Maggiore Antonio Largo rocked back on his chair, took a long draw on his cigarette. "What happened after you took off Capitano Vallbella.
"After about 15 minutes in the air, the storm became so bad that we had to abort the mission, landing at whatever airfield we could find Maggiore."
"Well now everyone has returned, and there is a break in the weather we must attempt to knock out the Austrian key targets before they can launch the new offensive on the Isonzo lines. The whole safety of the front is in your hands."
Even as Capitano Valbella led the escort of Van der Maren along with Brownlow and Dawkins towards the Front the clouds started to mass once more and threatened a fair old storm to come.
Not far away under the lowering skies were a trio of Austrian Albatrii attempting to cover an increasingly difficult length of front lines with a diminishing number of aircraft.
Maneuvering near the cloud base, they emerged to spot the Allied formation heading their way.
Diving from the cloud, they engaged the leading Spad of Cpt Valbella.
The very first burst caused his machine to emit an alarming amount of smoke from its engine.
The assault was so sudden that all aircraft were past each other before another shot could be exchanged.
Pushing on, Brownlow in the Bristol managed to clear the murk in time to make a snap decision lay his eggs on what appeared to be one of the targets.
Scoring a bulls eye, he was chastened to see that it was merely an abandoned Command redoubt with no enemy units even near to it.
As the Austrian aircraft attempted to get back into the fight, Pete and Valbella made their own runs on their targets.
Pete released first.
He was pleased to see a direct hit on an artillery park.
The explosion of its ammunition dump rocked his aircraft as he passed overhead.
Meanwhile, Cpt Valbrella had achieved a partial hit on the third objective.
With their bomb loads delivered, the trio now started to turn for home.
All they needed to do now was keep the Albatrii at bay until they crossed the lines.
Oliver was the first to meet opposition, and his "Biff " took a bit of a battering, although his return fire seemed to cause his opponent to twitch his machine away almost as if he had
been hit.
Just as Dawkins in the Observers seat let rip the Austrian dived to the same level as the Bristol, and Dawkins' stream of bullets flew harmlessly above the enemy fuselage. Even more annoying was the fact that his Lewis immediately jammed.
The bright red Albatros now spotted the fleeing two seater and gave chase.
On the far side of the cloud, which seemed to be thickening by the minute, Pete was engaged with another Albatros. Fortunately for him it was the enemy's turn to jam and suffer serious damage to its steering.
The red Albatros had now closed with the Bristol and exchanged fire with Dawkins who had managed to clear his stoppage, but still could not get a bead on his tormentor.
Back at the Ranch, Pete and the pursuing pilot were indulging in a series of aerobatics with neither managing to gain the upper hand.
Unaware of this, Oliver continued his run for the Italian front lines with the red machine in pursuit, firing but gradually losing ground on the faster "Biff".
Valbella was also having no luck with his opponent either, and in his haste to reach a conclusion with the damaged enemy forgot about its malfunctioning power unit and almost collided with the Austrian.
This caused Mario to stall, and as it flew on ahead, the Austrian pilot suddenly found himself sandwiched between Mario and Pete, and taking damage from both sets of Vickers.
Unable to shake Mario off and with his engine running very rough, he attempted to turn for home.
This only led to him sustaining even more damage and he was lucky to get away, as Mario decided that the cloud base was now starting to get even lower, and declined to attempt to follow the now badly wounded Albatros.
The Albatros which now came under Pete's guns was not so fortunate, however, as one sustained burst sent it spinning into oblivion, even as Pete came under some severe punishment himself from the returning red Albatros.
The Red having lost the Bristol in the ever worsening weather conditions, was determined to gain at least on victory today, and turned sharply after Valbella.
Too far back to outrun the Spad as it dived for the lines, he was eventually forced to give the weather best, and as the rain started teeming down turned for home just in time to avoid being under the guns of Pete's Spad, his compatriot with the engine damage having preceded him some minutes earlier.
In the circumstances the returning Allies thought that they had done as well as possible with the main target destroyed, a partial hit on a secondary target, one enemy shot down, and as Mario and Pete were quick to point out to Oliver and Jack, the enemy Artillery COs abandoned toilet knocked out.
Well Jack Dawkins always did profess to being a crap shot.
Kyte.
Bookmarks