OTT-FYM - Mission 2 - Close Air Support - 12th April 1917 – by Mikeemagnus
“Gott im himmel. There is a war on and you want us to babysit a house full staff officers whose only roll is to make plans which end up killing our own men!”
“Easy, sir” said Ltn Ehmann. “It’ll only make things worse for us!”
ObLtn Erich Wedel, commanding a flight known as the Kaiser’s Eagles, in Jasta 24, simply growled and stomped off angrily.
“He’s under a lot of pressure, sir” said Ehmann, this time to the senior staff officer covered in decorations, sitting at a plush looking desk, in an upper room of the small châteaulin he had commandeered for himself and the rest of his men, a few kilometres east of the front line.
The senior officer looked at Ehmann coldly, raised a glass of Merlot to his lips and sipped it very carefully. Then he drew smoke from his cigar deeply into his lungs before exhaling directly towards Ehmann’s face.
“He has his orders Leutnant Ehmann. Now get out. And remind that insubordinate son of a bitch that if he lets any of the Britishers past our protective balloon barrage I’ll have him removed and sent back to the trenches. Now, raus!”
Ehmann saluted smartly, turned on his heels and left. He found ObLtn Erich Wedel outside in the garden, smoking a cigarette and pacing, angrily, to and fro on the neatly cut grass.
“I don’t think he liked me very much Theodore!” said Wedel.
“On that we can agree Erich. Time to go, I think”
The two of them climbed into a lorry that was standing by for the return trip to their airfield. As they sat there, bouncing around atop the rut strewn road, they talked about their latest orders and the threat that went with them. The orders that Wedel had objected to so strongly. They had been assigned the task of protecting this pleasant châteaulin from aerial attack, by patrolling up and down, in a line running north to south, less than two kilometres inside a line of balloons with barrage netting strung between them in addition to two anti aircraft positions placed either side of the building. Why that much security was required was a mystery, and to both men it appeared rather excessive, given the situation in and around Arras at that time. The Allies were attacking in force and it was obvious that there were far more important tasks, right now, for the limited number of aircraft available to the Luftstreitkrafte in that sector of the front. Besides, that much security was bound to act like a beacon to the enemy so why bother with any of it?
Uncle, the recording officer for 52 Sqn RFC, known to all as the Bulldogs, sat there, puffing away on his favourite briar, as always. He was reflecting, thoughtfully, on the latest piece of information that had filtered through from head office and he was about to respond by ordering an attack by his lads, escorting a single bomber, in the form of an Armstrong Whitworth FK8, against a somewhat unusual target. Reconnaissance had identified the sudden appearance of strong defences around an otherwise harmless looking châteaulin a few kilometres behind the German front line trenches, but not far enough behind to indicate a really important target. And yet the defences comprised several AA positions and a half mile long string of balloons hung between with fearsome looking barrage nets. Why it was so strongly defended was what Uncle was brooding over. But his was not to reason why, his was but to order others to do or die!
“Mick. This one’s for you I think” said Uncle between clouds of aromatic pipe tobacco smoke. “ Balloons, barrage netting and AA positions! I need experienced pilots for this one. HQ appear to believe it to be a target of great importance.”
“Oh, thanks Uncle” replied Mick rather sardonically. “Delightful. Very kind of you to think of me in that way!”.
Lt Mick E Taker was normally a very cheerful, positive, soul. A good leader in fact. But today he appeared to have got out of the wrong side of his bed. Probably having drunk too much whisky the previous night on account of the continuous stream of bad news coming in, on a daily basis, reminding everyone that, right now, the Luftstreitkrafte definitely had the upper hand in the war in the air, with far better aircraft and a rather deadly bunch of pilots in the form of one Manfred von Richthofen et al. Losses amongst the pilots and observers of the RFC, were mounting at an alarming rate, because the crates they were being asked to go up in (mostly BE types and too many pushers) were out of date and unsuitable for the tasks in hand. That said, the Bulldogs were equipped with Sopwith Pups. A great little aircraft if you flew high enough, but somewhat under strength in the gun department, compared with the opposition’s Albatros types.
