Mission 7 - Something Must Be Done - 7 Feb 1918. Cano Corso.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Briefing.


Maggiore Antonio Largo drew his two Flight Leaders to one side.

" With the recent losses, and Marco still su azione, we just do not have the piloti to carry out this missione.

I'm sorry Oliver but one two seater is not enough, and you really do not hava the distance without the extra tanks ausiliaria.That is a why we ave the quattro Caproni."

He indicated through the window the bombers standing outside the maintenance hanger.




The armourers were busying themselves, and the riggers were doing pre flight checks.





"Tenente Pinnichi and Tenente van der Maren will escort the bombardieri as far as lake Torrente Medune. Then the Caproni will be on their own until they return from Graz. Refuel and then accompany them back from there.

Buona fortuna per voi signori".

An hour later the Bombers were flying over the front lines with Pinnichi and van der Maren beating off a host of enemy aircraft before their fuel stocks ran too low.






As lake Torrente Medune came into sight the escorts peeled away having safeguarded their charges. They were now on their own.





Crossing the lake an inquisitive Austrian Flying boat poked its nose in , but the combined fire power of the four bombers soon saw it scurrying for cover.




Kyte.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

On enemy territory.




As soon as they cleared the lake,Capitano Uzzi set course for Graz and gained height to lead his Flight through the mountains flanking the objectives.





As soon as they dropped down into the plain they were accosted from all sides by Austrian aircraft.





Regardless of the rapidly approaching enemy, the Flight of Capronis held their formation, and continued towards the still distant targets.





The first attack came from the Austrians left hand Flight commander Friedrich Lang in his distinctive red and white decorated Phoenix D1.





Opening fire at long range with his twin Schwarzlose machine guns he caused superficial damage to Vincent Campuchi's aircraft.

Within seconds interchanges of machine gun fire was widespread as the Caproni pilots responded to the attack.




Campuchi blasted the second Pheonix flown by Kurt Gruber, setting it on fire and wounding the pilot, effectively putting him hors de combat for some time.
To go one better Capitano Uzzi simply blew the machine attacking him out of the air.







Guns jammed, fires were started, rudders damaged, and Uzzi's co pilot was shot and killed.





Then suddenly the Chevron of Caproni's were through. and their rear gunners had the chance to discomfort the passing Scouts.





Gruber took a second hit from Campuchi's rear gunner, killing him instantly. His blazing machine going down like a comet.







On the far side of the Flight Leonardi was also in action.



destroying the Albatros of Manfred Weiss, who also failed to bail out of his machine.





Apart from a couple of stragglers the Capronis were now free of the attacking Austrians.
One red Albatros did, however cause engine damage which set fire to Leonardi's aircraft.


From this point onward Leonardi gradually began to lose contact with the rest of the flight.
Revenge came from a long shot fired by Franko Pucchi who wounded the Pilot of the red Albatros.





Whilst yet another fire was started by Guido Rivas on another Phoenix scout.
The burning Austrian took even more damage from Pucchi as he damaged its engine still further.





The Capronis now seemed to be clear of trouble as they made for the target area and shook off their pursuers.





It was at this point that Maraziale Leonardi tried an overdive to snuff out his fire and take him below the range of the pursuing enemy.





Both aircraft continued to burn.





Finally as the Capronis fled, the overdive succeeded in extinguishing Leonardi's fire, but his engine continued to stutter, so he was forced to throttle back.
The chase was now on in earnest as the Austrians sensed the rearmost bomber was in trouble.




Steadily the gap was closed.





The burning Phoenix was finally overcome by the flames and went down.





As the last man to fire on it the score went to Arturo Allasia.





Each of the pursuers now singled out a preferred quarry.






The first to dive into range was an Albatros flown by Karl Kazala.
He hosed the rear of Leonardi's faltering machine causing it to start smoking once more, but once again Allasia rose to the occasion, and his return fire wounded the Austrian Ace.






The action now turned into a personal grudge match between Kazala and Allasia.
The next round of firing brought on a second fire and put one rudder out of commission. Undeterred Arturo continued to return fire.






