OTT EYM Mission 11 - Whiteout 22 Mar 1917 Hu Rhu
Ltn Dieter Roth was cold - very cold. He was at 3500m escorting the new pilot on the Staffel, Ltn Johann Kleine or ‘Kleines Johannes’ (Little John) as he was nicknamed given that he was 6’ 4” and so large he could barely fit into his cockpit, especially with all his winter clothing.
Roth had been ordered by the new Staffelfeuhrer, ObLtn Karl Ziegler, to show him the ropes but forbidden to cross the lines. “I want him back alive” were Ziegler’s direct orders.
Despite the freezing weather and heavy snow it was a good day to do this milk run as Roth was sure that the poor weather would keep the Tommies from venturing out.
Roth glanced back right to see that sure enough Kleine had again drifted off station again. “How many times did I tell him to stick like glue to me” he thought grumpily.
He was just about to turn around and collect his charge, when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two British two-seaters heading over the lines. 2Lt James Lightbody (Red stripped RE8) was also cursing the weather. He and his observer, AM 1 Thomas Bell, had taken off 20 minutes ago along with another RE8 piloted by 2Lt Ernest Capon and his observer AM3 Percy Lindup. Expecting a break in the weather, their mission was to photograph some unusual activity in the Douai area. Now the snow was getting heavier, but since they had already crossed the lines and were closer to the target than their home base, he decided to press on. ‘At least the poor weather is keeping the AA quiet and surely no Germans would be flying in this’ he thought.
Roth was reassured that despite his errant station keeping, Kleine was not completely useless as he too had spotted the British and put his nose down to intercept. Roth also increased his speed and hastened towards the enemy machines. ‘Ah well’ he thought, ‘We were told not to cross the lines but since the enemy is coming to us, why not blood the pup’. As they closed with the RE8s, it was clear that they had not been spotted but with the driving snow it was not surprising. However as the snow masked their approach, it also prevented both Albatros from shooting at long range due to the inability to get a good bead on the enemy.
As the two Albatrii closed in, a sixth sense caused Lightbody to look up and he saw the enemy loom out of the clouds and he instinctively opened fire, sadly without hitting anything. Not so the two Albatros as both Roth and Kleine hit the RE8 with heavy fire at short range leaving the machine trailing smoke. AM3 Lindup couldn’t get a shot away due to the snow flurries.
As they passed the enemy, the two Germans circled back. The inexperienced Kleine, was uncomfortable with executing an Immelmann turn and circled wide, whilst the more experienced Roth cut a shorter circle in an attempt to line up Capon’s RE8. He also managed to cut through Lightbody’s blind spot preventing Bell from firing.
Capon carried on towards the target as Roth was catching up but the snow prevented firing at long range.
Finally as the two Albatros were about to converge on their enemy, a heavier than usual snow flurry came down and they lost sight of their quarry completely. Taking advantage of this the two RE8 slipped away to photograph their target.
A couple of minutes later, the snow had eased but there was no sight of the British planes, so Roth motioned to Kleine to continue their patrol. ‘Well at least he got to fire his guns’ he thought.
20 minutes later, Roth had had enough and signalled to his wingman to start heading back to the Aerodrome. No sooner had they turned back East, they saw the same two RE8 returning towards their own lines.
Roth closed quickly on the two machines, but again driving snow made shooting at long range impossible. Kleine lagged a little behind his flight leader.
As Roth closed the gap, AM1 Bell fired but missed. In return Roth pumped lead into the RE8, damaging it badly and had the satisfaction of seeing the pilot slump in his cockpit.
Lightbody had taken a wound to the shoulder, which made him lose temporary control over the RE8 and it yawed left. Luckily this took him out of the arc of fire of both Albatros. Roth instead closed on the other RE8, piloted by Capon but again snow prevented long range shooting.
Capon also jinked away from Roth, who assumed that both two-seaters would make a run for the lines and in the event was not in a position to attack either machine.
Instead, he switched back to follow Lightbody’s damaged RE8.
Capon was now separated from the main action and could do nothing to support his wingman, so put his nose down and headed for the barn. Meanwhile Lightbody was doing his best to avoid the attentions of the two Albatros who were now focussed on him.
As he turned back towards his own lines, the two Albatros closed in with Roth in front and Kleine a little way back. As luck would have it, the snow eased off suddenly, leaving Lightbody at their mercy. Bell was firing frantically at Roth’s Albatros, scoring some light damage but Roth was relentless. He fired a long burst at long range and saw the RE8 explode in front of him and plummet to the ground.
Kill to Roth.
Looking up Roth saw that the other aircraft was too far away to catch and just crossing over the lines, so he signalled Kleine to return home. ‘I wonder what they were doing over the lines in such appalling weather. Perhaps they were lost.
What he didn’t know was that the two planes had been photographing the build up of reserves that were meant to counter the forthcoming British attack. I rolled a 4 which meant that it was Lightbody’s aircraft that had taken the photographs and by shooting him down, Roth had just saved hundreds of German lives.
Butchers Tally
Adlers
Ltn Dieter Roth: Albatros D.III (White-tail): RTB / 1 Kill (Lightbody)
Ltn Johan Kleine: Albatros D.III (Black-tail): RTB / 0 kills
Bulldogs
2Lt James Lightbody: (P2) RE8 (Red Stripes): SD-EXP-ET / WIA / 0 Kills
C&W Rolled 7-3EXP -1WIA = 3 - Injured - skip D6 scenarios, rolled 5 = Skip 5
E&E Rolled 2 -1EXP -1WIA -1WIC -1BEL = -2 - Captured ! The war is over for this pilot
AM1 Thomas Bell: (O) RE8 (Red Stripes): SD-EXP-ET / 0 Kills
C&W: Rolled 8 -3EXP = 5 - Injured - skip 1D3 scenarios, rolled 1 = Skip
E&E: Rolled 4 -1EXP -1WIC = 2 - Captured ! The war is over for this airman.
2Lt Ernest Capon: (P2) - RE8 (White Stripe): RTB - 0 kills
AM3 Percy Lindup: (O)- RE8 (White Stripe): RTB - 0 kills
Victory Points
Photograph plane shot down – Victory to the Adlers.
Apologies for the poor pictures. With the white sheet and clouds and poor lighting I just couldn't get them right.
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Originally Posted by Hu Rhu
I'll be back 
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