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3 September 1916
Fienvillers, France

It was a day of poorly organized chaos for all concerned in the Entente taking of Guillemont. The flights of 70 Squadron spent it running to and fro: from camp to Guillemont and back; from camp to Delville Wood and back; from camp to Guillemont and back again; and finally from camp to Combles and back. Truth be told it was all the same area as each objective was within a mile of one another. The madness on the ground was startling, and what was supposed to be a coordinated attack by the various French and British armies looked, (at least to those in the air), like pure, unadulterated bedlam. The Hun defence on the other hand appeared to be rock solid and well thought out. None-the-less, as the day progressed Guillemont was taken by the French. But the body count must have been horrible, given what Captain Swanson and Lieutenant Dent and the rest of A Flight observed during their numerous sorties. While it was insanity below, the cloud-filled skies were relatively quiet in terms of enemy aircraft. During the first outing, while keeping watch over observation planes from 9 Squadron, Swany chased off a pair of Eindeckers that tried to attack. No other sky Huns were engaged until the last mission of the rainy late afternoon when one of the new Fokker biplanes was seen between Delville Wood and Guillemont making a run for home. He was about 1000 feet below and looked to be an easy target, so Swany signaled to the rest of his flight to remain above as he and Chris dove on the enemy. It turned out to be a rather protracted fight as the Fokker was more agile than the Captain first imagined it would be. After several twisting, turning minutes of battle the King's airmen had managed to land enough hits on the Hun craft to slow it up. However, as Swany was coming around for what he was hoping would be the coup de grâce the Hun pilot suddenly changed his tactics and ran straight at the closing Strutter. Swanson tried his dam'dest to avoid the impact but the Boche clipped the lower right wing of his mount before spiraling into the earth below. The Captain managed to keep control of his now-damaged aircraft and wrestled it back across No Man's Land and plunked it down on the field at Lavieville. Because he had to come in fast to keep from winging over into the ground he overshot the end of the field and ended up dangerously close to the tree line and fence at the far end. But he and Chris, while shaken, were both unharmed, so it was a good landing. They spent what little remained of the day waiting for a tender and crew to arrive from Fienvillers to pack up their broken mount and bring it and themselves back home. It had been exhausting, though Swany knew it was nothing compared to what the P.B.I. were going through in and around the ruins of Guillemont.


The end result of misjudging a suicidal enemy pilot.

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