AAR OTT DYM - Mission 12 Ending with a Bang
OTT DYM Mission 12 – Ending with a Bang
The Italian Front – 7 January 2018
The original scenario, by Mikeemagnus, is set on the Western Front, 27 March 1916, and can be read here:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...by-Mikeemagnus
Scenario rule modification: The original scenario has a special rule for AAMG fire from the craters. The general view in the discussions was that this was too deadly. I’ve opted for the regular AAMG fire rules with one AAMG with a 360 degree arc of fire for each crater. I flew the planes at altitude 3 so AAMG fire does not figure in the story below.
The Story
I was a crystal clear and cold winter morning. All seven planes of the Flik were on a mission, which Ltn Wolfgang von Augustin couldn’t quite remember. Hopefully, Ryan who led the two planes of Flight 1 would remember. Ryan von Taaffe had rank precedence over Wolfgang by six months and had the privilege of leading the 1st flight; although the flight had only one other member, the Hungarian, ZgFhr Karoly Horváth. Wolfgang led Flight 2 with Fw Günter Neumann, who had been his wingman since forever it seemed, and Fw Milos Kafka. Milos was the newest member of the Flik and Wolfgang felt especially protective of the young Czech. Flight 3 was commanded by Fw Alexandr ‘Sandy’ Svoboda, who spent a number of years in America prior to the war. ZgFhr Pablo Pavlich flew the other Flight 3 aeroplane.
Wolfgang didn’t know where the formidable SE5’s came from, perhaps out of the sun, but they ripped through Sandy’s flight. Boom – boom both Sandy’s and Pablo’s machines exploded. The enemy aeroplanes swooped by with unreal speed and manoeuvrability. Rat-a-tat-tat and then boom-boom; both Ryan’s and Karoly’s aeroplanes plummeted to the earth in flames. Now these demon flyers were coming after Wolfgang’s flight. Now matter how much he stressed his aeroplane to even beyond its limits with all the tricks of someone born to fly he could not get the enemy into his gun sights. Finally, boom-boom and both Günter and Milos were gone. Tears streamed down Wolfgang’s face. Not all of them – not all of us! Still the demon flyers taunted Wolfgang.
“Sir….sir….wake up, sir.”
Wolfgang slowly opened his bloodshot eyes to see the face of his orderly, Bruno, over him.
Orderly
“You’ve been dreaming, sir, but you better get dressed as the Hauptmann is expecting you in the briefing room at once.”
Wolfgang’s vision was blurred but he could make out Bruno pouring out the remains of a bottle of sliwowitz.
“Best not to get in the habit of sliwowitz, sir. Makes for bad dreams.”
“Good for forgetting too”, murmured Wolfgang to himself. He lifted his head. Except for his tunic he was lying fully clothed on top of his cot’s bedding. That will save time. He slipped on his tunic but not bothering to button it up.
“First some coffee, sir. And a glass of water.”
Wolfgang gulped them both down. The dark coffee hit his brain like the board that must have hit his head earlier. His head ached with a rhythmic pounding that echoed his heartbeat.
Moments later, Wolfgang was in the briefing room. Hauptmann Michael von Taaffe was waiting with a stern but a somehow simultaneous compassionate look that only the Hauptmann could manage.
Hauptmann Michael von Taaffe
The Hauptman looked at the unshaven, dishevelled young pilot. He was a hundred years away from the prim and proper young aristocrat that had joined the Flik the previous October.
Ltn Wolfgang von Augustin in October.
Ryan and Günter were also in the briefing room. As the duty officer, Sandy was also there.
Ryan, Günter and Sandy
“The entire front is in an uproar. It seems the enemy have exploded six mines under our trenches. There’s a huge gap but it’s a mess and the enemy seem to be milling about stuck in the mud. Nobody knows what’s going on or how bad is the damage.”
“A daft idea. Do they not know anything about the history of the American Civil War? That’s been tried before”, interjected Sandy.
Crater
“You know that headquarters has many brilliant ideas, Sandy”, replied the Hauptmann and it seems our headquarters has its own idea. They want us to go have a look and back some holiday snaps.”
