OTT CYM Mission 2 - Bring Them Home If You Can - Mike's AAR
OTT CYM Mission 2, Bring Them Home If You Can – July 12th 1916 – Mike’s AAR
It was Wednesday! Why that stuck in the mind of Irishman Acting Lt Dubh Beard he had no idea, as these days, every day seemed just like the last. A succession of patrols, in the skies above the battlefields of Picardy, in France, from which occassionally, somebody he knew, did not return.
It was now nearly two weeks since the start of the Somme offensive and already casualties on the ground, as well as in the air, had been horribly high. Initial successes, east of Albert, were hastily replaced with setbacks. Things were not going strictly according to plan and the brass wanted some answers as to why that might be.
But right at this moment, the sky above the trench lines was blue, the sun was shining and there were few clouds in sight. At this altitude he couldn’t hear the mayhem going on below and he didn’t really want to think about it either.
Instead, from his vantage point in a DH2 pusher, he was on the look out for an Elephant. More correctly designated a Martinsyde G100. But “Elephant” was far more appropriate, given the size of the thing that was supposed to be the latest in single seat scouts. In that role, it was hopeless, as everyone agreed, it being far too slow to take on the enemy scouts beginning to appear in the skies. It had, therefore, been reassigned to the job of light bombing and photographic reconnaisance, at which it was very good.
This, then, was the elephant Dubh was looking for. It had been sent behind enemy lines for just such a reason. As many photographs as 2nd Lt John Palin, its’ pilot, could manage to obtain. That was the order of the day. So all of the not inconsiderable carrying capacity of the beast was devoted to camera and plates. Nothing else was permitted. Which, of course, meant no defensive armament. The machine gun and ammunition, normally carried, had been removed and in its place Palin had been provided with an escort, in the form of Flight Sergeant Jo Lee MM, in his Airco DH2 pusher. The two of them had been gone for some time now and were due to return over the lines at any minute. Hopefully!
So here was Acting Lieutenant Dubh Beard, together with his wingman, F/Sgt Charles Drake, flying merrily along at a few thousand feet above the mess that was terra firma below, attempting to make contact with Palin and Lee for the last, and most likey dangerous, part of their reconnaisance patrol. Back across both enemy and friendly trenches, with No Man’s Land stretching muddily between the two.
Of course, they were not alone! At the same moment as he spotted what had to be their elephant, with a DH2 flying escort a short distance in front, so he also noticed F/Sgt Drake waggling the wings of his aircraft and frantically waving off into the distance.
“Bugger”, thought Dubh, because he knew what he was going to see even before he saw them. Enemy aircraft. But “Hello” he mused. “What the hell are those fellows?” Big black maltese crosses left no doubt in his mind as to which side they were on, but he didn’t recognise either aircraft.
In fact they were the latest offering, to the Kaiser’s forces, from Meneer Anton Herman Gerard “Anthony” Fokker, a clever Dutchman, who had designed the “Eindekkers” or monoplanes, that had recently been plagueing the RFC. These two newcomers were in fact Fokker bi-planes. A Fokker DI flown by Ltn Kurt Jentsc and a Fokker DII piloted by ObLtn Gisbert Habich. Both bi-planes were currently on trial with the local “Adlers”.
But F/Sgt Drake was still gesticulating wildly. “Oh Lord!” muttered Dubh. For it wasn’t the Fokker bi-planes Drake was concerned about just yet. It was one of those other bloody little Fokkers – the sort with single wings and a machine gun that fired through the propeller! And it was already attacking the Elephant and company. Ltn Hans Leptien, in his Fokker EIII was out for blood.
Added to which, the two enemy bi-planes were also flying directly towards the lumbering G100 and its escort and closing fast
But it wasn’t too long before Dubh narrowed the gap on the leading bi-plane and let rip at long range. He must have hit it quite badly because its pilot missed the escorting DH2 by a mile. Meantime, Palin, in the Elephant, was cursing profusely, because the Eindekker pilot had only narrowly avoided taking them both out with a mid air collision!
Dubh fired a second burst at the lead, camouflaged, Fokker bi-plane and was pleased to see the enemy bird falter in its flight. He’d hit the engine. However, the enemy pilot was, at that moment, focused on destroying the unarmed Elephant at close range. But his aim was off. Between him and the pilot of the other bi-plane, also now attacking the Elephant, they only managed a small amount of damage. But where the hell was F/Sgt Drake? A quick look over his left shoulder told Dubh that Drake was trying hard to get onto the tail of the two bi-planes, but his speed wasn’t enough for that. And F/Sgt Lee was also struggling to bring his DH2 around from the opposite direction. Things were looking a little dodgy right then!
The two enemy bi-planes then flew behind the Elephant and attacked F/Sgt Lee and his DH2, on his flank. Fortunately, for Lee that is, the gun on one of them fell silent. It had jammed. Which probably saved Lee’s bacon! Dubh fired again, this time against the CDL coloured bi-plane, but he missed. And then yet again, at the same target which was now caught in a cross fire between Dubh Beard and F/Sgt Lee. Dubh did quite a bit of damage, but Lee missed, plus his gun jammed too!
