OTTED Mission 18 - Intercept the Caproni! - 13th June 1917
“Why bloody us again”, Noel Lewis moaned so only Richard could hear. “Can’t the French escort their own bombers. It’s not as if we don’t have enough to do without covering for them”.
“I know it’s not fair Noel”, Richard Rice-Owen quipped. “But if it’s French or our own, either way we’ll be shooting at Germans”, he added with a grin.
“Heads up boys, this afternoon you’re going into Germany, Krupp works in Essen”, Uncle pointed at the map with Robert Dillon squinting and Henry Martin looking over his shoulder.
“The French have had enough of the Germans bombing their country wherever and whenever they please”, Uncle went on, “and are adamant the war be brought to Germany. They were looking for revenge but we persuaded them on a more practical target. If we can take out the Krupp works it will definitely put a crimp in the arms reaching the front giving some relief for the line”.
“You boys will be on the far right covering the southern squadron. You’ll be escorting a pair of Caproni CA.3 to be precise”.
“A French liaison officer should be here momentarily to give you the details on where and when you will form up. I have great faith in ‘B’ Squadron, good luck”.
Before they knew it, they were flying besides two large bombers headed for Germany.
The alarm went off with few to hear it. The Eagles were supposed to be grounded well behind the lines for the day but Hptn Büttner had that look of business on his face as he rounded up Beck, Schwarz and Wolf.
“Off you go. Word from the front has it a large formation of bombers is heading east. They passed over the front and assembly areas and seem intent on some target well to the rear. Intercept as soon as you can, I’ll round up the rest of the Eagles and send them on as soon as possible”.
Schwarz was off first before Beck and Wolf. After 30 minutes they could see far ahead a large number of planes. Schwarz swung east to get in front of them while Beck and Wolf maneuvered to their tails.
Büttner found Schmitt, Richter and Weber and got them moving. The rest of the Eagles were just returning from town and were quickly briefed. A roar of activity swept through the aerodrome like a tornado to prep the planes as quickly as possible.
As soon as one was readied it would take off.
Schwarz dove in from above the clouds but the surprise was on him as the bombers were converging and caught him in a cross fire. A lot of firing for little effect in the few frenzied seconds during Schwarz’ pass. Just as he found his aim his Spandaus went silent.
As Schwarz passed quite close to one bomber, it’s rear gunner, Mario, bent himself low in his pulpit, making him unable to fire.
The speed of Schwarz’ attack caught the formation off guard and their fire at him was erratic.
Beck and Wolf closed in as Schwarz turned to get on the bomber’s tail.
All hell broke loose, the Entente fliers had regained their composure and fired some well aimed shots.
Wolf took a round in the leg. Not being able to fully control his Albatros he had to break off.
Schwarz was caught in a deadly triangle, fired at by all three enemy planes. His engine was hit by an escorting Sopwith and bomber, starting large flames flashing out of it.
Swinging his plane about Schwarz kept the fire’s damage to a minimum.
Schwarz should have been in a great position had his guns not been jammed. He cursed and he hammered mercilessly at them. Luckily his prey’s rear Lewis jammed as he closed in to 30 yards.
Beck joined the fray and scored well on a grey bomber but in return a bullet sent his engine into a violent vibration.
Beck again tears into the bomber but the vibration gets worse and he will have to break off.
Schwarz frantically trying to clear his guns won’t get to finish as his plane starts to fall apart! (oops, yellow bomber fired first but shouldn’t have(jam), grey bomber would have fired the kill shot)
Beck gets in one last burst as he turns off. Reinhardt Richter and Otto Weber pass Beck as they close in on the bombers.
Schmitt comes in from the north but has a Sopwith shielding the bombers.
Richter sees the rear gunner Flavio fumbling with an ammo drum so he closes in with impunity, both he and Weber firing as soon as they are in range.
Schmitt lines up a careful shot but doesn’t get to see the rear gunner slump down out of sight. The Sopwith gunner, before being wounded, destroyed half of the Albatros’ supporting cables collapsing it’s upper wing. Schmitt quickly spins out of control towards the earth.
Richter keeps on the bomber’s tail and sees the gunner almost fall out of the pulpit as he jerks as a round or two hit him.
Weber deals a blow to the Sopwith that gives back equally.
Richter and Weber don’t let up and deal out more damage, Weber setting the Sopwith on fire.
Büttner gets into the action only to jam his guns. (‘nother oops, put Büttner’s shot on the Caproni next to him instead of the target)
Weber also suffers a gun jam but Richter has success and sets the grey Caproni on fire.
Dillon lines up on the German Roland and rips a good hole in it’s lower wing.
Seeing Büttner closing in on the grey bomber’s tail Richter turns on the yellow bomber.
