“Thought you gave up” challenged 2nd Lt Dubh Beard, as he entered Uncle’s tiny shed of an office, which at that moment was full of the aroma from Uncle’s aromatic tobacco smoke.
“I did, then I didn’t” replied the recording officer for 52 Squadron, RFC. “Too many sleepless nights and too bloody cold. Need something to keep me cheerful!”
“Right enough, Uncle. You have a good point there! You sent for me?”
“Correct Dubh, I did! Despite the wind, rain and snow, the bomber boys have been active again. They sent a few of their crews over towards Metz en Couture yesterday, to drop a few eggs on some artillery positions that Mick Taker spotted last week before his little accident. So now they want confirmation of their success.”
“And you want me to go take a look, is that right?”
“Spot on you clever Irishman you. I know, there’s a lot of cloud about and your chances of seeing much are fairly slim. But give it a go. You never know your luck! Oh and I don’t need to remind you, do I, that there’s still a bit of activity up there, despite the weather conditions? Got a message through from a friend of mine in 3 Naval, claiming one of their chaps downed an Albatros in the area a couple of days back, and as you know, Mick Taker is still recovering from his meeting with one last week. Don’t want you joining him on the sick list!”
“Certainly not, Uncle. I shall be very careful, don’t you worry. Perhaps you could provide a little support to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
“Nobody else available right now, Dubh. Sorry!”
“Ah well” muttered the Irishman. “Nothing unusual there then!” And he departed, leaving the relative warmth of the shed for the cold of the air outside. It was a very cold winter and some of the snow from last week’s heavy fall, was still evident.
A short while later, Dubh discovered that Uncle was quite correct. There was a lot of cloud about, but it was moving pretty quickly, gliding gracefully, like rolly polly bundles of cotton wool, steadily towards the east. He knew his objectives were down there somewhere, but he couldn’t spot a thing right now. What with the whiteness of the snow laden clouds and a sprinkling of their recent deposits already covering the ground below, he was going to have a really hard time achieving this mission successfully.
Scanning the area intently, he also failed to notice something blue approaching on his starboard beam, from the south.
Nor did he have any clues about the presence, in the area, of two more enemy aircraft; one to the north and one quite some way further to the east. This really was going to be a tough call.
We shall come back later to the Albatros DIII, patrolling from south to north, not far from the village of Metz en Couture, as the pilot of this aircraft remained oblivious to what happened over the next few minutes, until news of it reached his ears back at his barn that same evening.
For the moment, therefore, we shall focus on our little Sopwith Pup, currently in the competent hands of 2nd Lt Dubh Beard, from Waterford in Ireland, and the approaching sky blue Albatros DIII, piloted by the, not much less, very capable hands of Ltn Theodor Ehmann, of Jasta 24. The latter was under orders to patrol the area and “destroy” any enemy aircraft in the unlikely event they were stupid enough to return to yesterdays bombing location, given the weather conditions prevailing at that moment.
Ltn Ehmann was keen to add more to his short list of one confirmed “kill”, so the moment he caught sight of the Sopwith scout he made a beeline for it. Unfortunately, from his point of view, he was hampered by the clouds into which his prey slipped in the blink of an eye.
He had to guess at the exit point from which the Sopwith would emerge and as it so happened, he got it slightly wrong, partly because he misjudged the speed of the moving cloud cover and partly because he didn’t allow for his opponent becoming a little disorientated whilst in the same cloud bank.
And it was lucky for Beard that he did, accidentally veer to his starboard somewhat, otherwise he might not have spotted the blue Albatros in time.
As he emerged from the first cloud bank that he encountered, he immediately spotted Ehmann’s mount on his right and instinctively turned sharp left towards the next cloud bank. Ehmann was on his tail, but as yet just a little out of range. Either that or he hadn’t picked up the Pup quickly enough because of the clouds. Either way, Beard cringed, expecting a hail of bullets to rip through his Pup and himself at any second. But that didn’t happen. For now he was a lucky boy.
It was time to do something different and try to turn the tables on this audacious enemy, the one that had almost caught him napping. Given that the best form of defence is attack, he changed his mind about entering the next bank of clouds and flipped his machine about in a 180 degree turn, that brought him face to face with the Albatros.
Both pilots opened fire at the same moment at very short range. Gritting his teeth, Beard felt the controls go a bit slack at this time, as bullets viciously slammed into the Pup, damaging his left rudder controls. But then he looked up and the Albatros had gone. He just had time to look down and see the blue bird spiralling towards the ground, smoke pouring from the engine which had been hit and partially exploded.
