Watchdog
07-23-2011, 10:16
Sequel to this AAR: http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?5509-Clash-of-two-patrols-over-the-fog-covered-frontline
Today I had a nice battle with Pepe, a friend from the Warhammer 40.000 community who is also interested in Wings of War.
We flew a reconnaissance sortie with one reconnaissance plane and two escorts. Each of us placed 3 objective cards in his half of the table, at least a ruler away from any board edge (being half of a 6x4 feet Games Workshop battlemat).
To take a picture a plane had to pass through the red dot on the objective marker during any movement phase. First picture taken was worth 1 point, second picture was worth 2 points and the third was worth 3 points.
A plane shot down was worth 2 points, a plane leaving the battlefield (willingly or by mistake) was worth 1 point.
My flight: 1x UFAG C.1, 2x Albatross D.III
Pepe's flight: 1x R.E.8, 2x Sopwith Camel
The personal log of Offiziersstellvertreter Otto Sadowsky, pilot of Flik 23D, K. u. K. Luftfahrtruppen, Italy:
-date unreadable- 1918, Weather - clear sky. Now, tell me that miracles do not happen. During our last reconnaissance sortie, two days ago, we lost Leutnant Istvan Laszlo. The last we saw of him was his fully aflame Albatros D.III dissapearing in the fog below. Imagine our surprise when we recieved a telephone call yesterday evening and it was nobody else than the Leutnant himself! Apparently, instead of crashing into the trenchlines, he found himself just above a shallow river, he managed to pull up at the last possible moment and drop his burning avion almost gently into the water. He was close to our lines and before we returned to the aerodrome, he was shaking hands with an artillery Feurwerker who had helped him out of the water! The man is unbelievable. He should get another medal.
Today, we were ordered to return to the area to get those damned pictures we did not manage to get two days ago. This time, we would be accompanied by no less than two escorting airplanes. It seems Flik 61J is the only unit able to spare any airplanes for escort duty. Not surprisingly, Leutnant Istvan Laszlo again volunteered, together with Oberleutnant Hugo Freiherr von Skrbensky. Both of them flew in an Albatros D.III. Leutnant Laszlo even managed to get his plane painted in the same colours he was used to. My observer was, as usual, Hauptmann Karl Heinrich Storck.
Our task was to photograph an important bridge, not far from the resting place of Lt. Laszlo's former airplane, a small village called Ariente, where the enemy was supposed to have some kind of Headquarters, and a specific part of the trenchlines. Would you believe the Entente command had the same idea? They sent a flight of the same strength to meet us. An R.E.8 of the 34 Squadron, and 2 Sopwith Camels, probably of the 28 Squadron.
We met head on, guns blazing, both our escorts concentrating on the enemy R.E.8. One of the enemy escorts went after us as we tried to fly over the enemy trenches and take a good photograph. It was a bad situation, since not only did my machine gun jam, but I could see our other airplanes not firing either. Damn those ammunition belts! Luckily, we were not the only ones having this kind of trouble and the Camel going after us disengaged, apparently unable to fire anymore after narrowly missing our upper wing. I was surprised to not hear the Schwarzlose rattling behind me, but even through the wind I could hear Hauptman Storck swearing and I saw him throwing a full belt of ammunition overboard. He later told me that all the rounds in it were duds. As we found ourselves just above the settlement of Ariente, Hauptman Storck hurriedly took photographs of the place. I then managed to steer the airplane into a good position above the enemy trenchlines and looked around to see what was going on on the sky as the Hauptmann patted me on the shoulder and signaled me that he had good pictures from both targets.
I was then almost shocked to see the enemy reconnaisance airplane tailing us as if it was a scout and not a two-seater. I dodged, but we still got some hits, although, luckily, no apparent damage was taken. I turned quickly to find our escorts and I saw them hurrying to help us, while the remaining Camel steered to join the fray. I flew just below our Albatroses who both sprayed the enemy R.E.8 with bullets and it gave up the chase of our UFAG in an attempt to evade. The manouvres brought me just into the position for my observer to take the last required photographs and leaving the bridge behind us we signaled our escorts it was time to go.
Our brave pilots tried to flank the enemy planes and chase them away from us to clear a way for us, but the enemy Camel finally managed to find his own sights and two streams of bullets ripped into Leutnant Laszlo's Albatros, which was already damaged by the R.E.8's observer's machine gun. I saw his engine stutter and the propeller came to a halt. I had my hands full, therefore I did not see the rough landing of the airplane, but during a steep evasive manouver I saw the plane already on the ground, tail high, and to my relief I saw a small figure waving with one arm like crazy. That lucky man managed to land his wounded bird just in front of our trenchlines. I could see a halfdozen of soldiers rushing to him from our trenches. I was later told that the only reason he had not been waving with both arms was the bullet in his shoulder.