“Stow it, Mick, if you please” Uncle said quietly, “Its a job to be done and that’s an end to it. Its a difficult time for us all but its a job worth doing and one we can all be proud of under the circumstances.
“Right then. You’ll be flying a Nieuport on this occasion, because its all we have that can be armed with rockets. Take Dubh along with you and Simon too. Dubh’s Pup will carry incendiaries. No need to remind him of the Hague convention rules. Make certain he’s carrying his blue card in case anything goes wrong. Simon will carry the normal rounds. You and Dubh fly ahead and try to bring down enough of the balloon defences to allow Simon through. He’ll be the escort for a Big Ack that will attempt to destroy the châteaulin with a couple of bomb loads.”
“Got it” replied Mick, “And apologies for being a miserable git this morning – got a bit on my mind!”.
Uncle just smiled back knowingly.
Later, that same morning, Lt Mick Taker, in his rocket armed Nieuport, and his wing man 2nd Lt Dubh Beard, flying a Pup, on his port side, were approaching the line of barrage balloons that had been accurately described for them by their information officer. They could see the châteaulin, a relatively small red brick building, in the distance, nestled behind a thin screen of wire that swayed menacingly in the gentle westerly breeze that seemed to be ever pushing them, unwillingly towards it.
Mick checked his altitude compared with that of the barrage ahead and signalled Dubh to climb a little, before both of them opened fire. Mick let rip with everything he had in the way of rockets. No messing about. He just wanted to get rid of them all and ensure his best chance of bringing down at least one of the balloons. Eight streams of rocket smoke twirled their erratic paths in what seemed to be the correct general direction, at the same time as a line of incendiary bullets could be seen, along side the smoke trails, heading far more directly towards the same target.
The effect of the incendiary bullets from Beard’s machine gun were almost instantaneous. Smoke and a fierce thin stream of fire gushed from the top of the balloon, followed an instant later by splashes of bright explosions rippling along the rear flank of the balloon as some of the rockets, but not all, hit home.
Mick was sad to see that at least half of the rockets had crazily twisted off line and missed even that enormous target by a good margin. Dubh Beard, on the other hand, had no time at all to reflect on the accuracy of his shooting because almost directly ahead an enemy aircraft was swooping over the barrage net, intent on his destruction. Only the fact that both he and his enemy found it necessary to avoid the wires dangling before them saved Beard. The enemy pilot, one Vzfwbl Georg Wenelmuth (although Dubh obviously had no way of knowing his name), remembered the wire was there at the last minute, climbed to avoid it and so passed his enemy in the Sopwith without getting a shot in. He was very put out by this. But the damage was done. The balloon was doomed. Punctured with many holes, emitting flames and belching dark smoke from along its length, everyone knew that the balloon was going down. But how quickly? Hopefully soon enough to drop to earth before the arrival of the bombing team.
Lt Taker and 2nd Lt Beard climbed over the beast that was the stricken balloon and turned sharply to port, directing their attention towards a second balloon. At the same time, three more enemy aircraft appeared seemingly from nowhere, hurtling towards them from beyond a line of trees to the east, but still a fair distance away.
The two RFC pilots ignored the enemy aircraft, Taker firing his machine gun, for good measure, at the already flaming balloon; Beard firing another burst of incendiaries towards the other balloon, but without any sign of damage being done whatsoever.
Now the deadly game of cat and mouse began. Taker’s Nieuport was grazed by 8mm ammunition from the Schwarzlose mgs aboard a yellow Albatros DIII, at the same time as he fired another burst, this time at a large brown balloon that floated ahead of him. Dubh Beard hopped over the wire meanwhile, noticing the lack of AA fire. The gunners below were furious of course, because the action was all taking place far too close to their own balloons for them to risk a shot. But their turn would come if they were patient!
