OTTBYM Mission 6 - Somme Success - 12th November 1916 by Vagabond
I was watching Bob walk arm in arm across the field with a pilot I didn’t recognise, this wasn’t unusual, we often walked arm in arm with our friends and as soon they were in hailing distance I shouted out, “well Bob, how did you like skittering around in Doris”.
Bob stopped short, looking faintly bemused and then his young face cleared and a smile was on his lips when he said, “I didn’t know you called her Doris. Yes she’s a bloody fine aeroplane, extremely responsive although a little slow”, but then seeing my frown at the insult to Doris’s speed he said, “not so slow that I couldn’t catch one of the new Albatros Dll’s and knock it out of the sky”.
“You did what”! I was amazed and pleased all at once. “This is only your 3rd solo mission with C Flight and you’ve bagged a Hun. Well done Bob, tell me all about it, but first introduce me to your companion”.
“Of course” he replied “this is Edward Mountjoy, he arrived yesterday along with William Martin. Edward this is John Vagabond”. “What ho Vaggers old chap” said Mountjoy, “how are you, I heard you had been shot down and couldn’t fly. Jolly bad show, don’t you know”.
“You’ve not been at the front long” I enquired, anyone who thought not being able to fly was a bad thing had no idea about the war in the air on the Western Front.
“No” he responded, “arrived a week ago and was posted here yesterday, jolly excited to be here though, this was my first operational flight and don’t you know, I might even be credited with a Hun myself, although it depends on Montague of course”.
“Montague”? I queried. “Yes Anstruther-Browne, our Flight Commander he replied”. “Oh you mean Biff” I said as the penny dropped. “That’s right” he said, “we went to school together, Eaton don’t you know”. This Edward Mountjoy was beginning to get on my nerves a little.
Turning to Bob I asked about William Martin the other pilot who had joined us, “do you mean Billy the Butcher Martin”? Bob looked askance and said, “maybe, he looks a little rough, with a woolly hat and continually sucking on a Woodbine, is that the man you mean”. “Sounds like a fair description” I smiled. “We went to school together don’t you know, and were expelled the same day, don’t you know”, I glanced in Mountjoys direction before continuing, “enough of that though, tell me about your Hun, I saw Biff going into Uncles Office to give the official version, you can tell me the true version”.
“Crikey it was exciting” he started, “Biff wanted us to fly in a diamond formation, he led, with Mountjoy and Martin on either side, slightly astern and above him, then me bringing up the rear and higher than the rest of the formation”. “Sounds interesting” I replied, “how did it work out”? “Pretty well except I was too far back to have any impact on the initial contact as the Germans came on at us in line abreast”.
He stopped in the middle of his narrative and asked, “did Bouncer get back OK”. “Of course he did” I said, “he’s in the Mess shouting Sizzle Sizzle Sizzle and telling anyone who’ll listen what a brilliant pilot he is and how these new rockets will revolutionize air combat. He’s on his second glass of Poteen, can’t you hear the silly ass in there shouting about how he blew up a Sausage and how it went sizzle sizzle sizzle when he shot it down. Those idiot’s from A Flight are encouraging him and the buffoon is lapping it up”.
You may remember that relations between Bouncer Berry and myself where not the most cordial ever since he stole my childhood sweetheart, Bunty Hampster-Crust, then she left him to go to Egypt, following which he tried to ram me in mid air as some sort of act of revenge, he's as mad as a box of frogs.
“It’ll quieten down in a minute when he’s finished his 3rd glass” and almost immediately there was a loud thump as Berry hit the floor, he never could hold his liquor, “there you go – I told you so, carry on with your tale”.
“Well”, Bob went on, “Berry as you know went out on a balloon busting mission and was flying home as we crossed the lines, I think he’d been chased off by one of the Roland Two Seater jobbies but they couldn’t keep up and probably having seen us headed their way had given up the race and decided to return home as well”.
“That’s when we saw the formation of Albatros ll’s headed our way”.
“You’ve heard about Trenchards orders Bob queried, the one that says we have to make sure no German plane gets close enough to our side of the lines to observe our new super weapon, the Tank”. I just nodded and he continued, “well they were almost at that point (the red line) when we spotted them, so they would almost certainly see the Tanks, although it was a bit academic as the Roland must have seen them anyway”.
“I was a bit worried he explained because it was the first time I’d been in a fight where two lines of planes just fly straight at each other. As we’d never flown together Biff put us in a diamond formation at different heights to reduce the chance of collisions. The Hun’s seemed to have a similar idea, although they were in line abreast with the two outer planes higher than the central ones”.
“All hell broke loose as we closed”.