Eventually the inevitable happened and Arturo's guns required a reload.





As soon as he realized that Arturo had ceased fire, Kazala swept in and delivered the coup de grace to the Caproni.






With its engine now completely seized it ploughed into the ground just short of the start of its bombing run.





The rest of the pursuing Austrians now sheared off rather than become targets for their own anti aircraft defenses, which is exactly what happened to the three remaining Italian aircraft.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

THE ATTACK.






As they approached the target area and started to lose altitude the came under a blistering series of Archie explosions which rocked the aircraft rendering the bombing run not only hazardous but also very difficult to gauge with any degree of accuracy.





Nevertheless, Capitano Gino Uzzie mad a sterling effort, and his stick of bombs obliterated over 80% of his target area without his aircraft suffering any damage.





Paulo Fannini and his crew were not so lucky, and a close air burst sent shrapnel screaming through the tail of their aircraft.






Despite the onslaught on both himself and Leonardi, his bombs went in and damaged a third of the designated target and also the AA battery behind the target for good measure.






However, the two AA batteries defending the next two targets also picked out Fannini's aircraft immediately, and a veritable maelstrom of Archie shrapnel rained down on the bomber damaging its engine.






Campuchi was also coming in for some unwanted attention as he started his bombing run .






Even so, he also got his bombs away






but only succeeded in damaging part of the railway embankment.






As he moved on towards his next target a burst of Archie did far more damage and ruptured a lubricating hose causing a billow of smoke to erupt from the engine compartment as it sprayed onto the hot cylinders.





Undaunted,his bombs found their mark with a spectacular explosion.






Archie also followed him on his way out but was fortunately wide of the mark.





Meanwhile, unobserved by the reloading AA gunners Fannini had attempted his second target which was a large AA battery itself but totally missed his mark.





To his left, Gino was rapidly homing in on his next target.





The trench complex below him was obliterated.






Gino now took up the running braving the Archie.





He decided it was high time to lead his pilots out of the death trap in which they found themselves.





He began the turn for home.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

The escape.





Even as they started to turn away the flack continued to assail them.





Fortunately for them not very accurately.





The aircraft turned through a barrage of Archie.





Just when it appeared as if they were beating the Austrian gunners,
Fannini turned straight for home and one well aimed shell burst right under his aircraft.





It was blown it to pieces in mid air.










Still with Archie bursting around them the two remaining Capronis made off as fast as they could.





Fortunately the last bursts were ill aimed at extreme range,
so that now the two bombers merely had to re-run the gauntlet of Austrian scouts now refueled and re-armed.







In order to try and shake off the scouts, the Italian machines deliberately veered off to the right heading for the nearest two enemy aircraft.
Fire was exchanged at long range but Paulo, in the lead, took little damage whilst managing to deal a good bit out.





Soon, however, all the protagonists were exchanging fire once more.
Gregorio Manilo doing severe damage to Friedrich Lang in his red and white striped Phonix.





Whilst Campuchi and Riva seemed to be getting away with it.





It looked as if the two Capronis were through the cordon as they parted company from the Austrian machines all heading the wrong way and still being peppered by the receding tail gunners.






The situation changed in a flash when Hautzmayer in his DIII turned onto the tail of Campuchi, and despite a spirited effort by Riva at his guns, delivered a telling fusillade.




He continued to punish the Caproni whose engine now started smoking ominously.





It was now the turn of Kaszala to take a hand in affairs.
His DIII closed rapidly from the flank of Vincent's aircraft, and with a short but telling burst he sent it down to join its two compatriots.





All that Gino could now do was dive for the ground and make his escape before the perusing scouts could catch up with him.





The only matter of any moment during the pursuit was when in their haste to catch up Hautzmayer and Kaszala almost collided.






This was really the undoing of any chance of catching the Caproni.





As Gino reached the Lake, the Austrian pilots saw two Italian Spads heading towards them and quickly sheared off from the chase.










Thus it was that only one Caproni crew returned to tell the tale of the epic raid on Graz.

