Werner and Kaisenberg sat in the mess having their breakfast. The supplies hadn't arrived again yesterday so two of the ground crew, Gefreiter Hansen and Soldat Bär, both rather good at hunting and trapping, managed to bag a number of Rabbits. So the evening meal was sorted at least, but the breakfast was three day old bread and what could only loosely be described as 'gruel', using cereal of dubious origin and milk.
"Have you thought about the end of the war Werner?" asked Kaisenberg. "Of course, but to labour on such thoughts isn't doing you any favours." replied Werner.
"No of course, but you can't help but wonder where it's all heading. Are we to fight on forever? At whatever cost?" said Kaisenberg, lowering his voice to ensure only he and Werner were having the conversation.
"We're in a dark spot at the moment meine freund, but don't forget, we are still deep in France and control virtually all of Belgium. We need to hit the allies hard at every moment to bring them to their senses and to negotiate a truce." said Werner.
"But will they? The French might want to carry on into Germany itself." said Kaisenberg.
"Then they will pay an awful price Alfred and are the French willing to pay such a price? It would be slaughter, pure and simple. I don't believe any of the allies wants that." replied Werner.
"But we are struggling now, the allies are breaking through." said Kaisenberg.
"Then we must double our resolve, until they see the sense of an honourable truce." finished Werner.
Morning sortie
Fw Messerer took the briefing and explained that the morning sortie would be trip out to the lines east of Autreville, looking for any targets of opportunity.
The weather had taken a severe turn for the worse. High winds and thick clouds had rolled in and rain was splattering Werner's goggles as he sat in his cockpit, cranked up the engine and took off.
They made their way south west and towards the front. Perhaps because of the poor visibility, the flak was considerably less than normal as they crossed the lines but it also made spotting targets nigh impossible.
Werner had no choice but to drop down below the clouds. As he did so the flak opened up. He managed to spot what looked like a camp or a storage depot in the near distance. "They haven't even bothered to try and hide it, das übermütige Schwein." said Werner to himself.
He nosed down and headed towards the installation. Kaisenberg was ready and dropped his bombs onto the supplies and the tents. They erupted in flames and debris, but the machine guns and flak didn't take kindly to this and peppered Werner's machine.
He climbed away and back towards the lines. As he spotted the enemy lines he dived back down and shouted at Kaisenberg to be ready with his final pair of bombs. Kaisenberg did his best but the wind made it hard to be truly accurate. The bombs fell near the trenches and caused some damage.
Werner now sought out his kameraden and headed home.
Afternoon sortie
The pm jaunt was a trip to the south east to the lines south of Sissone. The target was the airfield near Coucy.
The weather had not improved one jot as they got airborne and headed out.
Thankfully, the trip went quietly enough until they neared the enemy airfield. At that point the flak and ground fire intensified five fold.
Unperturbed, Werner nosed down and headed for the line of hangers, the wind making accurate flying very tricky but Werner throttled back, keeping just above stall speed as Kaisenberg hurled his bombs.
Two of the hangers erupted in flames and although the rest of the bombs fell off target they still did some damage.
Content with the damage, Werner formed up with Messerer and the others and headed home.
They landed safely and went to clean up. Later on Werner was amazed at what the cook had managed to do with the Rabbits......he'd also managed dumplings with the remaining flour and found mushrooms..... delicious.
"A great deal of an aeroplane could be holed without affecting its ability to fly. Wings and fuselage could be—and often were—pierced in 50 places, missing the occupants by inches (blissfully unaware of how close it had come until they returned to base). Then the sailmaker would carefully cover each hole with a square inch of Irish linen frayed at the edges and with a brushful of dope make our aircraft 'serviceable' again within an hour."
