OTT-CYM Mission 12: And the Beat Goes On – 27th September 1916 by ShadowDragon
Original scenario by Mikeemagnus
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...r-1916-by-Mike
It was evening on the Dundee-Wilde Wine Estate or was it the Wilde-Dundee Estate? There were road signs for both – so no one was sure or cared, other than a couple of old WWI pilots who resided on the estate. One, Jacques Wilde was on the veranda with his wife, Angelique. Normally there’d be a crowd on the veranda to hear stories – including old war stories, but not on this particular evening. Bruce Dundee and his wife, Carolyn, were in Sydney for a few days and Jacques’ daughter and her family, with whom Jacques and Angelique shared the large, sprawling house, had retired for the evening. Jacques was glad of the quiet evening – there seemed to be far too few of them. His mind drifted off to memories of the war. This time it was to one day in late September, 1916. Jacques thought of this day often but never spoke of it to anyone – including Bruce who was a fellow pilot in the same RNAS squadron – the X Squadron.
***************************************
It was the morning of the 27th of September. A couple of Hun batteries were causing trouble for the boys in the trenches, so HQ had asked the squadron to send up a tandem to help observe some counter-battery fire. The tandem flight commander, Robert Samson, with his observer, Reggie Simpson, were ‘volunteered’ for the task, but HQ had emphasised the importance of the mission, so the Squadron Commander, Sir Henry Rumsbottle, decided to send another tandem as backup. The ‘volunteers’ for this tandem were FSL Stephen Fiennes and AM1 Joe Darwin. These were all seasoned aircrew but they’d need scout protection – otherwise they’d be sitting ducks in a shooting arcade. Unfortunately, two of the squadron’s best scout pilots, including the scout flight commander, were laid up in hospital. The acting flight commander, Jock MacDonald, and one of the Canadians, Al Smith, were on another ‘very important’ mission – weren’t they all? The left the other Canadian, Jack Wilde, and the Irishman, Fergis O’Neil. Jack was a good pilot – but a bit erratic and, in Sir Henry’s view, lacking discipline. The Irishman was another matter. HQ had instructed Sir Henry to keep a close eye on him; so the standing order was that Fergis O’Neil was not to fly a mission without being accompanied by another scout. The pair were not his first choice, but they were the only choice – so they’d have to do.
Shortly, Jack was in his favourite plane – a teal blue Nieport 11; although it was getting on in age and Jack worried what would happen if he ran across one of those new Hun planes with two machineguns.
“Try again”, he called out to the mechanic, but it was no use. The Nieuport’s Le Rhône 9C engine would not fire. At the moment the only other serviceable scout plane was the Fergis’. Jack would have to take Fergis’ place. He scrambled out of the Teal Blue and ran towards the camouflaged Nieuport Fergis favoured, waving his arms and shouting, but the aloof Irishman looked at Jack, shrugged and signalled his ground crew to remove the wheel blocks. With that the Irishman’s Nieuport was roaring down the airfield and soon enough in the air.
Jack threw his flight cap on the ground. Sir Henry would have his hide for letting Fergis go alone.
“Are you sure the other Nieuports aren’t serviceable?”
“Quite sure, sir,” replied the mechanic looking to two partially dissembled airplanes to which Jack was referring.
Jack gazed futilely at the disappearing speck that was Fergis and his Nieuport. Jack did not have a good feeling about this – not a good feeling at all.
************************************
The 28th of September, a Hun staffel.
Leutnant Reinhold Piechulek stood before a major who had arrived from HQ to interview Reinhold on the previous day’s mission. The major had not provided his name but he wore the insignia of the Prussian Garde du Corps – an elite cavalry regiment. Reinhold himself was a cavalryman – the 1st Silesian Hussars with a fine tradition going back to the Napoleonic wars.
“Sit down, Leutnant,” gestured the major. “You are the acting squadron commander, yes?”
“Yes, Herr Major, the oberleutnant is recovering from injuries.”
“So, you will have been aware of your orders, yes?”
“Yes, Herr Major,” replied Reinhold who had not sat down and stood to even straighter attention then he thought possible. By the major’s tone, Reinhold thought that he was not pleased.
“I’ve seen your report but, Leutant, I want you to tell me now the story of your mission.”
“There were two of us in the new Albatros scouts – myself and a new pilot, Leutnant Siegried Christiansen, a Frieslander. It was Siegried’s first mission.”
“I see”, muttered the major as he lit up his pipe. “Do you mind?” he asked the Leutnant while proceeding without waiting for a reply.
“It was as we were briefed. A single British tandem with a single scout as escort. It was a Nieuport 11 – no match for the Albatros. They had the markings of the ‘X Squadron’. I signalled Siegried to attack.”
“The Nieuport had the markings of an Irishman. You were briefed on those markings, yes?”
“Yes, Herr Major.”
“Did you recognise the Nieuport as belonging to the Irishman?”
“Yes, Herr Major.”
“Well, go on.”
“The Nieuport suddenly did a strange thing. If flew in front of the enemy tandem – almost as if it intended to ram the tandem, but it did not.”
“The Nieuport closed with us and fired on Siegried. I could see some damage but nothing serious.”
“I fired back – wide.”
“Ah! Wide, hmmm? That is good.”
“We knew the tandem was the important target. I signalled Siegried to ignore the Nieuport and attack the tandem.”
“Siegried amazed me. He seems to be a natural scout pilot. His first combat mission, his first target – and with his first shot I could see that he hit both the pilot and observer.”