The manouvres I did brought our machine just behind the tail of the enemy Camel and I pulled the trigger. The enemy went up and slowed down. He is trying the same manouvre that German pilot Immelman invented. I cut the throttle too, pulled left and almost sidestepped the machine. I then gave the engine full throttle and watched the enemy helplessly pass in a safe distance from us, being followed by a fiery trail of 8mm bullets from the Hauptmann's machine gun.
Now was a good time to disengage. We had a mission and we had to deliver those photographs. Changing course every now and then to confuse the enemy I headed for our side of the trenches, when the Hauptmann patted me on the shoulder again, pointing crazily behind us and grinning. I looked behind us just in time to see the enemy R.E.8 that apparently decided to follow us, probably in a last attempt to shoot us down, falling prey to Oberleutnant von Skrbensky's long burst.
The enemy airplane's engine caught fire and it went down in a shallow curve. It did not look like a totally uncontrolled fall, more like an attempt to crash land. I wished the enemy airmen luck. Oberleutnant's Albatros then immediately engaged the last enemy airplane to prevent it from going after us. That is what you call an escort...
No sooner did the Oberlautnant's bullet ridden Albatros land on our aerodrome than Haptman Storck had handed the photographs over to an impatient artillery officer, who looked cheerful almost like a small child that has just been given a wrapped present. He told us that we were to be recommended for a medal for those pictures.
It was a pity that Oberleutnant von Skrbensky did not shoot down the last British scout, but as he explained in the officers' mess, where we were joined by the luckiest of them all Leutnant Laszlo that evening, they circled around one another for a while and then, when he thought we were in a safe distance, he waited for the Camel to get to a position when only a sharp left turn could get the enemy into a firing position and then simply kicked his rudder and disengaged. He later recollected that the Camel's rudder was almost torn away and that the British pilot probably would not be able to follow him anyway. There also seemd to be a line of bullet holes across his canopy, right where his seat was, so the British pilot might actually have been wounded. He admitted that he could have tried to shoot the Camel down, but he rather tried to catch up on us and ensure that we got to the aerodrome safely.
Naturally, that evening the drinks were on Leutnant Istvan Laszlo, who, despite his injury, showed us how a Hungarian officer can drink. The next morning I thought that maybe a bullet through the head from that damned Camel the day before might have been a less painful way to die than that day's hangover.
Results:
Me: 9 points, Pepe: 4 points
I managed to photograph all 3 objectives, gaining 6 points when I left the battlefield with the UFAG C.1.
My losses: 1x Albatros D.III shot down due to damage accumulation, 1x damaged UFAG C.1 left the battlefield on my own will with 6 photograph markers (8/16), 1x damaged Albatros D.III (5/14) left the battlefield on my own will - 4 points lost
Pepe did not manage to photograph any objective (he narrowly missed a few times) and then lost his R.E.8.
Pepe's losses: 1x R.E.8 shot down in flames due to damage accumulation (last card was also fire), 1x Sopwith Camel left the battlefield due to bad manouvre choice (I think he forgot which Camel was which), 1x damaged Sopwith Camel (13/15) - 3 points lost
It was a very nice game and I enjoyed it very much. The most notable moment was the very beginning, when each time I shot at any enemy, he drew a gun jam for me.:brickwal: I hope he is going to register here soon too and join us in the mess.
Pictures:
British Expeditionary Force patrol:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17571&d=1311433269
K. u K. Luftfahrtruppen patrol:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17559&d=1311433162
Deployment:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17564&d=1311433206
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17570&d=1311433259
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17556&d=1311433135
End of turn 1:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17541&d=1311432969
End of turn 2:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17546&d=1311433013
End of turn 3:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17553&d=1311433110
End of turn 4:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17565&d=1311433216
End of turn 5:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17551&d=1311433092
End of turn 6:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17572&d=1311433278
End of turn 7:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17547&d=1311433022
End of turn 8:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17561&d=1311433180
End of turn 9:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17543&d=1311432987
End of turn 10:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17548&d=1311433031
End of turn 11:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17552&d=1311433101
End of turn 12:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17560&d=1311433171
End of turn 13:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17542&d=1311432977
End of turn 14:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17554&d=1311433118
End of turn 15:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17545&d=1311433005
Damage taken by the last two planes on the table. We had to end at that time and I said I would probably have attempted to fly away from the table and we decided that his plane with freshly jammed rudder that could only do Immelman's and straights - we decided that a wounded pilot cannot do steep manouvres - could not catch me before I would get out of the battlefield.:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17555&d=1311433127
Today I had a nice battle with Pepe, a friend from the Warhammer 40.000 community who is also interested in Wings of War.
