I lost track of my men when we hit cloud cover. Standard recce in the plane I call my "BBW", baby blue whale, I heard arial combat, could not see anything. I dove, my BBW is very good at going down, out of the clods I could easily see our escort of 3 EIIIs scraping with N16s. At this time I also saw a Roland smoking and about to crash. I checked my compass and headed for home. Landed after my men did. One man is missing.

After mission brief shows he took a plane down before he went down

Corsaire, that wet Strutter in the grey skies looks so realistic!

Carry on, MudWasp! I can fly again tomorrow - when our planes are repaired.

I am having trouble flying because it is so sunny here my TrackIr doesn't work properly until the sun goes down. And then I have other things to do... Maybe I would be better off in the UK where the sun rarely shines if I remember rightly.

I have to fly afternoons here because of soccer games in the evening. It is very sunny at this time of the year, I simply almost close the shades ...

If I close the blinds my wife complains about me sitting in the dark when it is nice and sunny outside..... Although she is French she has no interest in football, although she went to the semi-final back in 1998 when France beat Croatia and we all joined in the celebrations in Rheims after the final. That was quite a night, lots of champagne was drunk! Just to set the record straight her trip to France and the semi-final ticket was paid for by MasterCard and (much to her disgust) she was put up for free at EuroDisney! I had to pay my own way.....

Her relations refer to EuroDisney as 'La honte de France' ....

I put cardboard up on my windows on sunny days.

Mine is at work, someone has to pay for my retirement... If she knew all what I do when she's not in !

Women in general have no interest for the combination armchair, beer, peanuts, pizza and sports !

I pull my shades down and there's little direct sunlight that hits this particular room. It's like a little cave and I love it for flying.

My window is to my right and never makes any problems with TrackIR.

You can always skip the 'circling climb' phase of the flight by using the next-waypoint command (shift+w). It works even when you are not the flight-leader.

You have to wait until the takeoff sequence is complete; the command will be ignored prior to that. But when the flight reaches the climb-out location and you will see the leader enter the 'big climbing circle' part of the flight then you can hit shift+w and he will immediately head for the next waypoint.

It works well, and I use this quite a lot. I find that getting to the first waypoint sooner often increases the chances of a successful hook-up with escorts.

MudWasp - The British Admiralty, represented here by Commander Louvert, awarded your pilot Andrew Anderson a medal.
It will appear in the next updated chart.

Thankyou, I'm honored.
R.I.P. Andy ~S~

It was a hell of a day for my BBW and I. Recon mission with very short distance, 3 of us in B flight and 1 in A flight. I'm tasked with flight leader....red flags go up in my mind. So we take off, I circle the airfield twice and head away from the front to gain height. My men are tight behind me in a V, no clue where the lone man from A flight is.

We gain altitude steadily and I change direction towards the front. I'm guessing we were about 4500 feet high. All of a sudden I hear an enemy aircraft machine gun going off and then a German rear gunner fighting back. I look back and we are being attacked...ok..dive and run. My BBW's engine roars to life at full throttle and we head for home. The man on my right flank is in trouble...Big Time trouble. I see 4 French Nieups swarming arond him like the deerflies do an me when I garden on a muggy day with no wind. Flee or Run? I fled for my home airfield which is probably 4 miles away. constantly checking my tail.

One of my men is certain die, gangbanged by a flock of Nieups. Hans and are fleeing for home. There is the forest our airfield is at. I see the airfield now, but I'm not lined up properly to land, need to turn 90 after I fly over it. Hans is being attacked now. I hear then see that. I can't let another squad man die. I pull a hammarhead.

Two Niups are on him and I'm closing fast for a head on attack. His engine starts afire, the Nieup that caused that is the lower of the two and headed directly at me. I squirt off some short burts to hopefully get his nose/gun off me. It works and I apply left rudder for another burst. My BBW is now crabbing/dogtracking with an excellent head on shot. One Missippi, 2 Missippi, 3 Missippi, I count off in my head as I pepper him and send his engine smoking.

Where is the other Nieup? I can't see him, I now intend to land, but suddenly hear my observer/rear gunner blasting off short bursts. I hear the fabric on my BBW tear and see tracer fire going past me. I know where that other Nieup is now. My rear gunner squirts off two more short blasts as we fly over our airfield. He must have scored a few hits, I can now this is an N16 and it is reversing direction.

I pull a hard left aleron bank with as little rudder as possible. I'm on his 6 now and below. I think he may be able to climb away, so I squirt off some rounds at him, he turns to fight and dives. I go for a pilot kill as I catch him in the turn. It works...I land my BBW. I was the only plane that lived today.

We are low on planes now and can not fly.

Olham, may I advance through briefings and see when we have enough planes to fly again?

Yes, sure - just advance, check, and then leave again.
Nothing will happen, if you don't press "Go to field".

Augustus Mueller
FA 5 Lb
Mission 21 June 1916 (10th Mission)
Bombing Enemy Front Lines
Area: NorthEast of Arras between Arras and Thelus

Escort - 2 Fokker E III from Jasta 11

2 aircraft Avialik CI - Flight Leader Augustus Mueller

Takeoff: 05h50

At 06h09 flight was attacked by British Ni 11 aircarft. As we were close to FA 5 LB air field (Haubourdin), we landed at home airfield for protection.

Once HA had left the area, I continued alone with the mission. As I approached the attack area, my aircraft came under anti aircraft fire. I pressed on with the attack, dropping my bombs which unfortunately missed their targets. I returned to Haubourdin under heavy enemy anti aircraft fire.

Landed safety at airfield.

I live to fight another day!

Well done MadWasp - good show!

Corsaire 31 pics are so cool looking. Congrats to all trying to get thru WOFF

Congrats, Beanie and MudWasp - Mud, that was a thriller like the match Germany vs Ghana I just watched!
Well done!

Agree on the nice game ! This time the old Gary Linecker saying was wrong...
I see Germany going far in this world cup, specially when you see who you have on the replacement bench ! France could probably play Germany in quarters as it looks like at the moment !
Now I go fly my Spad 81 mission while listening to Nigeria - Bosnia on the radio !

I've got my transfer at last! My last mission for 13 squadron was a reconnaissance flight over Arras. All pretty quiet until we picked up two Eindekkers that followed us home, attacking as we descended to land. The defensive machine guns of the aerodrome protected us and the two Fokkers crashed. Landing with the smoke of the wrecks hanging over the field, I received the news that I am to go to Abeele and join 29 squadron in their DH2s.