The telephone in the Squadron hut sent out its strident ringing until the Duty Officer answered.
"52 Squadron!" "Yes HQ, An Albatross C type heading East from behind our lines" "What? Oh I see. Yes Sir! Immediately Sir. Thank You!"
The officer rushed to Uncles cubby hole. "Sir, seems there is a scatter on at HQ. The old Hun has bombed a Transport Depot near the village of St Augustine & is heading back to German Territory & they want us to intercept it!" "They expect it to pass just to the South of our airfield"
Uncle headed over to C Flights mess where he found Lt Reginald Fife-Brand playing a game of Solo cards. "Reg any of your chaps ready for some interception work?"
He quickly filled Reg in on the mission adding that the German Bombs had caused havoc to the horses at the Depot.
Fife-Brand smiled & said "Well as a matter of fact I ordered young Rhodes to take the Gunbus & show that new Canadian rookie Sgt Stark in his Morane around our patrol area but they are not due to leave for another 5 minutes" Wonderful" exclaimed Uncle "that will be good experience for them. I presume AM2 Macbeth will be with Rhodes"
Reg replied "Consider it done" & headed out to the 'drome to instruct the pilots on the change to their mornings programme.
The two British aircraft had spread out to cover as much territory as possible but remained in visual contact so they could support each other.
Then almost at the centre of their combined arcs they saw a cream winged aircraft approaching from the South.
"That must be it" thought Dusty as the shape was nothing like their own BE's. Waggling his wings to attract Brandon Stark's attention he turned the Gunbus towards the enemy.
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The enemy aircraft had also turned towards the Vickers but Stark's Morane had not yet reacted to the Albatross' change of direction.
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The opposing Aircraft were soon in close range & exchanged fire. Dusty was surprised to find himself being shot at from the front of the German plane as he had only ever encountered rear firing Hun 2 seaters. There was a brief exchange if fire then both guns fell silent. He saw Hamish gesticulating wildly & hitting his Lewis gun with his other fist. Obviously a Jam!
Minimal damage was caused but the Albatross started to put out a trail of black smoke.
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As the two aircraft passed the Gunbus received further damage from the Albatross' rear gunner.
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The Morane had now closed on the action & prepared to fly past the Gunbus to attack the enemy plane.
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The Allied pilots were somewhat surprised at the speed of the German 2 seater & they struggled to close to firing range.
Finally the Morane got within range but due to his inexperience Stark found the German was just outside his firing arc.
The Gunbus was still trying to close on the action but lacked the speed required.
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Disaster now struck the Morane as a lucky shot found the petrol tank & the British aircraft exploded & fell to the ground in flames.
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The Gunbus had finally got in range & got a good hit on the Albatross but in return suffered some rudder damage.
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Taking advantage of the Gunbus's wide firing arc Hamish managed to wound the pilot of the German aircraft.
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The wound caused the German pilot to fly straight towards the edge of the mat & due to its rudder damage the Gunbus was unable to follow until the Albatross was well out of range.
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And so ended the first part of the Mission with the Albatross exiting the side of the gaming mat.
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Damage sustained by the combatants shown below.
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Mission Part B
Saddened by the loss of Sgt Stark & the Morane, Dusty turned towards his Aerodrome & as he neared the lines he made out the Black nosed Morane of Lt Fife-Brand coming towards him.
By a number of hand signals they were able to tell Reg what had happened to Stark. In turn Fife-Brand indicated to them to follow him. Checking on his fuel gauge Dusty followed the Morane as it made its way back to the front.
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Back on the German side of the lines an Aviatik observation plane accompanied by a Fokker Eindekker were on a mission to check out what damage if any had been caused by the bombing raid early that morning as the Albatross had not yet returned to its home 'drome.
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The two groups of fighters closed & exchanged shots with minimal damage being caused but the Moranes gun immediately jammed!
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The Gunbus came under fire from the Aviatik's rear gunner who fortunately missed.
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The green Fokker had manoeuvred around to get a shot at the Morane but did little damage.
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Having cleared his machine gun Fife-Brand now got a shot into the German 2 seater which caused it to catch fire.
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The Fire appeared to be doing little damage to the sturdy Aviatik!
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The German rear gunner took a shot at the Morane but perhaps due to the smoke from the fire missed completely.
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The Gunbus & the Fokker were both well away from the action but were both trying to close to assist their compatriots.
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Although the fire continued to burn it was doing no further damage to the German plane.
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As their paths converged the Gunbus & the green Eindekker exchanged fire with the Fokker coming off 2nd best with both a jammed gun & a damaged engine thanks to Hamish's accurate shooting.
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The fire on the Aviatik finally went out with only minor damage to its fabric.
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The German Observation plane now reached the end of the mat & so ended part two of this interesting Mission.
The other Aircraft now disengaged & returned to their home Aerodromes.
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Comments & Observations
Well the Germans had the "Luck of the Irish" in that one! Even setting the Aviatik on Fire did not help. Lots of Jams as seems the norm for B Deck games. Maybe using triple decks is NOT a good idea!
I used Dave's D8 Charts without altitude & I flew Dusty's Gunbus. All others were AI
Not sure how the Albatross flying off the table due to pilots wounding will affect the outcome of the game. Will leave that for Uncle to decide.
Looks like another German Victory to me! Those Gunbus's just don't have enough speed to keep up with the German 2 seaters.
All in All a good fun game.
However still having difficulties with loading photos! All goes OK until about halfway through an AAR & then the system either will not load a photo or wants to load multiple photos including those already loaded!
This becomes very tiresome especially for missions with lots of pics. Fortunately this one did not have that many!
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