OTT DYM - Mission 1 - Luftwachdienst-Sperrflug - 5th January 1916 by flash
After a short briefing by Uncle the the balloon attack is on and 2Lt Jarris takes to the sky over the front for the first time. He's been very fortunate to be given Uncles Bristol Scout, recently fitted with an over-wing Lewis gun imitating similar arrangements on the French Nieuport 11. "It's a joy to fly, much easier than the Morane's the other chaps will be using, try and bring it back won't you old chap" said Uncle kindly.
Heading out that morning to take on the onerous task of taking down the balloons - or "pricking the sausages" as one of the chaps put it are the following Bulldogs:
Nearest the camera 2Lt Hugh Jarris in the Bristol scout; 2Lt Alistair Gaither in the Morane Saulnier with the black nose & their leader Lt William Foldes in the Morane Saulnier with the red nose.
The defending Eagles:
Obltn Johannes Achilles to the left in the striped Fokker E.III und Ltn Hans-Eberhardt Gossner to the right in the plain model
The Bratties !
Jarris is concentrating so hard on keeping his machine in formation & watching his instruments he actually misses the initial turn, as he does turn after his comrades Archie welcomes him to the front. "Blooming heck, that was a mite close for comfort"
Gaither suffers a near miss by Archie just as they leave no mans land too - "Fritz is getting his eye in early"
As the Eagles stalk their prey Jarris takes a heavy blow from Archie - shrapnel all but shreds his machine ! "That's not cricket, I've barely got to the crease !"
Just as Foldes opens up on the first target the Eagles finally swoop in from above and the first shots are exchanged... wingman covers wingman
His machine trashed by Archie, Jarris has no alternative but to turn back to base, he manages a desultory burst at the balloon in the vain hope of causing some catastrophic damage but it's not to be - at least he got close enough to have a go.
Whilst Jarris heads for home; Foldes & Gaither pile on to the balloon, Foldes' gun jams straight away.
(Jarris & the Huns both get some attention from Archie but the shots miss.)
Jarris seeing evil intent in the way the pair of Fokker's circle round dives for home to escape their attentions " Cheerio chaps"
As the Scout slips out of harms way beneath them Achilles, the Fokker lead, opens up on Gaither as he crosses his nose and does some damage...
The Fokker lead, shadowed by his number two takes another shot at Gaither but causes no damage this time
Gaither Immels almost above the lead Fokker in a brave effort to return the favour but his shots do no damage.
Foldes gets behind the Fokker pair and lets them know he's there by ripping out some of Gussman's tail feathers
Gaither finding himself in some space opens up at long range on the first balloon and his gun jams.. "Buggeration"
His guns jammed, Gaither can only brace himself for punishment as Achilles takes him head on but he gets away with it
Meanwhile Jarris slips back across the lines and heads for base, grateful to have survived his first contact with the enemy and quite pleased he'd got to have a go at the sausage.
(Gossner takes some Archie as he strays near the left gun but the shot is not near enough to worry him)
Foldes rolls in and makes a strafing run alongside the balloon, whilst his first shots were ineffective the subsequent bursts were very successful from his point of view.
Foldes has a go at the second balloon as he sets up to Immel back on the first but even at close range he appears to do no damage
Making their second pass on the balloon both Morane pilots score hits, Gaither is rewarded with a flicker of flame !
(Gossner strays into the other flack zone - of the shots from two guns, one is close but one is wide & they do no damage)
As he unsuccessfully strafes the balloon Foldes gets some close attention from the lead Fokker as he circles in
Gaither takes a pot at a passing Fokker as he flies away from his successful attack on the first balloon but does no damage to Gossner's machine,
(AA from a pair of guns flies wide of Gaither as he switches his attention to the second balloon.)
Shrapnel from a long range effort of the left AA gun catches Gossner as he gives chase to Gaither and much to his consternation he hears a clang up front and his engine begins to misfire...
Achilles having headed straight on from his last attack gets a shot on Gaither as he heads into attack the second balloon but he does nothing more than jam his gun.
(Over the next few seconds the other AA guns, seeing their neighbours had fired at the monoplane above, open up on the two friendly Fokker's but do no further damage to either of them).
Both British planes run in on the second balloon guns blazing but have no affect at long range, only Foldes seems to achieve some damage when he gets closer in
Fire finally consumes the first balloon and it subsides to the ground spewing gaseous fire & pungent black smoke.
Pulling out from their Immels both British pilots open up at close range and pepper the balloon, whilst Achilles gets in a close range snap shot on Gaither
Gaither immels almost directly over the balloon and manages a close range burst as the Hun leader circles.
(Foldes escapes another close effort by Archie, the other AA has another pop at Achilles as he circles back to re-engage but it's no where close.)
Foldes then turns in for another go at the balloon as Gaither Immels once more
Gaither meets the Fokker head on once more & takes enough damage to force him home
AA peppers the air as the bold flyers make their escape from Hunland but no damage is done
Moments later a last shot from the middle gun fortunately misses Herr Oberleutnant - his rage will know no bounds when he finally gets on the phone to the artillery commander And a final shot from the AA, wide of the mark, sends Foldes & Gaither on their way.
2LtHugh Jarris, FRTB-D 0 kills
Lt William Foldes RTB 0 kills
2Lt Alistair Gaither FRTB-D 1 Kill
Obltn Johannes Achilles RTB 0 kills
Ltn Hans-Eberhardt Gossner - FRTB-E 0 kills
Balloon destroyed by fire
Surviving balloon, abandoned by spotters, badly damaged & hauled down
VP:
Bulldogs -2 for FRTB; +5 for balloon destroyed = 3
Eagles -1FRTB +5 for balloon surviving = 4
Somehow a victory for the Germans !
Though you could argue the mission was over before Gaither left the field which would leave it as a glorious draw.
I flew Jarris by the way. As usual, combat between planes peg top peg, peg to base on balloons. Used my own alt rules & nicked Johns idea of making the rookies more useless by delaying reactions & weening out some cards from the deck. All in all a fun bash - really didn't expect to do so well, think where I went wrong was using 3 C decks - a lot of zeroes came up ! Thanks Neil :hatsoff:
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but a kill to the Bulldogs 
Great 
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