OTT-FYM Mission 3 - Bloody April - 19th April 1917 by ShadowDragon
OTT-FYM Mission 3 – Bloody April – April 19th 1917 by ShadowDragon
The original FYM Scenario is by Stumptonian (Pete):
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...-19-April-1917
Note: I was afraid that I would end up with more mistakes than normal, and unfortunately that was the case. Some I got and fixed during the game, but there were a few serious errors I only found afterwards when annotating the photos and writing up the AAR. I tried to mitigate these as well as I could.
It was a warm summer’s day, so Bruce Dundee was relaxing on the verandah that overlooked their vineyards. He puffed on his pipe while two young boys, oblivious to the heat, chased each other up and down the verandah. Each held a model WWI airplane.
The youngest had a red triplane while the other ‘flew’ a Sopwith Camel. The ‘red triplane’ came up on the Sopwith, “rat-a-ta-dat, rat-a-dat, you’re dead! The Red Baron strikes again.”
“Did not. You missed.”
“The Red Baron never misses!”
Just then Tom Dundee walked up the steps. Tom was Bruce’s younger brother – much younger brother as Tom would tell you. They were both former fighter pilots, but, as Tom would again point out, in different world wars.
The boys had continued to argue over the outcome of the dogfight.
“That’s enough, boy,” warned Tom. He turned to Bruce, “You should be sorting out the dogfight. You’re the one on granddad and uncle duty.” The elder boy, Chris, was Tom’s son while the younger, Peter, was Bruce’s grandson.
“I was just letting the boys present their arguments”, said Bruce. “Boys, did I ever tell you about the time I went one-on-one with the Baron?”
“No, no…tell us”, they both cried in unison.
“You were dogfighting one-on-one with von Richthofen?” queried Tom.
“Well, let me tell you….”, said Bruce.
It was Bloody April 1917. The higher brass was adamant about taking the fight to the Hun. Sometimes it was Teaticket, sometimes Stumpy, sometimes some other chap with scrambled eggs on his cap, but it all amounted to the same thing – more sad letters home while British successes saw the Germans inch ever closer to Paris.
The 19th of the month seemed to be just another day in a long run of days with mission after mission and little sleep. X Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service had two groups of planes out. The first was a couple of Nieuport 17 scouts sent to find and escort a Royal Flying Corps BE2c to safety. Flight sub-Lieutenant (FSL) Donald aka ‘Jock’ MacDonald was in the lead with a new chap, FSL John Keningston, who replaced their most recent loss, Tom Watson.
The bigger mission consisted of two X Squadron’s tandems, the new Bristol F2A, sent on a reconnaissance mission escorted by a couple of Sopwith triplanes flown by two of the squadron’s best aces – FSL Jack Wilde and FSL Bruce Dundee. One tandem was flown by a British crew (FSL David Ian-Lloyd and AM1 Max Little) while the other was flown by an French liaison team (s/Lt Nicholas Davout and Cpl Louis Perrin).
The Huns were waiting as they invariably were just on the other side of No Man’s Land. Four of them – flying the newest Hun machine, the deadly Albatros DIII. Two were old hands – Ltn Johann Schmidt and Fwbl Hans Becker but the other two were rookies on their first mission.
It didn’t take long before the two sides were mixing it up. Bruce grimaced as flames flickered along the side of his Tripe. One has to love the ‘sniper’ skill that gives you a choice of two ‘zeros’.
The fire distracted Bruce who nearly collided with the yellow Albatros. The other Huns got to experience the 360 field of fire for the F2A flown by the French crew. Becker received the worst of it with some flames to match Bruce’s while the rookie in the green Albatros had his first taste of blood – his own.
Bruce chose to overdive in the hopes of putting out the fire, as did his Hun counterpart. After some fancy flying – well, an Immelmann, Jack final got into the action and nicked Schmidt on the cheek – but which cheek??? Louis Perrin in the F2A was not able to keep up with his first round success and missed the over diving Becker.
Schmidt Immel’d to face his pursuer, but the g-force drained the blood from his cheek, and he was not fire on Jack. Jack on the other hand closed in for a you-can’t-miss shot, which is about the only time Jack could hit the broadside of a barn, but it was a good shot that did a fair amount of damage to Schmidt’s white Albatros.
Jack turned to follow Schmidt but found the yellow Albatros instead. It was a deflection shot, but Jack hit the target anyway causing a serious injury to the pilot. It would be back to the barn for the stunned rookie. Meanwhile, Becker had some success with his overdive but not before the flames did more damage than Hans would have preferred – none being his preference instead ‘3’ points.
Bruce, skilled pilot that he was and still is, had considerably more success and the flames on his Tripe flickered out.
Schmidt again tried the Immelmann turn only to find jack waiting for him. Again, it was a shot that even Jack couldn’t miss, and he didn’t. The bullets ripped into the white Albatros; Johann was out of the game without even the satisfaction of a return of fire. Those nicked cheeks can hurt!
With the Huns all bunched up, Jack turn to follow Schmidt but again found the yellow Albatros. The armourers must have done something to Jack’s machineguns, because he again hit his target. It was unbelievable really. Flames engulfed the enemy machine.
The enemy rookie was desperate but to no avail. His crate plummeted to the earth like a meteorite.