“I’ll say it did” Montjoy interjected, “I had 2 of the bally enemy firing at me, I don’t think they did much damage though and I blazed away at one of the blighters until my gun jammed. It took ages to clear it, one of the cases was distorted and I had to prize it out”.
“You need a mallet” I told him and he looked back quizzically wondering if I was making a fool of him.
“Martins plane caught fire and a couple of other planes were smoking” continued Bob “I’m pretty sure that I hit one of the pilots in a black flashed plane, I saw blood or oil spray up from his cockpit area but he kept the plane under control as he flew past. Damn cool customer if I did hit him though” he said with a degree of admiration in his voice.
PROBABLE TO BOB
“I turned hard to starboard trying to get on the tail of a plane with a green flash, and everyone else was trying to return to the fight either by turning or doing an Immelmann, something I’ve not mastered yet although I think I’m getting there, just need a bit more practice”. “It’s not something to try in combat until you’ve mastered it, it’s just as likely to get you killed as get you on your opponents tail”. I remarked dryly, thinking back to the first time I used the manoeuvre, it still gives me nightmares.
“It was a real dog’s dinner up there, planes were flashing in front of me so fast I couldn’t get a sense of the action although I did see a couple of the Albatrii almost collided as I came back into the fight” he continued.
“By pure good luck I managed to get a shot in at the green flash chap although I don’t think I did much damage he whizzed past so fast”.
“Martin was out on a limb though, turning in a tight circle trying to put the fire out and I saw a couple of Albi’s converging on him. I couldn’t really follow what was happening with everyone else because I was concentrating on my own duel with the green Albi. Although it did seem as if the initial formational fight was breaking up into individual combats”.
“That was my impression as well” said Montjoy, “I was watching Martin’s plane in flames as the 2 Huns closed on him but lost sight of that fight as I attacked my nemesis the chap with the blue flash, well maybe he attacked me first” he ruminated.
“As we closed on each other I realized I was firing without thinking, we were taught the theory of deflection shooting in training but all we got to fire at was ground targets and they don’t move very fast. Nor do they shoot back either” he muttered ruefully. “The Hun’s shooting was much better than mine and I was wondering if this might be my first and last mission over the trenches don’t you know”.
“I tried to out climb him, but that didn’t seem to work either as he was already doing the same to me, the only good thing was I’d managed to clear the jam by now. That’s when I saw Montague had left us to it and was flying towards Martin and the two German machines; obviously he decided Martin needed help more than we did.
That’s when I started to get mad, more at the bally blighters that had sent me to the front unprepared for this sort of fight than the Hun who was trying to kill me”.
“Martin seemed to be putting up a much better show than I was don’t you know, he’d outwitted both the Hun’s but his plane was still burning up and I wondered how long before he’d be a goner. What an awful way to go”.
“Montague was closing with them in spite of the tremendous volume of smoke coming from his Nieuport he seemed to be flying with a degree of tenacity and purpose that I’d never seen in him at school, well apart from on the cricket pitch that is, he was more focused on the willow and leather than anyone I’ve ever seen before”.
“They both must have been blinded by the flames and smoke because as Martin turned away from his opponent he closed with Montague at breakneck speed”.
“But by God’s grace they avoided each other and Montague caught one of the Albatros as it turned across his front and he poured a lethal amount of lead into it”.
“There was an explosion that lit up the sky as the German plane blew up in mid air and at the same time Montague’s plane stopped pouring out smoke. How does that happen”. I just grunted and he continued.
KILL TO BIFF
“The other plane that had been involved in that fight had obviously either taken a lot of damage or it’s pilot had bottled it and he was flying back to their side of the lines as fast as he could go.
Well it looked like Montague had saved Martin from being shot down but Martins plane must have been in a bad way because I saw that as he’d managed to extinguish the flames he also turned for home.
I don’t know the man, but from the set of his face he doesn’t look the sort to give up easily so I expect his plane must have been burned beyond redemption.”
Montjoy continued with his tale. “I was in awe of Montague’s flying, but I was busy with my fight and I’d turned back towards my opponent, I think I managed to inflict some damage on him in the next pass but it didn’t seem to deter the blighter at all”.
“We passed so close I could have spit into his cockpit but they don’t teach you to do that at Eaton don’t you know, I did wish I had my service Webley to hand because I would have shot the bugger if I could have. I think I might have done a better job with it as well”.
He must have caught my disbelieving look because he mumbled rather lamely; “I was on the school handgun team you know, old chap”.
“We must have attacked each other half a dozen times when by some miracle I could see I’d hit his engine, there was no smoke but his plane slowed quite noticeably and almost immediately he turned for home.
“We passed so close on this final pass that we touched wings but the collision didn’t seem to affect my machine much, something I’m truly grateful for”.
