With the catching up, gotta say I did miss some fun stuff! Ah well, this still makes for good reading material
Tross - And back in action he is, with something to show for it even, albeit to little recognition. The paintjob did add to the combat effectiveness I'm sure though. An increasingly good day for Kevin as per usual then it seems! First six without a loss, and then seven at the price of two airframes, not even pilots. 70 kills now, huh! Kevin really has gotten himself far, dispatching those Huns must be second nature at this point! Now let's see him get to 80 and above, how about that? Just so long as there's no streak of bad luck.
Carrick - Ah, what a shame. No confirmations, but on the bright side, at least the #2 got avenged
Fullofit - Hah, I don't disappear that easily! Yes, it was a rather good albeit somewhat stressful vacation. The weather nowadays is just dreadful. He might be just a bit ungrateful, but he fully intends to make it up with all the Huns he's planning on downing! A name may be in order once the crate and the paintjob stick around enough to prove themselves, hah. No use naming a plane if it turns to scrap the next day. Gotta get a few more kills first . Pierre has certainly done something to make it more distinguishable. Not the French Red Baron, but hey, something reasonable! Klaus I see is having himself some good times too nowadays for the most part! Those American SPADs clearly proved to be no real threat, and despite their best efforts were easily dispatched. Here's hoping they'll get a confirmation! Shame that his dreams of Aircraft Tic Tac Toe weren't fufilled though! And then finally a more quiet patrol where it was up to the other flight to deal with a mess. Well, can't blame Klaus for feeling that. What goes around does come around.
In the early hours of the morning I was greeted by a staff car sent to bring me over back to our field. I appreciated such a convenience, not having to walk or catch a truck. The next best thing would've been a plane for my to fly back in, but that of course wasn't bound to happen. My arrival felt at least somewhat welcoming, as some pilots congratulated me on my succesful recovery and after reporting to the Captaine who upon welcoming me back told me to be ready in two hours for a morning outing. I used my spare time to catch up on what I've missed, and perhaps most importantly met my mechanic Pierre. He too was rather glad to see me, and after some minutes of catch up he led me to the hanger to take a look at what he managed to come up with for me. My new crate was in great condition and ready to use, and that's when I saw what he done with the paint I requested. On the side of my craft was an all too familiar coat of arms. Fleur-de-lys over a golden lion and the Porte Saint-Éloi. That certainly met my desires for a personal marking, bringing back memories of Bordeaux but then Pierre told me to look at my wings. Looking there I found he wrote a big and rather obvious 'Vive la France' for anyone and everyone to see. While not extravagant, I must admit this brought me great amusement and would do a good job of sending a message over to any Boche to see it. I thanked Pierre and told him that I'll be sure to pay him back for this the first chance I get, making a note in my mind to get him some quality alcohol or chocolate the next time I get a chance to. Not like I can paint him anything.
The hours went by rather quickly and we gathered for a briefing. The mission today was to strike at a Boche airfield further up the lines, which to me sounded like a rather exciting first flight back. Our flight headed by Pinsard was to carry out the attack, guarded by A flight flying top cover and assisting. Unfortunately this did not go according to plan. Fortunately, it still worked out. The Squadron took off with me proudly flying my Bordeaux banner and patriotically inscribed crate into the skies. We climbed and crossed the lines, which is where misfortune struck in the form of A flight disappearing... somewhere. God knows how, but we later found out they got lost. Well, thankfully this didn't discourage us and we carried on. Eventually we neared the airfield and what a sight we've seen! Crates littering the runway, crates circling around it in a landing pattern. We caught the Boches at the moment they were least expecting it, and we surely were going to exploit it. We first flew past, coming downward and finally going into a turn following Pinsard, on track for our attack. Seeing the vast majority of two seaters on the ground and several in the air, I scanned my possible targets during the approach, opting for an air target. Amidst the two seaters, I spotted a blue tail of an Albatross! 'Perfect', I thought, thinking that he would make for a far easier target and diving onto his tail, setting sights and opening fire as I came.
The Boche despite my hopes refused to roll over and die on the first shot and of course began to evade, several of the circling two seaters starting to open fire when I passed just to spite me in my attempts at getting the Albatross. The fight was now on, and I wasn't about to lose so while the rest of the flight strafed ground targets and the two seaters I went into a knife fight with the Albatross. He put up a moderate amount of resistance and twirled around, trying to get guns on me but repeatedly failing, at one point going for a heads on pass during which neither of us hit for fear of collision. Unlike him though, I was managing to keep up and got my own shots in that did hit. I've heard to not turn fight too much in a SPAD from the others for it was no camel, but in this case those tight turns combined with several Yo-Yos and reversals managed to keep me at a constant advantage in our tree top tango and the Fritz just kept on taking damage. Annoyingly for me, the damage just wasn't enough and despite slowing down and performing worse he still showed no sign of going down for sure. The case was worsened by the two seaters on the ground the crews of which hopped back in and started using them as static machinegun emplacements, taking shots at me as I passed overhead. Brushing this aside even as my wing got peppered, I kept up the attack against the increasingly reluctant Boche.
Finally, just as my guns ran dry the Fritz's engine gave out and he veered off to the side, slamming into the trees with a loud crash. Victory! Now that this was over, I caught my bearings and realised that I was entirely alone. Everyone else at that point turned back and returned home and upon noticing my ever decreasing fuel reaching around a halfway empty point I turned my crate and started to head home too, not too keen on ending up behind the lines again. I got home without trouble besides the low amount of fuel and upon landing my report. Unsurprisingly, while Pinsard was happy that I managed to down myself a Boche he plainly stated that I shouldn't expect a confirmation as there was no one around to see it, and thus my claim went rejected. Well, at least I know I still got him. I then found out the results of our mission, that being several wounded but thankfully no crashes or deaths. These woundings did mean we would be running with a smaller flight, which even then was a big understatement.
In the afternoon the Captaine told me we are to fly an escort mission over Strutters heading off to attack a German position. The only problem is, our flight would consist of just me and him, with A flight providing cover again... A flight proved themselves just as reliable as they did in the first mission and gotten lost somewhere in the clouds, and perhaps at a worst possible moment as during our escort's transition into the Hun lines I suddenly spotted 5 Albatrosses emerging out of the cloud and heading towards our Strutters, with only me and the Captaine standing between them... Thankfully, by some stroke of luck, the Boches were blind that day and did not notice us, happily flying past while we went ahead with our mission and soon returned back home. After nearly running into such dangerous odds, a good rest is certainly warranted.
"Those who survive a long time on the battlefield start to think they're invincible. I bet you do, too, Buddy."
. Pierre has certainly done something to make it more distinguishable. Not the French Red Baron, but hey, something reasonable!
