OTTBE Misssion 23 - Cambrai Revisited by Flash - 9th October 1918

[flash]

"The task is simple", says Uncle, "but difficult to achieve. We've received permission to have a flight of the new Sopwith's to assist other squadrons with the ground attack offensive whilst retaining the SE's for the high and escort work. This is a most unusual situation and is causing the ground crews problems but I'm confident we will overcome any obstacle".
"Now we have the first machines we have been given our first task and that is to support a Caproni of 95 Sqaudron in an attack on the line. The more damage we can do the better it will be for the infantry that will go in afterward. I won't sugar coat it gentlemen, this will be hard and the potential for casualties may be high. Lt Morrow will fly a SE in support and try to keep off any Huns that you come across but he is only one man so he can't be everywhere. I can only wish you luck".
Uncle then turned to the blackboard and went into the details of the mission.

The Bulldogs and a Caproni from 95 Sqn let down through low level cloud and find themselves immediately amongst a gaggle of German machines transiting the area of their target.
Fokker D.VII's: Flag: Ltn Egon Kosmahl; LO: Ltn Johann Raesh; Orange-Red: Fwbl Fritz Kypke.
SE5a Z-Zebra: Lt Thomas Morrow; Snipes #2 2lt Claude Back; #8 F/Sgt Barry Cade ; Stripes Owen Dewes.


Snipe with Stripes: 2Lt Owen Dewes.
Hannover: Fwbl Gustav Parlow (P2) Ltn Hans Raspe (O)


Dewes spots the Hannover and swings his nose in its direction hoping to get a pop at it before he commits to his attack on the ground targets - he doesn't see the Fokker to his left rear...Raesh turns in behind the new Sopwith - his first rounds damaging some control surfaces


Morrow spots a 'flag' painted Fokker and immediately turns to intercept - annoyingly his first burst has no obvious effect


Kypke, slipped in behind the SE but his eyes were locked on the big fellah - moments later his first burst is on target and fire erupts aboard the Caproni


Morrow over cooks it turning after his Fokker and his machine brushes with Kosmahl's - they're lucky and no damage is done to either machine


Dewes has a problem on his six now - Raesh stays on target and he lands another successful burst


Back drops his Snipe into the attack - causing some decent damage to the right hand trench, the return fire causing no problems


Cade drops his machine into the attack also - his burst at long range toppling troops all over the position and rendering it harmless


Dewes' problems are multiplied - The Fokker is still on target and the Hannover has given him the slip. Now its rear gun is unmasked and it's Raspe who adds to Dewes' pain as smoke belches from his engine


Morrow bumps Kosmahl's Fokker once more causing some minor damage - the gunner of the Caproni fires into the melee with his Lewis gun and causes it some damage - Kypke avoids the confusion and stalks his larger prey that has turned away from his last burst


Back causes more damage to a trench before his guns jam but he takes rudder damage in the process


Cade cannot get on target and he too takes some control surface damage


Kosmahl now gets a clear shot on the Caproni and makes it count - his rounds finding both the pilots - the gunner opens up in return but his Lewis gun jams at the critical moment


Morrow sideslips deeply to avoid more collisions - taking a snap shot on the onrushing Hannover as he does so he hits the bullseye and the big machine falls from the sky


Dewes tries his best to shake the determined Fokker on his six by turning sharply but Raesh stays focused and his next burst damages the engine of the Dewes' smoking Snipe.


Back has drawn some attention low over the trenches but remarkably escapes serious harm. Cade is similarly lucky

Kypke is now in range again but his first ranging shot does little to the Giant before him.


Dewes holds his sharp turn and finally breaks contact with the Fokker on his tail - smoking and with a damaged engine he must make a run for home.


Kypke is infuriated as his next burst again does little to the Giant - he can see the gunner working on his Lewis - he'll have it cleared any moment.


Back's luck takes a turn for the worse - incoming ground fire damages his engine and his rudder. Behind him the Caproni drops his first egg - for a near miss.


Cade is no better off as the ground fire sets his plane alight


The Giant's luck holds for a second, as does Back's as both Kosmahl & Kypke have no joy with their shooting


The Caproni cops a lot more groundfire as it passes over the trenches - the rear gunner lets out a yelp and collapses in his cage - he's down and the Caproni is now vulnerable.