“The pilot of the enemy tandem was struggling to control his machine, but he would not last long, I joined Siegried in the attack.”
“Siegried’s machineguns were jammed, but mine were not. The British tandem was finished.”
“And where was the Irishman during this attack on the tandem?”
“Circling around, but after the tandem was spiralling down, he attacked Siegried – but still nothing serious.”
“At this time, a second British tandem appeared. We had not been warned about a second tandem, but we were in good shape with very little damage. I signalled to Siegried that we should attack.”
“Again, the Irishman flew at the tandem – as if to ram it, but at the last instant he averted a collision.
“My approach on the tandem was perfectly timed. The enemy plane was soon smoking, but Siegried was being chased by the Irishman – but I do not think his bullets hit Siegried’s Albatros.”
“Siegried performed a very nice manoeuvre – the one that Max Immelmann taught us – and fired a ‘symbolic’ burst at the Irishman.”
“At this point, I assessed the situation – all was going well. I signalled to Siegried to continue the attack as my attack had not severely damaged the enemy tandem.
“Siegried’s flying was beautiful – a perfect attack on the tandem.”
“Although, Siegried might need some practice with deflection shooting.”
“The observer of the British tandem seemed to be no longer preoccupied with spotting for their artillery and was firing back at Siegried to good effect. The Irishman attack my airplane – damaging the controls but again – nothing serious.”
“The fighting continued with the tandem observer continuing to damage Siegried’s Albatros. Now things became more serious with the Irishman. He hit a fuel line and set my Albatros on fire.”
“Well, if you will do something unnatural like flying in a contraption of wood and cloth.”
“Sir?” replied Reinhold looking at the major quizzically.
“Do you not consider it an honour to die for the Fatherland, Leutnant?”
“Yes, Herr Major!”
“Continue.”
“I can tell you that the Irishman came at me with a fury. That was not expected.”
“Was it not,” mused the major.
“Siegried saw the attack of the Irishman and felt he must defend his comrade.”
“My Albatros was barely holding together from the damage done by the Irishman. I knew I had to break off the attack. I signalled that to Siegried, but he meted out vengeance on the Irishman.”
“My Albatros was in trouble but the Irishman stopped his attack. Just then, as I was turning to fly back to the aerodrome, the enemy tandem was in my sights. I could see I managed to do a good deal of damage – enough for the tandem to abort its mission.”
“But Siegried continued to ignore my signal to break off the attack. It was his first mission – I’m sue the adrenaline affected his judgement.”
“And?”
“And he shot the Irishman down.”
“Were your orders not sufficiently clear on this point?”
“No sir, they were clear.”
“But still, your comrade shot the Irishman down, hmm.”
“Yes, Herr Major.”
“That’s not all, is it, Leutnant? Go on.”
“I was flying away but Siegried continued on to attack the tandem, but the observer hit something vital on Siegried’s Albatros and it exploded.”
“Yes, well - we are looking for the young Leutnant. He has some explaining to do. But still,” the major smiled, “two enemy airplanes shot down on his first mission. Impressive.”
“Yes, Herr Major.”
“We’ve heard nothing about the Irishman. When our infantry reached his wreckage he was not to be found. So much remains ‘in the air’, but perhaps this may turn out to our advantage. However, Leutnant, orders are orders and they are to be obeyed – even by a new pilot. Is that very clear?”
“Yes, Herr Major.”
*************************************
Jack waited and squirmed and waited and squirmed while Sir Henry paced back and forth – stopping every once and awhile to scowl at Jack. Hours passed and – no planes. The phone rang. The officer on duty called to Sir Henry.
“I see….hmmm…..I see. I see. Yes, I see. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”
All eyes were on Sir Henry as he turned to the crowd that had been waiting for some sign that their comrades would return safely.
“We have reports from the front lines. Three of our planes were shot down. Just one of the Huns. The news is very bad. Stephen and Reggie did not make it. Robert and Joseph are in hospital. They are in a bad way but should recover. And….”, he paused, “Fergis O’Neil was not to be found. Just as well. HQ has intelligence that he passed on information to the Hun. It was trap for our tandems. If Fergis is to be seen he is to be arrested and if that’s not possible – shot dead.”
On hearing that Jack returned to his quarters, grabbed his service revolver and drove off to…well, find Fergis. Damn arresting Fergis, Jack had every intention of shooting the man on sight. After driving around aimlessly for a few hours he returned to the station. Sir Henry was not pleased and had Jack thrown in the brig – to cool off. A couple of days later Jack was released – that the bad weather had cleared up and that the squadron was now desperately short of aircrew may have had a little to do with that.
*****************************************
A few days British medics brought an injured pilot to a field hospital.
“Found this ‘ere chap wandering around. No identification and he seems to have lost ‘is memory.”
“Well, he’s one of ours so set him over there. He doesn’t look to badly injured otherwise. Likely a knock on the head.”
A little while later no one noticed the pilot pass a piece of paper to one of the nurses – an certain Eva Schultz.
[/B]Victory Points[/B]
Seadogs:
1 scout shot down X 5 = 5
1 scout FRTB X 5 = 5
Total = 10 points
Adlers:
2 Two-seaters shot down X 15 = 30
1 scout shot down X 5 = 5 points
Total = 35 points
A resounding Adler victory. Boo-hiss! Albeit one in which very nearly everyone was shot down.
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