OTT DYM Mission 3 – Knowledge is Power - 19th January 1916 by Mike
OTT DYM Mission 3 – Knowledge is Power - 19th January 1916 by Mike
“What do you mean you didn’t see the hun? Are you blind or what?”
“Steady on there Isore. Not everyone has the kind of eyesight you can boast about! Sgt Lee has only been out here a short while and hasn’t got his eye in yet. You know, as well as I do, how difficult it is to see anything up there until you know what you’re looking for!”
“OK Mr Beard, what’s all this fuss about?”
“Sorry, Uncle, but Isore here is having a go at my observer, just because neither of us saw a hun two seater he’d been chasing around all afternoon!”
“It wasn’t all afternoon, as you put it, it was only a few minutes. But, ok, I’m mad because that old “Gunbus” is so bloody slow it couldn’t catch the 9.30 from Waterloo station if it was on time!”
“What’s a train got to do with anything?”
Vickers FB5 “Gunbus” v Fokker EIII
BE2c v Fokker EIII
“You know what I mean Beard. Its time the Vickers so called “Fighter” was ditched. Its useless, now the Germans are equipped with those damned mono planes. And their two seaters can outfly anything we have. I’d have had that bastard if I’d been flying anything half way decent.”
Albatros CI
“OK, that’s enough.” said Uncle. “Calm down. First off, the replacements are due anytime soon and I believe they perform really well.”
“Remind me please Uncle. What are they again?” Lt Harold Isore interrupted.
“Royal Aircraft Factory FE2s. But this isn’t the time to discuss them. I was going to say, secondly, I want your reports, now!”
FE2b
At which point all the aircrew, gathered around Uncle, started talking, or rather shouting, at once. Pilot Lt Harold Isore and his observer, AM1 William Conker MID. They had been on the Vickers FB5, an outdated machine fondly referred to as the “Gunbus”. Pilot 2nd Lt Dubh Beard and his observer, the much critisized rookie F/Sgt Jo Lee, who was beginning to feel a little out of place, but realized he had a great deal to learn and no time to learn it in! They had been flying a Green painted BE2c, as escort to the last pair, Pilot 2nd Lt Bo Fletcher and his observer, AM2 Walter Lewis, who was now shouting out “I got one, sir! I got one of those mono thingies”. They had been designated as “spotters” for the artillery, and had been flying a “yellow” doped BE2c.
BE2c v Fokker EIII
“For God’s sake, shut up all of you. Its about time you learned to do this in an orderly manner. Lt Isore, in my office, now. You can give me your report first. The rest of you go away and get a cup of tea or something. Right Isore!”
And with that, he strode off grumpily, in the direction of the dilapitated hut that was rather grandly known as “The Office”, but was not much bigger than an allotment shed. Very soon after he arrived there, smoke, from his beloved pipe, billowed through the door, the only opening in the wooden structure.
Isore knocked and entered. And gave his report as ordered.
“It was like this, Uncle ………………….
As it turned out, Lt Harold Isore, probably had good grounds for complaint. He and AM1 William Conker, known as Bill to all in sundry, were on a so called “Offensive”patrol over their own lines that morning.
They had flown up and down the designated patrol zone for a while and were about to finish and return to the barn when Isore had spotted an enemy two seater approaching from the north east, quite some way off. So he turned towards it.
At first the hun had been unaware of their presence and had itself turned to fly over its own lines, giving Isore the opportunity to approach.
However, he had decided, rather unfortunately as it later turned out, to try and get behind his adversary.
So he missed one of the only opportunities Conker would have had to get some shooting practice. Having kept slightly to the west of the EA, by the time he was turning to get behind it, the thing was long gone, but not before it had reminded Isore that it too was armed and dangerous. They took a few hits.
After which he’d spent the next ten minutes or so, fruitlessly trying to catch up.
Another opportunity arose, however, when the hun, an Albatros CI it was believed to be, obviously either still unaware of his presence, or more likely rather unconcerned, having seen what it was up against, turned to make a return flight over the trenches it had just apparently been photographing.
They could see the observer leaning out of the rear cockpit area, clinging on tightly to his large, clumsy looking camera.
One machine gun burst at long range, then another at short range, followed by the return fire that put quite a few holes into the Vickers and that was it.
It was gone again and Isore, by this time not only frustrated but furious too, was back to playing the impossible game of catch up.
As the thing flew off north east again, Isore had spotted a pair of BE2cs, that could have cut off the retreat of the Albatros, but instead, either too blind or two preoccupied with their own work, they had ignored it and simply flown off west. Thus the bird had escaped, virtually unharmed as far as he knew, with whatever harmful photographs it had managed to take. It was all too much for the now despondent Lt Isore.
“Right, said Uncle. Bad luck old chap. Well, go and get yourself a cup of tea and something to eat. Then get some shut eye and give yourself time to calm down properly. Angry birds never last long out here, son. And remember, hope is over the horizon. I hear that the FE2s are way better than the Gunbus. They’ll be here soon. Then you’ll be able to do your work as you wish to. OK, off you go. Send in Fletcher and Beard next please. I think they can just about squeeze into this hell hole together and it will save me time, I hope. Got so much to do...” he was muttering to himself as Isore departed.
Not long after, Fletcher and Beard duly arrived, the latter still brushing cake crumbs from his tunic. It was a tight squeeze alright and neither was able to sit down, so they gave their report standing almost to attention in the narrow confines of the wooden hut. The thick, aromatic smoke from Uncles pipe didn’t help matters and Fletcher was trying hard not to cough with it all.
“Well” said Uncle, “get on with it lads, I have much to do!”
2nd Lt Bo Fletcher pitched in first. “Not much to tell really Uncle. As you know, our objective was to spot for the artillery boys in order to try and knock out a hun battery on the ground. It was giving our lads, in the trenches, a rough time. So Lewis and I duly flew west, together with Beard here, as escort, until we found the said battery of enemy guns.
AM2 Walter Lewis called in the co-ordinates and our artillery opened up on them. Missed at first, but very quickly found the range. Next thing you know there was one hell of a lot of screaming coming from incoming shells all around us. Looking down we just saw the whole area errupt. Those hun gunners took a pasting, I can tell you. Put a stop to their little game, at least for a day or two I reckon”.
“Then this little mono plane bounced us from the east.” Chipped in 2nd Lt Dubh Beard. “Came straight in out of the clouds. Blasting away he was. But it didn’t do him much good. We were pretty close together, our BE2s I mean, so he took fire from both of our observers. I guess the lads were on top form too because the Hun went spinning off down to the ground pretty quickly. Or so it seemed to me.”
“That was Walter’s doing Dubh! Absolutely positive, Uncle. I’m claiming the kill on behalf of AM2 Walter Lewis. His shooting was spot on today.”
“OK, I’ll buy that.” said Beard. “ I’d like it to have been F/Sgt Lee’s kill, especially after the stick he took from Isore, but you’re right Bo, I’m pretty sure Lee was on target but not at the moment the hun went down.”
“And that was that, Uncle! According to orders, our job was done and we were to head back here. Isore reckons we could have cut off the retreat of a hun two seater he was chasing, but none of us saw it, I swear.”
“OK” Uncle said “A job well done for the artillery and congratulations to Walter Lewis. I’ll put that claim through just as soon as someone confirms it actually was downed!”
And that was that. Except that way to the east, a report of an entirely different complexion was being given, in German.
Obltn Hermann Lux and his observer, Ltn Albert Mendel, were being congratulated by Onkel for obtaining a series of excellent photographs of their own lines.
“And you had no trouble obtaining them?” asked Onkel.
“Nein, mein Herr. We saw one Vickers and a couple of other Britishers, but they gave us no real trouble. It was a very easy patrol, mein Herr.”
“Mmm, Obltn Gisbert Habich might not agree with you!” mused Onkel. When the two Britishers you saw appeared over our lines, he went up to intercept them. Unfortunately, his over enthusiasm and lack of experience, got him into trouble again. He was shot down!”
“Ah, sorry to hear that mein Herr. Is there any further news of him?”
“Not at present Hermann. But I shall let you know as soon as I hear anything. He came down near the battery that the British were bombarding at the time, so perhaps those investigating the damage done to the battery will find him. I hope so anyway and I hope he still lives!”
The End
The Butcher’s Bill
Entente
Lt Harold Isore – pilot Vickers FB5 “Gunbus” / RTB / 0 kills
Result - All good
AM1 William Conker MID (Perfect Aim) - Observer Vickers FB5 / RTB / 0 kills
Result - All good
2nd Lt Dubh Beard – pilot RAF BE2c (green) / RTB / 0 kills
Result - All good
F/Sgt Jo Lee (Rookie) Observer RAF BE2c (green) / RTB / 0 kills
Result - All good
2nd Lt Bo Fletcher – pilot RAF BE2c (yellow) / RTB / 0 kills
Result – All good
AM2 Walter Lewis - Observer RAF BE2c (yellow) / RTB / 1 kill
Result – All good. AM2 W Lewis also successfully called in co-ordinates to friendly artillery which resulted in the destruction af an enemy battery of artillery.
Central Powers
Obltn Hermann Lux (Sharp eye) – pilot Albatross CI / RTB / 0 kills
Result – All good
Ltn Albert A Mendel OB – Observer Albatros CI / RTB / 0 kills
Result – All good. Ltn Mendel also managed to take all of the required photos to complete their mission.
Obltn Gisbert Habich – pilot Fokker Eindecker EIII / SD FT / WIA / 0 kills
Throw 2D6 = 5 – 1 SD – 1 WIA = 3 Injured – skip 1D6 scenarios.
Throw 1D6 = 3 skip 3 scenarios.
Result – Skip 3 scenarios
Victory Points
The German Observation aircraft completed the mission – Entente 0 points.
The German Battery was destroyed – Central Powers 0 points.
Result – A draw
Reply With Quote
Pity about Obltn Habich though. he will be missed for the time he is recovering 
Found using the Gunbus very frustrating, especially flying it AI throughout. I have it on good authority, however,that it is excellent for shooting down balloons - Mmmmmmm (thanks for the heads up Tim) 
Another great 
Originally Posted by mikeemagnus
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