OTTBE Misssion 23 - Cambrai Revisited - 9th October 1918 (Vagabond)
Game 23
Lt John Kane gave the briefing, he was still hobbling after being wounded in the last sortie and was using a walking stick to get around but he was full of vim and vigour.
Ok listen up lads, I know we are still a rookie squadron but C flight are the only ones to have seen action so far and we have 1 kill to our credit. Everyone looked at Callaghan and smiled. He just glowered back, he’d taken a lot of ribbing over his kill, he had flown straight into a Rumpler and he had survived but the Rumpty had crashed and he’d been credited with the kill. He was even more annoyed when his maintanance crew had painted the black skull and cross bones on his plane.
Pay attention everyone, we are to escort a DH4 bomber who is going to blow up the trenches in front of the Canadian advance, trying to take a bit of pressure off them when they go over the top. The DH4 is from a crack squadron and I don’t want you to let us down in front of them, your job is to keep any enemy scouts away from the bomber and let him get on with his job without any interferance. Once he’s done his bombing run, you are to shoot up the trenches but not before, have you all got that.
Lt Roche – you will lead the flight in my absence, don’t let me or the squadron down.
PIC01
An example of perfect formation flying, 2nd Lt Hyacinth Roche keeping them altogether as they approach the German lines, they are flying at altitude so that Wilfred Allanson can drop his eggs without too much distraction from ground fire from the trenches.
Wilf is a bit nervous about this as it’s his first time on a live bombing run and he wasn’t much good at it in practice. He is smarter than he looks, at least he hopes so and has decided his best chance of hitting something is to fly along the trench system rather than across it. His theory is that if he misses one trench with a badly aimed bomb he might hit either the one before or the one after. Well at least something!!!!
Looking at the picture I realised it’s not clear but Wilf is the driver and Tweedy-Smith is the passenger, Tweedy is nervous too, he’s just joined this crack squadron and was hoping to be teamed up with a veteran pilot but Wilf arrived on the same day and apart from a few hours practice together this is their first action. It was an important mission for the two rookie airmen and they wanted to give it their best shot. No need for these flash scout pilots to know they had only just arrived at the front.
Text relating to pictures is below then unlike everyone else in the world – sorry.
PIC02
Tweedy-Smith slaps Wilf on the shoulder, “Ambush” is all he can shout above the noise of the engine.
PIC03
He points over at 2 Fokker Dr1’s and a Hanover coming at them from the left flank and rear of their own formation. He doesn’t see the Red nosed Fokker flown by Gunther Ehmann coming in from their right rear.
“It’s OK” shouts Wilf “the scouts will take care of them”. Internally he thinks “good grief where did they come from and there’s an awful lot of them, I hope the scouts are on their toes”.
He doesn’t know that this is only the second mission for this scout squadron and only 2 of these pilots flying as his escort have actually seen action before, he might not have been so happy if he’d known that.
PIC04
With 3 enemy planes off to his port, it decides which way he will carry out his bombing run and he pulls the big plane off to the right to eventually curve left and run down the line of trenches.
The scouts see the enemy at the same time as Tweedy-Smith, and they peel out of their formation either left or right depending on the nearest enemy, well aware their mission is to protect the bomber.
PIC05
Hyacinth decides to strafe the trench in front of him before turning to face the fighters coming in. He’s aware their mission is to protect the DH4 in it’s bombing of the trench system but if he can help it out he will do so. He pulls out his fathers hunting horn.
You can see that Wilf is preparing for his left hook and running down the trench line which is on his port side.
PIC06
George Du Cray on the right hand side peels to starboard, Gunther is coming in fast, well as fast as a Dr1 can go. He is just out of range but if he makes a good next move (I’m using Dave’s AI for the 1st time – so no pressure Dave) he will be able to rake the Camel.
This is George’s first mission and he’s as worried as a worried badger, he was expecting to have to cope with ground fire and they never hit anything so he’s been told and now he’s got this Dr1 all over him. He’s turning quite slowly, obviously worried about the Camels reputation for fast right turns, followed by fast spins, followed by the ground coming up quickly and followed by an early death.
PIC07
On the far side of the formation Will Clarke, the other Rookie in C flight and Joseph Callaghan bank left to meet the veteran Obltn Fritz Zorn and his wing man Otto Boy, also on his first mission. Zorn has told Otto to fly just behind and to the right of his wing, Otto being a good lad from Bavaria intends to do exactly what he’s been told, he’s not sure if he’s more afraid of his stern commander than he is of the British pilots. Zorn is from Prussia and Otto is not too sure if those are duelling scars or not, he thinks not, duelling has been forbidden for a long time, but even so, Zorn is not a man he wants to see the wrong side of.
