Game 5
Relief was written all over Drummonds face when the small plane came into view.
It soon changed to concern when everyone could see the plane was badly shot up and the pilot was having trouble lining up for the field. He obviously had a big problem with the rudder controls and the plane was only responding slowly as he brought her down.
Rory MacNair
The plane was flown by Ruairidh MacNair generally known as Rory and a seasoned pilot on secondment from the French, acting as a Liaison Officer with their squadrons to the south. Showing a cool head he managed to bring the small pusher down and the wind was in the right direction and so he was able to stop quite close to the main buildings and was surrounded by the rest of C Flight, as he climbed out of the cockpit, looking weary but decidedly happy to be on the ground.
Ltn George Drummond
“Thank goodness you made it but look” said Drummond the Flight Leader “all of you quieten down, I have to go and make my report to Uncle and the CO, I need to make it short, concise and accurate. You know we’re all in their bad books, me especially after that row about Cowan and his medal. I’ve never felt so bad before, when I tried to defend Cowan the CO called me an impertinent hound and threatened to have me RTU, as an after thought he suggested the Durham Light Infantry instead. A Home Counties boy like me wouldn’t stand a chance with those Northern bandits.
Jock 2 and Jock 1
“As for you two” and he looked directly at the Twa Jocks, “flying low over a cavalry unit just to see how fast their horses can gallop is not going to endear us to him”. “It’s a good job no one knows it was you or Privates Horse Dropping Collectors 2nd Class is how you’ll see out the war”. When they thought about it, Privates Horse Dropping Collectors 2nd Class didn’t seem as bad as some of the alternatives.
“Right now, lets see what we can all remember, I don’t think I’ve been in such a dogfight before, there were planes all over the sky, I saw one monoplane go down, a blue grey colour, quite pretty in a girly sort of way, who got him? Don’t all shout at once you can’t all claim him! You know the rules have changed and there are no assists and joint claims anymore”.
“What did you make of those Bi-Planes, I’ve never seen them before, they must be new, they are certainly tougher to shoot down than the Fokker Elll’s. Oh and I’ve got to give an assessment of our new planes the DH2, they seem a bit fragile to me, what did you think Rory. I saw yours smoking the same as mine, don’t make the joke about smoking so young, it’s not funny. We’ll know more about the cause when the guy’s have serviced and repaired them, if it was a fault on the plane or fire from the enemy. Strange but in 4 weeks flying we’ve not had any problem like that with the FE2’s or Moranes, we were lucky there was smoke without fire”.
He looked around to see how well his joke had gone down. Crashed and burned he thought as no one took any notice.
Five minutes later Drummond was in the shed that Uncle called his office, the big wood burning stove was throwing out enough heat to warm Northern France but he was still wrapped up in a huge great coat and looked decidedly frosty, but there was a slight twinkle in his eyes. “I see you managed to bring everyone back this time, no heroics I hope”, and he smiled, “not like last time” and the smile turned to a frown.
“No Sir” Drummond replied “and we’ve clubbed together and bought the CO a new pipe to replace the last one, it’s even engraved, From C Flight.”
“Do you want me to pass it on to him or are you feeling suicidal” Uncle enquired. “Would you mind doing the honours Sir” was the lame reply. “Ok then just give me the short version of what happened, you can elaborate in your written report if necessary”.
Plaskitt-Smythe and Pogson with the Twa Jocks on the right. Text relating to the pictures is below it.
Well Sir, as you know it was late in the day and the sun was behind us, Plaskitt-Smythe and Podgeson were flying in FE2b V for Vagabon… err Victor and the Twa Jocks were in FE2b Z for Zebra off to our port side.
They jumped 2 Fokker’s who were flying along their side of the lines as usual. Either trailing their coats or waiting for a lone BE2 returning home I guess.
But they fell into a perfect ambush because of the sun, they were totally unaware of us until Podgy opened fire, but they were fast, and good, both turned to starboard immediately.
and were quickly around behind them.
Podgy got hit, quite badly I’m afraid and Plaskitt-Smythe turned for home once he realised how serious it was.
Meanwhile Rory and I were in the new DH2’s
and we ran into two new planes we’d not seen before. Single Seat Bi-Planes, solid looking things as well, not like the Elll’s at all.
We blazed away at each other and immediately my plane started to smoke, fortunately these Pushers don’t blow the smoke into your face and it was a little while before I saw the problem although the sky was black behind me.