The Caproni turns, shrugging off more groundfire. It does extract a small measure of revenge as the front gunner rakes the trenches below their nose.


His rudder and engine damaged, Back is forced to leave the battle area


Dewes takes advantage of the separation he created between him and the Fokker and heads for home as fast as his damaged motor allows


Morrow catches Kypke at long range causing a little damage before his Lewis gun jams.. he must press on


Trailing sparks and cinders over the battlefield Cade drops into the attack once more - his trade with the ground pounders bears fruit & he takes out trench two. Using just his Vickers Morrow has a little luck and damages the controls of Kypke's Fokker as it's punching large holes into the Giant - the wounded pilots of which have cut their losses and dumped the rest of their bombs toward the next trench - the near miss of three bombs is enough to ensure its demise.


Cade keeps his eye in and peppers the next trench in line but takes rudder damage in return and a very solid hit from Kosmahl's Fokker sliding in behind him.


Their bombs gone the Caproni pilots can do no more but even as they turn for home Kypke chops them down with a devastating burst..


Cade breaks momentarily from the 'flag' Fokker with a sharp turn as Morrow swoops round behind the other Fokker


A long range snap shot from Morrow catches Kypke in it's grasp as he celebrates his victory... he's hit !


Cade senses trouble as the Fokker snaps round on his six - with his damaged controls he knows he's in trouble as the first rounds slam into his machine. At least the fire has gone out ! .


Morrow clips Raesh's Fokker as he rushes into the attack - both are lucky to escape serious damage.


Morrow, his charge lost and with three enemy planes in sight takes his opportunity to break for home followed by desultory ground fire


Cade's suffering Snipe receives the coup de gras from Kosmahl's guns and falls to earth



Butchers Tally:
Lt Thomas Morrow: SE5a Z-Zebra - RTB 1 Kill
2Lt Claude Back: Snipe #2 - FRTB 0 kills - 2 Trenches damaged
F/Sgt Barry Cade: Snipe #8 SD-FT 0 kills - 2 Trenches KO'd; 1 damaged
Rolled 7 -1SD +2 Ace+F/Ace = 8 Injured - Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario. Rolled 5 = Skip 2 (WW)
2Lt Owen Dewes: Snipe Stripes - FRTB 0 kills


95 Sqn Ca3 #3: SD-EXP- ET 0 kills - 2 Trenches KO'd


Eagles:

Ltn Egon Kosmahl: Fokker D.VII (Flag) - RTB 1 Kill
Fwbl Fritz Kypke: Fokker D.VII (Orange/Red) - FRTB / WIA 1 Kill
Rolled 8 +3RTB -1WIA = 10 All well when you land well !
Ltn Johann Raesh: Fokker D.VII (LO) - RTB 0 kills


Hannover
Fwbl Gustav Parlow: (P2) SD-EXP-ET 0 kills
Rolled 3 -3EXP = 0 KIA
Ltn Hans Raspe: (O) SD-EXP-ET 0 kills
Rolled 10 -3EXP = 7 Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario - Rolled 1 = Skip 1
E&E: Rolled 7 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 4 Captured and escaped! - Skip 1D3 Scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 2 (WR)


Positions Damaged: Left to right
1 - 3 damage
2 - Destroyed
3 - Destroyed
4 - Destroyed (bombs)
5 - 2 Damage
6 - Destroyed
7 - No Damage


4 Destroyed = 20 VP to the Bulldogs Do I count the other 5 damage as VP ?

I thought it was somewhat of a disaster until I saw how much damage the bomber & strafers had achieved - I think being FRTB helped out the Bulldogs as they didn't lose a couple of machines due to that.
A most enjoyable mission - I flew Morrow, with my usual rules applied, shooting peg to peg etc. Hope you chaps have as much fun with it as I did.

[Popsical]

Great AAR Dave! A tough mission with much damage taken. Maybe the pilots will get a softer target next time?

[flash]

Thanks Steve, the results were much better than I thought when I examined them but hard on the machinery and some of the men. The Eagles did well this time out - losing the Hannover to the first shot on it was just bad luck.

[Stumptonian]

Terrific AAR, Dave.
Looks like the same three Snipes are readying on my table downstairs.

The Eagle Hannovers sure are taking a beating of late. Another pilot KIA


Seems a solid victory for your chaps.