Vzfwbl Wenelmuth, in his green Albatros, circled left, keeping wide of the stricken Parceval Siegfried “sausage” in case it exploded, as it was likely to do at any moment, given the rate at which its fires were raging. But his colleagues now closed on the Nieuport, seeking vengeance as it, in turn, together with the Sopwith, riddled the brown balloon with more holes. Still no fire appeared on this stubborn gas bag.
Then the three new Albatros scout pilots saw a greater threat. Approaching from the west they could see a larger aircraft heading for its target. ObLtn Wedel in his red DIII remembered the threat - “...remind that insubordinate son of a bitch that if he lets any of the Britishers past our protective balloon barrage I’ll have him removed and sent back to the trenches”.
He signalled his flight to attack the oncoming tandem with its escorting Pup whilst he himself concentrated on the two “Tommies” attacking the balloons, one of whom had now successfully caused a fire on the second, brown, balloon.
“Mein Gott” he thought “they will crucify me!”
This was the point when the Grey Parceval gave up the ghost, falling ignominiously to the ground in a shower of flames, sparks and smoke to writhe in its death throes for just a few minutes more before lying lifeless in its scorched graveyard, to protect the air no more.
Neither were the remaining members of Wedel’s flight having a great deal of success. Ltn Theodore Ehmann attacked the Big Ack but missed completely, whilst Ltn Johannes Schmidt in a yellow DIII attacked the escorting Sopwith, admittedly doing some damage. Neither of the two Britishers were successful with their return fire. A small success after all!
The next few seconds could only be described as disastrous for the “Eagles” as these Germans were known. Firstly, the experienced AM1 William Conker, the observer in the tandem piloted by Lt Harold Isore, aimed pretty much perfectly, given his training and long term experience, to find his mark with excellent effect, from his point of view, on the blue Albatros of Ehmann. Smoke immediately issued forth from Ehmann’s engine which had undoubtedly been seriously damaged. Already committed to an “Immelmann” turn, he would never the less be obliged to head for home before his engine gave out all together! So he completed his turn, exacted revenge on William Conker personally, receiving more bullets from the latter at the same moment, before finding himself the target of that bloody Nieuport that he’d failed to notice flying in from his port side. Boom – his day was over as his Albatros spiralled earthwards. He struggled valiantly with the controls and made a half decent pancake landing in a field. But the violence of this resulted in injuries sustained that would keep him out of contention for at least a few months.
Secondly, the Sopwith escort, flown by 2nd Lt Simon Hawker, had also turned through 180 degrees and opened up on the tail of Schmidt’s yellow DIII, causing a fire to break out. It is possible that this would have led to the DIII’s immediate destruction had not Hawker fired again only to experience a gun jam; Hawker’s resulting language is unworthy of recording in print. Despite that, whilst poor Ehmann was hitting the ground behind his own trenches, Schmidt’s yellow peril continued to burn, not so merrily, he would say.
And the brown balloon burned fiercely too at this stage. The barrage netting was partially down, therefore allowing Lt Harold Isore a free run in to the target châteaulin. Well, not exactly free! He was ambushed unsuccessfully by Wenelmuth, who by this time had come full circle to attack the Tommy Tandem from the north; and the Big Ack was also set upon by the gleeful AA crews who both opened fire at the same time. One of them missed completely, but not so the other!
So while Simon Hawker in his Sopwith chased Schmidt in his flaming yellow peril and while the brown balloon continued to burn, if not quite so fiercely, under more attacking machine gun fire inflicted by Lt Taker,
Wenelmuth in his green DIII launched another attack on the British tandem, at the same time as its observer, the wounded William Conker, pulled the lever that released all of their bombs.
It all happened so quickly. The bombs went a bit wild, which was hardly surprising under the circumstances, hitting the intended target but not completely destroying it; and Wenelmuth’s guns jammed. But they had done enough! The Armstrong Whitworth and its experienced crew, crashed near their target further damaging the area, including that nicely cut grass upon which ObLtn Wedel had paced angrily only that morning. Job done, but at what cost?
