19 January, 1916 10:00
Toul, Verdun Sector
Sergent Gaston A. Voscadeaux

It was a miserable day with heavy clouds and ground mist hanging in the air, yet the command insisted the conditions were satisfactory to take the B flight over the lines to bomb troop camp near Mars-la-Tour. This task was assigned to Gaston and Cprl. Sourdiac was to follow him. It was difficult to navigate to the target with most of the ground obscured by thick clouds. Once near the target Gaston noticed two enemy machines flying nearby.

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Apparently German command was just as reckless with their pilots as the French one. Voscadeaux promised himself to go after them following the attack on the camp. For now he remained committed to attacking the troops as ordered. It was difficult to make out any of the ground features and Gaston almost missed his target completely. He noticed it as he was flying over it.

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It was too late to drop his bombs and had to turn around for another go. Flying through the clouds made aiming difficult, but Gaston was positive his bombs found the intended target.

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He immediately switched to tracking the two Aviatiks but they were long gone and out of view when Gaston took extra time to make a second run after he failed to drop his bombs on the initial approach. The Flak was starting to get closer and Voscadeaux decided to abandon his search. His gunner, Becquerel gave up his search as well and announced it by angrily slamming his fist on the edge of the nacelle coaming.
“Don’t you worry. We’ll get them one of those days.” Gaston made a silent promise to his gunner. He quickly glanced at the compass and steered the Caudron south with Cprl. Sourdiac in tow. Finding the way home was much easier despite the gray cloud cover.

Attached Files 1 1916-01-19-Enemy.jpg2 1916-01-19-Attack.jpg3 1916-01-19-Bomb.jpg

"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys,
The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain,
From out of my arse take the camshaft,
And assemble the engine again."