[Vagabond]

Do you get more points for being the first one to post! Maybe not.

Enjoyable read, the Huns did very well, although as you said the mission was to damage the ground and therefore it is better than it looks.

Are the Fokkers re-paints, if so you made a jolly nice job on them, do you mask and brush paint to get the straight lines or are they transfers, either way they look the business.
Cheers

[tikkifriend]

Ouch The Eagles take another battering and the road is open for the tanks to trundle through. Great AAR Dave pity we get no points for the Capri

[tikkifriend]

Rep gun jammed

[Setarius]

The outcome was better than you thought. another very good write up and a great way to show us how to do it and get the job done.
as usual another enjoyable read.

[gully_raker]

You had me sweating all through that one Dave.
I thought your Doggies were in deep trouble but you got the result done.
Trench work was always deadly.
Rep Inbound.

[flash]

Thanks chaps, glad you liked it.
There was a lot to sweat on Baz, particularly the collisions, seems everywhere I pointed Morrow some silly Fokker put himself in the way ! Both were lucky with the outcomes.
In the air I think the Eagles won the exchange with 1 loss & a FRTB v 2 losses & 2 FRTB; it could easily have been 4 losses - that ground fire was murderous at times & contributed a load of directional problems for the Bulldogs.
I was a bit dubious about how I'd set it up but it worked out fine & certainly kick started the action straight away.
Thanks for the game Paul

[flash]

Was just trawling this and realised I missed a pic out - nothing important, just Morrow jamming his guns !
pic added in.

...Are the Fokkers re-paints, if so you made a jolly nice job on them, do you mask and brush paint to get the straight lines or are they transfers, either way they look the business...

Those flown by Kosmahl (flag) & Kypke (Red/orange) are repaints John, #3 was Udet's Fokker by Nexus.
The flag one is made up to match my captured N.17 so I had something to use late war.
The red orange is based on a real but wrong paint scheme used on the Hendon Fok D.VII in the 60's (still one of my favourites) it's now correctly attired !
[IMG][/IMG]

All hand painted with a little masking involved but mostly free hand.

[Vagabond]

I've never tried masking on a model, I mostly paint figures, I'll have to give it a go, do you just use normal decorators tape, I would have thought it was too coarse to get a good edge!

[Popsical]

John, I use paper feel bog standard decorators type masking tape on my repaints and it works really well. It feels course to the touch and you don't want to paint too heavily over it or it may leak some through, but it works well for me.

[flash]

I've never tried masking on a model, I mostly paint figures, I'll have to give it a go, do you just use normal decorators tape, I would have thought it was too coarse to get a good edge!

You can get masking tape for models down to a the mm - prices vary depending on the width & manufacturer from a couple of quid up - I found some Tamiya stuff in local craft store but find it a bit fiddly, need more practice.

[milcoll73]

love the fokker repaints dave!!!

[mikeemagnus]

RIP Gustav Parlow
Interesting fight Dave. I guess the big difference for me was the random starting positions for the Eagles. Yours more or less took them straight for the Caproni. Mine bounced the scouts well and truly, putting them in a lot of trouble at first. But in the end it worked in favour of the bomber (which I flew myself) as nothing came close to it. The rest was down to the cards and lady luck!
One thing I hope I didn't do wrong. Your Caproni took ground fire. I thought the idea was that the bomber flew too high for that and that only the scouts would be vulnerable from the ground as they would be forced to fly low to strafe. Did I do that wrong?

Anyway, excellent AAR as always. Good result for the Bulldogs. And yes, it was a lot of fun that one

[flash]

..One thing I hope I didn't do wrong. Your Caproni took ground fire. I thought the idea was that the bomber flew too high for that and that only the scouts would be vulnerable from the ground as they would be forced to fly low to strafe. Did I do that wrong?

No, I flew the Ca3 a little higher than the Snipes but still in range of the trenches (at half ruler) so once it was in position to bomb it would take ground fire. That made it interesting to say the least

[Teaticket]

Tough outing with all that round fire. Glad the Eagles don't have to deal with that!

At least all your Doggies are back with only one banged up a bit.

A lot of back and forth. Looked to be a tough start for you and I though it would get easier when the Hannover was downed. But then immediately Dewes had to leave so the tight wire act continued. Good show!