The Bulldog’s mission was all but complete, but not so the dogfight.
ObLtn Wedel was about to experience success. The ace pilot, 2nd Lt Dubh Beard, was tired that day. He too had been affected by the continuous stream of bad casualty reports from the RFC squadrons along the entire front. His thoughts were negative and fatally his mind was not one hundred per cent on the job in hand. Wedel got on his tail at long range, but Beard didn’t even notice.
He went after the green Albatros, but ran into heavy ack ack so changed his mind and turned instead towards the brown balloon. He didn’t even notice the moment the fire finally destroyed Ltn Johannes Schmidt’s yellow Albatros, or see it plummet to the shell torn mud below.
His flying was almost running on autopilot. He fired at the balloon doing little damage and again was hit by Wedel.
Finally waking from his distracted state, Beard turned away from the balloon, but it was too late. Despite the attempt by Simon Hawker to come to his rescue, 2nd Lt Dubh Beard was shot down rather decisively by Wedel. Boom – and Beard’s day was over. He too crashed earthwards, into enemy held territory. Not good, from his point of view.
But there was a price to pay for success, by Wedel! Simon Hawker’s attempted intervention resulted in Wedel receiving a nasty wound. His day, too, was done. He needed to get back to base. A prospect he would normally welcome, but knowing the threat that hung above him, a threat from a wine filled senior staff officer, his thoughts on returning were not that happy.
It now only remained for the RFC Bulldogs to finish off the remaining balloon and if possible deal with the AA gun emplacements. This they did with little opposition.
Vzfwbl Wenelmuth made one more unsuccessful run at a Sopwith, miss-timed his attack then noticed his flight leader heading for home. Running low on fuel he decided to join him.
Lt Mick Taker quickly dispatched one of the AA gun emplacements and headed towards the second. And while the brown balloon continued to burn, again rather fiercely,
he was joined by Hawker who got a nasty surprise when his Pup was badly hit by flak from the second AA gun.
His engine was damaged and like it or not, he too was done for the day.
The brown balloon was now nearing the end of its useful life; the remaining two Albatros scouts were obviously retiring gracefully, or not, as the case may be,
So all that was left was for 2nd Lt Simon Hawker, in passing, to get his revenge by destroying the gun that had hit him.
And in the background, the second balloon finally died a death, it too ending up a charred scar on the landscape. Time to go home for a well earned cup of tea and a biscuit. With any luck, the chaps shot down would roll in unharmed, sooner of later. So it is to be hoped.
ObLtn Erich Wedel and Vzfwbl Georg Wenelmuth, meanwhile, headed off to face the music that went with their failure. However, had they but known it, the corps of a certain wine filled staff officer of ill repute now lay beneath the rubble of the partly damaged châteaulin. Nobody but a few friends amongst the “Eagles” would ever know of the threat he had called down on their leader. And besides, there was much to celebrate. Another RFC ace had been shot down, although where he was nobody knew. A second ace in the form of AM1 William Conker, a crack shot, had been wounded and captured when his two seater was shot down (the pilot seemed to have escaped), and a staff officer that had been a bit of a problem and an embarrassment for certain high ranking generals at HQ had sadly lost his life during the attack. The officer in question would be posthumously decorated, buried with honours, then conveniently forgotten!
Later that evening, ObLtn Wedel and his fellow Eagles raised a glass and toasted the crew of the enemy bomber whom they believed had been so very brave and so very, very accurate.
The end.
The Butcher’s Tally
Central Powers
ObLtn Erich Wedel: Albatros D.III (red): FRTB-W / WIA / 1 kill (Beard / Pup red)
FRTB rolled 3+1 = Stuck the landing
C/W Rolled 6 -1WIA +1RTB = 6 – injured – skip 1D3 scenarios, rolled 2 = Skip 1
Vzfwbl Georg Wendelmuth: Albatros D.III (green): RTB / 1 kill (FK8)
Ltn Theodore Ehmann: Albatros D.III (blue): EXP-FT / 0 kills
C/W rolled 8 -3EXP = 5 – injured - skip 1D3 scenarios, rolled 6 = Skip 3
Ltn Johannes Schmidt: Albatros D.III (yellow): FLM-FT / 0 kills
C/W rolled 8 -2FLM = 6 - injured – skip 1D3 sceanrios, rolled 1 = Skip 1.