Trading long shots Richter sees bits falling off the bomber, giving much better that receiving.
Rolf Schafer gets on the scene of the battle coming in from the north.
Richter is relentless and scores again on the yellow Caproni. Both bombers aim at the Roland but to no effect. The smoke from the engine fire hinders the gunner on the grey Caproni while Mario just can’t find the range.
As Dillon slowly turns his burning Sopwith away, his crack shot gunner takes Büttner down from extreme range! The crippled Tiger falls from the sky.
Mario finally gauges his shot correctly and hammers the Roland’s engine. The jolt throws off Richter’s aim. Flavio still can’t see where the Roland is through the smoke.
Even though the engine running rough Richter positions himself behind the Caproni so Weber can also shoot at it. Mario’s shot does little damage as Richter sets his second Caproni on fire!
The fires horribly burn the Entente planes, sending Dillon and Martin to the ground.
The Caproni pilots are in a panic with both on fire. Concerned with only their own predicament they don’t notice the other and veer too closely to each other.
Richter and Mario keep firing regardless the surroundings.
In a few seconds of horror the burning bombers somehow avoid a collision. Fists flying in the air in front of each pilot at the other.
With the engine running more roughly Richter decides to break off. He takes one last shot. It was all it could take, the yellow Caproni flops awkwardly and then starts nosing towards the ground. They release the bombs hoping by the grace of God they may survive the upcoming meeting with the earth.
Mario gets off one last shot.
Flavio finally has a break and the smoke blows behind him. He gets a clear shot and riddles the Roland sending it to the ground not far form his brothers.
Rolf Schafer, amazed to what he has just witnessed, doesn’t notice Hugo Werner and narrowly avoids colliding with him.
Ltn Amadaeus Schubert piloting Rudi Koch’s Rumpler arrives behind the pair of DIIIs.
Just as it looked as the fire was going out it found new fuel and burst out again. (3rd fire card was another fire!)
The smoke was again blinding Flavio but it was so thick that Schafer and Werner had difficulty seeing the Caproni. They fire anyway and Werner’s guns jam on the wasted shot.
Too intently focused on the Caproni Werner and Schafer again almost collide, gently touching wingtips reminds them they need to separate.
Flavio puts a few holes into Schafer’s plane.
As Werner works on his jam Flavio puts a shot into him while Schafer jams his guns.
Schubert is slowly closing in as the scout pilots curse and work their jammed guns.
Flavio places a few more rounds into Werner’s Albatros.
Finally the fire has done too much damage and the big bomber breaks apart, slowly making a thick black trail to the ground.
Schafer, Werner, Schubert and Zimmermann head back to the aerodrome knowing they are all that will fly home.
Butcher’s Bill
2Lt Noel Lewis RTB 0 kills
2Lt Richard Rice-Owen RTB 0 kills
They could not keep up with the battle as they must have had engine trouble.
Sgt Robert Dillon SD FLM ET 0 kills
6 - 2 (flm) = 4 injured, dr 2 miss 2 missions
EET 6 - 1 (flm) - 1 (wic) - 1 (et) = 3 captured but escapes! dr 2 in hiding miss 2 missions
total miss 4 missions
Cpl Henry Martin SD FLM WIA ET 2 kills
12 - 2(flm) - 1(wia) = 9, ok!
EET 3 - 1 (flm) - 1 (wia) - 1 (et) = 0, captured, war is over for you.
Caproni (yellow) SD FLM ET
Caproni (grey) SD FLM ET
rear gunner Flavio 1 kill
The Kaiser’s Eagles
Ltn Heinz Wolf WIA RTB 0 kills
4 -1 (wia) +3 (rtb) = 6 lands injured, dr 1 = miss 1 mission
Ltn Hermann Beck RTB 0 kills
Ltn Rudolf Schmitt SD EXP FT 0 kills
11 - 3 (exp) = 8 bruised, miss 1 mission
Hptn Peter Büttner SD EXP FT 0 kills
9 - 3 (exp) +2 (ace) = 8 bruised, miss 1 mission
Vzfw Reinhardt Richter SD FT 2 kills (2 bombers!)
5 - 1(sd) = 4 injured, dr 1 = miss 1 mission
Ltn Otto Weber SD FT 1 kill
3 - 1(sd) = 2 kia
Ltn Rolf Schafer RTB 0 kills
Ltn Hugo Werner RTB 0 kills
Ltn Amadeus Schubert RTB 0 kills
Ltn Horst Zimmermann RTB 0 kills
Reply With Quote
Well done sah !
In recognition of his wounds his Wound Badge is upgraded to Silver 
Originally Posted by flash
Another cracking 
for the Eagles mission.
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