OTT Daring Young Men - Mission 4 AAR – “Some mothers do ‘ave ‘em” January 27th 1916
“If that bloody fool gets himself killed it’ll be his own damned fault”, exclaimed Lt Harold Isore. Although on reflection he almost felt responsible. Not so long ago he had, rather unfairly, blamed the F/Sgt for failing to see an enemy two seater that he, Isore, had been unsuccessfully chasing at the time. Ever since, the F/Sgt had seemed very moody, not at all jolly.
“I reckon he feels he has something to prove, sir!” exclaimed AM1 William Conker, Isore’s regular observer, who happened to be standing nearby. “Told me only yesterday, that he was going to show us all that he was as good a pilot as anyone else here, regardless of which bloody school they’d been to. Begin’ your pardon, sir. ‘is words not mine”. The man sounded apologetic, but it was clear he sympathised with the F/Sgt.
This conversation, of course, concerned F/Sgt Jo Lee who, without permission had bombed up a BE2c and gone off to blast the living daylights out of an enemy forward airfield, just beyond the German front line trenches. He had told the ack emmas that helped him, he’d seen the airfield whilst returning from a fruitless patrol, during which none of his flight had seen a ****ie bird, let alone any enemy aircraft. The coast was clear, he had said, and he was going to show everyone that he had initiative and daring! The problem was, not only did he have no clearance, he had no form of defence either.
The BE2c was unarmed apart from its’ bomb load. Add that to the fury of both his flight leader and Uncle, who was seen earlier waving orders from HQ to the effect that nobody was to fly solo any more and there you have it. Flight Sergeant Lee was in trouble no matter the outcome of his lonely foray. Oh dear! Some mothers do’ave ‘em.
As Isore and Conker stood there and watched the skies, Lt Mick E Taker and 2nd Lt Bo Fletcher disappeared into the distance, flying, of all things, two brand new RAF FE2bs. This annoyed Isore even more as he had hoped to be the first to fly one of them. But instead, they were now giving chase to F/Sgt Lee’s BE2c, and the latter had quite a head start.
Taker had a shrewd idea he knew where Lee was heading though. The ack emmas, working on the BE, had mentioned an enemy forward airfield with an old two seater sitting openly on it. He’d seen it himself, so that’s where they were heading, in the hopes of bringing the F/Sgt back in one piece. There was already time enough, if Taker was right, for the BE to have made it to the enemy airfield, do what it intended then to have turned back. If nobody was about then all would be a piece of cake. But if any EA were in the air then the F/Sgt would be in trouble. And to top it all, Taker, acting as flight leader, was worried about 2nd Lt Bo Fletcher and his observer, F/Sgt Henry Roe. Both were relatively new to the front and had barely learned their way around. They shouldn’t really be up here in his opinion, but Uncle had decided otherwise.
“They need the experience.” Uncle had said, puff puff (on his pipe), “They certainly need the experience.”
A few minutes later, Taker saw a small group of aircraft heading his way, a split second before 2nd Lt Phil Boots, his observer, twisted around in the forward cockpit and waved towards the group, now approaching rapidly. And sure enough, one of them was a BE2c and in trouble it certainly was too. Two Fokkers were on its tail, although the pilot, F/Sgt Lee it had to be, seemed to be doing a pretty fine job of keeping them at bay, weaving from side to side and climbing and diving. It was making life difficult for whoever was behing those German machine guns.
“Here we go” shouted Taker and Lt Boots could be seen making the necessary preparations. Trying to ensure his own machine gun would not jam the first time he fired it.
They headed just to the north of the oncoming trio, with Lt Taker leading, aiming to outflank the enemy aircraft, that thus far seemed unaware of their presence.
It was clear that the BE2c was under fire, but the F/Sgt was really confusing the German pilots, by flying in all kinds of random directions. So much so that one of the Germans, in a bright red Fokker EIII, very nearly collided with his colleague. Taker was sure he could see some fist waving between them.
Then more firing, daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka and still Jo Lee managed to evade the enemy’s efforts. It was time to lend a hand.
Taker turned towards the other “Fee” and signalled for Fletcher to attack. “Heaven help them” he muttered to himself. Then he turned his own aircraft towards the fray.
At the same moment the firing ceased. Small mercies often go un-noticed at moments like this. So it was that none of the British crew knew that the guns fired by Ltn Josef Jacob, in the yellow Fokker, had jammed. Jacob was most put out, of course. A golden opportunity to get his first kill was lost for the moment, added to which that damned fool, Ltn Kurt Jentsch, had almost killed them both, by not looking where he was going.
