OTT-BYM Mission 8: A thorn in the side - Redan Ridge - 27 Nov 1916 by ShadowDragon
OTT-BYM Mission 8: A thorn in the side - Redan Ridge - 27 Nov 1916 by ShadowDragon
Original scenario by Baz:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...ov-1916-by-Baz
Notes: All planes were at altitude 2 – rolled at random. I played altitude but no plane ended up changing altitude. All photos have the turn indicated in the top left corner in the format turn_#.phase_#. I made a couple of mistakes with respect to bombing and eliminating the British infantry card which I’ve worked into the story. The mistakes didn’t change the outcome. Entry locations were random as were the selection of targets to attack – although I’ve worked that into the story as if planned. I played Jack’s plane but helped the bombers on both sides line up with their targets.
Further note: I missed the rifle fire which should have been 2 cards by the south AAMG and 9 by the north one. The south one got an engine hit on the PC10 Strutter which would then have turned about to head home on turn 5. As it turned out that was the last turn it had any real effect on play. For the north one they would have had 9 cards on the CDL Strutter - the draw yielded 2 rudder hits in opposite directions in different turns. That would have changed some of the manoeuvring of the Strutter but I expect not the outcome.
Story
Bruce Dundee and Jack Wilde looked on while Baz investigated the damage to one of their little airline’s planes.
Jack cocked and eyebrow, “So how bad is it?”
Baz stepped back from his inspection and sighed, “Bad enough. It’ll be a few quid for sure, but the bad news is we’ll need parts from the States. So the old girl’s going to be out of action for a bit. That was a bit of a rough landing, Bruce.”
“Couldn’t help it. Gust of a cross-wind.”
“Bah!”, said Jack. “You just never learned to fly right in the first place – crashing about here and there.”
“You’re just jealous I nipped both ace and double-ace ahead of you.”
“Only by your bad flying.”
“Not my fault if you never learned to shoot straight.”
*Fade to the briefing room at an aerodrome on the Western Front, November 1916. More properly it was the Naval Air Station of the RNAS X Squadron.
In the room, seated in the front row, are a much younger Bruce and Jack, flight sub-lieutenants (FSL) along with Lieutenant Teddy Mahan “on loan” from the USN. In the back are Air Mechanic Joseph Darwin and Petty Officer James Haviland. Flight commanders Nigel Flashman and Robert Samson are at the front briefing them – the former is the leader of the scout flight and the latter of the tandem flight. Robert starts the briefing.
“It seems some of the lads on the ground are surrounded – a place called Redan Ridge. A rescue mission is being planned but we need to let our chaps know. Teddy and James will take their Strutter in first to drop the message but to provide some more tangible help there are a couple of MG nests here and here, “ says Robert, pointing to the map on the wall. “After dropping the message, Teddy and James will fly to the northern one to take it out. Meanwhile Joseph and I will come in to take out the southern one. Bruce and Jack will also come in at the point to keep the Hun off the Strutters or to help out with shooting up their MG. Simple enough. Lets go to it, lads.”
*Fade to a German aerodrome across the lines.
“Herr Leutnant, I made a special arrangement so that you can drop all the bombs at once. No need to circle around for a second drop.”
“Good. This will help our boys eliminate the Tommy thorn in their side.”
*Fade to the Western Front over Redan Ridge.
Teddy pilots his Strutter towards the German trench line. The Strutter has approached the front a little bit to the south of where the Tommies are holding out. Teddy will have to shimmy the Strutter over to get a decent approach on the infantry position so that James has a decent chance of a successful drop.
“If only they could figure out a way for these planes to turn at other angles than 60 degrees”, thought Teddy as he lined up on the infantry position.
“Bingo!” shouted James as the message bag dropped square on the infantrymen’s position. He tapped Teddy on the shoulder and give him the thumbs up.
“Bloody hell!” exclaimed the Tommy OIC. “Just a message – ‘Coming Tomorrow’ – no ammo, food, water or medical supplies! Are the chaps in HQ are having morbid joke on us.”
With the successful drop, Teddy turned the Strutter towards the northern AAMG – all according to plan (or, if one prefers, by the roll of a die).
More help was on the way – Robert’s Strutter flanked by the two Pups. They were heading for the southern AAMG.
The Sea Dogs weren’t alone in the skies. An Albatros C.III, escorted for two of the deadly, dual MG Albatros D.II. The C.III was headed for the Tommies with a full load of bombs while Siegried’s D.II headed for Teddy’s Strutter and Hans decided to take on the rest of the British planes.
