OTTBE Mission 7 - Something Must Be Done - 7th February 1918
Otherwise known as the Ternhausen Turkey Shoot !
Lt Ben Downe was furious when he finally landed at their home field. Uncle spotted his stormy countenance as he was crossing from the hangar toward the Top Office. .
"Do I need to ask how it went?" asked Uncle as the door slammed back on its hinges, even though he was already in the know.
"Utter bloody shambles" barked Downe. " 'We must avoid contact early on, and maintain ambiguity about our target as long as possible.' My arse !
They were waiting for us. The air was thick with the bastards."
"That bad, eh ?" said Uncle, allowing his subordinate to let off steam.
"Bad ? If I got out of my bus I could have walked back on the tracer.."
"Well why don't you help yourself to a scotch and tell me all about it, I'll have one too." said Uncle with genuine interest.
"Well we met up with the bombers alright and followed the coast right up into the estuary - didn't see hide nor hair of Fritz in the air but they must have seen us from the beach, or, somewhere, and we passed several small ships on the way that might have radioed a message.
Anyway, we turned for the coast and as we crossed the shoreline, there they were circling like sharks waiting for a feed, the air was stiff with them."
"On we went - I traded lead with a formation of Pfalz on the left - gave as good as I got I think, took some damage to the controls is all, I think Brown had the same on the right with a formation of Tripes."
"The first bombers, Italian jobs, and one of the Bristol's escorting them followed us in "
"The Caproni behind me took a bit of a beating from the Pfalz boys"
"And the one behind Brown and Cade was savaged by the Tripehounds"
"Though they didn't have it all their own way as one left trailing smoke - engine hit I think - and another was swatted from the sky by the Caproni's front gunner"
"The big boys arrived just behind them - HP number 1 on the left behind me, number 4 was on the right."
"Me and the boys pushed on doing what damage we could hoping we could go straight through to the target. The bombers were taking hits but seemed to be holding their own for a while - the Caproni to my right had handled the Tripes quite well."
"Brown & Cade seemed to attract some attention - one of the Kaiser's Eagles involved chasing Brown I believe."
"Just for a moment I thought we might pull it off but then I realised the bombers were getting mobbed."
"Even as we broke through their back line I knew we couldn't carry on to the target and signalled the chaps to turn back and get stuck in - it was already too late for the Caproni behind me on the left as it was blown from the sky as we turned"
"And the Handley behind took a pasting in the engine department..."
"Handley number four was then taken down by a pack of Albatrii - I think one of the Eagle chaps had a hand in this, getting in the coup de gras"
"We started to look a bit thin on the ground - the remaining Caproni was already severely damaged and the remaining HP must've had bad engine damage as he ditched his eggs and looked to be turning for home."
"Then one of those sodding Eagle's pops up and down goes the Caproni ! Well that was it, mission aborted."
"The surviving Handley began its turn for home and had to fight the whole way, there seemed a whole flock of birds around him for a moment"
"Cade took some stick from the Eagle that had dropped the Caproni"
"Then Brown's machine succumbed to another Albatros - he'd taken a lot of damage going in, he was above the Siemen's but the Alb was head on and that was that."
"Enright's Bristol took an engine hit about then - another Eagle responsible for that, they seemed to be everywhere, but he paid a bit of a price as Kane whipped past and the two gunners set about him between them."
"They did a better job on a Siemens that was sniffing for a shot & set the bugger ablaze"
"We caught up with the Handley, shot up some of the enemy but there was still work to be done if we were to get it away to safety - a couple of those damned Eagles were right on it."
"We turned into the attack to drive them off"
"As Morrow dived for safety I was heading for the heavens to shake a very close Eagle on my tail..."
"As I dropped out of my loop the Eagle was right out front of me - my burst seemed to damage his engine so he was out of the fight - Kane appeared from my right in H-Harry and an accurate burst from him smashed another Albatros from the sky & probably saved my bacon."
"I give my Eagle a parting shot to send him on his way and Kane does the same with his colleague with the leader's stripes"
"Not to be out done Mowe gave him a close range burst as they passed, set him on fire and the Hun spun down into the sea. I think he hit the pilot too"
"The bomber slipped away out to sea and we circled off the coast until we saw Enright cross too - A Hun chasing him gave him a parting shot but a resounding smack on the shout from Kerr was enough to send him packing."
"We then limped back to the Belgian field - the Handley just about made it there but was too badly knocked about to make it back to Blighty."
"Well at least most of you chaps made it back in one piece," said Uncle, "small consolation I know but you can't beat yourself up about it, you did what you could."
Butchers Tally:
Lt Ben Downe: RTB 0 Kills
2Lt Tom Morrow: RTB 0 kills
Sgt Barry Cade: RTB 0 kills
2Lt Seymour Brown: SD-ET 0 kills
Rolled 5 -1SD = 4 Injured - Skip 1D6 Scenarios: Rolled 2 = skip 2
E&E Rolled 4 -1WIC -1BEL = 2 Captured! The war ended for this pilot...
2Lt Reid Enright & Cpl Joe Kerr: - Bristol J-Johnnie RTB 0 kills
Harry Kane & Cpl Arfur Mowe: - Bristol H-Harry RTB 2 Kills (1 each)
Ltn Hans Niethammer: SD-FLM-SEA/WIA 1 kill (HP O/400 #4)
Rolled 5 -2FLM -1SEA -1WIA = 1 KIA
Fwbl Helmut Fichter: #2 RTB 1 kill (Ca3 #3)
Ltn Herbert Mohnicke: #4 RTB 0 kills
Other Combatants: 95 Sqn
HP#1RTB2 Kills (Pfalz) HP#4
Ca3#32 Kills (Dr.1's) Ca3#2
The Huns:
Fwbl Fritz Kypke: RTB 1 Kill (Brown) will join the Eagle roster
Ltn Friedrich Knappe: RTB 1 Kill (Ca3) will replace Niethammer.
7 Huns shot down, one of which was an Eagle; 1 forced down wounded; 2 RTB light wounds; 2 forced down with engine damage; 2 severely damaged; probably 3 serviceable machines remained. If only the bombers had survived !
Well there you go - Lions led by donkeys !
Bad tactics & bad cards dealt the Tommy a bitter blow but what a cracking game. Hope your luck holds out better than mine did !
Just for the record - the bombers and escorts had their own double damage deck each, the Huns had double B & A to themselves, cards were recycled as machines went down.
I will do some rolls soon and name some names too.
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Well the Bombing mission was a disaster but your lads certainly took a toll of the German Scouts with a fair bit of help from the Bombers before they got knocked out!
Originally Posted by flash
A shame the bombing run was a washout, so I agree - "They knew we were coming" 
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