The afternoon mission called for a bomb run of factories at Mulhouse. It was a windy day. Toby has never been this far east into the Hunland. He would have one time before when they were going to attack the Habsheim aerodrome, but he never reached it due to a faulty engine. Toby hoped the engine would hold out this time. They were already over Mulhouse with thick clouds surrounding them on all sides. There was some movement up front where Edwards and Collishaw were leading the ‘A’ flight. Mulberry just finished doing a three-sixty to clear the rear and had to look closely. A pair of Fokkers emerged out of the clouds and blew harmlessly passed the two Strutters. Toby engaged immediately catching the formation from the side. The Kette split up and one turned towards Mulberry while the other turned away. As the Fokker that came towards him flew by, Toby dipped his nose and picked up speed to catch up to the other Eindecker that exposed his tail to him. The Hun turned at the last moment to evade but it was too late. Mulberry was already in a firing position and one of the lucky bullets hit the Fokker’s controls. The monoplane went into a spin, but Toby didn’t follow. He knew the other Eindecker must be close behind. He turned around and faced him. The wind was whipping his plane around and he stalled for a moment while in a steep bank. He quickly regained control and desperately looked for the Hun. Fortunately the German pilot didn’t take advantage of the situation and they were back to chasing one another. As Toby banked again and watched the Boche slip underneath, he noticed a column of dark smoke rising from the forest floor below. The first Hun didn’t fake that spin. Toby positioned his plane behind the Eindecker and opened fire, but the gusts kept on throwing his aim off. The German capitalized on the situation and climbed away from danger. Mulberry didn’t follow. With the bombs onboard he would never catch up to him. He pointed his plane towards the factories and made his mark there. The ‘A’ flight had already completed their bomb runs and made it easy to locate the target. The two Strutter flights returned home with no further incidents.
"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."