Austro-Hungarian Headquarters Staff
“Oberleutnant Klimt will take out two Rumplers to photograph the craters. However, he’s short a pilot as the replacement hasn’t arrived yet; so, Ryan, you will pilot Karl’s Rumpler.”
Ryan looked crestfallen – another two-seater mission. “Why me, Michael?”
At one time Michael would have objected to his cousin calling him Michael but informality had come to rule at the Flik. “Because you have the luck of the Irish, Ryan.”
“Luck of the Irish? Haven’t read much Irish history have you, cousin.”
“The brilliant of headquarters is that instead of a scout for escort, the we send out another reconnaissance plane to confuse the enemy as to which have photographic equipment.”
“Yes, it’s likely that an experience enemy pilot would confuse a aeroplane flying a photographic mission would be confused with one flying escort”, replied Wolfgang sarcastically.
“There is some good news. I managed to get another one of the experimental UFAG reconnaissance planes. They’ve improved the structure since the….shall we call it the Tunnel Mission; and it’s a bit faster than the Rumplers.”
“So we’re not really trying to dupe the enemy.”
“No. Günter will be your rear gunner.”
That made Wolfgang happy as he trusted Günter more than anyone else in the world except his sister and not even her for a combat mission.
“I have a plan”, said Ryan as they turned to leave.
“Next time, Wolfgang, do try to keep up with appearances”, called the Hauptmann with a smile as they exited the room. “Consider what the enemy the enemy would think if they captured you.”
Shortly afterwards the three airplanes from the Flik and the observation attachment were in the air. The UFAG flow by Wolfgang with Günter as rear gunner, the Rumpler piloted by Ryan with Karl Klimt as the observer and the flight commander and the last Rumpler piloted by Fw Josef Hauser with Ltn Albrecht Thoma as the backup photographer.
Karl, Albrecht and Josef
As they neared the crater Ryan signalled the others. The specks of enemy aircraft approached.
Whether they were enemy scouts or a similar reconnaissance mission, they put Ryan’s plan into action. Wolfgang pulled ahead while Ryan cut behind him to head away from the approaching enemy machines. Meanwhile Josef kept a steady course for the nearest craters as a decoy.
On the other side of the front lines, three Breguets crewed by the multi-national expeditionary squadron, were on a similar mission.
Their plan was different. The planes moved in closer to each other to present a formidable front. Two of the Breguets, the ones piloted by American, Sam Magee, and the Frenchman, ‘Boom-Boom’ Dumoulin, had double machine guns manned by the Russian, Vladimir Chekhov, and the Belgian, Pieter van den Berg. The remaining Breguet, crewed by the Italians, Francesco Maria Angiolello and Lovato Catalan, had only one rear machinegun but it was the primary reconnaissance aeroplane.
The UFAG darted, well ‘darted’ in comparison to the Rumplers, towards the two nearest Breguets with its single Schwarzlose blazing. Wolfgang was rewarded by a trail of smoke from the American Breguet but bullets from both Breguets screamed past his head. Günter tapped Wolfgang on the shoulder. Held up one finger and nodded and then two fingers and shook his head. Supposedly this was to let Wolfgang know that it wasn’t wise to take on two enemy aircraft from the front at the same time. Wolfgang just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
“He’s going to get us both killed”, thought Günter. “Best he does his suicide stuff in a scout”. It was well known in the Flik that Wolfgang had gone on a rampage a couple of times after they had lost a comrade. The worst time was when Milos was killed.
As the two opposing flights intermixed, with machineguns in front and behind, bullets were flying everywhere. [Editor’s note: this is the busiest photo in the lot. I did my best. It seems I had Karl fire his machinegun when he should have been taking pictures as I can’t figure out who else fired at Sam’s and Vladimir’s Breguet. They got the photo at the end of the mission but it made a difference as Sam wasn’t able to follow Ryan.]
Günter swung his Schwarzlose around and with one burst the Italian’s Breguet exploded. The tapped Wolfgang on the shoulder and held up one finger. Wolfgang wasn’t sure if that meant one less enemy, that Günter was keeping score or that the next ‘one’ was Wolfgang’s responsibility. In Breguet 10 Pieter signalled to demise of Italian Breguet to Boom-Boom. They now had the responsibility for the photography. Pieter indicated to follow Ryan’s and Karl’s Rumpler as they obviously taking pictures of the craters (note that HQ).