But he had no time to celebrate. Swinging hard right (Ace skill “Acrobatic Pilot” played) to continue his search for the effects of yesterday’s bombing, he now saw a second enemy aircraft, at the same time as it had obviously just spotted him.
The chase was on, but Beard needed just a few seconds to use that mallet he carried, on the advice of a friend and colleague, to smash away at the rudder controls in order to free the jammed mechanism.
In short order, the pilot of this second Albatros, Ltn Otto Gerbil, closed him down and opened fire at long range (two cards drawn as Gerbil used his ace skill “Sharp Eye”), just as Beard unjammed his controls and again, flipped his machine around to face his enemy. He then too opened fire.
He could have sworn that he saw the pilot almost leap out of his seat. “Must have hit him!” he thought to himself. But now he realised that his Pup was in a bad way, with wires slack, fabric flapping and obvious signs of damage to spars. It was time to abandon the mission.
Uncle was going to be disappointed and the bomber boys would probably moan like hell. But there was no point in risking his life further in a bus that was falling apart. He looked back over his right shoulder as he was crossing the trenches below, with their awful barbed wire defences. In the distance he could still see the second Albatros flying north. Had he got that one or had it escaped? He’d have to claim it as a probable. A “forced down”.
Ltn Otto Gerbil’s thoughts were similar. He was in a bit of pain, but he didn’t think the wound to his shoulder was that serious. Too much blood spilled to want to hang around and finish off the Britisher, but he was pretty convinced he had done a great deal of damage to the Sopwith scout. He would report that as a probable. A “forced down”.
And so, last but not least, we can return to the third Albatros, a DIII, which was also out on patrol that day. It’s pilot, ObLtn Erich Wedel, remained completely ignorant of the events that had just taken place a short distance to the west, beyond a large bank of clouds. For him his day was serene for a change. It was rare for him to be able to fly up and down, just above the clouds and in the sunshine. Bitterly cold it might be, but up here it still felt really good to be alive, in such peaceful surroundings.
Whilst beneath him lay the burnt out remains of one of his own sides artillery positions – completely destroyed!
The end.
Butcher’s Tally
Entente
2Lt Dubh Beard: - Sopwith Pup/ FRTB-D 1 Kill; 1 probable FRTB-W
FRTB Rolled 1+1 = crashed.
C/W Rolled 12 +1ACE +1RTB -1FRTB = 13 - All well when you land well...
Central Powers
ObLtn Erich Wedel: - Albatros DIII (Yellow) - RTB 0 Kills
Ltn Otto Gerbil: - Albatros DII (Green) - FRTB-W / WIA 0 kills; 1 probable FRTB-D
FRTB Rolled 2+2 = Crashed.
C/W Rolled 8 +1RTB -1FRTB -1WIA = 7 - Injured Skip 1D2 scenarios; Rolled 4 = Skip 2
Ltn Theodore Ehmann: - Albatros DIII (Blue) - EXP-FT 0 kills
Rolled 12 -3 EXP = 9 – All well when you land well (if somewhat annoyed)
Notes:
Thanks John, a very enjoyable mission. Re movement – I used wool for the clouds, placed loosely on plywood bases that I already had and decided that they would all move at the same speed.
Minor difficulties were experienced at turn changeover points, when clouds moved and aircraft, on them, hadn’t yet done so. Otherwise all went pretty smoothly. My clouds were perhaps a little too large and too numerous for my pilot ever to stand much chance of spotting the bombed target areas, but then that’s probably pretty realistic.
I applied your idea, of a pilot possibly becoming disorientated in clouds, to both sides, but I ignored the aircraft being “in the clouds” unless the whole “aircraft base” was on the “cloud base” at the time. Given the size and number of clouds I used I had to do this otherwise there would have been little action at all. It meant that only once did the Pup veer from its intended course and only once did the Albatros DIII (Yellow) do the same and that at the end of the mission, when everything was pretty much done and dusted.
I continue to get an unusual run of dice throws! Explosion drawn on second card. Mostly high value damage cards following that and at least three doubles thrown during the Butcher’s Tally calculations (including 2 double sixes). Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. Made for a mission that only took five turns so, I have to say, that made me happy
Mission failed, but Beard did get 1 kill and a “Probable”, whilst Gerbil also got a “Probable”. I’ll settle for that.
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