THE ADVENTURES OF ALBRECHT "AL" KASELTZER, EPISODE 1: "PILOT"

11 November, 1915
Bertincourt, France

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Today was Leutnant Kaseltzer's first day at the airfield in Bertincourt following a brief training regimen.

Training, of course, was just an administrative matter, for Kaseltzer was quite experienced as a pilot - at the age of 19, he'd spent his meager savings learning how to fly, and had worked in civil aviation for some time before serving as a trainer for Die Fliegertruppe in 1910. Bureaucracy, Al thought to himself: where every step you take requires a new form stating that if you die taking said step, it's totally not the paper-pusher's fault!

The two-week course wasn't totally a waste, however. Kaseltzer was just not a very detail-oriented man, and was skating over the fact that most of his experience was in single-seaters - much like the infamous Morane-Saulniers servicing the other side now. Die Fliegertruppe wanted Kaseltzer to pilot a two-seater reconnaissance craft, a task that was much newer and more challenging than Al himself was willing to admit.

Regardless, here was Leutnant Kaseltzer, newly stationed with FFA 32. Wasting no time, the commanding officer assigned Kaseltzer to carry out an artillery-spotting mission. He'd be flying an ungainly Aviatik two-seater, with Hauptmann Wolfgang Graf serving as observer; another Hauptmann, Hugo Ludwig, assumed escort duties in a Fokker Eindecker.

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Coincidentally, given the way Al was hitting the air flying, these three men were the only people he knew at all in his new squadron: Graf, Ludwig, and the commanding officer.

Take-off was uneventful as the three-man flight advanced towards No Mans' Land. The front was caught under a thick overcast sky today, though, and Albrecht found it difficult to continue tracking Ludwig's Fokker E.III through the clouds.

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With some navigation assistance from Graf in the observer's seat, Kaseltzer found his way to the target sector. Despite the absence of Ludwig & his Eindecker, Kaseltzer didn't see any Entente fighters on the horizon to interrupt their mission. Ludwig must have just gotten off course in the clouds and turned back home, Kaseltzer thought to himself, as he prepared to turn back the same way.

When Kaseltzer landed the Aviatik two-seater back at Bertincourt, however, he noticed Ludwig's Eindecker was conspicuously missing.

An hour later, the news reached FFA 32: enemy Nieuport fighters caught Ludwig from behind, and a lengthy battle ensued. Ludwig managed to get in some good shots, but it was all for nothing: the craft was destroyed, and the man was dead.

Last edited by AlbrechtKaseltzer; 05/25/21 04:31 AM.