Ooh a bit late reporting in.

So after my first disastrous flight, I climbed back in at dusk on 1 April for an interception. Just me and Jim Bath as my wingman. It felt a bit lonely, but with the sun setting and a furious barrage along the front it certainly wasn't for lack of atmosphere!


As we reached the area that the enemy had been reported I felt a huge sigh of relief to find nothing there - but not for long, and we soon found ourselves engaged with a pair. This time I was more prepared and after collecting a couple of bullets that had done no obvious damage to me, I was on the tail of one, and put an accurate burst into him. He was obviously damaged and I though t this was going rather well...... At which point my engine stopped. No fuel!!! I guess I had taken some damage? Or maybe I set out with not much in the tank.

So where the hell was I - about 3 miles behind enemy lines, facing in the wrong direction, and around 6000 feet. I turned to where our lines were closest and wondered how far I could glide, hoping that I wouldn't be attacked now that fortunes were reversed - and thinking that the worst place of all to come down would be in no man's land. I've no idea what the best glide speed is to maximise distance - I kept to around 70mph. And my luck this time held, by the skin of my teeth reaching our lines and managing to just get beyond the shell ravaged area to reach a field - remarkably even missing the fences!!

Another machine requiring a two day repair though...it's becoming a habit!

And my third mission the following morning. Despite a dreadful weather forecast conditions were much calmer than last night where the wind had been boisterous. This time 5 in B flight and 4 in A flight were patrolling our lines. I felt much safer in so much company!

And it was completely uneventful. Some tension when we saw unidentified aircraft, but each time they turned out to either be ours or not interested in us and had flown past without us seeing who they were.

The only excitement came on landing. I don't think I have had a flight where we have stayed together before, so I have always landed alone. Formation landing was quite fun, although I still look at is as tempting fate just a bit too much. I prefer having the whole field to myself without worrying about smashing into my mates!

Rick I think the German scouts are adopting kamikaze tactics. We all seem to be getting rammed.

@ Happyflyer : reading your report, it seems you had two missions on April 1st. You might have missed the rules are only one mission per day !

Corsaire31 - you are correct, thanks!!

Wow, go on a little holiday and 10 of our squadron is gone! Thats almost half of the brave souls I started out with, and some of our best pilots. Great stories mates. I hope Rafe Hollister will be back in sky's tomorrow.

Condolences for Dirk Rick, well fought and a lousy way to go.

A couple more from Archibald Stanley:

5 April, 1917:
We are assigned to attack an enemy aerodrome. Both flights will participate, a total of ten aircraft, four in B flight. We plan to hit them just as the sun comes up and ruin their day before it even starts. We take off in the cold pre-dawn light and make our way towards the lines. All is quiet as we make our descent to the aerodrome. We seem to have taken them by surprise as we encounter only a little ground fire as we make our runs. On one pass my Lewis jams and I circle wide to clear it. As I do so I notice a formation of Albatri arriving overhead. I'm not certain how many as they scattered to attack our aircraft. I latch onto one and make a few turns with him, snapping out quick bursts at every opportunity. He eventually breaks for home, having taken too much damage. But I have hit his engine, and while he may have been able to escape before, now he has no chance. I close in and finish him off with a burst to the cockpit from about 25 yards. He immediately noses over and plumges into the ground. Out of ammo and with the aerodrome smoking I make my way home uneventfully. The next morning we are informed we will have to do it again as a follow up reconnaissance flight failed to see any significant damage to the aerodrome. But I am also told that my victory has been confirmed along with my DFW from before and I am to be rewarded with six days of leave! Best of all I won't be revisiting the aerodrome with my flight later that day.

12 April, 1917:
I return to find that I have been assigned a shiney new Nieuport 23 and that I am scheduled to lead the afternoon flight, an escort mission to survey the front line trenches. I'm still a bit surprised at this, but I do have some experience under my belt now and so I do my best to convey some simblance of confidence to my flight. Off we go toward the rendevious point. We fail to locate the BEs and so I opt to join up with A flight, which has been assigned to patrol the same stretch of lines to cover us. My flight is either tired just doesn't see me and head back toward home. I press on looking for A flight, and spot them circling over our lines. At the same time I see that I have attracted the unwelcome attention of a flight of four Albatross scouts which are now bearing down on me. I make for A flight as fast as I can, and reach them before the huns arrive in range. It will now be a five on four fight in our favor, much better. Or so I thought. A flight continues on blissfully unaware of the threat and similarly the Albatri take no interest in them. Well I guess it will be four on one. I turn to face my attackers as my comrades fly into the distance. I am soon putting my new 23 to the test as I weave and spin and spiral with the four Germans. Again my manueverabilty saves me and I never allow any of them to get a shot off at me, while for my part I think I put a couple bullets at least into each of them. One by one they break off. I latch onto the last to leave in a dive, and as the German realizes I am gaining on him, he turns to face me. A short dual ensues with my nimble Nieuport soon putting me in firing position on him. A few bursts into him and he is clearly having difficulty controling his kite. He soon loses control completely and spins into no-man's-land. I look up to see A flight still circling above. Maybe one of them will at least confirm my victory.

