OTT CYM Mission 3 – The Oxymoron of Military Intelligence – July 19th 1916
AAR by Mike
It is the 19th of July 1916 and the Battle of Fromelles, part of the larger Battle of the Somme, will start later in the day.
The sacrifice of young men and women, by all nations involved in this conflict, was enormous. Yesterday and the day before it may have been the turn of Britain, France, Germany or Italy, or one of the many loyal allies who fought on one side or the other, in the various and many theatres of the play. Tomorrow and the next day the slaughter would continue and the death toll and grief mount up around the world.
Today however, it would be the turn of the Bavarians in their trenches on top of Aubers Ridge and the British and Australians, especially the Australians, who would be required to make that sacrifice - a dash over open ground, in daylight, towards a slope that had overlooked their positions for months and yielded all their secrets, so that the defenders could mount a deadly defence. And for what? To pin down the Germans and prevent them reinforcing their comrades further to the south. Someone was responsible for a very unintelligent decision, so far as the troops who would go through with this were concerned. But that raises questions, the answers to which must lie elsewhere.
For the moment, early in the morning, all that was yet to come. The weather for the past few days had been wet and overcast, delaying both the attack on the ground and any support work from the air.
But today, the weather had cleared. The artillery zero hour was fixed for 11:00 a.m., ready for the attack at 6:00 p.m., so there was still time for the RFC to gather more information or destroy more German targets which might make a difference and GHQ was in a flap about the suspected existence of enemy ammunition dumps.
Which is why orders had come down the line for the Bulldogs to go and fetch some reconnaisance photos, of the suspicious locations, and if anything of value were discovered, to bomb it to hell. Lt Mick Taker had discussed the options with his fellow officers, and decided to risk just one of their precious two seaters, accompanied by an escort of three scouts. The remaining two seaters would be loaded with bombs to destroy any ammunition dumps actually revealed by the reconnaisance. They would be ready at a moments notice, just as soon as the reconnaissance flight returned and before the planned ground attack went ahead.
“OK, so that’s myself, Simon and Bo in the DH2’s, with John piloting the Fee and Graham as his observer! Perfect” said Lt Mick E Taker.
“Agreed.” added uncle, puffing away on his pipe, as always “and that’ll leave Charlie as a reserve for the scouts and Harold, William, Eric and Walter available to carry out the bombing. I should add that GHQ are rather stomping about their patch over this, so anyone who survives the initial reconnaissance will also have to join the bombing raid. Are you clear on that Mick?”
“Yes Uncle, very clear!”
“Off you go then, and good luck. Get those photos back here as quickly as you can!”
So, Lt Mick Taker, with his two wingmen, 2nd Lts Simon Hawker and Bo Fletcher, lifted off into a chill morning air and headed for a light covering of cloud, where they were awaited by 2nd Lt John Palin and his observer AM3 Graham Jones, circling patiently in their Fee. Visibility beyond the clouds was good and everything below looked so peaceful.
However, behind enemy lines, watchfully patrolling the suspicious locations in question, were a couple of enemy scouts, also with that peaceful view.
ObLtn Josef Jacob made gentle adjustments to the circular route of his Fokker DII and searched the horizons. The two ammunition dumps, hidded beneath him must be protected “at all cost”. Why was it always “at all cost” he thought to himself, and he looked to his right to check the presence of his wing man, Ltn Gerhard Keudell. The sun reflected brightly, off the clear doped linen of Keudell’s Fokker DI, as a reassuring white glow, which dimmed as Keudell banked towards the east, whilst Jacob turned his own Fokker to the west.
But then his mind came sharply into focus as beyond Keudell’s Fokker he caught sight of something far less welcome. Three, no four, aircraft, flying towards him from the west. They could only be the enemy. Almost at the same time a warning flare rose gracefully from the ground. The alarm was being raised by an AA gun crew.
“Gut, Gott sei Dank dafür ” thought Jacob, because that meant his ground support was on the ball.
Back with the RFC flight, Mick Taker waggled the wings of his CDL DH2, but it was really unnecessary as everyone in the rest of the flight couldn’t have failed to see the flare go up.
