Both Armies were preparing for the Spring Offensive but the Germans had stolen a march by bring up a number of extra heavy Artillery pieces with the largest of these which became known as "Big Bertha" causing incredible losses to our troops in the front line.
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Efforts to find & bomb the beast had failed so a new approach was needed to put Bertha out of action once & for all!
Prologue
A dispatch rider pulled his bike up next to the "Hearts of Oak" Squadron office.
Saluting he presented Captain Triggers with a Red Envelope. "Most Urgent Sir from GHQ".
Opening & digesting the contents Triggers sent his Orderly Sargent to find Captain "Bon" King the leader of C Flight.
Bon had been standing outside his hut enjoying a rare sunny Winters day when the summons arrived.
Quickly going to Triggers office he knocked & entered. "Ah Bon! got an interesting little job for your chaps. Seems GHQ have come up with a new plan to destroy that damned Big Bertha. All their efforts have failed so they want to try a new approach. We are tasked to send a recon plane to find & then proceed to act as an artillery spotter for some Siege Guns they have brought to the front to flatten the beast. You will need to send two Scouts to protect the 2 seater during its mission.
Bon called the Flight together & asked 2nd Lt Anthony "Quick" March to accompany him as one of the two escorts. He looked over at Sgt Justin Thyme, known to everyone in C Flight as "Kiwi" & requested him to fly the flights RE 8 for the mission. "Kiwi I want you to take Cpl Hugh Grant as your Observer as he has just completed a Radio & Artillery Co-Operation course & this should prove invaluable for this mission".
"Start time will be 0600 tomorrow morning & you will get a final briefing from our Intelligence Officer before you take off".
The Mission---or a Bad Date with Bertha!
Next morning the 4 crew assembled on the Aerodrome & while Bon & Quick checked out their Camels, Kiwi & Cpl Grant conferred with the I.O.
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The 3 Aircraft flew off towards the German lines where Ltn Kurt Parschu as acting Stafflefurher of the Eagles assembled his pilots for the Morning Patrol.
He would fly his Albatross D.Va with the Eidleweiss on the fuselage, Ltn Richard Schnieder would fly the one with the Black painted fuselage whilst their newest pilot Gustav Mahn had a factory fresh Pfalz D.IIIa with distinctive red striping on fuselage & tail.
There was no sign of any enemy aircraft & Kiwi banked off to the right to commence his recon whilst Bon & Quick climbed (to Level 5) so they could defend the Harry Tate.
The Camels flew ahead whilst Kiwi headed for the first possible Bertha location.
As they approached Hugh Grant used his binoculars to survey the ground & whilst he spied a large German gun it was not Bertha!
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Suddenly Bon became aware of a trio of German Aircraft approaching from his Port quarter & waggled his wings & pointed for Quick to follow him to intercept the newcomers.
The two groups of Aircraft closed rapidly & soon guns were blazing & lead flying.
Using his Marksman ability Bon soon had one of the Albatross in flames but in return had some shredded fabric & nicked struts.
Quick was also into the action & got a good burst into the rear fuselage of the Pfalz.
The fire on the Black D.V5a continued to burn brightly.
As the RE 8 headed to check out the next location Kiwi also added to the Germans woes first damaging Parschu's rudder & then hitting the Black Albatross whose return fire went wide.
It was the final straw for the German Aircraft which fell flaming to the ground in German territory.
The Dogfight between Bon, Quick & the two remaining Hun scouts continued with both groups taking hits but the Germans coming off the worst in the exchange.
A further exchange between King & Parschu resulted in no damage to either aircraft.
Meanwhile the RE 8 had reached the next objective & Hugh Grant yelled excitedly " There you are my beauty! Found you" Now he got on the Radio to advise the Artillery that they had discovered Bertha but had now to circle so they could radio the co ordinates.
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Gustav Mahn now latched on to the tail of the RE 8 & his first shots damaged its rudder so it could not continue to circle Bertha. Cpl Grant did not return fire as he was busy radioing co ordinates. (No Photo of this exchange for some strange reason???)
His next burst caused black smoke to issue from the Harry Tates engine as Kiwi stalled to try to avoid further damage & this time Grant did return fire but caused only minimal damage to the Pfalz.
The two aircraft continued to exchange shots & although Hugh Grant returned the favour & caused the Pfalz to also belch black smoke the German pilots rounds entered the fuel tank of the RE 8 which fell to the ground in flames!
Neither Bon who had been chasing Parschu & Quick who had drifted back towards British lines witnessed this disaster but both became aware they could no longer see their Squadron mates plane & turned to check things out. Flying over the burning wreckage they sadly returned to their home aerodrome hoping against a feeling of dread that both Kiwi & Cpl Grant had somehow survived the crash & were either POWs or had been saved by the Belgian locals.
Comments & Observations
Well that was Short & NOT at all Sweet!
I started all aircraft at level 4, climbed the Camels to level 5 intending for the German Aircraft to also climb but due to the manoeuvre cards drawn using Flash's D8 charts they never got to climb before the poor old RE 8 went BOOM! I forgot to add the +1's to the first exchange but did add them later.
I did not add any + 1's for later exchanges except for continuous fire from the Pfalz.
Really hoping Dave can save one of my favourite pilots in Kiwi & Cpl. Grant on his first mission.
Mission Result---German Victory.
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