His Jasta leader was more fortunate and managed to make it home. Maybe he crashed on landing and maybe not, but that didn’t stop Jack from claiming the “kill”.
That was when Bruce found that after the overdive, he and Becker were the only ones at the lower altitude and so had their very own one-on-one fight.
The rookie in the green Albatros finally twigged to the fact that two tandems were heading into German territory and headed off in pursuit. Jack, having disposed of the white and yellow Albatri, spied the green Albatros as the next target and followed. This time the situation returned to normal, and Jack missed the target.
And, again, Jack missed. (Note: that there should have been no exchange of fire between Jock MacDonald and Hans Becker due to them being at altitudes 4 and 2 respectively. The ‘3’ and ‘0’ damage cards should be ignored)
The silver Nieuport flying overhead should have distracted Becker, but, alas, he kept his focus. A burst of gun fire did more damage to the light blue tripe, but fortunately for Bruce, Becker’s guns jammed.
Meanwhile, Jack finally got close enough so that it was hard for him to miss the green Albatros.
It seemed that the rookie was doomed.
Jack persisted, but green Albatros disappeared into a cloud bank and wasn’t seen again. Jack should have spent more time practicing his shooting.
One might wonder – where’s the Red Baron??? Isn’t this story supposed to include “the bloody Red Baron flying once more”? Patience, boys. We must rewind the story to the second mission with Jock and the rookie, John Kensington escorting the RFC BE2c.
They were the targets that the Baron and one of his wingmen selected as his next victims.
Not knowing his foe, Kensington flew straight at the red Albatros and got a nice bit of damage to his fragile Nieuport with a jammed Lewis in exchange.
Jock had considerably more success and took out the Baron’s wingman with one shot. That was fortunately because his machinegun jammed too.
The Baron knew even more fancy flying than Jack and retaliated. One burst damaged the Nieuport’s engine. Jock would be returning to the naval station if the Baron allowed it.
And that didn’t seem to be the Baron’s intention.
Jock could hardly believe that the Nieuport was still flying. Fortunately, for Jock the Baron had slipped past and needed to turn about.
In a fit of madness, Kensington intervened to save Jock. The Baron obliged him and made short work of the rookie.
The Baron’s next victims were the two F2A tandems flying recon.
The tandems seemed doomed. (MvR used his ‘lucky git’ skill to nullify the ‘serious wound’.)
However, for some reason the Baron turned away – either low on fuel or ammo - (or maybe a scenario rule that says if he uses his ‘lucky git’ skill he leaves).
Now we can bring things together. Jack has driven off the green and white Albatri and downed the yellow one. Jock has downed MvR’s wingman, while MvR has left the battle. The two X Squadron tandems have completed their mission and are returning to the station. The RFC BE2c meandered across the battlefield as if on a day’s outing. Finally, Bruce and the light blue Albatro were having their own private battle.
The BE2c arrived home safely. Jock’s heavily damaged Nieuport made it to the station, but did he land safely?
Jock was followed shortly by the two F2A tandems.
As mentioned, the Baron left for unknown reasons.
The only fight left was between Bruce and Becker.
Having run out of targets, Jack decided it was time to join the fun.
Bruce and Becker reposition for another exchange.
Becker gets the better deal. Bruce’s Nieuport is too heavily damaged to continue the fight.
Becker hopes to tail Bruce and finish him off, but Jack spotted him and prepared to dive.
Becker had been so focussed on Bruce that he failed to notice the diving Tripe. The Vickers ripped into the light blue Albatros. Becker realized that his crate had enough. He would have to try to escape the enemy on his tail, but that was it for Becker. Jack downed him on the next phase. (Note: I had thought Becker was shot down with the move shown in the photo but since that ‘3’ points from Jock didn’t apply I had to play more phases. It took only one - in the next move Becker suffered 2 damage cards from Jack – a ‘2’ + 1 for successive shot by Jack and a ’0’. Unfortunately, there’s no photo for that phase.)
“So where was the one-on-one you had with the Baron?” asked Tom. “It seems like it was Jock or Kensington that were one-on-one or, actually two-on-two with the Baron and his wingman.”
“We were in sight of each other. When the Baron saw who he was facing, he fled in fear of his life.”
“Uh-huh”, said Tom. “Did I tell you about the time when it was Tom Dundee versus Japan?”
“You’re confusing yourself with the USS Enterprise.”
“Say, how did you know all that detail about the Jerries?”
“A storyteller never tells his secrets.”
Victory Points:
Seadogs:
Recon Photo makes it back to base = 5 points
Scouts shot down = 3 X 3 points = 9 Points
Enemy FRTB = 2 X 2 points = 4 points
Total = 18 points
(I assumed that it was 5 points if any photo made it back and not 5 points per photo – assuming each tandem takes a photo. I also assumed that MvR was not FRTB but “choose” to return as per the scenario rule if he used his “lucky git” skill, which he did to avoid being FRTB for engine damage.)
Adlers:
Recon shot down = 0 points
Scouts shot down = 1 X 3 points = 3 points
Enemy FRTB = 2 X 2 = 4 points
Total = 7 points
A win for the Seadogs but not a costly one for either side thanks to kinder than usual C&W / E&E rolls.
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on the occasion of his 20th victory for king & country 
Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte
. It's interesting that it went so well for your guys, they must have a good commander, my chaps had a complete fiasco, the plane I was flying had a one to one with 
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