“Anyhow I saw Bob flying like a champion below me”; Bob blushed but immediately took up the story. “Yes - the Green flash chap was flying like an ace and I wonder if he was too good for me but as you said before, it’s better to be lucky than good and I caught him by chance, just like Mountjoy I was pretty certain I’d hit his engine”.
“I almost felt sorry for him as he turned away because I was on his tail with a certainty that I knew where he was going. Sure enough I could see his elevators move and was able to react almost as soon as his plane did”.
“My shooting is still pretty crap but time and time again I had him in my sights and must have caused some damage, even if it wasn’t enough to send him down”.
“I’ve heard the term caught like a rabbit in the headlights and it seemed to me to be a pretty poor show keeping on him like that but I’d lost all reason in the chase and was determined to knock him out of the sky”.
“So I kept after him but these Albatros are tough as a brick outhouse and he didn’t go down, even though I could see my bullets boring into him”.
“I really need to sharpen up my shooting though, because I just couldn’t knock him out of the sky”.
“Occasionally I would see the tracers fly through his plane but just as often I would be off the mark, finally though I must have hit something vital”.
“His plane lost altitude in a steep dive before hitting the ground in an uncontrolled crash.
Maybe I hit the pilot, maybe it was just too much damage inflicted on the plane, I’ve got no idea. Strange, I feel elated, even though I might have killed a man today, is that a bad thing” he asked quizzically.
“It’s why we are here” I responded, “it’s sort of you or him but it’s much more than that, you did well today, I’m proud of you, don’t dwell on it too much, it won’t help”.
KILL TO BOB
“What about you” I asked Mountjoy, he’d been quiet for an unusually long time as Bob recounted his tale.
“Well similar to Bob really I’d hit my opponent but didn’t seem to do much damage and then sort of lost him in the sky somewhere. It’s amazing that you can be so close to a plane and the next minute can’t see them for love nor money. By the time I picked up on where he was I could see Montague closing in on him. I’ll say, he flies like a demon don’t you know, I’m really pleased I was lucky enough to be posted to his flight”.
“Look” I said, “he prefers to be called Biff, I don’t think he’s been Montague since he was at school, we all know him as Biff and I think everyone’s school days are behind them now, don’t you”.
Mountjoy looked a little sheepish and continued, “Anyway as I was closing with the Albi, Biff had already opened his account with it and all I could do was try and help”.
With 2 of his flight down and the other one disappearing in the distance he was obviously bugging out and heading for home and we both closed and continued to fire into him.
As Bob says these Albi’s can soak up the damage, but not forever.
“I think one of us hit the pilot because I saw him jerk backwards in the cockpit just as he opened fire on Bob but I couldn’t swear to it. I was trying to keep out of Biff’s way and just keep shoot in the right direction, that seemed to be taking all my attention”.
“I’m pretty sure he was hit though because almost immediately his plane spiralled downwards crashing on their side of the lines. So that was 3 out of the 4 accounted for”
KILL TO ? Mountjoy was closest Biff hit the pilot, Dave can you adjudicate please.
“That seemed to be it. The black flash plane escaped and the other 3 were shot down” said Bob, “but what did you say about Berry and his Balloon, I don’t think he shot it down you know”.
“He’s not going to like that” I grinned maliciously, “what happened”?
“Well we were a long way back but I saw him making directly for the balloon, there was another plane a tandem, probably a Roland but it appeared to be flying away at the time of Berry’s attack”.
“That allowed Berry to close with the balloon and he fired all his rockets in one salvo”. “Sensible for once” I remarked.
Bob grinned and continued “He must have hit it because I saw flames leap up in the air, followed almost immediately by the Observers jumping out, both their parachutes opened and they drifted gently downwards”.
“By the way, why don’t we have parachutes in the RFC”, I just smiled and said “It’s bad for the backbone apparently”
“Oh”!
Well Bob continued, “as soon as he’d fired the rockets Berry turned for home but the Roland had cut him off from escaping so easily”.
“They almost collided as Berry ducked and dived to escape the attack but he dummied the Roland Pilot and slipped behind him. The Roland chased for a while but gave up when he was over the trenches. The tanks were directly underneath us at the time so I expect he saw them and was returning to report the sighting”.
“Anyway the balloon was wound down extremely fast by the ground crew, it was burning all the way but as soon as they got it on the ground I could see them extinguish the flames so I’m pretty sure he won’t get a kill for it”.
“He’ll be mortified”. “Yes” I replied “and he’s been buying drinks all round and talking of drinks, you, Biff and maybe Mountjoy here, are in the chair, I think that makes mine a triple”.
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for his service and victories for the Kaiser
Originally Posted by Vagabond
Remind me not to cross Nurse S.
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