Just the same, Graham Jones, on Taker’s port side, waved acknowledgement from his observers cockpit in the Fee. And looking beyond the rumbling FE2b, Taker could see that Hawker was still on station, a little behind and slightly above the Fee. His role was to watch for any enemy coming from the north, but to pitch in and defend the Fee if there was any trouble about. It looked more than likely that would be the case now, but what else was about and where would it arrive from?
In fact it was Fletcher, who spotted the German reinforcements. As Taker stretched around to his right to see if Fletcher was still where he was supposed to be, he saw him also waggle his wings and point meaningfully away to the south where a couple more enemy aircraft could be seen, joining the two that were circling the target location. Two Halberstadt DIIIs by the looks of them. Ltns Theodor Ehmann (below left) and Hans Leptien (below right) had both been alerted to the possibility of an attack, by the flare and were now making haste to the scene from the south.
As they did, the British flight of three DH2s and a Fee rapidly closed the gap between themselves and the four possible target areas. And the first of two AA guns opened up in what was to eventually prove to be one of the most innaccurate barrages of anti aircraft fire our Bulldog friends had ever experienced. Nice! Considering the bashing they’d received from flak on earlier missions.
Jacob, who was the closest to this enemy, was first to attempt to interrupt the Bulldogs operations. But he bit off rather more than he could chew. Two Bulldogs, Taker and Fletcher, saw him approaching and banked sharply to their starboard, before all three pilots had a beligerant “natter natter natter” with their respective machine guns. Fletcher immediately saw black smoke streaming from somewhere on his DH2 but it didn’t appear to be very serious, so far, so he ignored it. Rather less fortunate was ObLtn Jacob in his Fokker DII. He was badly mauled by these two Bulldogs and fire broke out on his machine - “Scheiße, nicht schon wieder ” was his reaction!
Hawker too now banked right, towards the oncoming threat, whilst, in the Fee, Palin dropped down a few hundred feet and plodded on towards his first target location, allowing Graham Jones to obtain his first clear photo opportunity, which he took very calmly.
This was the moment when the scout pilots of both sides decided it would be a great idea to huddle together and sort out their differences in the time honoured way, by attempting to slaughter one another.
So, whilst Jacob, Taker and Fletcher had a second go at one another; with Jacob coming off distinctly unfavourably, from his point of view; and leaving Palin and Jones to quietly get on with the business of sightseeing and taking nice snaps of the scenery, the remaining party goers headed for a spot, more or less in the middle of the playground, and proceeded to try and bash hell out of one another.
Whilst it can be stated that the RFC definitely got the better of this one, never-the-less Fletcher was pretty annoyed that his was the only gun, out of the lot, that decided to jam. “Damn”.
Jacob had to slink off for a short while, since his Fokker was on fire and he needed time to put the damned fire out, if he could! But the Bulldog, Hawker, finally managed to join in the fun too and exchanged the usual greetings with Keudel, in the Fokker DI, both hitting the other, but without doing any disastrous amounts of damage (one all, as the footballing fraternity would put it).
And Palin, keeping his nose clean, whilst avoiding the AA flak, enabled Jones to get his second good photograph of this highly suspicious area.
A slight lull in the proceedings followed, whilst most of the protaganists took themselves off for a reloading break, or a tea break, or whatever other type of break one can take in the middle of a dog fight. Except for the late arrival, Hawker, in his DH2, who, having enjoyed his opening shot, was delighted to take a second, freebe, against the CDL Halberstadt flown by Hans Leptien, at close range too. Further more, his joy was compounded when Keudell, in the CDL Fokker, flipped an Immelmann, opened up at long range on his tail, and missed! To add insult to injury, for Keudel that is, the latters gun jammed. All Hawker could do was grin, very broadly.
Keudel was furious, of course, even more so because, as a result of his gun jam, he missed a perfect head on opportunity on the CDL DH2 of Taker. Taker, on the other hand, didn’t miss the same opportunity and let Keudel have it. Daka, daka, daka, daka and next thing you know, the engine of the Fokker is rattling around like a loose ballbearing in a tin can. “Es ist Zeit für Herrn Keudel, nach Hause zu fahren!“ says he to himself.
And ObLtn Josef Jacob continued to twist and turn, in this case successfully, as the fire appeared to be coming under control, at last.