PIC08
Guns blazing Will and Zorn tear lumps out of each others planes. Will feels the Camel shudder and the engine note change, but he’s elated to see he’s hit the yellow nosed Dr1, not so happy to see the flames, it’s a bad way to go unless the pilot can blow the flames out, which doesn’t happen often.
Zorn is wounded in the exchange of gunfire, but worse his damn planes on fire, should he try and land, - there’s no time he’s too high. It’s times like this he wonders why they haven’t been issued with the parachutes that the Balloon Corps use.
PIC09
Gunther jinked to port and George flew right by him. (Dave you had him cold or was that excellent A.I. flying by George?)
PIC10
Hyacinth puts his fathers hunting horn to his lips and plays the Tally Ho diving down and raking the trench with hot lead, the trench fires back but to no avail.
PIC11
He comes screaming down and destroys the trench with his close range strafing but the next trench along has a marksman or maybe just some lucky bast**d whose shot hits the fuel tank and the Camel explodes in mid air.
PIC12
And lands in the trench he’s just destroyed. If only he can get out and run, there’s no one alive to stop him. It looks a bad crash and we will have to wait and see if he makes it. I’m gutted, after only 1 mission, Hyacinth is my favourite pilot.
PIC13
Zorn is beating at the flames and he and Will Clarke just miss each other. Otto flying as instructed is on Zorn’s wing and just out of angle to shoot at Will.
PIC14
A quick overview, centre right is Hyacinth, ploughing up daisies in the trench, bottom right the DH4 preparing to swing to port and bomb the trench system. Bottom left George Du Cray starting to swing to starboard and get back in the action, in the far distance Will Clarke is preparing to turn to port and go home with his damaged engine. Callaghan in the yellow nosed Camel has done an Immelmann turn and is flying back into a hornets nest of Fokker’s.
All the German planes have moved from the outside of the circle to the centre and are now surrounded by Camels, if 2 Camels can surround 4 German planes a neat juxtaposition from the start.
The Hanover was as far away as they could be when the action started and are only just getting into the centre of things.
PIC15
Zorn is frantically trying to put out the flames and makes a big swing to starboard and has narrowly missed Gunther and he’s slowly turning into the path of the Hanover. Gunther swung hard to starboard to avoid Zorn and has spotted what the DH4 is up to and is headed in that direction to put a stop to it.
Otto is still on Zorn’s wing but is looking over his shoulder at the plane that fired on his commander and thinking.
PIC16
Otto has thought enough and realising the only thing he can do for his commander is to shoot down the plane who caused the damage so he does an Immelmann and sets off in pursuit of Will who is just in sight over in the far distance trying to make it home in one piece. Zorn continues his turn and nearly collides with the Hanover, you can just see its card under the base of the Dr1. Callaghan is coming in fast but not picked out a target yet.
PIC17
Wilf is bringing the DH4 in on his bombing run.
PIC18
Taking his time, there are no enemy harassing him so I guess the scouts have done their job so far.
PIC19
The action in the centre - bottom right Gunther is after the DH4, Callaghan has finally picked his target, not sure if the Hanover is the best one for him to go at. The Hanover is flown by August Schobinger and his Observer Wilhelm Thiede who shot down 2 planes in his last mission, they are not going to be an easy take down.
George taking advantage of Zorn’s preoccupation with the fire is sneaking into position. Otto headed out of the picture north is chasing after Will Clarke but he’s not going to catch him, even if the Camel has a ****ey engine, is he?
PIC20
Just as I thought - Thiede puts holes in Callaghan as well as his plane and he will have to run for home before he passes out from blood loss. That’s 3 of the escorts out of the action, just the rookie George left, but he has lined up Zorn’s Dr1 nicely and opens fire.
PIC21
He hit something vital and the fragility of the Dr1 is exposed, Zorn hits the ground with a loud bang. A first kill for 2nd Lt George Du Cray? The Dr1 went down from the fire damage rather than Georges shooting but I think he counts the kill as he was the last one to shoot at it before the crash.
He is now at a bit of a loss with Zorn gone, but he will be at an even bigger loss when he realizes he is the only Camel still fighting, the rest are either down or headed home.
August flying the Hanover recognises the yellow nosed Camel, Mien Gott that’s the idiot who flew into Hans Goos, destroying the Rumpler in mid air and killing both the crew. He’s got a single kill marker painted on the nose of the plane, is that for Goos. All this went through his head in a split second.
PIC22
Which is all the time he had, before Callaghan dizzy from the wound he’d just received, nearly ploughed straight into the Hanover.
