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 !
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