Jentsch, meanwhile, had turned swiftly and had opened fire himself. Then silence – both Fokkers had jammed guns. F/Sgt Jo Lee in the BE2c was a lucky boy indeed!!! And so, continuing to weave this way and that, Lee gradually made his way towards his own lines and hoped for safety, at least, from the Germans!
And now he could see that reinforcements were arriving in the form of two pretty large looking FE2bs “Thank the Lord for that” and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Daka daka daka daka. That was the sound of machine gun fire from F/Sgt Henry Edward Roe (no, you really don’t want to know his nickname) who had opened up a bit early. But Roe was a pretty good shot and the bullets from his .303 Lewis did seem to be hitting home. “That’ll give the hun a wake up call alright!” He shouted back to his pilot. Fletcher couldn’t hear a word, of course, so he just grinned and nodded in the hope it was the right thing to do!
It was at this moment, that Taker, who was now almost in position to add his pennyworth to the conflict, got a nasty surprise and had to break away from the Fokker's and towards another aircraft approaching his rear. “Nobody does that to me and gets away with it” thought Taker!
But perhaps his thoughts were a trifle over confident. Daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka. And German made bullets flew from the offending aircraft, a Pfalz this one, to strike home rather alarmingly, so far as Taker and Boots were concerned.
Of course, oblivious to events taking place behind them, the two new boys, or “rookie” pilots (to borrow a foreign expression to describe them), were still blazing away merrily and quite enjoying themselves. At least F/Sgt Roe was, now absolutely certain he had found the range on the little yellow Fokker in his sights. Ltn Jacob wasn’t very impressed though, but he too had now found his mark and was doing a fair bit of damage to the Britisher in his sights.
The game was spoiled, however, when Ltn Jentsch in his red Fokker, intervened, forcing Jacob to turn away or risk yet another collision.
“I really am going to have words with that “dummkopf” when I see him next, if I ever see him again, which is unlikely the way he is flying today”, Jacob almost screamed in frustration. Added to which Jentsch, who had now also cleared the jam from his machine gun, missed and his gun jammed again! Luckily for the both of them, the sudden appearance of a red Fokker instead of a yellow one, had confused Roe too. So, being undecided at which aircraft to fire, he managed to comfortably miss both of them. Not for long though. As his pilot brought them closer still onto the tail of this little red mono plane, so Roe really concentrated and let it have it. And that clearly hurt, as bits of red fabric and lumps of something or other, flew off the Fokker in all directions. Making both Fokkers break away from chasing the BE2c! “Job done” thought 2nd Lt Bo Fletcher. “Good shooting F/Sgt Roe” he also thought.
After that, Flight Sergeant Jo Lee, made his escape from the Germans, back towards a different kind of trouble. But the dog fight continued and now split into two distinct fights. On the one hand, 2nd Lt Bo Fletcher circling around in search of the two Fokkers, that were circling around searching for a clear shot at him. Whilst on the other hand, Lt Mick E Taker and the pilot of the Pfalz, Ltn Hans Leptien EKII;PB, also circled one another looking for advantage; an opening that would decide the matter.
Fletcher circled to port and spotted the two Fokkers demonstrating their acrobatic prowess as they both performed what would come to be known as Immelmann turns. He turned still tighter, as tight as he dared and for an inexperienced pilot he did really well, almost getting on the tail of one of them. But not yet!
And whilst this was going on, the other two contestants, Lt Taker with 2nd Lt boots in the “Fee” and Ltn Hans Leptien in the Pfalz, were having a proper little gun fight. The Fee showing its prowess in another way altogether. Its firing arc was far superior to that of the Pfalz and it was showing.
Daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka. Bullets flew in both directions, but Phil Boots was getting by far and away the best of it. At one point he was convinced he had hit the German pilot, while Hans Leptien himself knew it only too well. Only a nick but it stung like hell. A sharp reminder that this was anything but a game! It was hunting, for a quarry that hit back every bit as hard as it could.
