movement. This momentary lapse was all Joe needed. A quick burst, fired ahead of the German much like leading a bird with a shotgun, Joe’s bullets found the cockpit, and the already wounded pilot slumped over. His plane winged over and dropped from view.
IMG_2729
IMG_2731
Joe couldn’t watch the Halberstadt’s fate, the next instant he felt the peppering of lead rattle his plane and the yellow fuselage Albatros opened his twin Spandau machine guns at him.
IMG_2730
As the Nieuport flashed by, the Albatros turned his attention again to the infantry on the ground.
IMG_2732
This was his mistake, and Gordon banked steeply to capitalize on it. However he didn’t count on Joe’s fast steep turn, bringing his plane around to chase the Albatros. The two brushed wings, and Joe nerves jangled. The wings vigrated violently like giant tuning forks, but didn’t break. They two were close enough that they exchanged the taunt expressions of two men teetering on the knife’s edge, waiting for fate to decide if it would be their time to fall. It wasn’t, and they turn their attention in unison the remaining German fighter.
IMG_2733
With Gordon hemming the last German in from the left, the German made a break to Joe’s right. Joe squeezed his firing lever and stitched a short burst into the front of the Albatros.
IMG_2734
The Albatros turned over and began a lazy arc earthward.
IMG_2735
The staccato tak tak tak of a machine gun erupted in Joe’s ears. He looked up from the earthbound Albatros to see another Albatros right in front of him. Gordon’s guns erupted with a stream of deadly bullets. Reflexively Joe slapped the trigger lever. Spent cartridges dropped away from his barking gun. The black crossed Albatros opened his twin machine guns, one for each of them Joe realized. Except both of them were trained on him. Bullets blazed, white hot tracers drew short lines between the three planes…
IMG_2736
Then suddenly there was silence. The last Albatros dove towards the waiting fields and forests, able to withstand gravity’s beckoning no more.
IMG_2737
FIN
The Butcher’s Bill
Joe Davis / RTB / 4 KillsIMG_2738
Gordon Macpherson / RTB /
IMG_2739
John Henry Gurdon / SD NML / Captured and Escaped. Miss 3 scenarios.
IMG_2740
Tanks
1 infantry destroyed. All 5 tanks survived.
IMG_2746
Harry Buhl / SD NML / Severely Injured, skip 5 scenarios Landed almost home. / 0 Kills
IMG_2741
Erich Seywald / SD NML / Injured, skip 1 scenario. They didn’t even see me! / 0 Kills
IMG_2742
Friedrich Gussmann / SD NML / Injured, skip 3 Scenarios. Captured! / 0 Kills
IMG_2743
Wilhelm Kummetz / SD FT / Bruised, Skip 1 scenario / 0 Kills
IMG_2744
Alfred Mettlich / SD FT / Injured, skip 3 scenarios / 1 Kill
IMG_2745
Post Script:
Well it is great to be flying again. I love flying the Nieuports, so I was glad to come back in with this mission. I must have been saving some luck, this was an amazing game with a furious finish. I was aghast to that Joe shot down 4 planes! I counted the plane downed by collision and fire to Joe, I figure if you can ram a plane out of the air and live to tell the tail, that counts as a kill! I also counted all downed planes as landing in No Mans Land. With the confusion of an advance I figured this was fair for both side. I guess I need more Germans, the Eagles look laid up for a few day!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks