It was a thrill to fly but some duty was quite mundane. Today uncle had sent me up with Tom Hawke to watch over me as we patrolled the front. We had done this regularly and seldom seen anything, if we had we were usually too far away to do anything about it but today was to be different....
2Lt Hugh Jarris in the Bristol Scout in the foreground, 2Lt Thomas Alan Hawke flies a Nieuport 11 in the background
Today we were not only to see the Hun but be close enough to try and catch him... Twice !
The Hun bomber - an Albatros C.III in this case, piloted by Oberleutnant Wolfram Reimer with Ltn Claus Ritscherle as his observer.
We soon spied an Albatros on its way home from behind our lines coming straight at us, obviously he'd been up to no good so we couldn't let him get away with that unchallenged. Sadly the pilot knew his job and he totally wrong footed us both
More by luck than judgement we managed to keep out of his arcs of fire initially
Though he managed a pop at Tom's Nieuport as he worked around behind him
And he put some holes in my top plane as I tried to emulate my flight leader
After a near miss we had a coming together but other than a shocking bump & a filthy look from the other cockpit all seemed well.
We managed to stay apart and get after the Hun - due to some odd angles he managed another couple of squirts at Tom without a reply.
Then he wriggled off behind his own lines and dived for safety of his home field, we had to break off then as he had the legs on us... Not absolutely sure but I swear he waved at us ...
Forming back up to continue our patrol we trolled the line once more when, stap me, here come a couple of Huns heading over our side to take some snaps or some such.
One is a tandem, the other a dreaded Fokker Eindecker
Wary after the last encounter with the slippery pilot I took a somewhat unusual approach but Tom piled straight in on the pair of them - maybe he hoped to split them up or maybe he was just cross.
Sadly he got a right pasting by both Huns as he bored in.
As I followed him in I too got attention from the Fokker but my first burst hit something important on the tandem and he tumbled from the sky - my first blood !
Me and the Fokker parted company as the Albatros C.I fell away between us
Glancing over my shoulder I could see Tom struggling to hold his grievously wounded Nieuport together as he headed for home
He wasn't to make it though and his machine fell as the fire took a proper hold.
Rounding back on the turning Fokker the angles worked in my favour and I saw my rounds sparking from his engine & cowling - a hit !
His machine now trailing thin white smoke I emptied my pan into him as I swept past - pink mist ? I saw pink mist ... Had I hit the pilot ?
As I frantically fumbled to reload I saw the Fokker gently losing height as it headed away from the battle area leaving a thin trail of white smoke. Low on fuel I reluctantly had to break for home myself.
Butcher's Tally:
Eagles:
Albatros C.III
ObLtn Wolfram Reimer (P2): RTB 0 kills
Ltn Claus Ritscherle (O): RTB 0 kills
Albatros C.I
Ltn Richard Scharon (P2): SD-EXP- ET 0 kills
Rolled 3 -3EXP = 0 KIA
Ltn Karl Schilling (O): SD-EXP- ET 0 kills
Rolled 9 -3EXP = 6 Injured - Skip 1D3 Scenarios. Rolled 3 = Skip 2
E&E: Rolled 9 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 6 In hiding! - Skip 1D2 Scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 2. TOTAL Skips 2
Ltn Willi Kieckhäfer: RTB/WIA/ 1 kill
Rolled 9 -1WIA +1RTB = 9 - All well when you land well.
Bulldogs:
2Lt Hugh Jarris (Rookie): RTB 1 kill
2Lt Thomas Alan Hawke: SD-FLM-NML 0 kills
Rolled 8 -2FLM -1NML = 5 Injured - Skip 1D3 Scenarios. Rolled 3 = Skip 2
E&E: Rolled 2 -1FLM -1WIC = 0 Captured! The war ended for this pilot...
Super little game of two halves, thanks Peter, played quite quickly, especially with the Boom card cropping up !
Nice way to get back into the campaign.
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