After having spent most of 1915 in a quiet sector near the Swiss border, the Bulldog escadrille was moved to a more active area closer to Verdun. The weather prevented any flying the first three days at the new aerodrome but on the forth the sky cleared.
A line of German balloons had been directing artillery before the weather set in. Commander of the escadrille, Lt. Remy St. Martin had received orders almost immediately when they had arrived, TAKE DOWN ENEMY BALLOONS in sector 5. For three days the weather prevented any flying, but now that the weather has broken Remy set the schedule for the pilots.
Most of the pilots had seen limited combat through the end of 1915. The experienced pilots had enough time in the air to be proficient fliers but not enough combat experience to be aggressively confidant. The newest recruits had not all been in combat yet. Two witnessed some action at a distance and one had been shot at but did not do any shooting himself.
Remy, son of a banker in Marsaille, was quite a good pilot and even better at administration. He rose through the ranks because of his eagerness to fly as well as his organizational skills. Now, escadrille commander, he felt the weight of responsibility for the success of his unit. He was mostly happy with the pilots he had. They were a good-hearted lot, not a bad seed among them. The ground crew were a different story though. Quite a few of them he thought were shirkers, claiming technical skills so not to have to go to the front as a poilu. He will have to keep a watchful eye on them.
The new recruits he worried most for. Just out of training with only a couple of uneventful patrols under their belts, they were not experienced enough to be counted on or to return from a mission alive. Only one way to get them up to snuff, get them into the air as reasonably often as possible with other seasoned flyers to keep an eye on them.
S/Lt Raoul Allard had been with the escadrille from the beginning. He came from a family in the fishing trade in Bordeaux. He did not have the strongest leadership traits but had no fear when facing the enemy.
“Yes, he will fly with us today”, Remy thought.
Remy had the feeling that S/Lt Piers Lebeau was the better flier of the rookies. He had very good mechanical ability and was improving his flying skills with every flight. Son of a blacksmith, he had different skills that could help the escadrille.
“Ok Labeau, today you will see your first balloons”, Remy thought as he finished the mission’s preliminary paper work.
Under the tent just before mounting their planes Remy told Allard and Labeau his plan for them.
“If we encounter any enemy aircraft, I will engage them first. Allard, you will have to weigh the situation and decide if you can go for the balloon or engage with the Hun scouts. Labeau, you will avoid any enemy aircraft as much as possible and go for the balloon. Of course, if there are no Hun to play with we will all go straight after the gas bags”. Remy winked, patted each on the shoulder, turned and mounted his Morane-N.
Heading south to the location of the German balloon line, three French pilots flew. One eager, one watchful with concern and the last in wonderment. Remy flew the newer plane of the three, a Morane-Saulnier N. Not a particularly nimble plane but better than most of the lot. Raoul and Piers flew Morane-Saulnier L types. These are not powerful enough to do a proper reversal! Quite obsolete but when that’s all you have Remy has to send them up.
Remy knows of the new Nieuport scouts starting to fill out the leading escadrilles and has sent petitions to get them as soon as possible.
The three flew south on the west side of the weather front. Remy used the cloud line to attempt to reach the balloons unseen.
Raoul brought his L type a little closer to Remy.
Unseen two miles behind the balloons, trouble was lurking.
While still keeping the clouds between his flight and the balloons a loud crack with a black cloud erupted harmlessly off of Remy’s starboard wing.
Soon another burst, this time dangerously close to Labeau. As holes tore open in the canvas wings, Piers eyes opened wide.
Remy notices something the other two didn’t, enemy planes.
As Remy flew towards the enemy, unawares Raoul and Piers peeled off and headed towards the balloons.
“Mon Dieu!” Piers eyes opened even wider. As he cleared the cloud there was a white airplane heading in his direction. He didn’t expect to see an enemy plane, only a balloon. True enough the massive balloon floated gently in the air beyond the intervening enemy.
Another loud report, this time harmlessly behind him, reminded Lebeau how dangerous this game of flying really is.
Remy heads to engage the Hun pair but only one takes the bait. Remy calmly lets off a burst, then corrects his Morane’s heading and sends off a longer string of lead directly into the grey Hun.
The one scout that turned away from Remy now headed right at Labeau. At a long range the Hun fired off a burst and Labeau noticed the tracers and a couple of holes in his wing.
“If he can hit me, I should be able to hit him”, Labeau quickly thought. He fired a longer burst at this range than he was trained to, but most of his rounds hit their mark. If he had known he was hitting the Hun he would have kept pulling the trigger.
Remy meanwhile has passed between the pair of Huns and got a shot at the first balloon.
Allard had watched Remy and the Hun. Now that grey Hun turned at him so he went at him. They both closed in to minimum range. The nose on pass put many rounds into each engine. The Hun’s oil line was nicked and black smoke is blown past the pilot leaving a dark tail behind his monoplane. Allard’s Morane gets the worst of it and ignites!
They pass each other very closely but between the smoke and the fire neither is now paying attention to the other.
Remy has reversed to get back on the Hun scouts.
The white Hun turns into Labeau’s path forcing Labeau to dive beneath him to avoid a collision.
On the ground the German Anit-Aircraft Artillery spot a juicy target, two planes close together. They had just fired on a plane coming from the west so a good chance there are many enemy aircraft aloft. Not knowing if they were friend or foe they let loose a shell. It looks close from the ground but the altitude is way off.
Labeau, now past the Hun heads for the balloon. A lesson not to be forgotten if one survives, the enemy he thought he left behind had Immelmanned behind him! A few rounds pass close by his right shoulder and plink the oil line. Immediately smoke billows from the oil squirting on the hot engine.