The CDL Strutter approached the Hun AAMG wide and from the east. Teddy hoped, that if the AA emplacement had a restricted field of fire the east side would be the safest. They were in luck, as the game within range there was no fire from the AAMG. Teddy smiled as he pulled the trigger on the Vicker – and then – nothing – a jam. Maybe James would have better luck as the Strutter flew past the AAMG. (Rifle fire misses.)
The Lewis didn’t fail James; he was on target, but the AAMG emplacement was well protected from the north side and the damage was minimal. (Rifle fire misses.)
To the south the other X Squadron boys approached the southern AAMG. Both Robert and Jack were within range to strafe the Hun to some effect but the Hun return fire was better. (Rifle fire scores an engine hit on the Strutter - not shown.)
As the two British planes past over the their strafing continued. Robert had the Huns range and did deadly damage – silencing the AAMG; and, Jack, well, he missed. (Rifle fire misses.)
[Bruce: Of course, you missed, Jack – can’t shoot worth a darn.]
Meanwhile, James continued hammering at the well protected northern AAMG. (Rifle fire scores a left turn rudder hit - it wasn't taken into account in the move cards as discussed, but the Strutter could have done an Immelmann in turn 5 and probably ending to the south of the AAMG engaging Siegried's D.II.)
No sooner had the X Squadron planes silenced the southern AAMG when Hans Bauer with his red-tailed Albatros D.II was on them. Hans targeted the Strutter as his priority doing a fair bit of damage to the Strutter’s rudder controls. Robert and Jack even the score – well, it was mostly Robert.
[Bruce: What did I tell? – can’t shoot.\
By this time Bruce had spotted the C.III headed for the infantrymen’s position. Both he and the C.III opened up at long range. [Bruce used his sniper skill to avoid a ‘0 damage – jam’ card; damage would have been nice but avoiding a jam is good too.]
Using the Pup’s superior turning ability, Bruce pounced on the C.III firing at close range while the C.III was unable to return fire.
[Bruce: A perfect approach, if I may say so.]
[Jack: Even the worst flyer gets a lucky break, eh? – Jack’s Albertan drawl suddenly be more noticeable than usual.]
To the north, Siegried at finally intercepted the CDL strutter. He and Teddy exchanged fire – more as giving the enemy notice of recognition then anything else.
Back to the south, the enemies had flown past each other – allowing Joseph a departing shot for which he was rewarded with a flicker of flames from the D.II. [Note: the Strutter should not have turned as it had rudder damage preventing a left turn. Fortunately, it made no difference at all – not even to the Strutter’s relative position in the battle. Forgetting the rudder damage when using the AI charts is one of my more frequent errors.]
Both Hans and Jack had started an Immelmann turn, but Jack was quicker and got a long range shot on the D.II. Something vital was hit and the D.II exploded.
[Jack: Who says I can’t shoot?]
[Bruce: Didn’t you just say everyone gets lucky sometime, hmmm? That was rightly a kill for Robert and Joseph. They did the hard work and it would have gone done in flames without your lucky shot – note: Jack’s lucky skill was not used.]
[Jack: A kill’s a kill no matter how you get as you should know….but we’re coming to that.]
Further north there was all kinds of chaos. Siegried and the CDL Strutter nudged each other in a collision as Siegried tried to get in close for a good shot and Teddy focussed on circling the AAMG. Even Bruce got in on the act with a long range opportunity shot. However, it was the Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) that had the worst of it. German ingenuity had succeeded. Alois was able to drop all four of his bombs at once – right on target. [Note: I forgot that 4 bombs only removed 40 of 50 points, so I took away the infantry card after the hit since I have a habit of leaning on the mat with may hands and subsequently picking up cards here and there. So I like to remove cards not needed. Also, the C.III could have fired it’s forward firing MG but getting to drop four bombs at once more than compensated that. Some day I’ll get the rules figured out right!] The last conscious thought of the infantry OIC…bandages, they could easily have dropped bandages….bloody twits.
The chaos continued with the C.III observer (another Hans) fired a parting shot at Bruce – as did James at Siegried and was rewarded with rudder damage on the D.II. The effect of that was more than the damage as will be seen. It prevented the D.II from circling the AAMG to meet the Strutter on the north side – and worse Siegried was forced to do an Immelmann turn which ended up with the D.II closer to the RNAS Pups that were approaching from the south.] (Rifle fire misses.)
Bruce suddenly remembered the C.III – perhaps the smoke from his Pup from the damage done by the C.III’s observer helped. The Pup turned smartly so Bruce could return fire. (Rifle fire misses the CDL Strutter.)