It would be interesting to see how our squadron performed overall when comparing our number of pilots lost vs the enemy. Maybe we can get a tally at the conclusion of our challenge.

Good job, gecko. Those A flighters are notorious bastards! Good job keeping your head about you! Despite my demise, I was really enjoying the N23 and hope to get back to it soon in my Rick Rawlings character... if I can just survive the swinish N16

Shiloh, I guessed on the last one, but I would like that too, any way you slice it, I think we performed admirably. I'll see if I can get a screenshot from everyone at the end and calculate it, good call, man.

April 30, 1917


Dear Mum & Dad,

I'm all healed up and I'm happy to report that my bum feels good as new. Today's mission was escorting another flight of R.E.8 deep into Hun territory. I'm beginning to dread this type of mission, as we always seem to run into large formations of Huns.




Today was no different. We made it all the way over the German front lines before we saw any Huns at all. Our flight of five, led my Lt. Caldwell, were flying perfect formation over our charges, when Lt. Caldwell suddenly broke left and led us into a hard climb. Soon, a formation of of Albatros scouts, estimated to be 8 in number and about 300 meters above us, appeared.

Lt. Caldwell led us up to their alt, and we charged into them and split them up. It was a wild fight, and I daresay it was utter chaos in the skies. I saw a Nieuport scout flash before me, being chased by a Hun. I banked hard and gave chase. I quickly lined the Hun up and gave him a burst of Lewis, which I'm sure hit him. I saw pieces of canvas or wood fly off his crate. But this Hun was good! He jinked hard to the right and down, and I lost sight of him in the clouds.




Suddenly, the sky around me was empty. What was a quite a scrap turned in an instant to me, all alone in that big sky. I searched desperately for my flight, and eventually found Lts. Caldwell, Horn and Young down low over some German aerodromes. There were no Huns left, so we followed Lt. Caldwell back to base.

As we were within sight of the aerodrome, I looked back and noticed that Lt. Young's engine was smoking, and he was dropping out of formation and losing altitude.


As I circled the field, I watched in horror as Lt. Young attempted a crash landing, but hit a fence. His crate was smashed to bits, and poor Lt. Young was mortally wounded.


After landing, we went into to the debrief and discovered that Lt. Lewis was killed in action with the Albatros scouts. He was a good sort, Tom was, and I shall miss him terribly.



I also got a bit of good news, in that my claim of an Albatros D.III from my last mission was confirmed. It gives me great satisfaction that I'm doing my duty by shooting down Huns. Every one I shoot down may save one of our lads from a sorry fate.



Right, well I'm off to bed. It's been a trying day and I've got a wizard headache. I must admit that my nerves aren't the best after a scrap like we had today. But, I'm sure tomorrow will be better and I'll be right as rain after some sleep.

I hope things are well at home. All my love.

Your son,

Holden

13 April, 1917:

I got a couple more today. I led four kites from B flight to escort three BE.2s on a bombing mission behind enemy lines. As we approached the target, we could see the huns were up and waiting. Our two-seaters decided this was not a good day to die and turned back. I positioned B flight to cover their withdrawal as five Albatri approached. We climbed and retreated behind the BEs until we were more or less over no-man's-land before turning on our pursuers in a dive. We were soon all quite busy as the huns were very good. For a while the whole fight seemed contained in a half-mile wide box, felt like a knife fight in a telephone booth. I nearly collided with friend and foe alike as aircraft whizzed by. Somewhere one of the Germans, I never saw which, got a few rounds into my kite, the first time I had allowed a scout to get a shot into me thus far. I was more uncomfortable about the outcome of this fight than any I had yet been in. But it gradually broke up and I was left alone with a single Albatross. This guy was good, and it was some time before I get a shot off and damaged him. But he just wouldn't quit as I fired burst after burst into him. Eventually I must have hit several of his struts as he suddenly disintegrated right in front of me. I barely avoided colliding with the debris.