Rory was coming in fast and opened fire with a long burst on the new type of plane and is pretty certain he hit the pilot, but he must be one of the Prussian pilots, hard as nails they are, it didn’t seem to stop him at all.
We were banking to port and so were the new planes, they seemed pretty much a match for our new DH2’s, maybe we are going to get the better of the old Elll’s just as the Germans bring in a next generation of Scout, hopefully they will not be able to manufacture them at a fast rate.
Both the FE’s had overshot the Fokkers who were flying like old veterans, they were round and on the tails of the FE’s very quickly, we’ve seen them before, they were the pilots that made such a mess of our last mission, effectively taking out 3 of our planes.
Uncles face darkened “I think C Flight contributed quite well to the German score on the last mission, especially Berry” Drummond flushed but decided to continue with his report.
Mother FEE with the two baby FEE’s in tow!
Plaskitt-Smythe in the foreground headed for home with his wounded Observer, the 2 DH2’s have turned in unison to go after the CDL Fokker and MacIver has the bit between his teeth and is letting MacGreggor have all the target practice he needs against the Blue Fokker.
I could see Rory over on my starboard side take a long burst from the CDL Fokker and his plane started to smoke as badly as mine had, but by then mine had stopped. The Twa Jocks were making mincemeat of the Blue Fokker and I was turning in their direction intent on helping.
Drummond continued with his story, explaining how he had got the Elll in his sights, the only problem he admitted ruefully was he had me in his sights as well, and I was already committed to a hard port turn.
Which brought him right behind me, luckily so close his bullets whizzed straight on past. He was so close I thought his prop was going to start chewing on my tail. Not sure what would happen when his prop met mine.
I pulled back on the throttle and he came along side but by then I was busy blowing holes in the brown Bi-Plane that had appeared in front of me.
For some reason the blue Fokker Imelled and left me to continue shooting up the brown job in front of me.
It may have been because he saw MacIver’s FEE coming in on his tail, we’ll never know.
MacIver says that the Fokker turned fast as lightening and it and MacGreggor were firing at point blank range then the Fokker just barrel rolled over on its back and fell out of the sky.
Kill to MacGreggor
Meanwhile the CDL Fokker and Rory had become a bit detached from the main fight and ended up having their own personal duel.
which Rory was getting the better of until his gun jammed.
Having flown past the brown plane I turned in and almost collided with his CDL counterpart, but we both managed to avoid hitting each other, I was very mindful of the C.O.’s views on loosing planes through collisions.
Uncle interjected at this point saying “I think it was our own planes colliding with each other, I don’t think he takes such a dim view of you colliding with the enemy”
“Right Oh, I’ll bear that in mind for the future”, although quite what Drummond was thinking about that piece of advice he kept to himself.
The Twa Jocks had a go at the brown plane but MacGreggors gun jammed at the crucial moment.
Planes were all over the show.
There were many near collisions, but I expect everyone was trying to avoid them after the last mission.
Eventually Drummond got in a good position firing into the CDL plane.
And then narrowly missed ploughing straight in to it.
The brown jobbie shoots up the FEE whose gun was jammed at the time, the engine started vibrating like an out of control washing machine, well it would have if they had been invented at the time so it was more like an out of control washboard with a mad washer woman doing the washing but you probably get the drift.
With a dodgy engine MacIver was headed back to the barn but not before they took some more damage from the CDL plane.
Rory was now in a second personal fight with the brown job, his gun jammed just before
he made a perfect move onto the enemy tail but could only hammer away at his gun to try and free it.
Then disaster, Imelling and coming straight back at Rory the brown plane causes massive damage to the tail of the DH2 and Rory does well to keep the plane in the air.
The brown plane does another Imellmann turn but is too far behind to catch the DH2 and Rory, flying in a straight line disappears into a cloud and was not seen until the start of this story hours ago.
The final flurries.
The last shots go to Drummond.
I was running out of time and so didn’t bring on the 5th Fokker and I decided that outnumbered 3 to 1 Drummond would make his way back to the barn to find out how C Flight has faired on their way back home.
Well I played the game at the beginning of May but couldn’t find enough internet in Scotland or time to post it, I’m back home for a couple of days before heading south, probably without internet again but maybe not
Dave - Sorry I've buggered up the title and can't take Flash out of it, can you tell me how to do that? Cheers.
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