Bouncing with Manfred & Reinhold

[flash]

This is a 2 v 1 scenario I did some time ago with a brace of Albatros D.V against a single SE.5 trying out some positioning and blooding the blood red D.V !
I'm using my own Alt rules, D8 solo charts and will be playing jams as effecting single guns in a pair, something I've always done with separate systems like those on the SE.5 but am now carrying into standard twin mounts.


Johnny is the new boy in the squadron and is lucky enough to join when the new SE.5 is being issued. It seems some of the chaps don't get on with it but it's streets ahead of what Johnny had used in training. Being new brought it's own issues, of course, one of them keeping in contact with his own flight. He wasn't sure what had happened. One minute they were there just in front of him, they passed through some clouds and then they weren't.
He didn't mind though, he had this thoroughbred beneath him and was revelling in its speed and handling, he just needed to figure out where he was and head back home is all. While peering at the ground trying to make out a landmark that might be familiar from his few previous flight Manfred & Reinhold turned up with other ideas for him...


Johnny was instantly aware they were there as they dived upon him with Spandaus blazing - rounds clatter through his airframe and shocking pain stabs across his ribs


Johnny hauls the stick hard over to the left, pain searing through his right side, giving his unwelcome visitors the slip


He immediately reverses his turn to see if he can get back on them while they sort themselves out


Johnny tightens his turn though it hurts fearfully and glances at his opposition, he's stunned to see an all red machine turning for him, could that be.. surely not.


As he rolls out of the turn Johnny instinctively grasps the triggers and both his guns bark until the Lewis stops. The Red machine looks unaffected; the yellow machine whips round in a high reversal.


Johnny breaks in the opposite direction to the Hun and holds the turn, the red machine turns after him again.




They turn inexorably toward each other, then the bullets fly at close range - lead crashes about Johnny but slackens off as his Vickers barks his defiance..


They part company, Johnny works on his jammed Lewis, he must really get away, the wound is troubling him but the yellow beggar will cut him off if he tries it so he keeps turning


Johnny takes them both on. Both guns are working now and he trades with the red machine at close range once more, as the yellow chips in from further out. The Baron, as that's who it must surely be, sets his machine on fire


Johnny heads for the barn as he slips past the yellow kite; the red machine gets itself turned around as he sorts his jammed gun


Nearly there, Johnny is willing his machine home when the yellow machine lads a telling long range effort that sends the SE spinning to oblivion..



Butcher's Tally:


Johnny: SD-FLM-ET/WIA/ 0 kills


Manfred: RTB 0 kills
Reinhold: RTB 1 kill

Sometimes they are not as easy as they look said Manfred to Reinhold as they viewed the damage to his new red machine..

[Teaticket]

Johnny's definitely a rookie. He thought he had jammed his guns when it should have been the Baron! He also should have known better than to play with the master.

[Flying Helmut]

Nice AAR, Dave.

Love the repaints - I don't believe I've seen that Reinhold machine before.

[flash]

Johnny's definitely a rookie. He thought he had jammed his guns when it should have been the Baron!...

They both jammed a gun. Johnny on his first shot, Manfred on their second. Though looking back I probably miscounted the clearance of Johnny's jam. I played this back in Nov or Dec I think.

[Teaticket]

They both jammed a gun. Johnny on his first shot, Manfred on their second. Though looking back I probably miscounted the clearance of Johnny's jam. I played this back in Nov or Dec I think.

I was confused seeing a jam marker on Johnny and he still took a shot at the Baron. The Baron then jammed but the next pic and caption had Johnny with a jam marker and working on his Lewis. Must have been the confusion in heat of battle!

Nice looking repaint for Reinhold, as Tim said.

[Stumptonian]

I was confused seeing a jam marker on Johnny and he still took a shot at the Baron. The Baron then jammed but the next pic and caption had Johnny with a jam marker and working on his Lewis. Must have been the confusion in heat of battle!

Johnny fired his Vickers with a 'B' deck draw.

Nice one, Dave. You seem to be getting a lot of action outside OTT.

[flash]

I was confused seeing a jam marker on Johnny and he still took a shot at the Baron. The Baron then jammed but the next pic and caption had Johnny with a jam marker and working on his Lewis. Must have been the confusion in heat of battle!
Nice looking repaint for Reinhold, as Tim said.

Ach so ! Yeah, I should have clarified that I was playing an alternate jam system. I've always played the SE.5 guns as separate but have extended that to any two gun system as that's how it worked from my reading. Makes life a little harder when a jam doesn't save your buns !

[flash]

..Love the repaints - I don't believe I've seen that Reinhold machine before.

..Nice looking repaint for Reinhold, as Tim said.

I'm surprised Tim, that was one of the first I ever did. It doesn't come out very often but has appeared in AAR's before and it's been out at shows.
In the early days when we only had a few models I personalised my original Jentsch model so we could get two on the table without confusion. I tidied up the paintjob on the wings, painted the spinner & wheels red, added a band on it with a decal from a WW2 German tank on it as a personal marking. Bavarian I think..
"Follow the Bear" as the old Hofmeister lager advert went (when beer ads were allowed to be fun !)

[Karo7]

[...] I've always played the SE.5 guns as separate but have extended that to any two gun system as that's how it worked from my reading.[...]

Ok, I always thought a jam is caused mainly by shells which got stuck in the gun mechanism. So the other gun of a twin layout shouldn't be affected. I like this house rule!

[Flying Helmut]

Oswald Boelcke, flying his Fokker D.III, reported that once one of his guns jammed, the other fired "all the better", and he shot down his target!

Albatros fighters had separate gun triggers as well as a combination one, so a pilot could fire one, or the other, or both (Osprey Air Vanguard No. 5 'Albatros D.I - D.II).

[Teaticket]

Ah, I don't play with the half jam house rule. Maybe it's time I get up with the times!

[flash]

Ah, I don't play with the half jam house rule. Maybe it's time I get up with the times!

Go on, you know you want to !

[Stumptonian]

Saved my aces' bacon on more than one occasion during The Bitter End series of OTT.

I think I was the one who pressed for the Optional Rule to be added.

[Karo7]

Oswald Boelcke, flying his Fokker D.III, reported that once one of his guns jammed, the other fired "all the better", and he shot down his target!
[...]

The same effect can be observed on car blinkers.

Maybe there could be achieved a higher fire frequency, if the mechanism of the interruption gear had only to block one gun?

[Sauerkraut]

Another good AAR, you have been busy. Manfred got a bit of a shock too.
Quick question for you, do you normally apply your limited ammo rules to the SE5's Lewis gun?

[flash]

Yes but by the time the SE5 came out the Lewis had the double stack pan so I limit it to 6 bursts, which is often enough for a mission I find.
I have some bullet markers spare for you by the way.

[Sauerkraut]

Yes but by the time the SE5 came out the Lewis had the double stack pan so I limit it to 6 bursts, which is often enough for a mission I find.
I have some bullet markers spare for you by the way.

Thanks Dave, you're a star!