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Thread: Mission 18: A Day at the Beach

  1. #1

    Default Mission 18: A Day at the Beach

    Pilot officer Michael Fox sat on a wooden lawnchair, reading a newspaper. It was a beautiful day at the RFC’s seaside aerodrome in Dunkirque. The weather was balmy – sunny, but not too hot nor too humid. Fox grinned, letting the slight breeze play with his blonde hair. You just couldn’t ask for a better day at the beach. He reached over for his glass of iced tea, took a swallow, shook the paper to straighten it, and continued reading.
    A week earlier, he had been slogging it out with the rest of his squad on the front lines near Verdun and St Mihiel. Previously, men from his group were unable to be spared as High Command needed every pilot they could get their hands on to keep the Huns and their Fokkers at bay. But now, the Yanks had arrived and with them, several squadrons of aeroplanes. This took the load off of the experienced, but war-weary RFC and French Armée de l’Air. As a direct result of that, Michael had been granted a 3 weeks’ reassignment to a RFC aerodrome based at Dunkirque that saw little to no action. It was really just a vacation leave disguised as a temporary reassignment.
    Right now, the lawn chair, newspaper and iced tea notwithstanding, Michael Fox was on duty. It was the practice of this aerodrome to always have one pilot on the airstrip on call, ready to go up if anything happened. Action here was sparse, but when it came, you needed to be ready for it, or before you knew it, your enemy would have struck and gone home already. So it was that Fox found himself happily “on duty” that afternoon, with nothing more disturbing than the latest cricket scores to worry about.
    “Look out! Look out!” Fox looked up from the paper to see a very agitated soldier running towards him as fast as he could go. The man ran up to Fox, his binoculars swinging around his neck wildly.
    “They’re here!” The man gulped and caught his breath. “Huns! There’s one out there as I just saw!”
    “Really?” Michael leaned forward and motioned for the binoculars. “Mind if I have a peep?”
    Still wheezing from his run, the soldier handed them over and pointed west. Michael took the binoculars and scanned the horizon, twisting the dial to focus the lenses. Sure enough, a plane was slowly motoring its way towards them. He had seen plenty of British and French-built machines, and this didn’t look like any of them.
    Must be an honest-to-goodness Hun then! Fox turned to the soldier, but he had already run off again to warn the rest of the base. Fox scampered over to his Triplane parked fifteen feet away and caught the arm of a mechanic near it.
    “Hullo there old man, do you know how to swing a prop?”
    “Yes sor,” the greasy mechanic replied. “You just ‘op in an’ oi’ll ‘ave you running in a jiffy.”
    “Splendid!” Fox clambered into the cockpit and the mechanic half-swung the prop. Fox thumbed the ignition switches and yelled “Contact!” The mechanic gave the prop a full swing and the engine sputtered to life.



    Mission briefing
    Central units involved:
    1 Brandenburg W.12 (pilot Gregor Finke, gunner Josch Blohmhausen)

    Allied units involved:
    1 Sopwith Triplane (pilot Michael Fox)
    2 AA emplacements

    It’s been quite some time since our last campaign mission. Since my last AAR, I have started college and work at my job has picked up, so my schedule has been full lately. But since today was a Saturday and since it was raining outside, we got out our minis and did the next mission of our campaign.



    The mission started with the Brandenburg entering play from the left side with the open sea at its back. The Triplane started the game on the ground at a seaside aerodrome with two AA guns for cover.



    Pilot officer Fox runs to his waiting crate as the air raid siren starts to sound. Faintly outlined on the horizon, the Brandenburg creeps closer.



    As Fox climbs madly for altitude, the Brandenburg turns and bears down on the southeastern AA. Flak billows and pops around the bandit but does little to no damage.



    In passing, the tail gunner lays some damage on the gun. But by now, Michael Fox is almost close enough to fire off a few rounds. All he needs to do is climb a little higher…



    For several turns, rear gunner Josch Blohmhausen relentlessly hammers Fox’s fragile triplane as he climbs to gain enough altitude.



