28 July, 1916 12:50 afternoon mission
Proville, Flanders Sector
Kasta 17
Feldwebel Otto B von Kenobi
2 confirmed victories

Obi was in the hangar “working” on his plane. He decided to mark his first victory with a painting on the fuselage. He thought about it for a while and came up with a dead rooster to signify the French pilot. The rooster was on its back with its feet curled up in the air. The eye was in the shape of a cross in a typical cartoon fashion and the tongue hanging down from the open beak.
“- What’s this?!” Artur Dietrich was standing behind startled Obi.
“- Oh, it’s just something to remind me of my achievement. Do you like it?”
Artur squinted and responded with his usual squeak: “- It’s highly irregular!”
Obi wasn’t sure how to respond: “- You mean the shape or that it’s against the regulations?”
Artur was getting annoyed: “- I don’t know shapes. I know regulations, besides you’ll have to paint another one to go along with this one. Your second claim came through! The potato-heads in the Arras sector witnessed your latest ... stunt. Congratulations! Now suit up, you’ll be going to Mont St. Boi to bomb their factories.” Dietrich made another squeaky sound and walked away leaving von Kenobi stunned. Gunther was reclining in the shaded corner of the hangar on bales of hay stored for the squadron’s mule. He was chewing on a blade of straw. “- Well, well! At this rate you’re going to run out of surface space on our bus very quickly.” He stretched out and picked himself up to get ready for the next mission. “- Obi, what are you going to do if you shoot down a Britisher?”
Otto paused for a second: “- I haven’t thought of that. Do you expect to fight the Englanders any time soon? All I’ve seen in our area so far are the Rotkäppchen.”
Gunther was putting on his tunic. “- All I’m saying you have to be prepared for any eventuality, French or British. You coming?”

Leutnant Thiede was in the lead as always. They hooked up with two E.IV’s from KEK Sud providing cover. Near the Front lines Thiede left the formation with a mechanical problem. Obi was on his own. At least the Fokker escort kept him company throughout the rest of the mission. Otto felt safe with the German scouts flying overhead. He arrived over the target with no way of knowing when to drop his ordnance. Until now, he simply dropped his bombs when his leader did. He knew that if he were to just drop his bombs in a level flight, they would most certainly miss. He had no bombsight, not even a small port to look through. Was he supposed to use some mystic power to help him aim at an invisible target? He had no such powers. Instead, he decided to aim his entire plane in a mild dive. He dropped one bomb at a time, then climbed back up, turned around and repeated the process. He was surprised that some of the bombs actually found their mark. Some missed completely. It wasn’t a total loss.


"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."