And by the time the two of them had gone full circle, the Pfalz again performing an Immelmann turn, the little mono plane was definitely full of holes and much the worse for wear. But it wasn’t done for yet! Time to retire though. Hurting like mad from his wound and with an aircraft that was well and truly damaged to the point of nearly falling apart, Hans Leptien made the sensible decision to retire from this combat. Flying in a large circle, to avoid becoming entangled in the other dog fight and to keep as far away as possible from his nemesis, he managed to avoid any further trouble and quietly headed home. Thanking whatever God or Gods he believed in, that he was still alive. “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day”. He couldn’t help but wonder who it was that had first said that (reputedly derived from a defence against accusations of cowardice used by Demosthenes, an Athenian orator, who in 338 B.C. ran from the battle of Chaeronea against the Macedonians and lived to tell the tale – I knew you wanted to know that – so did I – Isn’t the web great ).
Meanwhile, our “rookies” were doing a splendid job for the Entente powers. Until they, too, got badly shot up that is! Continuing his turn to port, Bo Fletcher arrived at a point where he and the pilots of the two Fokkers, came more or less head to head. Daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka daka daka daka daka, went the harsh rattling rhythm in everyones ears. Next thing you know, two more pilots were making that same decision to retire from the fight. Fletcher, because the bullets from one of his enemies had ripped a sizeable hole in his engine cowling and the whole aircraft began to behave like a three year old toddler wanting desperately to get out of its push chair, coughing all the while like a demented bullock with straw stuck in its throat. Then there was Ltn Kurt Jentsch, whose machine was not far from joining that of Hans Leptiens’ in the “falling apart” stakes.
There was a brief respite, seemingly by mutual consent, but in reality just one of those coincidental moments, where the contestants retire a short distance and permit those who wish to, to depart quietly. Leaving just Lt Mick E Taker and his observer, 2nd Lt Phil U Boots, to face off against the yellow peril flown by Ltn Josef Jacob.
Of course, neither was prepared to give way to the other, and the fight might have gone either way, had it not been for that better firing arc possessed by the occupants of the “Fee”. There is little to tell of the contest other than to say they fired at each other at every opportunity.
The engine of the “Fee” did belch smoke for a short time and of course, it was one of those days for the Germans who were bedevilled at every turn by jammed guns. For those of you who have never heard the columnist invented word, “resistentialism”, it means “things are against us!” - otherwise known as sods law. And it was their turn to suffer its consequenses.
There were also frustrating delays whilst 2nd Lt Boots reloaded his machine gun ever so now and then and whilst both pilots endeavoured to manoeuver into a favourable position.
Round and round they went, with the Fokker chasing the tail of the “Fee”, until at last the latter turned at bay and they came face to face, both snarling visciously. Daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka, daka daka daka daka.
But in the end, like the cavalry men they may once have been, they charged head long towards each other and it was the more accurate fire of 2nd Lt Boots that won the day. The little yellow Fokker seemed to glide over their heads, as if unharmed, but then it pitched nose down and never looked back. The relief felt by Lt Taker was palpable and he suddenly discovered he was breathing again!
So that was that! Time to go home and have the inevitable cup of tea and, of course, find out what happened to Flight Sergeant Jo Lee. But we may have to wait some time before his fate is revealed.
The End
The Butcher’s Bill
Entente
F/Sgt Jo Lee: (P RAF BE2c) RTB / 0 kills
Result – Grounded for 3 missions for misconduct.
Uncle may want to review that situation and his future is therefore uncertain.
2Lt Bo Fletcher: (P RAF FE2b): FRTB-E 0 kills
F/Sgt Henry Edward Roe: (O) FRTB-E 0 kills
Lt Mick Evan Taker: (P RAF FE2b): RTB / 0 kills
2Lt Phil Ulyses Robert Boots: (O): RTB / 1 kill
Central Powers
Ltn Josef Jacob Fokker EIII: SD-FT 0 kills
Throw 2D6 = 9 – 1 SD = 8 Injured – skip 1D2 scenarios. Throw 1D6 = 3 - Skip 1 scenario.
Result Skip 1 scenario.
Ltn Kurt Jentsch Fokker EIII: FRTB-D 0 kills
Ltn Hans Leptien: Pfalz EI: FRTB-D / WIA 0 kills
Rolled 5 -1WIA +1 RTB = 5 – Injured Skip 1D3 scenarios. Rolled 3 = skip 2 scenarios.
Result - Skip 2 scenarios
Victory Points
The unarmed two seater makes it home Entente 1 point
One Central powers aircraft shot down Entente 2 points
Aircraft forced to leave whilst enemy present: Entente 2 points ; Central Powers 1 point.
Result – victory for the Entente
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