Lou and Raine, beautifully written and researched stories. Loved that "I don’t believe we know you in Canada" bit. That's an automatic 2 weeks in the brig in my books.

21 August, 1916 05:20 morning mission
Luxeuil, Alsace Sector
3 Wing RNAS
FL Tobias Chester Mulberry
9 confirmed kills
Awaiting 1 claim confirmation

It was a hazy morning with plenty of cloud cover to hide an entire Jagdstaffel behind them. Toby was flying on his own with no escort and no wingmen. He had to stay under the cloud layer for two reasons: to see where he was going and to avoid any patrols above the clouds. His tan underside would mask him from anyone looking up at the clouds. The logic to send one plane to bomb the Buhl-Lorraine aerodrome, NE of Lunéville, near Sarrebourg, was that one plane can slip by unnoticed. In this instance it had almost worked, except for the training flight just south of the aerodrome. Toby was nearly there, flying all this way unnoticed, when he flew right smack into the path of two Eindeckers. They didn’t attack at first and Toby hoped that they would just fly by, but Alford opened fire on them and that made them angry. Toby saw the pilot not maneuvering much and was an easy target. Some kid wanting to be the next Immelmann. Mulberry’s burst severed the controls and the bird went into an irrecoverable spin. The other student saw this and dove for safety. Toby let him go. He considered this action to be a reward for acting smart. He couldn’t afford to follow the Eindecker anyway. He had a job to do that required him to stay high and finish the mission. He found himself over the hangars and dropped his load, then turned back without checking where the bombs had landed. He was too far behind enemy lines to stay in the area any moment longer. He was back in time for lunch. He put in a claim for the Eindecker, but didn’t expect much. Such is the way of things with claims far behind enemy lines.

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"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."