June 29

My first mission in the early morning was to patrol the nearby airfield of Savy, some 3 miles distant. We were a flight of five.

At first it looked like we were going to be bounced, as I noticed these chaps above and behind us as I climbed out to 1,000 feet.



They were definitely German, but not that interested in us. Four flew right over my airfield, but I didn't see any bombs go off. The fifth followed us for a bit, but apparently decided he didn't want to fly that low against all of us and took off.

The rest of the patrol was...dull. We saw no one until the very end, when I noticed eight planes approaching Savy. I zoomed in and learned they were friendlies: BE2cs escorted by Airco DH2s.

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I returned and there was a driver waiting to take me to RFC 70 in Fienvillers. Apparently my transfer went through. The Sopwith Strutter, though still a two-seater, is a huge step up from the Fee.

We immediately went out to recon, and I was given command of a flight of four. No problem, except one of my peeps had some sort of engine trouble. He refused to turn back, but steadily lost ground. Which, in the end, turned out to be the problem.

We arrived over the front lines, and I decided instead of just cruising back and forth while the 21 minute timer ran out, I'd turn more or less in place until # 4 could catch us. So I banked sharp left.

Crunch.

Tear.

FIRE!

I collided with a wingmate, who was apparently unharmed. The same could not be said for myself.



Albert was still at 20% health, so I tried to stay with it and see if I could somehow glide to safety. No dice. My engine had failed in the collision and I couldn't get lift from my wings. Then around 3,000 feet my 'health' updated to 0% as the flames caught me. Then at 1,000 feet another crunch/tear as my wings sheared off.

Ouch.

So ends Albert Nuts. He lived just long enough to get out of the Fee, to realize the Strutter can kill you too.