    By the time Fox is at equal altitude with the Brandenburg, it is already coming in on a high-altitude strafing run on the northeastern AA gun. A grim firefight between the rear gunner and Fox ensues.



    Suddenly and decisively, both the rear gun and Fox’s guns jam from overheating. Still, the front guns of the Brandenburg remain operational.



    Brandenburg pilot Gregor Finke uses this to his advantage to make for another strafing run on the southeastern AA. He also fools pilot officer Fox, who was expecting him to turn around and engage the northeastern AA. Gregor makes a strafing run on the gun and nearly destroys it, giving it 4 points of damage total. Just another pass, and I shall have it!



    In his excitement to finish off the AA, Gregor makes a terrible mistake and flies in front of the AA’s arc of fire. Once inside the AA’s line of fire, he cannot maneuver out of it again for some time. For 4 consecutive turns, the AA fires at him, damaging him a little more each shot. It all ends as soon as pilot officer Fox reacquires his target and lacerates it with holes. The engine shudders, catches fire in a spectacular burst of light and the Brandenburg lawn-darts into the ground, trailing thick smoke behind it.

    Debriefing:


    Gregor Finke is shot down by Sopwith triplane piloted by Michael Fox; KIA.
    Josch Blohmhausen; KIA.


    Michael Fox shoots down Brandenburg W.12 piloted by Gregor Finke; 1 kill confirmation requested; RTB.
    Last edited by HotleadColdfeet; 04-25-2015 at 07:20.

  2. #2

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    Certainly good to see to more unusual protagonists in the combat arena Cole.
    What altitude did you decide the tripe could climb to in order to get a decent game time?
    I always find that the most boring part of a mission, especially if the grounded aircraft has a slow climb rate.
    Very neat photos and a good story line.
    Thanks for the show.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  3. #3

    Thumbs up

    Nice to see something different in an AAR Cole!
    Well done the AA & Mr Fox.

  4. #4

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    Thanks guys!

    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    What altitude did you decide the tripe could climb to in order to get a decent game time?
    I always find that the most boring part of a mission, especially if the grounded aircraft has a slow climb rate.
    Fox was at altitude 1 and had 1 climb counter as soon as his wheels left the ground. The Brandenburg maintained a steady course at altitude 2 the entire flight. So at game's start, Fox would be able to shoot the Brandenburg at half-ruler's distance. To be at the same altitude, he had to climb and/or Immelman twice, per the tripe's climb rate of 3.

  5. #5

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    Sound idea Cole.
    I like to give them action as fast as possible too. At one show, I spent the whole game trying to climb to attack a bomber, only to get shot down just as I reached altitude 18. Then the bomber went on to deliver a perfect target hit from that height!
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  6. #6

    Default

    Nicely done!
    I especially like the use to of the two different table clothes to distinguish between land and water - a clever use of the materials at hand.

  7. #7

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    Nice one Cole, good job those gunners could chip in !

  8. #8

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    Here's the link to our next mission. We certainly had some red-hot action with this one!
    http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sho...111#post349111

  9. #9

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    Another very impressive action over the lines Cole.
    Montgomery certainly deserved his gong.
    Next time he is being hounded at the end of a mission and has a climbing enemy after him, get him to overdive followed by a turn towards the lines. The enemy can't react until the end of the three card sequence. By then he is two levels lower and they have to either dive themselves or try to guess which way he will turn. Either way by the time they have executed the move he will be three cards nearer home without taking any fire, and if they guess wrong on the turn, he will also be heading in a different direction. I have been known to use this ploy twice, if I have sufficient height and skim over the lines at almost zero feet. Do not attempt this double dive, if machine guns are situated near the lines and you have only a couple of hit points left.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  10. #10

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    Love the Brandenburg Cole. Great AAR and some nice photos too.
    Well done Paul


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



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