AAR: Bombing a Bridge
A DH-4 piloted by Eddie MacBurn, and crewed by Frank Byrd took off earlier in the day and are just now arriving to their target near the front lines, which is defended by a few anti-aircraft guns. They are escorted by George Alderton, who is flying a Spad. The DH-4 is carrying a single bomb as there was a shortage of bombs. But according to Eddie, “I’ll take a bomb over a brick any day”.
The Target
Off in the distance George sees two aircraft that are flying towards them. He waggles his wings to get Eddie’s attention, and then flies towards the aircraft who are most definitely German.
As he and Eddie move towards the target and can now see that the enemy aircraft are Albatrosses, and that the Germans split up.
The Purple Albatross side-slips toward them while the Blue Albatross continues banking away.
George now turns toward the Albatross.
Next phase.
The aircraft now approach each other.
Now in firing range George and the Purple Albatross open fire on each other. George sees his bullets hit the aircraft, and gasps as one of the Albatross’s bullets grazes his leg. And to top it all off, George’s guns jam. After firing, George turns away from the Albatross to get a chance to bind his wound and clear his guns. (I forgot to take a picture here) Eddie stalls so as to get a shot at the Albatross but in their haste to fire, both the Albatross and Eddie miss completely!
And all the while, the Blue Albatross is turning around, after being to confident in his turning ability.
The Purple Albatross banks around trying to get behind the Eddie and Frank (in the DH-4)
Frank sees the Albatross and takes a quick aim. And misses.
While clearing his guns George sees the Blue Albatross and heads towards it.
To explain the next few pictures is, we have a house rule that states, that in order for a plane not to be eliminated for going off the edge of a board, at least one part of its base has to be touching the mat.
The Archie gunners on the ground take aim as there are no German aircraft in the area that could be hit.
George continues heading towards the Blue Albatross.
The Purple Albatross continues turning and receives some damage from Frank.
George banks and gets into the perfect firing position, but finds that his guns are still jammed.
The Blue Albatross is just as ineffective, even though his guns are not jammed.
The Purple Albatross continues turning.
And Eddie and Frank turn right into some Archie.
The explosion sets their plane on fire.
George continues turning trying to get at the Blue Albatross again.
Eddie starts circling the DH-4, while Frank strains his eyes to see through the smoke but he is not able to see the Purple Albatross that is flying past them.
The fire burns brightly as Eddie decides to keep circling.
The Purple Albatross neatly side-slips past the Blue Albatross as they switch targets.
And Eddie continues circling.
George is circling too.
Frank can finally see enough to take aim at the Purple Albatross, but he misses.
The fire dies down as it responds to Eddie’s maneuvers.
The aircraft approach each other.
The Blue Albatross using his Sniper Ace Skill damages the DH-4 even more.
And George takes aim, misses, and has his guns jam again.
And the Purple Albatross fires at George remembering what the Blue Albatross taught him damaging George’s rudder.
The fire flickers, then goes out.
The Blue Albatross gets into the perfect firing spot. Frank is horrified to see how close it is.
And the Purple Albatross banks to get around behind George.
Frank takes aim and misses.
The Blue Albatross takes aim and fires shooting down the DH-4, Frank and Eddie were able to get parachutes for this mission and bail out.
Their plane becoming a pile of burning wreckage
The Purple Albatross continues turning behind George who is eager to take revenge.
The Purple Albatross fires just damaging George’s aircraft a little bit.
George Immelmanns, but forgets to fire, lucky the German was so surprised he didn’t fire either.
The Blue Albatross prepares to Immelmann.
The Purple Albatross and George just miss each other.
The Blue Albatross completes his Immelmann.
Takes aim, and fires shooting down George with the dreaded boom card. George was lucky enough to bail out, his aircraft plummeting to the ground. When he landed, he met up with Frank and Eddie who were hiding, and cooled his rage by taking a German truck driver prisoner and then escaping from enemy territory.
The Germans returned home with the Blue Albatross pilot getting two victories.
Purple Albatross
Blue Albatross
DH-4, Eddie and Frank
Spad, George
Summary:
Bridge----------Not Destroyed
Enemy Aircraft----------2 out of 2 British aircraft shot down, 0 out of 2 German aircraft shot down.
German victory!
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