OTTBE Mission 8 - Bag Big Bertha - 21st February 1918 - teaticket
The recent enemy artillery barrages had been undoubtedly more serious than those over the past few months. That the Germans brought up some of their larger caliber guns was all too obvious. The PBI were taking a pounding.
British Section HQ kept up ariel searches along the sector looking for the large batteries. The biggest of these guns had to be silenced. It seemed over the last couple of days whenever they thought they had identified it, the next artillery observation plane found nothing when they arrived on location.
The Bulldogs were next up after the adjacent squadron had spent all morning searching but coming up empty. Not finding the big gun was frustrating enough but they had also lost several planes looking. They were now spent.
The Bulldogs were eager to take to the skies as they had been on easy duty for two weeks after their last intense escort mission.
Lancelot Stone and Ernest Page looked intently for any specks to the east as they approached the front. Above and behind Tuffy(chevron) and Leitch(hearts) flew cover.
The Eagles were stationed 7 miles behind the front. They thought they were much closer as they could feel the ground rumble when the artillery duals flared up. What they didn’t know is what they felt was their own comrade's guns firing. A mile and a half away a new gun had set up during the night. Usually assigned to siege battles this gun was larger than most. D i c k e Bertha was well known throughout the armies on both sides of the trenches and a pride of the German artillery arm.
Major Büttner, arm in sling, ambled into the briefing room. The assembled pilots were abuzz with excitement as they has just learned that D i c k e Bertha was stationed so close. Heinz Wolf and Franz Kohler both stood when Büttner entered. They both then slowly walked forward, each with very awkward comical limps.
Büttner burst out laughing, “No no no. Injured? You two clowns are not very good actors. So you want to go see D i c k e Bertha? Hmmmmm, I think can arrange that. Rolf, take these two on the next patrol, 15 minutes. On the way to the front you can pass over and see your Bertha”.
“Not too close though Rolf, these two may jump out of their planes to catch a ride on one of Bertha’s children”!
Stone had studied the map so he knew where the suspected locations were and could recognize them easily from the air.
Over the lines and no EA, the Bulldogs were feeling lucky.
Stone sees nothing suspicious at the first location. He quickly looks to the left and right. His instincts turned him to the left.
His instincts were amazingly correct. There it was. He and Page could not believe their eyes, it was a monster!
Stone banked the Strutter as Page turned on the radio and started to set the calling frequency.
As the Eagles approached where Bertha was they were initially puzzled to see planes flying over her.
“Schiess”! cried Rolf as he realized they were not other curious fellow German pilots.
“Englander spotters”!
Rolf signaled Franz and Heinz to attack. He didn’t want to out run the two slower Fokkers so he swung around and pulled up behind Heinz.
Tuffy noticed the approaching Germans and heads straight for them.
Stone keeps the big gun in sight while Page kept working at the radio.
Leitch follows Tuffy in and gets a shot at a triplane just as he witnesses Tuffy’s Camel fall apart under Rolf’s guns.
Just as the artillery officer on the other end of the radio confirmed that they were the correct battery Page noticed tracers zipping by within mere feet. He left the radio to return fire with his Lewis.
(I gave Page a 2/3 chance (die roll of 1-4) for keeping on the radio and rolled a 5.)
Stone tries to keep the gun in sight while Page and Wolf battle it out.
As the Strutter lurches Stone grits hit teeth as his controls don’t respond to the direction he wants to fly.
Page growls with satisfaction as he sees his foe begin to burn.
Rolf and Wolf put the squeeze on Leitch putting significant damage on his Camel.
Wolf squeezes the hammer overly hard with anger as he starts to strike at the jammed round.
Thinking the Camel had overshot Rolf was surprised that it had Immeled right behind him.
Franz sees Rolf’s dilemma and flies in at the Camel as if he can still fire. Rolf mentally notes he must thank Franz for distracting the British pilot. He flashes a quick wave and keeps up erratic maneuvers to lose the Camel on his tail.
Even with a Camel behind and closing Rolf has enough composure to take a shot at the real threat, but misses.
Heinz exchanges more fire with the rear gunner and takes the worst of it.
The fire isn’t so kind on the triplane.
Page’s unrelenting fire ends the day for Heinz Wolf as his burning triplane flutters downward.
Rolf twists and turns trying to shake the Camel.
As soon as the EA fell Page gets back on the radio while Stone rolls to the direction where his injured plane lets him.
Stone waves to Leitch and points to where the German aircraft are.
Page again makes radio contact, looking at the map for the targeting coordinates.
Rolf gives hand signals to Franz as they turn to go after the spotter.
Leitch reverses to protect the Strutter carrying his mates Lance and Ernest.
The planes close so fast, almost like magnets placed too close on a glass tabletop.
Rolf and Franz expertly avoid the Strutter with Franz pummeling the following Camel.
