New beginnings and a narrowly escaped death for Sgt. Alan 'Cam' Mardling formerly of RFC-15.
After much intimidation at the hands of the Huns, I've moved to my new home a few miles west of Marieux at Fienvillers/Candas, SW of Vert Galand, flying for RFC-19 in the familar but new BE12 fighter variant.



My first sortie with the lads was rewarding and terrifyingly troubling.

We took off and formed up NE of the airfield, then followed the road N of Doullens towards Arras.
Mission for a Offensive Patrol behind enemy lines, targeting the German Airfield at Lagnicourt.
We had a good sized flight of seven machines, five of us in echelon left (myself as tail end) and two more just behind and above us. Sgt. Augustus Henry Orlebar flew high above us lone wolf and left out some time before we moved in (to arouse the interest of the Huns no doubt.) We crossed the lines at 10,000ft just as he was headed back and as we neared the airfield, our flight leader Lt. Phillip Schellden signaled the attack, spotting two Fokker machines circling down to land.

He and the lads dove sharply, myself and gents to my rear came down less aggressively and I watched the initial meeting. Lt. Schellden made a pass at the nearest Fokker, who saw the attack at the last minute and broke into a tight turn. By then two others tailed him and put rounds into him. I saw an opening and made a pass, hitting him and he went into a tight turn, seemingly losing power, and went down crashing between two rows of trees a short way from his field. I leveled out and starting looking, for had by now lost sight of the lads. I quickly saw one and dove to form up, and on his lead we headed back towards the lines for home.

What followed was idiots luck. As we made our way away from the scene I noticed the remaining Fokker force land just left of his field in a grassy area and could see no other machines around, so I focused mostly on maintaining formation. A few moments in, I heard something ( presumably Flak ) but looked and could see no sign of it. Dropped a bit away from my winger so I throttled up and got back to his side. Heard a pop, looked around, and saw nothing. Seconds later, like ghosts from the other side, Two huns right behind us maybe 50-100 yards. Breaking sharply, I went to the left and around they came after me, ignoring my winger who seemed to miss the predicament set upon me.

After a very tense, short combat with them, I sent one down smashing into the ground, and the other broke off and headed home, I assume due to my height advantage. We parted ways and I made my way home, landed and counted my lucky stars.

I recorded the encounter and upon review(Look at 7:42), the Fokkers came up from behind and below.

They are clearly visible in my view several times, but I somehow never caught it. They were behind me long enough to send me down thrice over. I confused his shape with my tail section. A mistake i'll not make again when cking 6.

I submitted my claims and received immediate confirmation (odd I thought).
Hope my senses don't fail me again. This easily should have been the end of Sgt. Mardling.

Cheers lads,
Off to the mess for chow and then some R&R.