We flew a reconnaissance sortie with one reconnaissance plane and two escorts. Each of us placed 3 objective cards in his half of the table, at least a ruler away from any board edge (being half of a 6x4 feet Games Workshop battlemat).
To take a picture a plane had to pass through the red dot on the objective marker during any movement phase. First picture taken was worth 1 point, second picture was worth 2 points and the third was worth 3 points.
A plane shot down was worth 2 points, a plane leaving the battlefield (willingly or by mistake) was worth 1 point.
My flight: 1x UFAG C.1, 2x Albatross D.III
Pepe's flight: 1x R.E.8, 2x Sopwith Camel
The personal log of Offiziersstellvertreter Otto Sadowsky, pilot of Flik 23D, K. u. K. Luftfahrtruppen, Italy:
-date unreadable- 1918, Weather - clear sky. Now, tell me that miracles do not happen. During our last reconnaissance sortie, two days ago, we lost Leutnant Istvan Laszlo. The last we saw of him was his fully aflame Albatros D.III dissapearing in the fog below. Imagine our surprise when we recieved a telephone call yesterday evening and it was nobody else than the Leutnant himself! Apparently, instead of crashing into the trenchlines, he found himself just above a shallow river, he managed to pull up at the last possible moment and drop his burning avion almost gently into the water. He was close to our lines and before we returned to the aerodrome, he was shaking hands with an artillery Feurwerker who had helped him out of the water! The man is unbelievable. He should get another medal.
Today, we were ordered to return to the area to get those damned pictures we did not manage to get two days ago. This time, we would be accompanied by no less than two escorting airplanes. It seems Flik 61J is the only unit able to spare any airplanes for escort duty. Not surprisingly, Leutnant Istvan Laszlo again volunteered, together with Oberleutnant Hugo Freiherr von Skrbensky. Both of them flew in an Albatros D.III. Leutnant Laszlo even managed to get his plane painted in the same colours he was used to. My observer was, as usual, Hauptmann Karl Heinrich Storck.
Our task was to photograph an important bridge, not far from the resting place of Lt. Laszlo's former airplane, a small village called Ariente, where the enemy was supposed to have some kind of Headquarters, and a specific part of the trenchlines. Would you believe the Entente command had the same idea? They sent a flight of the same strength to meet us. An R.E.8 of the 34 Squadron, and 2 Sopwith Camels, probably of the 28 Squadron.
We met head on, guns blazing, both our escorts concentrating on the enemy R.E.8. One of the enemy escorts went after us as we tried to fly over the enemy trenches and take a good photograph. It was a bad situation, since not only did my machine gun jam, but I could see our other airplanes not firing either. Damn those ammunition belts! Luckily, we were not the only ones having this kind of trouble and the Camel going after us disengaged, apparently unable to fire anymore after narrowly missing our upper wing. I was surprised to not hear the Schwarzlose rattling behind me, but even through the wind I could hear Hauptman Storck swearing and I saw him throwing a full belt of ammunition overboard. He later told me that all the rounds in it were duds. As we found ourselves just above the settlement of Ariente, Hauptman Storck hurriedly took photographs of the place. I then managed to steer the airplane into a good position above the enemy trenchlines and looked around to see what was going on on the sky as the Hauptmann patted me on the shoulder and signaled me that he had good pictures from both targets.
I was then almost shocked to see the enemy reconnaisance airplane tailing us as if it was a scout and not a two-seater. I dodged, but we still got some hits, although, luckily, no apparent damage was taken. I turned quickly to find our escorts and I saw them hurrying to help us, while the remaining Camel steered to join the fray. I flew just below our Albatroses who both sprayed the enemy R.E.8 with bullets and it gave up the chase of our UFAG in an attempt to evade. The manouvres brought me just into the position for my observer to take the last required photographs and leaving the bridge behind us we signaled our escorts it was time to go.
Our brave pilots tried to flank the enemy planes and chase them away from us to clear a way for us, but the enemy Camel finally managed to find his own sights and two streams of bullets ripped into Leutnant Laszlo's Albatros, which was already damaged by the R.E.8's observer's machine gun. I saw his engine stutter and the propeller came to a halt. I had my hands full, therefore I did not see the rough landing of the airplane, but during a steep evasive manouver I saw the plane already on the ground, tail high, and to my relief I saw a small figure waving with one arm like crazy. That lucky man managed to land his wounded bird just in front of our trenchlines. I could see a halfdozen of soldiers rushing to him from our trenches. I was later told that the only reason he had not been waving with both arms was the bullet in his shoulder.