In the excitement, Labeau is distracted from his target. He pulls the trigger while frantically eyeing over the damage to his plane.
Allard, with gun jammed and on fire now has the grey Hun on his tail!
The fire is fed more now by a petrol leak and the blaze flares up to Raoul’s despair.
Remy returns to engage the grey Hun to Allard’s relief. The exchange at close range was minimal and Remy emerges the loser. His controls are damaged and his gun jams.
Labeau closes in on the balloon. He can’t miss such a large target… he sees a few rounds disappear into the gas bag when his gun falls silent.
Allard knows his burning plane is in grave danger. He gives up on the balloon and starts to turn for the lines. The white Hun could not help but see the fire engulfed French monoplane. Herr Schmeiss let Labeau go and aimed into the burning Frenchman.
Allard’s plane could take no more and flutters down toward the ground.
Another AA gun crew are confused with the action above. Not really sure of who was above them they fired at a plane threateningly close to the balloon they are to protect. They correctly set the altitude and their aim was true. The round went off almost touching the aircraft. Pieces could be seen flying off in all directions as a grey single winged craft falls from the sky.
Two Frenchmen with jammed guns, one German still on the prowl.
Another mistaken round fired at a friendly plane. Luckily for Schmeiss it isn’t close.
Schmeiss takes a quick shot at a fleeing Frenchman but misses. He waves his wings to the battery below hoping to be noticed as a friend. In doing so he loses hit course on the Frenchman.
Remy reverses as soon as he clears his gun jam and lays a stream of lead into the nose of the 2nd balloon.
Labeau feels it is taking forever to clear his gun jam. He flies a wide circle around the balloon while he picks the misshapen round from the breech.
Errant round tossed, Labeau places the new drum on his Lewis. He holds fire until he is sure he will hit. The stream of bullets go in but seem to have no effect. Then all of a sudden the sky is nothing but fire and smoke! The balloon erupts from it’s middle like a volcano and the burning remnants flap their way to the earth.
Remy passes the nose of the balloon and finds the white Pfalz lazily turning in front of him. His rounds strike the rudder and Schmeiss immediately is made aware of his predicament.
Remy closes in and feels this Hun will go down until his Hotchkiss jams again!
Once past the falling remains of the balloon, Labeau scans the sky for his flight mates. He spots Remy to his left firing into the white Hun that had first shot at him. Before he could turn to head over to help the air around him tore open and rocked his airplane. The unseen AA below had found him too easy a target. Before this Labeau felt comfortable in his kite but now he feared it would fall apart. He immediately forgot about helping Remy and headed straight for home.
With his ears still ringing from the AA blast another went off to his right side. Luckily this one was not so accurate.
Remy also saw a flash and a black burning flower to his right front a safe distance off.
Labeau remembered hearing some French AA crew talking about how it was more difficult to fire straight up. He headed directly over the gun that had shredded his plane hoping the talk was true.
While looking around he noticed the white Hun fleeing with Remy circling the 2nd balloon.
Schmeiss knew his chance to run had come and slipped beneath a low hanging cloud.
With the white Hun gone Remy turned to the balloon. He shot at the tail but added little damage to the beast.
Remy turns for another go at the balloon. His Hotchkiss immediately jam with no damage inflicted to the balloon.
“The ground crew will hear about this”, screamed Remy!
As soon as Labeau moves away from the AA it throws up another round after him.
“Maybe the French crew were right”, sighed Remy as the round sails past and well above him.
Labeau drops his nose a little to gain speed and put as much distance between him and the AA gun as fast as possible. By the time the AA crew has readied a new round he is out of range.
Remy was not yet done with the balloon. As it was descending fast, he followed it down while clearing his once again jammed guns.
Gun reset, balloon dead ahead…click...nothing! The hot stream of foul language Remy screamed should have set the balloon on fire, but it didn’t.
Flying around the balloon’s nose Remy madly grasped at the jammed cartridge. He flew past the balloon, far enough away for the AA to feel it safe to shoot at him. Luckily for him, they could not come close enough to do any damage.
Remy lined up another shot just above the tree tops and didn’t notice any effect. “Did the ground crew even load any bullets for me” he thought?
As Remy flew past the balloon was safely brought to the ground.
All there was now to do was safely get back home for Remy. The
AA had no other targets so he had their undivided attention. He wasn’t sure if being so close to the ground would help or hurt his chances, but he didn’t have a choice so stayed low and as fast as he could.
The crew chief aimed and called to fire. One round went wide as he turned west. Another fell behind as he gained enough distance for the guns to cease firing.
Nearing the lines Remy gained some altitude and spotted Labeau. He flew over to him and when close enough gestured if Allard had been seen. Labeau signaled no. They flew on not knowing Allard’s fate.
Butcher’s Bill
Kaiser's Eagles
Otto Reittinger SD FT 0 Kills
C 6 -1(sd) = 5 injured, 2 = -1 mission
Peter Schmeiss FRTB 1 Kill
Balloon #1 destroyed
Balloon #2 brought to ground by crew with minimal damage.
Bulldogs
Lt. Remy St.Martin RTB 0 Kills
(see post below for 2nd photo explanation)
S/Lt. Piers Lebeau FRTB 1 Kill (balloon)
S/Lt. Raoul Allaurd FLM ET 0 Kills
C 7 -2(flm) = 5 injured, 5 = -3 missions
E 7 -1(flm) -1(wic) -1(bel) = 4, captured but escaped! 1 = -1 mission
Results
One French scout shot down
One French scout forced to leave by damage
One balloon safely brought to ground
One balloon shot down
One German forced to leave from damage
One German shot down (by his own AA)
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