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Thread: OTT DYM - Mission 4 - "Some Mothers do 'ave 'em" - January 27th 1916 by flash

  1. #1

    Default OTT DYM - Mission 4 - "Some Mothers do 'ave 'em" - January 27th 1916 by flash

    It had been a quiet day, dawn patrol had been uneventful and Alan Keye and I sat by the fire in the Mess warming ourselves with hot toddies to thaw our bones.
    I heard the cough and splutter of an engine out front and moved over to the window to see what was going on, arriving just in time to see a "Quirk" begin its take off run. I paused a moment as I watched it climb into the air.
    I thought nothing of it, putting it down to a test flight or some such and returned to my seat before the fire.
    Seconds later the Mess door crashed back on it's hinges and Uncle filled the opening. "You two, with me" he called as he turned toward the flight line. "Atterley just took off on some fool errant mission against the Hun, grab your kit and meet me at your machines".
    Uncle met us on the flight line and quickly filled us in on our mission ending it with "It's too late to stop him but you might be able to prevent him from getting shot up as he makes his way home. Do your best to get back in one piece yourselves."

    We kept a loose formation as we crossed our lines keeping our eyes peeled for our boy on his most likely direct route home.
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    Atterley was feeling pretty pleased with himself. He'd shown them, he'd popped up over the perimeter of the Hun airfield with the sun behind him and dropped his eggs all over their hangar's. He didn't hang about of course but he'd seen fire and smoke behind him as he exited stage left ! Now he was moments from a clean getaway when something made him look over his shoulder, his blood ran cold, he glanced the other way and his horror was complete.. A pair of Fokker's were hunting him down.
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    (Ltn Walter Gandert & Ltn Maximillian Häbler left & right rspectively)

    Atterley's panicked reaction seemingly wrong footed Gandert, that or he'd seen the approaching British scouts but Häbler managed to drop his nose and get in a burst on the Quirk.
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    His gun jammed an enraged Häbler could only look on helplessly as the vulnerable Quirk flew on beneath him.
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    Keye broke into a climbing left turn to intercept the eindecker stalking Atterley, I resolved to follow him but delayed my turn to cover the other Fokker that was coming up fast.
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    I'm so glad I did as the Fokker came straight on and left himself wide open to a beam attack - I didn't do much damage but managed to trim his tail feathers.
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    Keye did much better, he closed on his Fokker and his first burst smashed through it's cowling..
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    Next moment a new type dropped out of the clag above us - a bright blue job, definitely a Hun and almost on top of Keye
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    The first Fokker, now trailing a thin stream of smoke turned for home and got in a cheeky shot on Atterley at close range but the damage seemed minimal. Keye got in a close range burst on the Fokker in return and set him on fire but the blue job got in a close range shot on Keye causing some decent damage before his gun jammed..
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    (missed a +1 on the Fokker)

    Climbing up from below I managed a ranged shot at the blue job but it didn't seem to put him off and no obvious damaged was caused.
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    We were all running pretty closely now
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    I got in a second burst from close range and emptied my gun into the blue job, ripping huge holes through the Hun machine
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    I start to reload - we run close - not a working gun between us !
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    Guns loaded or cleared, turns made, everyone commits back to battle
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    Meantime Atterley, the slippery devil, has slipped to safety behind our lines
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    The blue job gets behind Keye as he goes after the Hun he damaged earlier but fortunately his gun quickly jams
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    I make a head on pass with the other Fokker that's coming for me again - He sets me on fire but his gun jams so I'll be safe from any follow up for a while.
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    Keye flips his kite around and catches the blue job a stunning blow on the snout from above !
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    I'm not far away and pass Keye as he breaks off to reload, the other Fokker flares brightly as it completes it's reverse turn
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    (2pts of fire damage for the straight off the Immel)

    Now it's my turn to come under the cosh as the blue job flips round and sets my kite aflame !
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    A turn of manoeuvres followed as we tried to positions whilst attempting not to burn out or reloaded
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    Remembering lessons learnt and with the blue job before me I pressed home my attack and let him have it
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    (Just noticed that should have been a left sideslip not a straight)

    And the damage was sufficient to knock the blue job down...
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    The other Fokker & I had enough damage to see us home so we parted company, Keye had no chance to catch him so we flew home together.


    Butcher's Tally:

    Bulldogs:

    Morane
    2Lt Alan Keye: RTB 0 kills

    Bristol
    2Lt Hugh Jarris: FRTB-F 1 kill

    BE2c
    2Lt Phillip Atterley: RTB 0 kills
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    Eagles:

    Fok E.III (plain cdl)
    Ltn Walter Gandert: FRTB-F 0 kills

    Fok E.III (striped)
    Ltn Maximillian Häbler: FRTB-E 0 kills

    Halberstadt D.II (blue job)
    Obltn Johannes Achilles: SD-FT 0 kills
    Rolled 9 -1 SD = 8 Injured skip 1D2 scenario. Rolled 3 = Skip 1
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    Victory points:
    Bulldogs:
    The unarmed two seater makes it off the friendly edge = 1 point
    One aircraft shot down = 2 points
    Two other aircraft forced to leave the area = 2 points
    = Total 5 points

    Eagles:
    One aircraft forced to leave the area = 1 point

    Victory to the Bulldogs !

