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.
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.
(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.
His gun jammed an enraged Häbler could only look on helplessly as the vulnerable Quirk flew on beneath him.
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.
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.
Keye did much better, he closed on his Fokker and his first burst smashed through it's cowling..
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
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..
(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.
We were all running pretty closely now
I got in a second burst from close range and emptied my gun into the blue job, ripping huge holes through the Hun machine
I start to reload - we run close - not a working gun between us !
Guns loaded or cleared, turns made, everyone commits back to battle
Meantime Atterley, the slippery devil, has slipped to safety behind our lines
The blue job gets behind Keye as he goes after the Hun he damaged earlier but fortunately his gun quickly jams
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.
Keye flips his kite around and catches the blue job a stunning blow on the snout from above !
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
(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 !
A turn of manoeuvres followed as we tried to positions whilst attempting not to burn out or reloaded
Remembering lessons learnt and with the blue job before me I pressed home my attack and let him have it
(Just noticed that should have been a left sideslip not a straight)
And the damage was sufficient to knock the blue job down...
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
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
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
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