C Flight C.O. Lt Montague Anstruther-Browne or Biff to C Flight wasn’t very happy, he’d been asked to confirm a report from one of the AA Gun Crews protecting the rear echelons and he wasn’t happy with the telephone call he’d just made.
^ With some trepidation he knocked on the C.O.’s office door, this was a little grander than Uncles wooden shed door but not much.
“Come” was the imperious response and he entered the room, gasped a little from the thick smog from Uncles pipe tobacco and took a seat as indicated but the intimidating presence of the C.O. “Well, what do you make of it?” Kyte demanded.
“Well perhaps if I describe it as the AA C.O. described it to me that might be best”, he responded noncommittally.
^ "It was just a routine patrol as you know sir, DuPont was leading and the two new men Martin and Mountjoy were making up the rest of the flight. They managed to get between a bomber raid returning home and their home."
^ "There were 2 Albatros C.I’s forming the bomber part of the contingent and a couple of Halberstadt’s riding shotgun. Greece-Bogg, that’s the AA commander, said the C.I’s were flying a little erratically although I wonder from his description if they might have been flying the Malachi defence. You know, the one where they turn in towards each other to confuse our scouts and then bring both rear guns to bear at the same time as they cross over."
^"Anyway Bogg says our lead pilot DuPont got in the way of his AA crew and caused them to miss by quite a margin. If you ask me he’s full of hot air, but that’s another issue."
^"Both Mountjoy and Martin had ignored the escorts and turned in to attack the Tandems as our normal practice" Kyte looked pleased with this news, but only for a second. "This left Martin open to a brown Halberstadt who was able to pump some lead in his direction without having anything being returned."
^"Bogg says that our lead plane C1, which would be DuPont, flew in an irresponsible manner and the Nieuport and both C.I’s collided in mid air, at the same time C2, Mountjoy, fired into the pile up and he’s put in a possible claim although it sounds like the collision did it, so maybe it’s DuPont’s kill, or it might be an own goal by the Huns."
KILL TO RED UNICORN but he might want to ignore it.
^"The Brown Halberstadt was still firing into Martin’s Nieuport and scoring hits, as was the C.I that had survived the collision."
^"Then to cap it all Martin and Mountjoy flew into each other but they said there was no damage done, I find that hard to believe but I’ve checked over Mountjoy’s plane and there’s no damage visible.
The surviving C.I continued to fire on Martin and looking at his plane, it’s completely chewed up, just as if it was a rubber ball and a Mastiff had been playing with it."
"This though is the worrying part of his report sir. C1, DuPont, just kept on flying away from the action and when he finally turned back it was with a long slow right hand turn, he was so far away that he was never going to get back in the action."
Kyte looked sombre.
^"The other CDL Halberstadt came in and fired on Martin but it’s not in his report so he probably didn’t even realise he’d been attacked. I think it must have been at this point he’s decided to head for home and to be fair, the state his plane was in when he landed it was his only option."
^"Bogg says they had a shot at the remaining C.I but the pilot was jinking around so much they couldn’t hit it."
^"He says that C2, Mountjoy, was damn lucky and with a glancing shot. The CDL Halberstadt just blew up in mid air. He puts it down to pure luck rather than pilot skill."
KILL TO MOUNTJOY
^"Anyway, eventually DuPont started back towards the action and Mountjoy was all over the Brown Halberstadt by all accounts. Well at least by Mountjoy’s account although he doesn’t seem to have been on target according to Bogg. At this point the remaining Albatros flew off the table."
^At this point I took over control of the Brown D.III.
Mountjoy is in an ideal tailing position but doesn’t seem to have hit the Hun at all.
^"Although he claims he hit the enemy engine and almost sent it down there’s no corroboration for that."
^"By this time even DuPont was in on the action as the D.III pilot turned hard to starboard trying to shake off his pursuers." It looks like time is running out for him.