Looking for my flight, I spotted black archie bursts in the distance, and flew towards them. I spotted a couple Nieuports engaged with the remaining Albatrosses. One of ours was running for home with an Albatross close behind. I swung in behind this one undetected and let him have it from close range. I don't think he ever saw me and he spiraled down into a field and crashed. We returned home without further incident. It was a good day for 60 Squadron. B flight's four aircraft claimed six, and A flight's five claimed four more without loss to ourselves. Later that day I got confirmation that my seventh, eighth and ninth victories had been confirmed.

Breaking above the clouds layer

Notes of Captain Roger Overtone - RFC 60 - Filescamp airfield - April 5, 1917 (Mission 5)

This morning at 7:00 I took off from Filescamp leading a flight of 3 Nieuports 23 and 3 Nieuports 17 to intercept enemy planes south east of Arras. Weather was the same as days before, low clouds and rain. We fortunately found a hole in the clouds which allowed us to climb above the clouds layer. As we got to the frontlines, we quickly spotted a flight of four DFW CVs over our infantry units. We quickly separated the two outside wingmen. I attacked the two remaining ones with 2nd Lt Geoffrey Mac Leod. We managed to down one of them but I think Mac Leod had probably been hit during the attack as I saw him going west loosing altitude towards our lines. When I came back to Filescamp I learned he was reported missing.

Report from Lt Roberts - 1st Bat. 86th Inf. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers - April 5, 1917

Around 7:40 this morning, we saw one british plane coming out of the clouds, heading west. It seems the pilot was looking for an airfield to land. At this moment, three german planes appeared from nowhere and dove on the poor guy. His plane was obviously damaged from a previous fight because it could not turn normally. After a minute it was over, we saw the plane crash behind our lines while the three german planes were climbing away.
I sent some men to the crash site but it was too late, the pilot was already dead. The plane was a Nieuport, we could still read on the tail the number A-6673.


One DFW goes down - hit by the second one.



** Personal notes :
* I'm guilty on this one, I broke one of my rules : "never attack two seaters if more than one in formation" - I was hit by the gunner of the second one.
* It was not so bad, except the controls were hit as the plane was stiff on turning.
* I would have rejoined an airfield anywhere without a problem, hadn't it been for the three Albatros which came out of nowhere at the moment I broke under the cloud ceiling at 5000 ft... I hadn't seen them before, could be they were on patrol in the vicinity.

Best of luck to the survivors !

Congrats gecko on your victories and tough deal corsaire. I've been making my living on 2-seaters so far this campaign but last time around I had more bullet holes in my craft than I'd prefer.

Nice job Slick and I'm sorry to hear a out your wingmate. We get attached to some of these guys and it's tough to see them go.

Sorry to report the Iam 'Ballsy' Nieup failed to return from his last flight.


His squad was on a low level patrol across enemy lines when they attacked several German two seaters (DFW's). Things were going well until they were jumped by a flight of Albatrosses. Iam attempted to put his plane down in a field with the hope of getting rid of the three Albatrosses on his tail when he met a fence.... Only one member from his flight of four returned to base.

Corsaire, sorry to see him go, he was having a good career.
Minalmist, I was wondering when someone would have a match with the deadly fences. I came close myself on one flight.
Gecko, good show mate, watch out for theose attacks by triple albs. It seems to be happening to a lot of us.

The main things for me to remember from this challenge will be loosing sight of faster planes in my own flight when I was not leading (would have been wiser - but less realistic - to tick "always lead" in the workshop settings...) and flying five missions with a plane I don't like in miserable weather conditions (I don't in my own campaigns. If it's raining/snowing when we spawn on the airfield, I cancel the mission and move time forward to the next one.)
Let's hope the next challenge will look brighter !

Keep a sharp eye gecko! You have a great run going! Corsaire and Minalmist, Ouch! We will toast your flying at the mess tonight. Tough getting away from 3 Huns in a damaged kite!

Slick, Great story. Keep up the fine flying. Hope to see you in the mess tonight if I can survive.

I'll keep my head on a swivel! Getting quite nervous now with so many meeting their fate. Before every flight I stop and take a minute to remind myself, look behind you! Don't build up too much speed! Don't overreach! And lately after having emptied my gun for too quickly on several occasions, Conserve ammunition! If I don't do this I find I get careless.

You are so right! You may get away with being careless once or twice, maybe, if you try your luck one too many times you are a dead man.