Kyte.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

THE BUTCHER'S BILL.

Cano Corso.

Capt. Gino Uzzi. RTB / WIA. one kill.
Rolled 10 +3RTB -1WIA = 12 All's well when you land well ! (ok)

Obs. Sgt. Gregorio Manilo. RTB. 0 kills

Stnt. Vincent Campuchi: SD.ET / one kill.
Rolled 11 -1SD = 10 All's well when you land well !
E&E: Rolled 12 -1BEL = 11 They didn't even see me ! (ok)

Obs.Sgt, Guido Riva: SD.ET / one kill.
Rolled 3 -1SD = 2 KIA

Tnt. Paulo Fanini: SD.EXP ET / 0 kills
Rolled 11 -3EXP = 8 Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario. Rolled 1 = Skip 1
E&E: Rolled 5 -1EXP -1BEL -1WIC = 2 Captured! The war is over for this pilot... (POW)

Obs.Stnt. Franko Pucchi: SD.EXP.ET.
Rolled 9 -3EXP = 6 Injured - Skip 1D3 Scenarios. Rolled 3 = Skip 2
E&E: Rolled 8 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 5 In hiding! - Skip 1D2 Scenarios. Rolled 1 = Skip 1. Total Skips 2 (RW)

Stnt. Maraziale Leonardi: SD.FLM ET / one kill.
Rolled 8 -2FLM = 6 Injured - Skip 1D3 Scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 2
E&E: Rolled 8 -1FLM -1WIC -1 BEL = 5 In hiding! - Skip 1D2 Scenarios. Rolled 3 = Skip 1, Total Skips 2 (RW)

Obs. Sgt. Aurturo Allasia: SD.FLM.ET. / 0 Kills
Rolled 5 -2FLM = 3 Injured - Skip 1D6 Scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 4
E&E: Rolled 5 -1FLM, -1WIC, -1BEL = 2 Captured! The war is over for this airman... (POW)



Targets destroyed.

One miss.
One 33% = 2pts
One obliterated = 4pts
One 33% = 2pts
One 80% = 4pts
One 60% = 3pts



Plus 4 x scouts downed = 8pts
Totals = 23pts

CP scored 12pts for 3 bombers downed.

The Eagles.


One SD FLM KIA.
One SD. FLM.
One SD. EXP.
One SD. EXP.




One RTB.
One RTB.
One RTB. WIA.
One RTB. WIA.





Kyte.

[gully_raker]

Another awesome Mission & AAR from Rob!
Talk about full on action. Explosions, Fires, wounded pilots & general mayhem!

Great stuff Rob. You might have lost 3 Capronis but you sure caused great damage & shot down an amazing number of those Austrian Scouts.

Rep inbound.

[Carl_Brisgamer]

Another bloody raid for Mission 7, well played Rob.

Was it not an Italian General who first said 'The bomber will always get through'?

Of course he mentioned nothing about getting back!

[Setarius]

Another excellent story from you Rob.

[flash]

Super job Rob ! Those chaps in the bombers certainly cut a swathe through the Eagles but they paid a price for it.

Zio says:


Ciao Roberto, those boys fought bravely and got the job done but what a price - Paulo Fanini and Sgt Allasia POW; Sgt Riva KIA
I have updated your tally.

[Stumptonian]

Another spectacular tale from the Italian front.
(thankfully translated for us)


I really like the paint job on Kaszala's D.III BTW

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Super job Rob ! Those chaps in the bombers certainly cut a swathe through the Eagles but they paid a price for it.

Zio says:


Ciao Roberto, those boys fought bravely and got the job done but what a price - Paulo Fanini and Sgt Allasia POW; Sgt Riva KIA
I have updated your tally.

Thanks Zio.
Kyte.

[mikeemagnus]

Nice one Rob. Glad at least one of the Capronis made it home again - good result for the Bulldogs Pretty bloodthirsty encounter

[tikkifriend]

Another fine AAR Rob and , despite the loss of your bombers I am sure that the Italians will be celebrating with vino and Pasta tonight in the Mess. Cioa