Mission 8 CYM - Flash Formation Flying ! 26th August 1916

[flash]

There they go again, a formation of Hun Albatros C.III heading back east over our lines having been up to mischief in our rear areas.

Lead aircraft piloted by Obltn Herman Poss, with Ltn Claus Ritscherle, recently off the injured list.
Tailing aircraft piloted by new boys Fwbl Max Löffler with Ltn Karl Schilling,
Left hand aircraft piloted by Vzfwbl Hartmuth Hemer & Ltn Franz Schäpe.

Led by ace A/Lt Cameron Paine (perfect aim) in a Nieuport 17 (A) a formation of Nieuport 16's consisting F/Sgt Robert Pynne (D), 2Lt Alan Keye (J) and 2Lt Percy Veer (F) position themselves to intercept


Seconds later Paine turns into the attack and lets loose at the nearest C.III - a big brown job on the right of their formation.... his rounds appeared to do little


Pynne rips into the brown job as Paine drops past in the front of it and lights up the lead machine from long range... Pynne sees the gunner fall from his gun and is rightly pleased with his first burst, Paine cops some return fire.


As the rest of the formation follow the Bulldogs stay locked on their targets - Paine empties his pan into the leader C.III, Pynne lands a close range burst on the first brown job.


Löffler dips his nose and sends a burst toward Paine but no further damage is sustained


Lost image - Paine in a whole world of trouble as he reloads, luckily Löffler's gun jams; Keye's gun jams too as he lays into the tailing Albatros

Paine takes more heat from the lead ship, Ritscherle does no further damage but Schäpe scores well from the second brown job.
Schilling sets Keye's machine aflame even as Veer sets his Albatros smoking... Pynne gets busy with reloading.


As Pynne passes close aboard Schilling switches his fire onto Veer, scoring a good hit, as does Veer in return. Paine soaks up more damage from Schäpe off to his left.. his first burst of the new pan jams his Lewis


Pynne manages to squeeze a shot off at the brown job with the dragon marking but Schäpe switches his fire to him and scores well; Schilling tracks Veer but his shot does nothing this time. Keye manages to clear his jam even as his machine burns.


Keye opens up on the tail end Charlie but his gun locks up once again - his machine is clattered by Schilling's return fire as Löffler drops his nose and rakes Paine's N.17
(+1 as missed pic of 0 hit in previous turn)


As Pynne and Veer turn back to attack they are greeted with a horror show of both their wingmen falling away - both dispatched by the tail end Charlie !


Pynne closes fast and lets rip - his burst dropping Schilling even as his gun jams. Veer is just out of range and conserves his ammo..


Pynne empties his Lewis, Löffler just manages to keep out range of Veer but he is now defenceless.


Reloaded Pynne bores back in and empties his final pan of ammo into the Albatros.. setting it on fire


He presses home his attack




Knocking it down before Veer can get into the fight.



The Hun formation crosses the lines shortly after and make good their escape.

Victory Points
+2 pts for each bomber that exits the board in the right direction = 6pts for Eagles
-2 pts for each bomber shot down or returned to base = 2pts for Bulldogs

Eagle victory !

Butchers Tally

Eagles:


Obltn Herman Poss: (P2 Lead) RTB 0 kills

Ltn Claus Ritscherle: RTB 0 Kills

Vzfwbl Hartmuth Hemer: (P2 Left - Dragon) RTB 0 kills

Ltn Franz Schäpe: RTB 0 kills

Fwbl Max Löffler: (P2 Tail) SD-FLM-ET 1 kill (Paine)
Rolled 10 -2FLM = 8 - Injured skip 1 D2 scenarios. Rolled 3 = Skip 1
E&E Rolled 5 -1FLM -1BEL = 3 Captured & Escaped ! skip 1 D3 scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 2

Ltn Karl Schilling: SD-FLM-ET 1 kill (Keye)
Rolled 10 -2FLM = 8 - Injured skip 1 D2 scenarios. Rolled 6 = Skip 2
E&E Rolled 7 -1FLM -1BEL = 5 - In Hiding ! skip 1 D2 scenarios. Rolled 1 = Skip 1

extras:
Fwbl Scmitt: (P2 Right - Brown job) RTB 0 kills
Ltn Braun: RTB / WIA 0 kills


Bulldogs:


A/Lt Cameron Paine: (N.17-A) SD-FT 0 kills
Rolled 10 -1SD = 9 All's well when you land well !

2Lt Alan Keye: (N.16 - J) SD-FLM-FT 0 kills
Rolled 7 -2FLM = 5 - Injured skip 1 D3 scenarios. Rolled 2 = Skip 1

2Lt Robert Pynne: (N.16 - D) RTB 1 kill

2Lt Percy Veer: (N.16 - F) RTB 0 kills

Well a very interesting exercise - the Eagles were in a finger four type formation - lead at 4 pegs; left at 6; right at 8; tail at 10 (pegs for me are alt chits) about half a ruler apart. There was about over one ruler fore to aft and side to side
Those paying attention will have noticed that the tail end Charlie was playing side slips instead of straights, this was to show him weaving to cover the leader's tail. Each plane had a randomly played stall which produced some movement within the formation.