^This is just to show the final position, the 2 Nieuports had gone straight on the last move of the turn. Home for the D.III is at the bottom of the picture, I’m interested in what you might have done. I was in two minds about this. The first mind was to turn left, straight and stall (Engine damage) or continue to turn right and get on the tail of the 2 British planes. In the end as the D.III was shot up I decided to run left, would you have done that?
^Both Nieuport’s threw the same dice and Immelled and the brown D.III turned left away from them and the AA fire missed by a mile.
When I looked at the AI result I thought, no that’s totally wrong they need to go right and cut me off from home, but if I’d carried out my original plan and turned behind them I would have been facing both planes head on and in all probability been shot down.
^The table edge is the saviour for the D.III, but for that, the Nieuport’s would have chased him down.
"Well what do you think?" Kyte asked Biff, "they’re your men."
Biff paused and thought for a minute before answering. "Morris and Mountjoy are both pretty new, Morris doesn’t seem to have too much luck,"
"You mean skill." interjected the C.O.
"It’s early days," responded Biff. "Mountjoy seems to have an aggressive spirit, even if not much luck,"
"You mean skill" interjected the C.O.
"Well he got one kill today and should have got a second, maybe he just needs to settle in."
"That’s all very well" said the C.O. "but what about DuPont?"
Biff thought back to what Henry de Lacy had said about DuPont, "Well," he finally said, "maybe we need to keep an eye on him. I’ll take that on, if it’s ok with you sir."
"You’d better keep a close eye on him, I don’t want anyone saying C Flight are a little shy in combat." said Kyte
"They won’t Sir." Biff said quietly. Then with a little more vigour, "I don’t think you should pay any attention to Boggs report, I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a blow hard and do nothing Officer before in my career in the Corps."
"Harrumph" was the response.
Vzfwbl Paul Donhauser: (P2) Blue Griffon Albatros C.III – COL-EXP-ET 0 Kills
Rolled 10 -3EXP = 7 - Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario, rolled 2 = Skip 1
E&E: Rolled 8 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 5 - In hiding! - Skip 1D2 Scenarios, rolled 3 = skip 1
Ltn Hans Brandt:(O) Blue Griffon Albatros C.III – COL-EXP-ET 0 Kills
Rolled 4 -3EXP = 1 Dead !
In the 3 way collision it was the damage from the Red Unicorn CIII that caused the explosion, not DuPont. DuPont was involved in the collision with Blue Griffon but and would almost certainly make a claim for Red Unicorn as would Mountjoy who fired at it. They would both be wrong.
Fwbl Karl Fischer: (P2) - Red Unicorn Albatros C.III – RTB 0 Kills, unless you count the Blue Griffon Albatros!
Ltn Dietrich Beer: (O) - Red Unicorn Albatros C.III – RTB 0 Kills
Ltn Hans Kuhn: Brown Halberstadt – FRTB-E – 0 Kills
Rolled 5+2 = stuck the landing.
Ltn Heinrich Müller: CDL Halberstadt - SD-EXP-ET 0 Kills
Rolled 8 -3EXP = 5 - Injured - Skip 1D3 Scenarios, rolled 2 = Skip 2
E&E: rolled 7 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 4 - Captured and escaped! - Skip 1D3 Scenarios, rolled 5 = Skip 3
S/Lt Jerome DuPont: Nieuport #C1 – RTB 0 Kills
2nd Lt Mountjoy: Nieuport #C2 – RTB 1 Kill (Müller - CDL Halberstadt)
F/Sgt Morris: Nieuport #C3 – FRTB-D 0 Kills
Rolled 3+6 = stuck the landing.
Dave I'm sorry but I've run out of time, I've had a problem uploading the game which has eaten into my time. I'm away for 2 months and wanted to get this posted before I left. I haven't had time to allocate German pilots and crew to the planes, nor to roll for the C&W or E&E. I can do this when I get internet or if you could do it I'd be really grateful. Sorry for the messing about. Cheers.
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