Preamble
Having completed his Blighty leave after the conclusion of his tour of duty with the Bulldogs Squadron, Capt Boniface "Bon" King MC was looking forward to reporting for duty at No 18 Sqd RNAS to which he & the surviving pilots & observers of C Flight had been posted at the request of Capt now Major Richard Triggers to form C Flight of the "Hearts of Oak" Squadron as it was known.
He banked the new SE 5a he had picked up at St Omar & studied his map checking he was on the right direction that would take him to the Squadrons Aerodrome at Sainte Marie. He knew that the ground crew & some of the other pilots had already made their way to their new home & others were travelling by car & should arrive shortly after he had landed.
Then ahead on his Port side he spied the buildings & grass strip of Sainte Marie. "Humm! Looks pretty substantial all right!"
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After landing he taxied towards the large hanger Complex where he noticed a line up of 5 Sopwith Camels numbered 1 to 5 with the now familiar Red Hearts on the Top Wing & Fuselage. As he climbed from the cockpit he saw Major Triggers accompanied by his dog walking towards him.
Triggers returned Bon's salute & shook hands vigorously & said "Welcome Bon! Welcome! Let me give you a quick look around the 'drome & introduce you to our Adjutant Capt Sholto McManners, who everyone calls "Father" by the way due to the fact he is only 40! Then I will let you settle in & we will all meet in the Mess for dinner.
As they toured the area Bon was impressed by the many huts & offices in the complex.
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As they completed the inspection they heard the sound of a motor vehicle approaching & Bon remarked "Ha! here come the last of the lads by the looks of it" as a Sunbeam staff car entered the drome.
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"Right" said Triggers, "Lets go meet the chaps & then you can all settle in".
The Mission
Two days later Major Triggers called Bon to the Squadron Office & advised him that he had a first mission for his flight. "GHQ have requested we send a patrol past the new German lines to photograph anything of interest that might hold up our further advances. Now we don't want to risk our 2 DH-4's as they will be needed for the bombing mission to follow so I have arranged for a Bristol Fighter to join our RE 8 for the photographic job & you have the 5 new Camels to pick from for the escorts". "So pick your crews & report to "Father" who will issue maps with the areas of interest. It is vital we gather as much info as possible".
Bon decided to allocate the "Biff" to his most experienced crew Lt. Ralph Medium DSO & his Observer Lt. Lional Rare DSO & he would pair Lt Rod Rothwell with the new Observer Cpl. Hew Grant. The escort would be flown by 2nd Lt. "Tiny" Large & 2nd Lt Algy Smyth-Browne as he himself was snowed under with the paperwork involved in the move & he still had a number of experienced pilots on wound leave.
They retired to meet with "Father" who pointed out the areas to be photographed & issued up to date maps.
Sholto accompanied the crews to their aircraft & spent extra time going over the mission with Cpl Grant.
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The 4 aircraft took off & headed towards the German Lines with Tiny flying the Flight leaders Camel with the Red elevators & the No 1 whilst Algy flew the No.2 Camel.
On the other side of the Front Oblt Harry Von Bukard of the Eagle Jasta was pleased that they had finally been issued with some of the new upgraded Albatross DVa's with the strengthened struts & the new Purple & Green Camouflage. His aircraft sported a Red Dragon & the Jasta Fuhrers white stripes on the top wing. Ltn Georg Steltzmier had a similar machine with an Eidleweis on the fuselage whilst Richard Schneider would fly one of the Jastas Pfalz D.IIIa.
They had been warned to expect more activity from the RFC & RNAS Squadrons in the Area following the British success's.
As Algy approached the German lines on the Southern side he immediately came under attack from both the German Trenches & the yellow tailed Pfalz.
He felt a stinging pain in his right leg but it did not appear to be serious. He was happy to see pieces fly from the tail of the Pfalz but did not think he did much damage.
On the North side of the lines Tiny & the Biff came under trench fire but received no damage & he exchanged shots with Von Bukard's DVa & saw he had made some decent hits.
