Well I was tootling along looking for trouble and trouble found me said Dusty. He must have been stalking me for a while, using the clouds for cover and I was damn lucky to spot him before it was too late.
I pulled hard on the stick and kicked the rudder hard to starboard, it must have thrown him off the scent. I guess he thought I was easy meat, him getting so close without me seeing he was there.
That’s when I noticed the colour of his plane. RED. We all know who that is, and I didn’t expect to see you lot again, I can tell you.
Most of C Flight was sat round the wood burning stove in the Mess, each with our own preferred tipple before us, courtesy of Dusty Rhodes who was in the chair, as he was telling the tale of his encounter with Manfred Von Richthofen.
As I came round I thought for one wonderful minute I was going to get on his tail and put a few rounds into his plane. He started to climb and I knew then, he would Immel.
Sure enough he did and those twin Spandau’s chewed me up really good. I knew I was hit, but the adrenaline was pulsating so hard I didn’t know how badly. The wind screen had burst into a thousand pieces and I think it was a shard of glass that hit me rather than a bullet. My goggles were covered in blood and I could barely see anything.
I’m fairly certain that I hit his plane though, and when we jeered at that unlikely event Dusty looked a bit askance and repeated, I did, I’m sure of it.
I pulled my goggles off so I could see better but the wind just made my eyes water so much that it didn’t help at all. I still had blood running down my face you know and he pointed to the large bandage round his head.
He looked like some Oriental Potentate with a beige turban but we let that go, he was struggling enough to maintain the thread of his story.
I didn’t think these new Albatrii could turn very fast but he managed to turn inside my Nieupost and raked the poor old girl again. He’s pretty damn good you know.
I think that was for his benefit, not ours. We already knew MvR was pretty good.
I’ll be honest, I stuck 2 fingers up at the bas***d as we crossed. It was the best I could do, he was a far better pilot that me. I just wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I knew it as well. There was only one way out, I was going to have to run for my life and hope to make it over the lines in one piece
I managed to get a bit of a head start and his plane was no faster than mine so with a bit of luck I was going to make it.
Well, I’m here and I out ran the bugger, there’s not many can say that, so I guess it’ll have to do.
Until I meet him next time, he’ll not get the drop on me again. There was an audible sigh of disbelief around the table before Taki said, are you still in the chair and Dusty sighed and said yes and we all had another drink.
Dusty Rhodes – FRTB WIA, No Kills
Landed rolled 6+3 so didn’t crash.
C&W 5+4=9 +1 Lucky Pilot, -1 WIA = 9 Alls well when you land well.
Actual: Dusty Rhodes: RTB / WIA 0 Kills
C&W 9 +1RTB -1 WIA +1ACE = 10 - All well when you land well.
Although it’s not all’s well when you make such a mess of the opening mission. Dusty Rhodes is a lucky pilot and so could have avoided the wound and plane damage. Also using the A deck, 3+wound isn’t FRTB that’s the B deck which I’m more used to. Dohhh!
However I think if a rookie pilot came up against Manfred Von Richthofen he would try and get away with his life and think himself lucky to do so. So I’m going to stick with the game as played and hope I improve as we go along. However this is the start of my 5th campaign so maybe it’s too late to hope for any improvements.
Manfred Von Richthofen must have been having an off day.
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