Prologue
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2nd Lt. Robert "Dusty" Rhodes had never felt more alive in his life. Here he was after 3 weeks advanced training at St Omer on the new DH-2 single seat scout flying one home to the Bulldogs aerodrome at Bentangles. This was not to be his own aircraft as it was boldly marked C 1 which made it the personal aircraft of his Flight Leader Lt Reginald Fife-Brand but for the time being it was in his hands & shortly 2 more DH-2's would arrive & he would take ownership of his own marked C 2. In the meantime he was enjoying the manoeuvrability of the
little scout.
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Soon Bentangles aerodrome appeared & he prepared to land.
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No sooner had he taxied towards the hangers & switched off he was mobbed by both Pilots & ground crew anxious to inspect the new aircraft.
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His old Gunbus Gunner AM2 Hamish Macbeth declared it a "Braw bonnie wee beastie!" & everyone agreed it did look "the goods".
The Mission
Uncle called him into the Squadron Hut & told him that in the absence of Fife-Brand who was on leave in Blighty it would be his duty to take the new replacement pilot 2nd Lt. James Lanister on a tour of their section of the Front to acquaint him with the Area. F/Sgt Brandon Stark was already airborne in the Red nosed Morane so Lanister would fly the one with the Black nose.
Over on the German side of the Lines Ltn Julius Lotz in his grey Fokker E.III was halfway through his patrol along the German Trenches while Ltn Victor Schoenebeck flying a CDL E.III accompanied by Ltn Caul-August Schwartz, who was known to be a bit of a daredevil, in his Green painted Eindekker were approaching the Trench lines.
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The 2 groups of aircraft soon closed looking for a fight. Brandon Stark was first into action against the grey eindekker of Lotz & dealt out some good punishment to the E.III
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The other aircraft were soon exchanging shots & Dusty got a telling burst into the unfortunate Lotz wounding the pilot.
The other aircraft only suffered minor damage.
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Lotz had the satisfaction of at least damaging Stark's rudder.
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Schoenebeck & Stark exchanged shots with the German's gun immediately jamming.
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The aircraft had now flown through & separated to manoeuvre for advantage.
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Lotz who had turned for home due to his wound, even though he still had fuel left for more time along his patrol, took an opportunistic shot at the Red nosed Morane but immediately had his gun jamb.
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Stark returned the favor shortly after closing only to suffer a double jamb!
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Dusty who had performed an Immleman turn exchanges shots with Schwart's whose gun also jammed but Dusty's shots caused the Fokkers engine to emit clouds of smoke.
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Schwartz took a shot at Brandon's Morane but perhaps distracted by the smoke missed completely whilst Dusty took the opportunity to fly off & change the Drum on his Lewis gun..
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James Lanister who had been on the extreme right of all the action now got into position & dealt the unfortunate Lotz another wound which caused him to lose control & crash just behind the German trenches.
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Lanister & Schwartz now exchanged shots & did some damage to each other.
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There was now a 3 way action between Dusty, Stark & Schoenebeck with Dusty causing the most damage
NOTE I did not notice the 4 damage was an A card that had snuck into the B deck until I was doing the pics for damage at the end of the game!
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Schoenebeck & Dusty now exchanged bursts with Dusty again causing good damage whilst the Germans gun fell silent as it jammed!
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Lanister & Schwartz also exchanged fire with little damage to show for their efforts.
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Brandon Stark had swung his Morane around to get a good broadside shot into the CDL coloured Fokker & set it on fire.
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Schwartz in the Green Eindekker had latched onto the tail of Lanister's Morane & gave it a damaging burst which shredded canvas before his guns jammed.
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The Fire had finally caused Victor Schoenebeck's Fokker to fall from the sky in No Man's Land.
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The Germans day got even worse when James Lanister made a head on pass at Schwartz's Fokker, whose gun was still jammed, & damaged his engine causing him to head home to the Eagles Nest leaving the 3 British aircraft in control of the Sky!
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Comments & Observations
Well that was a very enjoyable game! For once the majority of the Jam Cards fell the Allied way & we had the best of luck with the damage cards so nice to win one for the Doggies.
I played without Altitude using Dave's D8 charts & flying my named pilot Dusty Rhodes. All other Aircraft were AI controlled.
The 4 "A" damage Card did not affect the outcome of the Fokker as it still had two A Fire damage cards to draw when it went down & even if they had drawn Zeros he would have been forced to RTB with only 2 damage points remaining.
Incidentally the DH-2 I used in this game is a Shapeways one Painted & Rigged by our late mate Col Jones (Colbatman) that I got from his collection after he passed away. R.I.P Col
Victory Points
ALLIED
2 German Planes Shot Down = 6 points
1 Forced retirement Engine = 1 point
TOTAL 7 points
German
Nil Points
Therefore Allied Victory.
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