The attacking scouts were follow the leader-ish stacked 1 peg above the other, the idea being to split the fire and bring more guns to bear at a target - kinda worked but not quite well enough.
The attackers played a formation game for a couple of turns playing the same cards as the lead with a 1 straight delay each plane back. Hard to explain but it works & the planes more or less turn in at the same point the leader did
Playing limited ammo as I usually do killed it for me as the boys ran dry before the first pass was finished. I should have gone for one machine at a time with all four of them but was worried about keeping up with the formation so went for broke... Which it did !
Luckily the dice gods were kind to both sides this time around and they lived to tell the tales and learn the lessons.

Good luck all !

[flash]

Uncle says:

Think we need to work on our tactics for these formation attacks... or use more scouts !


Meanwhile across the lines...
ObLtn Hermann Poss: awarded Iron Cross 2nd class & pilots badge for his service to the Kaiser
Fwbl Max Löffler: awarded Iron Cross 2nd class & pilots badge for his victory & service to the Kaiser
Ltn Karl Schilling: awarded Iron Cross 2nd class & observer badge for his victory & service to the Kaiser
Vzfwbl Hartmuth Hemer: awarded Iron Cross 2nd class & pilots badge for his service to the Kaiser
Ltn Franz Schäpe: awarded Iron Cross 2nd class & observer badge for his service to the Kaiser

[Stumptonian]

Well I can see what's in store for me on Friday
I certainly hope I can keep my Strutters 'reined in' as well as you did the Albatrosses.


The tally sheet did not go your way, but you gave us a great tale to read.
Good job on your first OTT AAR from the new hangar.

[flash]

Thanks Pete, it was nice and bright in the Orderly Room, the first half was played at night, the second during the day but the lighting quality seems the same throughout and much better than it was in the garage. I hope your tactics work better than mine when you get to it !

[Baxter]

A very tough mission as we found out last night. Great fight.

[ShadowDragon]

Hmmm.....will see how the others do o this one. Looks tough but the Dice Goddess was kind on the C&W / E&E rolls.

[flash]

It certainly is tough Paul - I think you have to pick off the fringes first and just see how much progress you can make - wading straight in was not the way to go unless they jam their guns and take big hits or fire.
Still, I was happy everyone survived, throwing three tens was quite unusual for me but Keye's bad luck holds, fly, get injured, miss some. The Gods were kind - even the Eagles got back to their nest.

[ShadowDragon]

It certainly is tough Paul - I think you have to pick off the fringes first and just see how much progress you can make - wading straight in was not the way to go unless they jam their guns and take big hits or fire.
Still, I was happy everyone survived, throwing three tens was quite unusual for me but Keye's bad luck holds, fly, get injured, miss some. The Gods were kind - even the Eagles got back to their nest.

I have four options:

1) Fly with the Nieuport 11 and die
2) Fly Spad VII - doing operational testing in support of a potential RNAS purchase
3) Fly Nieuport 17 - purloined from the RFC
4) Wait around until Sopwith Camels are available

[flash]

The N.16's were pretty dire, the 17 only a mite better so brace yourself - this could hurt !

[gully_raker]

Definitely a tough job to tackle a formation of Hun 2 seaters. Guns fore & aft make for dangerous action.
Guess you were luck no pilots were lost from your 2 crashes.
Have some rep for being the first to play this one.

[Vagabond]

It looks like I tried a similar tactic but my flying was poorer than yours, only getting 2 planes in contact. Whilst the result was the same I suspect because you used altitude for the Tandems you had a harder task.

Very nice Nieuports, are they repaints of the Aries planes or shapeways ones.?

[flash]

Thanks John, and the N.16 are neither WoG or Shapeways but are repaints of the WoW ones out of the Balloon Buster set with the rockets stripped off.

[mikeemagnus]

What a brave guy you are, to use so many pegs. Reckon my elbows would have the models all over the floor, toot sweet, if I attempted that Really like the way your guys got stuck in, right though the middle of the two seater formation - risky Unlucky to lose both of your wingmen in one fell swoop though, but at least you brought down one of the enemy. I still haven't tried to master play with altitude, but obviously you do this really well. Like the way you weaved the German tail ender too. Never even occured to me to try that. Lesson learned. Nice mission Dave - well played.
Rep inbound

[flash]

I thankyou !

[Teaticket]

Our little scouts trying to tackle an equal amount of tandems is a tough assignment. You ran up against some steady shooting observers and paid the price. At least they will all be back up and at 'em again. Good show!