The manouvres I did brought our machine just behind the tail of the enemy Camel and I pulled the trigger. The enemy went up and slowed down. He is trying the same manouvre that German pilot Immelman invented. I cut the throttle too, pulled left and almost sidestepped the machine. I then gave the engine full throttle and watched the enemy helplessly pass in a safe distance from us, being followed by a fiery trail of 8mm bullets from the Hauptmann's machine gun.
Now was a good time to disengage. We had a mission and we had to deliver those photographs. Changing course every now and then to confuse the enemy I headed for our side of the trenches, when the Hauptmann patted me on the shoulder again, pointing crazily behind us and grinning. I looked behind us just in time to see the enemy R.E.8 that apparently decided to follow us, probably in a last attempt to shoot us down, falling prey to Oberleutnant von Skrbensky's long burst.
The enemy airplane's engine caught fire and it went down in a shallow curve. It did not look like a totally uncontrolled fall, more like an attempt to crash land. I wished the enemy airmen luck. Oberleutnant's Albatros then immediately engaged the last enemy airplane to prevent it from going after us. That is what you call an escort...
No sooner did the Oberlautnant's bullet ridden Albatros land on our aerodrome than Haptman Storck had handed the photographs over to an impatient artillery officer, who looked cheerful almost like a small child that has just been given a wrapped present. He told us that we were to be recommended for a medal for those pictures.
It was a pity that Oberleutnant von Skrbensky did not shoot down the last British scout, but as he explained in the officers' mess, where we were joined by the luckiest of them all Leutnant Laszlo that evening, they circled around one another for a while and then, when he thought we were in a safe distance, he waited for the Camel to get to a position when only a sharp left turn could get the enemy into a firing position and then simply kicked his rudder and disengaged. He later recollected that the Camel's rudder was almost torn away and that the British pilot probably would not be able to follow him anyway. There also seemd to be a line of bullet holes across his canopy, right where his seat was, so the British pilot might actually have been wounded. He admitted that he could have tried to shoot the Camel down, but he rather tried to catch up on us and ensure that we got to the aerodrome safely.
Naturally, that evening the drinks were on Leutnant Istvan Laszlo, who, despite his injury, showed us how a Hungarian officer can drink. The next morning I thought that maybe a bullet through the head from that damned Camel the day before might have been a less painful way to die than that day's hangover.
Results:
Me: 9 points, Pepe: 4 points
I managed to photograph all 3 objectives, gaining 6 points when I left the battlefield with the UFAG C.1.
My losses: 1x Albatros D.III shot down due to damage accumulation, 1x damaged UFAG C.1 left the battlefield on my own will with 6 photograph markers (8/16), 1x damaged Albatros D.III (5/14) left the battlefield on my own will - 4 points lost
Pepe did not manage to photograph any objective (he narrowly missed a few times) and then lost his R.E.8.
Pepe's losses: 1x R.E.8 shot down in flames due to damage accumulation (last card was also fire), 1x Sopwith Camel left the battlefield due to bad manouvre choice (I think he forgot which Camel was which), 1x damaged Sopwith Camel (13/15) - 3 points lost
It was a very nice game and I enjoyed it very much. The most notable moment was the very beginning, when each time I shot at any enemy, he drew a gun jam for me.:brickwal: I hope he is going to register here soon too and join us in the mess.
Pictures:
British Expeditionary Force patrol:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17571&d=1311433269
K. u K. Luftfahrtruppen patrol:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17559&d=1311433162
Deployment:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17564&d=1311433206
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17570&d=1311433259
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17556&d=1311433135
End of turn 1:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17541&d=1311432969
End of turn 2:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17546&d=1311433013
End of turn 3:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17553&d=1311433110
End of turn 4:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17565&d=1311433216
End of turn 5:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17551&d=1311433092
End of turn 6:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17572&d=1311433278
End of turn 7:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17547&d=1311433022
End of turn 8:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17561&d=1311433180
End of turn 9:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17543&d=1311432987
End of turn 10:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17548&d=1311433031
End of turn 11:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17552&d=1311433101
End of turn 12:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17560&d=1311433171
End of turn 13:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17542&d=1311432977
End of turn 14:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17554&d=1311433118
End of turn 15:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17545&d=1311433005
Damage taken by the last two planes on the table. We had to end at that time and I said I would probably have attempted to fly away from the table and we decided that his plane with freshly jammed rudder that could only do Immelman's and straights - we decided that a wounded pilot cannot do steep manouvres - could not catch me before I would get out of the battlefield.:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17555&d=1311433127