Unlike Karl, Pieter knew his job. Ignoring the bits of their aircraft flying about from Albrecht’s bullets he got a perfect snap of the crater below them.
Everyone shows off their synchronised swimmi….er, flying skills and not airplanes collide.
Unable to follow Ryan, Sam picks Josef and Albrecht as his target. Clearly the UFAG with the death wish was not a photo-reconnaissance while the Rumpler might very well be.
Nonetheless Vladimir and Günter exchange ‘lead’ greetings as their two aeroplanes pass by each other. On the other side Wolfgang gets a shot off at Boom-Boom and Pieter and is rewarded with hitting an oil line. Smoke pours out of the Breguet.
“That should make for some foggy photos.”
Nope. Pieter got another excellent snap.
According to the plan Albrecht and Josef do an excellent job decoying Sam but they would have preferred a not-quite-so-good-a-job-of-decoying.
But they did manage a give a little bit back to Sam and Vladimir.
Meanwhile, everything is going according to Ryan’s plan as Karl focusses on focussing his camera.
Both Ryan and Karl really liked the part of the plan where they don’t get shot to pieces. Wolfgang catches up to Boom-Boom who looks like he’s chasing Ryan but is really just ensuring that Pieter gets the needed photographs. Wolfgang not really being concerned about whether Boom-Boom is after photos or Ryan chases Boom-Boom. He misses but Vladimir’s return fire rips through the UFAG and, as luck would have it, through Günter as well. Wolfgang glances over his shoulder to see if Günter is okay.
Günter is fiddling with his scarf to stop the bleeding. Wolfgang is still distracted, worrying about his comrade. His bullets go wide and even worse the Schwarzlose jams. Fortunately there’s no return fire from the Breguet as Pieter has the camera bug and gets another picture.
Wolfgang turns the UFAG away from the chase as he searches for his mallet. The intelligence that discovered this enemy secret for unjamming guns has proven one of the untold success stories for the intelligence community, who frankly didn’t have a lot of such stories.
Ryan looked over his shoulder to see the Breguet bearing down on their Rumpler while Wolfgang pulled away.
“That’s not in the plan, Wolfgang.”
But, Boom-Boom and Pieter are not interested in Ryan and Karl. Pieter gets his last photograph and signals Boom-Boom to head for home. Smiles and chuckles all around then…well, not quite. Their Italian colleagues were probably doing neither….more wincing and groaning.
After circling around for a bit and banging on the Schwarzlose with mallet, Wolfgang heads back towards the action. It’s obvious to everyone that Boom-Boom and Pieter have completed their mission and are racing for the finish line…er, the edge of the mat….er, home. Josef won’t be able to catch him and even with the faster UFAG neither will Wolfgang. But Ryan and Karl aren’t done yet and Sam is catching up quickly. That early engine hit on the Rumpler has slowed it considerably. Wolfgang remembers the plan and turns to head off the Breguet.
Coming in on the side and out of arc of the Breguet’s machineguns, Wolfgang scores a perfect hit. The Breguet bursts into flame.
Wolfgang closes in the Breguet’s blind spot and metes out more damage as fire engulfs the Breguet ending the battle for Sam and Vladimir. Unmolested Ryan and Karl get the remaining photographs and head home.
Result:
Ryan and Karl got all 6 photographs. Boom-Boom and Pieter only got 5 but the 6th was lost in the burning wreckage of the Italian Breguet. Günter got his 3rd kill of the campaign and Wolfgang his 9th. So it was a draw with 6 photos versus 5 (need to have beat by 3) but a draw in favour of the Flik with 2 Breguets bagged for no loss in return.
I would have liked Sam to get a kill as he ends the campaign with 4 kills – one shy of ace but still the highest scoring Entente flyer.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Stumptonian
It works out pretty much like a trial run I had when I removed the AAMGs altogether from the mission. The so called "simpler version 
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