Donner and Blitzen, is this how the English teach their pilots to fly, don’t they know that there is a machine gun in that plane? It’s not a Greek galley or a battering ram!!!!
PIC23
The Hanover is a very manoeuvrable plane, August swings it round in a tight circle and Thiede puts more holes in Callaghan’s plane. He very nearly got round far enough to hit George as well. August is one excellent pilot. (Well done Dave)
PIC25
Slightly out of sync with the other action but Gunther is coming in fast on to Wilf who is just concentrating on his main mission – staying in a straight line and blowing these trenches apart. Tweedy-Smith will have to take care of the Huns in the air while I get the ones on the ground he’s thinking. Well I’m thinking that, because I’m flying the DH4.
Tweedy-Smith is jumping up and down in the back of the plane, the damn cunning Boshe side slipped to port as he came in. It lined Gunther up perfectly on the DH4 but means T-S is out of angle to return the fire.
PIC26
The next move though T-S blasts holes in the Fokker, smoke is pouring from the plane, Gunther’s guns jam.
PIC27
Wilf is lined up, all he has to do is drop the bombs at the right time.
PIC28
Right over on the far side Otto Boy is chasing after Will Clarke to exact revenge, he saw Zorn’s plane go down and is now white faced with fury, he’s after blood.
PIC29
August lines up on George and opens fire, fortunately for George he doesn’t do much damage.
PIC30
Bombs away. Actually no one said that at the time, there was just a strained grunt as Will pulled the toggle and let go 1 bomb load. He’s at altitude 4 which is why he’s not taken any ground fire, but it means the bombs take a while to reach the ground. He’s moving forward at full speed so they’re going to land quite a long way in front but I don’t really know how far.
In my practice session, Wilf couldn’t get lined up on the target and then once he did achieve that simple thing he missed by a mile, which is why he’s so nervous about doing it for real and why he’s going down the line rather than across it.
The ring on the card indicates it still has another move to travel.
PIC31
Well the bombs flying straight and true.
PIC32
Gunther, smoke pouring out of his engine chases after the DH4, as the bomb lands on the trench, only just but it’s 2 points of damage. You can’t see but Wilf’s let go his second load of bombs.
PIC33
They were perfectly over the 1st lot so I moved them to one side so you could see both, still a move to go before they land. There’s a confession here that I’ll recount later.
PIC34
Mean time August has turned to starboard and still has George in his sights, I forgot to add the +1 on the card for the picture but added it to the tally.
PIC35
Callaghan nearly off the board and headed for home. In the far distance Will Clark has made it off the board and you can just see Otto turning to starboard to get back to the action.
PIC36
The second bomb load has landed on the same bit of trench at the other end so a total of 4 points of damage, and the 3rd load is on it’s way. This was pure chance because I was going for the trench next in line, I’ll explain later.
PIC37
Wilf is flying a perfect line. Tweedy-Smith is watching the tailing Dr1 carefully.
PIC38
But it’s safely behind them.
PIC39
August is keeping up the pressure on young George Du Cray as Thielde fires at him, but inflicts no damage.
PIC40
The 3rd bomb load is smack on target 4 points of damage and the 4th load is on it’s way.
PIC41
Gunther gives up the chase on the big DH4 and turns towards George, who has been taking a pounding from the Hanover.
PIC42
August has pulled the Hanover round and is also chasing after George, who is wishing he wasn’t so popular.
PIC43
Wilf pulls the DH4 to port, his job done, the final bomb has landed on the red spot and the trench has 8 points of damage and is no more.
George is wondering what to do, there are 3 German planes between him and the DH4, should he go home and leave it to it’s fate?
PIC44
What would his ancestors think if he did that, he can trace his lineage back to the Norman Conquest, maybe I should be fighting for the French he thinks, but lets go and save that DH4 in the mean time, so reluctantly he turns his Camel back towards the enemy. He gets a fleeting shot at the Hanover but misses.
PIC45
Otto was trying to get after the DH4 that was coming his way and so did an Immelmann turn right in front of George who couldn’t believe his luck and poured lead into the enemy plane, and damaged the engine, Otto has to return to base.
Gunther was also just in angle and fired on George but he also missed.
PIC46
George catches Otto and damages the plane some more but Gunther hits George and there is a +1 for 2nd shot.
PIC47
Otto runs for home and George takes some more damage to his plane from Gunther but he also gets wounded badly at the same time, again should be a +1.
PIC48
I just liked this shot.
PIC49
Wilf sees that George is getting shot to pieces and puts his plane in between him and Gunther, and George turns for home.