In the corner of each eye Page sees two Germans fly past as arms length. Keeping his concentration he calls in the shoot not seeing Leitch go down.
One shoot was all the was needed. The Royal Artillery were spot on. Bertha was silenced.
Rolf reversed and immediately got on the Strutter. Page quickly fired but jammed his Lewis.
Rolf shot straight and true. Smoke billowed from the Strutter’s engine.
Kohler steers head on into the Strutter. Both planes shudder with serious engine hits.
Rolf Dives in again at the Strutter’s flank. He takes out his vengeance for Wolf’s downing and wrecks the 2 seater in seconds. It crashes into the woods not a half mile from Bertha, or what was left of Bertha. Rolf has a little satisfaction thinking these flyers won’t be telling the story of Bertha’s demise.
Rolf and Kohler fly a few circuits around looking for where Wolf fell but cannot find him. Rolf signals to head back to the Aerodrome as it is not very far off.
As soon as they land Rolf informd Büttner of the bitter news, Heinz Wolf went down and Bertha was knocked out. Büttner immediately sent a car with some of the available staff off to search for Wolf. Next, he rang up HQ and informed them of the dark event. The next hour was spent writing the official report. It seemed like two hours. It was difficult to concentrate on the report when hearing any noise he would look out the window hoping to see the boys driving back with Wolf in the front seat.
Tuffy quickly jumped out of his wreck. He knew he was lucky to come out of it with only a sprained ankle and bruised shoulder. He hobbled to the nearest wood and watched the action still going on above.
He spotted Leitch chasing one Hun but then losing him. Leitch turned back and got along side of Stone and Page when the Germans came in at them. From below it seemed a miracle they didn’t all collide...and then, Leitch’s Camel came down. Tuffy watched as it tumbled, then spun down into the ground. He started off towards the crash site hoping to get there before the Germans. He kept an eye to the sky watching Stone and Page while he hobbled on.
Stone and Page put up a good fight but succumbed to the two nimble Boch scouts, spinning down in a smoking slow spiral behind the wood a mile away in the opposite direction of Leitch.
“They may be better off”, Tuffy thought. They were much further behind the front than Harold. As Tuffy crested the rise between him and Harold things looked bad. A smoking pile of Camel remains but no sign of Harold. Tuffy moved as fast as he could as the Camel’s fire slowly grew. When he got 50 yards away there was an explosion and the Camel remains jumped off the ground. Tuffy saw Harold thrown clear and hoped for the best. When he got to Harold he knew immediately it was bad as Harold lay there, bloodied and not moving. He held Harold’s unconscious body for a moment, then heard so voices calling out in German. 5 soldiers were slowly walking towards them with rifles drawn.
Three hours later a car pulled next to the mess. Büttner ran to the door and was greeted by several long faces, long but laced with traces hope. Heinz had been found but he was very badly hurt. The artillery unit brought him back to the field hospital but they would only have him for a few hours to stabilize him, then off to the larger hospital in Köln. Heinz Wolf won’t be returning for a while...
"I hope Heinz got his look at Bertha", mused Büttner.
Lancelot Stone guided his bird as best he could to the edge of a wood. The hard landing smashed the riddled Strutter and threw both Stone and Page clear.
They both sat up and looked at each other. “Well fancy that, we’re not dead”, chuckled Page.
“Well I’ll be. Not so tickety boo but better than expected”, replied Stone. “Lets get a move on and out of the way before the Hun come mucking about”.
Butcher’s Bill
Lt William Tuffield SD EXP ET 0 Kills
C 6 -3(exp) = 3 injured, 1 = miss 1 mission
E 5 -1(wic) -1(bel) 1-(exp) = 2 captured The war is over for you
2Lt Harols Leitch SD EXP ET 1 Kill
C 7 -3(exp) = 4 injured, 4 =-4 missions
E 4 -1(wic) -1(bel) -1(exp) = 1 captured The war is over for you
Lt Lancelot Stone SD ET 0 Kills
C 9 -1(SD) = 8 injured, 6 = -2 missions
E 7 -1(wic) -1(bel) = 5 in hiding, 5 = -2 missions Total - 2 missions
Sgt. Ernest Page SD ET 1 Kill
C 9 -1(sd) = 8 injured, 3 = -1 mission
E 8 -1(wic) -1(bel) = 6 in hiding, 2 = -1 mission Total -1 mission
Ltn. Rolf Schafer RTB 2 Kills
Ltn Franz Kohler RTB 1 Kill
Ltn Heinz Wolf SD FLM 0 Kills
C 6 -2(flm) = 4 injured, 6 = -6 missions Total -6 missions
D i c k e Bertha -- Out of Action
Reply With Quote
Super effort Peter.
for his mission/kill total, no promotion this time but he is now an ace - DGCI being his skill to prevent some jams.
Gives us Eagles a chance to even the score in the air.
Originally Posted by tikkifriend
Thanks for a good read. Mike
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