Henri Patois
Verdun
June 9th, 1917
Escadrille3 No. 23

So after getting killed by an observer that I flew too close to since I absolutely could not see where my bullets were going, I got better (I was in a SPAD, after all) and went up to my armorer and said: "Dude, for some reason my center field-of-view vision is only 1900x1200, I have no peripheral vision and enemy craft are made of a special material where the fabric does not rip or flutter in the wind when shot. Something has to give. I need to see where my bullets are going. So we came up with a plan to wrap every third round in a condom filled with nitroglycerin, so it burns like crazy when fired. So far, it has been working well!

Today, we went on a balloon busting mission. Since Villars and the Marquis somehow got "promoted" to Nieuports, I ordered them to attack with rockets while I stayed up watching for fighters. After a really long time, I saw one of the Nieuports go in and fire off a salvo. The balloon didn't go up though and after waiting several minutes for anyone to try another pass, I decided to do it myself. My attack went pretty poorly as I overshot my turn and only caught the balloon with a few rounds. That was enough to send it up in flames, though! Shortly after my attack, the escorts arrived. I fell in eventually with a poor fellow in an older Albatros DII and followed him down when he tried to escape, finally hitting the pilot after a few turns. By the time he had gone down for good, everyone else had scattered, so I wound my way back up to try to find some of my flight. I spotted a group of seven of the V-strut Albatros scouts and with a healthy dose of respect, I kept myself above and to the west of them. Not really running into anyone else of the friendly persuasion, I decided to have one pass at them and head for home. I tried to work my way into the sun but they had seen me by that time and turned to make my attack harder. I made one diving run through their formation, perhaps putting some rounds through my target's wings before dashing to the front. They would at least have something to tell their friends about back at the field!




The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...