PIC50
This might not have been such a good move. Gunther is hot as hot can be, but Tweedy-Smith is no slouch either, both planes take damage and start smoking, but Gunther's guns have jammed.
PIC51
He hasn’t un-jammed them by the time he is in a perfect position to fire on George.
George made it off the table the next move and I called it a day.
Confessions time, twice I mistook the gun jammed card for engine damage, once just as the DH4 started it’s bombing run, the plane was lined up perfectly and when I wrote the commentary I corrected my mistake and said guns jammed but in the game I thought it was engine damage. I decided that Wilf would probably carry on with the run, even though the campaign rule requires him to go home. I rolled a die 3,4,5 and 6 meant he carried on – I rolled a 5 so he did. That meant he kept having to play a stall card for engine damage as he did the bombing run, which made it even more difficult to hit the targets, so that was all luck rather than good judgment.
The same happened with Otto near the end, but didn’t make any difference to the game result. I didn’t realise any of this until Gunther’s guns jammed right at the end, I checked the card and realised my mistake. The other thing was that I’ve been playing, only one gun jams, and so he could have fired at George right at the end but I forgot and so both were jammed.
C’est la Guerre.
The Butchers Bill
PIC52
2nd Lt Hyacinth Roche – SD, EXP, in NML
C & W = Rolled 8 -3EXP, -1NML = 4, Injured - Skip 1D6 – Rolled 3 Skip 3 Scenarios (Bugger)
E & E Rolled 11 -1EXP, -1WIC +1NML = 10 They didn’t even see me (That’s because he killed them all before crashing on top of them)
2nd Lt Joseph Callaghan RTB, WIA
C & W Rolled 6 -1WIA, +3Landed Safely = 8 – Injured, skip 1D2 – Rolled 2 = Skip 1 Scenario
PIC53
2nd Lt George Du Cray – RTB, WIA, 1 Kill (Zorn)
C & W = Rolled 5 -1WIA, +3Landed Safely = 8, Injured Skip 1D2, Rolled 2 = Skip 1 Scenario.
PIC54
2nd Lt William Clarke RTB - OK
2nd Lt Wilfred Allanson P2 - RTB – OK
Sgt Douglas Tweedy-Smith O – RTB – OK
PIC55
Ltn Gunther Ehmann – RTB – OK
Ltn Otto Boy – RTB – OK
PIC56
Obltn Fritz Zorn SD, FLM, WIA, NML
C & W = Rolled 11 -2SD(FLM), -1WIA -1NML = 7 Injured Skip 1D2 rolled 6 skip 2 scenarios.
E & E = Rolled 11 -1FLM -1WIA, -1WIC, +1NML = 9 They didn’t even see me.
I imagine he and Hyacinth shook hands as they passed each other in no mans land.
PIC57
Trench on the right destroyed by Hyacinth 5 points, the trench that took 4 points of damage, is that 4 points to the British or nil because it wasn’t destroyed, the final trench was over kill but counts 5 pts.
So 10 or 14 points for the objective, 1 plane shot down and 3 pilots out of action, the scout flight has just 2 pilots on their feet and available for the next mission. This was not a particularly successful sortie but at least they all survived, just.
Dave thanks for the A.I. I prefer rolling D6’s rather than D8’s only because I can leave the D6 die by the plane card and I don’t have enough D8’s to be able to do this. It worked well in my limited experience, just one question, where 1 plane is chasing another, is the plane in front counted as opening to the plane behind and is the plane behind counted as closing to the plane in front?
Let me know if I can make the tally better in any respect, hopefully I have it pretty much how you need it to make your life as easy as possible.
Paul – a big thank you for the scenario, I didn’t really want to play it because I’ve not used bomb’s, not used trenches, not used altitude and not used bombers, so more outside my comfort zone than I wanted to be at this stage of my playing.
The bombing from altitude is wild, and is going to take a lot of practice to be able to do this. In my practice game I couldn’t turn in quickly and get on target, I was continually overshooting and having to turn to come back again. That would have been suicidal in this game.
Getting the distance correct to make the drop and get the bombs to land in 2 moves time was extremely difficult for me, especially as I was using the damaged engine stalls, so all in all a good learning experience.
In the end because I’ve no bombers I went for just 1 two seater but equipped it with 4 bomb loads as you suggested. I suspect it was a bit more weighted against the British because I didn’t have a heavy bomber and because of my mistaking gun jam for engine damage, the DH4 could have gone back down the line damaging more trenches and the extra guns if it was a bomber would have helped there.
Cheers
Reply With Quote
Good effort John & I enjoyed your banter with the pilots very much.
Originally Posted by Vagabond
Bookmarks