[Jack: And another bad habit of yours – forgetting priorities.]
As you can see from this overview – Teddy and James in their CDL Strutter continue to circle the northern AAMG. The C.III dekes out Bruce by turning right while Bruce continues turning left. The other X Squadron boys are off to the south and so far out of the action.
[Baz: Deke out??? What’s that?]
[Jack: A hockey term – a deceptive move that gets an opponent out of position.]
[Bruce: Don’t get him started on hocky – it’s like Gaelic hurling but on ice with razor sharp skates and where players fire frozen cow turds at 100 mile an hour at the head of some poor guy using his body to block the turd from getting into a net. It’s a blood sport.]
Teddy had an opportunity to fire at Siegried but missed as Siegried’s completed his Immelmann turn. (Rifle fire scores a right rudder turn hit - no effect on the move cards.)
Chaos returned as now the C.III and Jack became embroiled in the dog fight around the norther AAMG emplacement. (Rifle fire misses.)
[Bruce: And don’t forget that Jack missed again.]
The two enemy tandems close in – flying almost as if they were a precision flying team – close enough that the observers could have thrown rocks at each other – or frozen cow turds if it were the frozen Canadian prairie – as it would be in late November. But James chose to use his Lewis instead – inflicting great damage on the C.III which spiralled down towards the Hun trenches but the Hun return fire had set the CDL Strutter on fire – the Strutter was beginning to accumulate a fair bit of damage. (Rifle fire misses.)
[Jack: I had that C.III and if James hadn’t shot it down I would have taken it down.]
[Bruce: So you say, Jack, but we’ll never know. Well, actually we do…you would have missed, hmmm?]
With another Immelmann, Siegried was back in the fight – firing on the Strutter with the two Americans. Jack was there to intercept – doing enough damage to draw Siegried’s attention. (Rifle fire misses.)
[Bruce: Okay. I’ll give you that one as a fair shot.]
[Jack only cocked an eyebrow.]
Despite continuing to turn the CDL Strutter the fire persisted – slowly eating away the plane’s fabric.
As Jack’s Pup went into a split-S to get back into the fight as quickly as possible, Siegried and Bruce were exchanging fire; and, despite the fire, James put the AAMG out of action. Now they could head home and see if Teddy could put that fire out with some decent flying. (Rifle fire misses.)
With another Immelmann, Siegried surprised Bruce and the two planes collided. Both fluttered down into No Man’s Land – leaving Jack, and by this time Robert, to fire into empty space.
[Jack: That would have been my kill if not for your tremendous flying skill. That day would have been a hat trick for me if I had credit for the C.III and that D.II.]
[Baz: Hat trick???]
[Bruce: More hocky…he means he would have had three kills.]
[Baz: Weill, why not just say that.]
[Bruce: Canadians, what can I say….it’s always hockey, hockey, hockey…]
[Jack: I could have lived with that but you walked away with nary a scratch – well, sorry, enough of a scratch so you could justify going back to visit that nurse.]
[Bruce: I still made both 5 and 10 kills before you.]
[Jack: Be that as it may, we’re still going to discuss taking the costs of the repair job out of your profits. Neither Baz nor I should have to pay for your great flying skills.]
[Bruce: Hey!]
[Jack: Aw! Just razzing you, Bruce. It’s been warm today. How about a pint?]
Let’s not leave our two Americans in the air with their plane on fire. The fire died out without much more damage and they arrived safely back at the naval station where they could celebrate their “victory” – although the PBI probably would have had other choice words than “victory”.
Scenario Results
Sea Dog Score
Men in the Trench = 50 pts - 4 X 10 pts for 4 bombs = 10 pts
AAMG Destroyed = 2 X 5 pts = 10 pts
Planes shot down = 3 X 10 pts = 30 pts
No planes FRTB
Successful bag/message dropped = 10 pts
Bomber was not shot down before the bombs were dropped
Total = 60 points
Adler Score
Planes shot down = 1 X 10 pts = 10 pts
1 plane FRTB = 1 x 5 pts = 5 pts
Successful bag/message = 0 pts
40 pts taken off "Men in the Trench" = 15 pts
Total = 30 points
Sea Dog Victory
That was a satisfying game without a lot of special damage cards swaying the game one way or another. There was just one boom card, but it would still have been one Albatros D.II versus the Pup with a lucky ace and the Strutter. The AI charts also seemed to work very well – e.g., Bruce’s Pup getting that close in shot on the C.III. A good scenario that was enjoyable to play.
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for his tenth victory for King & Country 
He is also awarded the Légion d'Honneur 
Originally Posted by flash
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