Sgt. Bilbo Baggins, RFC 70
July 12, 1916



Morning:
Command remembered that we can bomb things and asked us to remind Houplin Aerodrome with some 40 lb. bombs. We were a flight of 6 led by Capt. Cruikshank (HA) and made an impressive sight as we more or less formed up.



It was pretty dull: It began raining heavily almost immediately after that pic, so I didn't even have the benefit of practicing ground navigation or admiring the sites. No Germans came to us, we found none. Dropped our bombs and went home.


Evening:
This time Command asked us to remind one of the rail junctions near Bapaume of our capability. The weather was a bit better, and much as in my flights during mid-week Capt. Cruikshank suddenly broke off to attack a flight of 5 Fokker E.IIIs. I grinned. Perfect thing to relieve my stress.

Right.

Well, I did get a few random shots into 1 or 2, but my allies were simply vanishing. One of my companions had already had a bad engine and turned back, leaving three Strutters. Then one got into a collision so close off my left wing I thought it'd been me.

2 on 4 now. Someone got really lucky with a single bullet as I heard something crunch under the impact. I was still having some luck turning to my right and getting off the occasional stray shot, but at least 3 of them were trying to get on my 6.

That's when I noticed the Roland joining the party. God I'm beginning to hate those things.

I tried to turn for home, but two of the Eindeckers and the Roland still wanted to talk things over, so I turned back towards them. Stalled and ended up flying 90 degrees to the vertical, left wing up ... and nothing I could do seemed to make it better.

Crash. Bilbo's quest has ended.


Final Stats (already reported): 5.72 hrs, 6 sorties, 4 victories

I'll probably wait a bit before jumping back in. My Track IR is due Tuesday, and I might jump into category B at that point.