Then disaster struck the Germans. You will recall that not only does Ltn Gerhard Keudel, in his CDL Fokker DI, have a gun jam, he is also attempting to head home because of a seriously damaged engine. Which is why he never stood a chance when set upon, similtaneously, by the DH2s of Hawker, who had managed to turn about, and his flight leader Lt Mick E Taker. Bullet holes appeared everywhere and “Boom” went something vital. To his dismay, Herr Keudell found himself heading in a general downward and therefore undesireable direction. Taker claimed that one.
So, now is the time to return to a more general overview of things. With one of their number down, the German flight is currently outnumbered, especially since ObLtn Jacob is still way off to the west, attempting to put the fire out on his precious Fokker DII. Which left the two Halberstadt DIIIs of Leptien and Ehmann to protect the location against three RFC owned DH2s and a Fee, the latter of which had, thus far, successfully taken two out of a required four photographs of the area. In addition to which, the German AA guns continued a miserable spell of shooting, in which they hit nothing at all!
Add this information to the fact that the shooting by the German scout pilots is now going to pot, plus the fire on ObLtn Jacob’s Fokker suddenly flared up again, with further disastrous consequences, i.e. it fell to the earth in flames, and you will understand why Kaiser Wilhelm II would “not be pleased” if only he knew about it. (Kill number 2 to Taker)
Not that the British pilots’ aim was any better. It too was pretty dire. But the real success here lies with Palin and Jones, who are quietly going about their business, unmolested by anything other that ineffective AA fire and successfully gathering all the pictures they want. Numbers three and four have just been taken. Obviously the Bulldog scouts are doing a brilliant job, bad shooting or no bad shooting, keeping the hun away from the Fee!
It was time for the RFC flight to head home again. Photographs had been taken and they were requred as a matter of urgency, by GHQ. However, there was still the small matter of a couple of Halberstadts flitting from target to target, like hover flies around the lobelia.
Plus the AA guns, still creating their black blooms to decorate the sky. Another miss you will note!
Close, but not close enough! And now the German scouts were outnumbered two to one, their pilots still shooting badly and being reasonably plastered with lead in return. Next thing you know, both Theodor Ehmann and Hans leptien are wounded and this part of the mission really is all but over.
Ehmann isn’t so badly wounded, but his beloved brown Halberstadt has been severely knocked about at this stage of the proceedings (12/14 damage), so being the sensible lad that he is, he decided to land what remained of his aircraft, down by the anti aircraft crew. “He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day”. He’d take that for the truth any time!
As for Hans Leptien, in the CDL Halberstadt, his problem was even greater. Quite badly injured, with a serious wound to his shoulder, his aircraft was even more shot full of holes than his colleagues aircraft (13/14 damage). He was desperate to extract himself from the fight and get home safely.
And the bloody AA guns were not helping in the least!
This lot couldn’t hit a barn door two metres in front of them! Not that Mick E Taker was complaining.
So Leptien tried to dodge past the Fee, whilst Ehmann successfully landed on the ground, without tipping into the canal directly to his front; although he took a few leaves with him as he slid between the poplars by the road.
Leaving a couple of frustrated DH2 pilots circling around, just above the range of small arms fire and not stupid enough to endanger their mission just to finish Ehmann off.
So, the final act in this two part drama was left to the unfortunate Ltn Hans Leptien and the lucky Graham Jones, who stood precariously on the edge of his cockpit, with the wind whipping at his legs and threatening to carry him to his doom. Only to take a long range pot at the Halberstadt over the top of the Fee’s wings.
“Bingo” he cried, as the little yellow peril flipped over and nose dived towards pastures green below. “Got the blighter”. (Kill to AM3 Jones)
And that was that, for the time being. The entire flight of Bulldogs headed for the clouds, west and home, carrying their precious cargo of reconnaisance photographs – much good may they do anyone.
Part one of the mission successfully completed. But Uncle was pacing the eight by ten feet of his so called office, puffing furiously on his pipe and creating as much smoke as Thomas the Tank Engine (OK, not written until 1946, but hey ho) going up hill, anxious to hear the returning engines of Taker’s flight and to continue with the rest of the days orders as quickly as possible – there is more to come!
To be continued …….…..
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