Then came a catastrophic collision. Dubh Beard had been so focused on firing his machine gun that he miscalculated the speed of both his and his enemy’s aircrafts. Just as F/Sgt Drake finally managed to join the fray, “Bang”, and down went Beard, his DH2 fatally damaged. The Fokker staggered, but would have remained in the air, had not F/Sgt Drake delivered the coup de gras to it at that moment. And down went the Fokker too!
At the same moment, F/Sgt Lee and the pilot of the camouflaged Fokker bi-plane also attmpted to wipe one another out, in like fashion, but the collision was, again, narrowly avoided. One collision in a fight like this was an accident. Two a coincidence. But three! Now that was downright carelessness.
So, with both of the new Fokker bi-planes now seemingly out of action, since the one was shot down and the other had a damaged engine, there appeared little chance that the Elephant and its precious cargo of photographs, would fall prey to the hun. The RFC still had two DH2 pushers in the air, to protect it, as its fleeing shadow slowly but surely crossed No Man’s Land towards the distant scars in the mud that were its own side’s trenches. But the remaining enemy pilot had other ideas.
It might be thought that the Fokker Eindekker had vanished stage right, but not so. Circling back, it came charging in with guns blazing away, seeking vengeance!
Only to stage the fourth collision of this aerial piloting joke. This time with F/Sgt Drake! It was undoubtedly the fault of the german pilot on this occasion and it served him right that his aircraft took a nasty hit as a result. Add to that some minor damage taken from the gun of F/Sgt Lee, that promptly jammed, and that was enough to warn the german to go home!
His Adler colleague was rapidly disappearing eastwards; his principal quarrie was rapidly disappearing westward and all in all he was not having a good day at the office!
So off he went, back home to his own barn to sulk. But not before a spiteful last shot which really upset F/Sgt Lee and was enough to ensure that the latter too would need to beat a hasty retreat, in order to find urgently required medical attention.
Our Elephant made it home safely, as did both F/Sgts Lee and Drake, where the former found solace in the care of a nurse. She promised him a quick and speedy recovery with the full use of all his faculties, providing he followed her every wish during his period of hospitalisation.
Privately he said thank you to his German assailant and forgave him the insult of injury.
And as for Acting Lt Dubh Beard, he was a very lucky boy indeed. His DH2 spiralled towards the earth rather rapidly, following his mid air collision, but he managed to regain enough control at the last minute, to put the remains of the aircraft down on a rough piece of ground in No Mans land, quite near to his own lines. He dragged himself from the cockpit and threw himself into a shell hole, suffering little more than minor injuries, before all hell let loose because the hun dropped quite a number of shells onto his DH2, destroying it completely. He then waited until darkness gave him cover and made his way back through his own lines to safety. His injuries would mean some time out of action, but quite frankly, he was not too bothered by that. A rest is as good as a holiday, especially as he too was put into the tender care of some very attractive nursing staff!
The End
The Butcher’s Bill
Entente
A/Lt Dubh Beard / EXP NML / 0 kills
Roll 2D6 = 10 – 3 EXP – 1 NML = 6 Injured skip 1D3 = 2 Result skip 1 scenario
E&E: Roll 2D6 = 8 – 1 Boom – 1 WIC + 1 NML = 7 Landed almost home – Skip 1 scenario
Result: Skip 1 scenario
F/Sgt Charles Drake / RTB / 1 kill
Result: All Good
F/Sgt Jo Lee / RTB WIA / 0 kills
Roll 2D6 = 6 – 1 WIA + 1 RTB = 6 Injured skip 1D3 = 1 Result skip 1 scenario
Result: Skip 1 scenario
2nd Lt John Palin / RTB / 0 kills
Result: All Good
Central Powers
ObLtn Gisbert Habich / RTB / 0 kills
Result: All Good
Ltn Kurt Jentsch / SD NML / 0 kills
Roll 2D6 = 8 – 1 SD – 1 NML = 6 Injured skip 1D3 = 6 skip 3 scenarios
E&E: Roll 2D6 = 5 – 1 WIC + 1 NML = 5 In hiding skip 1D2 = 2 skip 1 scenarios
Result: Skip 3 scenarios
Ltn Hans Leptien / RTB / 0 kills
Result: All Good
Victory Conditions
Victory for the Entente. Both sides lost one aircraft downed (The German aircraft shot down, the British aircraft as a result of a collision) and both lost one forced to retire. But the photos were successfully returned to RFC HQ.
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Used just a single deck of each of the damage decks. The Elephant and its DH2 escort started with damage as per the dice throws shown in one of the early pics. Too many collisions, but that was just the luck of the dice. Fortunately, two of them were inconsequential 
"Held for Uncle" always makes me feel nervous 
That was more like a "Demolition Derby" than a Dogfight. Thought the Germans had turned into Kamikaze pilots.
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