Our Anzac day mission was a beach landing using two coastal maps and one trench map. Three transport ships were anchored fairly close to shore and our troops were landing on the Turkish coast. The Turks were dug in at the top of the cliffs in their trenches but were under fire from our escort, a French destroyer standing off in the channel. We had some air cover for the landing in the form of two French Morane Saulniers N aircraft flown by Sergent Jean Chaput (Windy Jack) and Adjutant Jean Navarre (Baxter). In addition, the destroyer was capable of AA fire if the need arose. The Transport ships had a damage value of 6 each with no guns. The destroyer also had a damage value of 6 with an AA gun onboard that had a value of 6 also. Planes could machine gun the gunners but not sink the destroyer with machine guns.
The Turks responded to our landing by sending an Albatros C.III crewed by Meinecke/Mufettisligi (Biggles Downunder) to bomb our ships with a Fokker E.III flown by Hauptmann Hans Buddecke (also Biggles Downunder) as escort. Supremely confident of the outcome, our brave French pilots headed towards the fleet to protect it from the Turks.
In the first pass the Albatros gets hit by Chaput and he gets hit by Buddecke.
In our next exchange of fire Buddecke hits the destroyers gun but Navarre hits Buddecke and he is smoking. The Albatros was hit by Flak and by Chaput. Things are looking good for France.
Things go pear shaped though with the Albatros rear gunner setting Chaput smoking.
Buddecke Immelmans and hits Navarre. The Albatros and Chaput also exchange fire and both end up with jams.
Three moves later the Albatros hits Navarre.
In a frenzy of fire and bombs the Albatros manages to sink the destroyer and shoots down Navarre.
The last exchange sees the Albatros straddling two of the Transports with his remaining bombs and severely damaging the middle one. Chaput's gun is jammed. Buddecke is too far away to support the Albatros.
At this point the game is declared over. A resounding victory for the Turkish air force and humiliating defeat for the proud French. When it looked like a French victory ..... Turkish delight!
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