The RE 8 also came under attack from both the Pfalz & the trenches & whilst the Pfalz's shots caused their engine to smoke, a lucky shot damaged the RE 8's Beadmore engine. Faced with this problem right at the beginning of this important mission Rothwell chose to continue to try to obtain some photos at least before turning for home & safety. Grant's return fire missed the German.
Tiny whose guns had jammed in his first exchange & the Bristol now came under fire from both Albatross & the trenches but fortunately little damage resulted!
As the Biff passed the Albatross of Steltzmier, Lionel Rare got a good burst into the German plane.
Cpl Grant fired at the Pfalz but his inexperience showed & his deflection shot missed but a shot from the trenches caused a temporary jam to the rudder of the RE-8.
The Bristol meanwhile had dived & stalling over the target got the first picture of the mission.
The Bristol & the RE 8 continued on towards their targets while Algy shepherded them & Tiny engaged the Albatross.
The Harry Tate now also dived but came under fire from a trench but they missed the diving aircraft.
The RE-8 took its first photo whilst the Biff lined up its next target stalling when over it.
Distracted by Tiny's attention the German Aircraft now tried to catch up with the Recon aircraft who were enjoying the freedom of the skies & no trench fire.
Steltzmier had now caught up with Algy's Camel but his Spandaus jammed on the first pull of the triggers!
Tiny Large's Camel now came under Von Bukard's guns & trench fire but the latter did no damage & Von Bukard's guns also jammed.
The Pfalz closed in on the tail of the RE 8 but this time Cpl Grant made no mistake & gave it a good burst.
The two British two seaters continued on their mission taking photos in spite of the proximity of the German Scouts.
Algy now had a great chance at a broadside close range burst at the Albatross but only caused minor damage to its tail.
The RE 8 now took a second picture & with the Bristol already having taken its three, Rod Rockwell decided to not push his luck & return to his drome before he fell victim to one of the German Scouts as he struggled with his damaged engine.
Tiny now got up close & personal with Von Bukard's DVa & although his guns jammed after the burst he knew he had scored a solid hit on the Mercedes engine!
As the Harry Tate limped back towards home & safety it came under accurate fire from a German trench & Rod Rothwell felt a sharp blow to his upper left arm & the shock caused him to stall the aircraft again which left him open for more fire from the trench now it had got the range.
Worst was to come for as he cleared the trench another volley from the ground caused the already damaged engine to catch fire!
Initially things looked reasonable as he weaved the RE 8 to try to control the fire.
Meanwhile Algy & Steltzmier were still dogfighting & the trenches were giving Tiny's Camel a serve.
Disaster now struck the RE-8 as the fire suddenly flared up & it was just too much for the damaged engine & the aircraft made a hard crash landing in No Mans Land just short of the British front line trenches.
Meanwhile the Bristol Fighter with its valuable photographs had landed safely back at Sainte Marie.
The Scouts were still jousting & the Pfalz which had dived in an effort to catch up to the two seaters now started climbing to rejoin the melee.
However Von Burkard realising he could not stop the British Biff from delivering its photos & hampered by his damaged engine reluctantly decided to call off the chase & return to the Eagles aerodrome.
Tiny Large seeing the Bristol had flown out of range of the Germans fired a Red Flare to signal a return to base.
However Schnieder in the Pfalz was not keen to abandon the chase & managed to get one telling burst into Tiny's Camel as it headed for home. A final shot from the nearest trench did no damage.
Von Bukard realising there was nothing more his eagles could do also fired a flare, in this case a white one, to recall his Eagles to return home.
Comments
I used Zoe's Simplified Altitude Rules for this Mission & like Carl decided to ignore the RTB for engine damage due to the nature of the mission. (Apologies flash you can administer a swift slap around the ears! )
Well that was an interesting one to fly. The Trenches were a real pain in the butt as you really could not avoid them & the dear old RE 8 was doing well until that last one it had to fly over. The AI Camels did a great job keeping the AI Huns off the 2 seaters & I was lucky to get the Bristol home with minimum damage.
Butchers Bill in following post!
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