    Well that was fun ! Luck was on our side today - Another kill for Jarris (my pilot).
    I flew with my alt rules & D8 charts for the AI, used limited ammo for the Lewis again - A couple of errors made but of no great account

    "He is wise who watches"

  2. #2

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    Uncle says:

    Atterley you blithering idiot ! Fortunately you hit your target and got the machine back in one piece - mostly because of the intervention of your colleagues who put their neck on the line for you and bagged a Hun to boot.
    Grounded for two weeks - during which time you will conduct a full inventory of the Mess, the armoury and the Hangars.
    Dismissed !
    Last edited by flash; 04-23-2019 at 08:53.

    "He is wise who watches"

  3. #3

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    Great Dave. Another well earned victory for the Bulldogs. Lots of flamers in this one - nasty But alls well that ends well and no real damage done to pilots. Well played sir

  4. #4

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    Thanks Mike, there was a disturbing number of fires but surprisingly they all made it back to base. Random cards, rudder damage, jams & running out of ammo also had an influence on the outcome. Bloody good fun though.

    "He is wise who watches"

  5. #5

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    Nice one, Dave.
    As you said, a disturbing number of fires. I had several in mine as well.
    I guess we count ourselves lucky that the rules allow for them to go out ...

    Nice to see your Bristol in action. I picked up three from Clipper's Hunter Sale.
    I thought they only had a left-mount on the fuselage - I see yours has a Lewis on the top wing ?

    I also note you were using the 'R' deck - the decks I found on the site had them with a 'G'. Confirmed in the 'Unofficial' spreadsheet as 'R' so I am glad I noticed.


    Hope to get mine painted in time to use them in this campaign.

    Atterley got KP and grounding for his effort - it's interesting to see the varied punishments being assigned by Uncle/Onkel

    REP delivered, sir.

  6. #6

    Thumbs up

    Well flown Dave!
    Great to see some wins coming for our Lads at long last

    Just as well that Atterley got the BE home safe or he might have ended up in the "poo" like young Griswold!

    Rep on its way.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stumptonian View Post
    ...Nice to see your Bristol in action. I picked up three from Clipper's Hunter Sale.
    I thought they only had a left-mount on the fuselage - I see yours has a Lewis on the top wing ? ...
    Do you mean the model or the real thing ? Not sure what the models have, mine came sans weaponry so I had to mount a Lewis on it.
    The real thing had could have left, right and overwing mounts as it seems it was very much left up to the pilots to have the guns bolted on - some even had two mounted - one each side of the cockpit - firing through the prop disc (unsync). I went with the Lewis gun mounted on top of the upper wing centre section in the manner of the Nieuport 11 as I mentioned in the opening of my first sortie.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stumptonian View Post
    ...Atterley got KP and grounding for his effort - it's interesting to see the varied punishments being assigned by Uncle/Onkel..
    It would have been a one week grounding if I hadn't made those errors. As mentioned elsewhere, it's influenced by many things but NCO's are naturally more vulnerable than officers !
    Last edited by flash; 04-24-2019 at 00:08.

    "He is wise who watches"

  8. #8

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    Nice action there Dave, at the end of the day no planes or pilots lost on the entente side, pity the poor Halberstadt, first time out in the campaign and shot down.

    I really like the colour scheme on the Bristol with the CDL on the side of the fuselage, it really makes it stand out. Do you know if this was a common thing, as opposed to CDL just being on the underside where you can't see it in a game, I have a couple of pups to finish painting and would like to use this scheme on one of them.

    Dashed sorry old chap but the rep gun appears to be jammed.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vagabond View Post
    ...I really like the colour scheme on the Bristol with the CDL on the side of the fuselage, it really makes it stand out. Do you know if this was a common thing, as opposed to CDL just being on the underside where you can't see it in a game...
    No idea how common it was John, all I know is they did have that scheme at some point late in their service & I liked it ! I also have Strutter's in the same scheme and I believe some Pup's sported it too.

    "He is wise who watches"

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    No idea how common it was John, all I know is they did have that scheme at some point late in their service & I liked it ! I also have Strutter's in the same scheme and I believe some Pup's sported it too.
    That's good enough for me.
    Thanks

  11. #11

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    Nice one Dave


    I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
    Coming down is the hardest thing

  12. #12

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    Impressive Dave and a nice little rant from Uncle. To give him a bit of a break, I will deal with Baz's Knight errant, before this idea of chivalric action becomes endemic among the rookies within the Squadron.
    Kyte.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  13. #13

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    Well-played scenario, Dave. As others have said, it is interesting to see the varied results, and consequent differing punishments for foolhardy action. Shame about the Halberstadt, though: the better replacements are not supposed to need replacements themselves.
    Last edited by zenlizard; 04-30-2019 at 02:11.

  14. #14

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    Achilles was just unlucky this time...

    "He is wise who watches"

  15. #15

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    Well done Dave. Good to see the renegade survive. Hope he learned his lesson! A very good thing his mates didn't get hurt in their effort to save his bacon.

    Agree that the scout is a spiffy one. I have one dressed the same but flying the French it probably won't make an appearance this time around.



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