Entente
Lt Mick E Taker: Nieuport 17: RTB / 2 kills - Albatros D.III (blue) (Ehmann) & Grey balloon. Also destroyed AA gun.
2nd Lt Simon Hawker: Sopwith Pup (blue spot): FRTB-E / 2 kills - Albatros D.III (yellow) (Schmidt) & brown balloon. Also destroyed AA gun
FRTB rolled 4+5 = Stuck the landing.
Lt Harold Isore: (P2) AW FK8: FLM-ET / 0 kills (Half of target destroyed)
C/W rolled 10 -2FLM = 8 - Injured - skip 1D2 scenarios, rolled 5 = Skip 2
E&E rolled 7 -1FLM -1WIC -1BEL = 4 - Captured and escaped! - Skip 1D3 Scenarios, rolled 1 = Skip 1
AM1 William Conker: (O) AW FK8: FLM-ET / WIA / 0 kills ( half target destroyed)
C/W rolled 8 -2FLM -1WIA = 5 - Injured skip 1D3 scenarios, rolled 5 = Skip 2
E&E rolled 4 -1FLM -1WIA -1WIC -1BEL = 0 - Captured ! The war is over for this airman
2nd Lt Dubh Beard: Sopwith Pup (red spot): EXP-ET / 0 kills
C/W rolled 6 -3EXP +1ACE (Acrobatic pilot) = 4 - Injured skip 1D6 scenarios, rolled 6 = Skip 6.
E&E rolled 7 -1EXP -1WIC -1BEL = 4 - Captured and escaped! - Skip 1D3 Scenarios, rolled 1 = Skip 1
Balloons
Victory points
Bulldogs
Both balloons destroyed 10
Both AA guns destroyed 10
Half the target destroyed 10
2 x DIIIs SD 20
Scout FRTB 5
Total 55
Eagles
Half target preserved 10
Tandem SD 10
Scout SD 10
Scout FRTB 5
2 x Aces downed 10
Total 45
Notes
Another very enjoyable scenario – thanks Paul (Shadow Dragon).
Please note that altitude was used and recorded both on paper and on the model bases, as the mission progressed. The number of pegs used bears little relation to this and were used purely for the benefit of the photos. This means that some models appear to be flying on or through objects like balloons when in fact they are actually at an altitude permitting them to fly over. That is particularly true of the barrage net situation. Sorry, but it was the only way I could deal with it without having very high peg columns; something I feel uncomfortable with. Between aircraft therefore the number of pegs used per column is simply a relative indication of comparative height.
The only model Nieuport, carrying rockets, that I possess is the Nieuport 16, an aircraft that had pretty much been withdrawn by this time, as far as I am aware. The model therefore represents the use of a Nieuport 17 armed with rockets and “A” firing once the rockets have been fired. I hope I got this right and that it hasn’t upset the apple cart so to speak.
I wasn’t entirely certain where the first two Bulldogs on the scene were to start. The diagram and the text stated two different things and I had made a decision on that and already started the mission before I received a reply from Paul about his actual intentions. Sorry Paul, I got it wrong and on reflection that gave the Bulldogs a head start, allowing them to fire then turn away again before the DIIIs had become properly involved. My bad.
The AA guns only came into play towards the end of the scenario because most of the action took place within half a range ruler of the balloons. However, they brought down the Tandem so I guess they were saving up for that shot!
Once again, thanks to Paul for a nice idea – I enjoyed preparing the barrage net
Mike
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for his eleventh victory for King and country 
Originally Posted by ShadowDragon
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