The continuing career of William Henry Wiggins:

17 Dec 1917 @ 08h26 Patrol Friendly Front Lines West of St. Mihiel

Again I was chosen to lead this mission with Leps, Dhome, and Pradine in accompaniment. We also had three members of A flight flying top cover.
As we approached the lines I spotted three specs coming from the east well below us. I circled down to assume an attack position and was soon able to identify them as Albatross DV's. I signalled to attack and took the lead craft that was well ahead of the other two. We danced for what seemed an enless period with neither able to get the advantage and gradually drifting into the enemy side of the lines. My opponent started to climb away so I came up on his port side and hit him with deflection shots a few times. Pradine jumped in and finished him off. The other two Albs must have turned and run because all four of us unded up tail chasing each other for this one opponent. We then reformed and headed back to our lines. We haed no further encounters and landed at Rembercourt which had taken some hits earlier as could be seen by the damage to the buildings.
Pradine seems to have a knack for finishing off my opponents for me.

Mission #18

Nice flying Robert. It seems you may survive this Campaign. One more mission right?

Btw Rick, could you or Jim update the scorecard on the first page? I know that I've updated the questionaire after I died, so my info until my demise should be available.

Thanks!

I now have 18 missions done. That is 6 per week. Am I not finished? If I have more to fly please let me know.

It's in the rules :

"This challenge will have a have a hard end date of Sunday, July 13th. That gives us three weeks and a day. You can have a maximum of 19 missions total. Then we can tally the points and declare a winner. You are certainly free to continue to fly your pilot after that if still alive, but for point determination, we need a cut-off date. "

I read this on the rules;

This challenge will have a have a hard end date of Sunday, July 13th. That gives us three weeks and a day. You can have a maximum of 19 missions total. Then we can tally the points and declare a winner. You are certainly free to continue to fly your pilot after that if still alive, but for point determination, we need a cut-off date.

One more mission is my take on it

Adjt Gabriel de Tonnac - SPA 81 - 30 Nov 1917 (Mission 14)

This morning we escort again our friends of Esc 28 in Vadelaincourt for a reco over enemy ground units north of Auve airfield.

I lead the flight with Discours and de Pradine. Beautiful weather with a few clouds around 1800m.
We join with the two Strutters and on we go, flying a little above 2000m. Over target zone, I spot 5 specks high above us. One of them separates from the group and dives towards us. Turns out to be a Pfalz DIII. I am glad the four others didn't see us or were not in a fighting mood !

De Pradine is the first of us to go meet the Pfalz so I let him do the dirty job, while Discours and I stay with the Strutters. The two fighting planes soon disappear from our field of vision.

On the way back from mission, we come across a couple of Albatros DV returning from their patrol who seem interested by our Strutters. We jump on them and I send mine down, the other one crosses the lines and we let him go.

Suddenly my engine starts to make strange "klonks" so I decide we land at Auve to see what's wrong. Engine will need a couple of days repair, so Discours flies back to Beauzée to ask them to pick me up in the afternoon. De Pradine made it back OK, didn't get his Pfalz down.

I am glad to receive confirmation of my last claim which adds another ace to my collection, Johannes "Hans" Werner (*) from Jasta 14.

(*) ended the war with 7 victories among which Australian ace Roderick Dallas. He was flying a DR1 when shooting down the SE5a and finished the war flying a Fokker DVIII

Marc LeFair
9 missions 18pts.
3wks 6pts
7kills 21pts
Ace 5pts
TOTAL 50pts

Lieutenat Jack just came back from a 5 day pass spent with the LaFontaine clan down in Savoie. It was great to spend time with his many Aunts, Uncles, and cousins over Christmas.


Mission 13




Before hooking up with the Strutters, Jack noticed flak smoke nearby. Flying about a mile higher than the flak he noticed a DF going with at least 8 planes involved. Jack stayed high and scanned the region above the chaos for any lone hawks. One came into view and circled upwards towards him. He dove head on into the plane, now obviosly an Alb of some sort and set it's engine smoking as he slip slid gun onto target. Glancing over his left shoulder he saw the german pounced upon by 2 of his wingmen. They tag teamed the Alb until it fell from the sky like a one winged Maple tree seed.

Turning his attention to the DF below, Jack made a diving pass over the center picking out 1 Alb. and lining up for where he epected it to be. It's engine was set smoking and he thought he heard the pilot scream. Once again he saw a wingman take the german bird down as all 3 of them seemed to be battling to the one to get the kill.

Jack stayed higher than the rest of the DF and swept in on the tail of another Alb, this one chasing a Spad away from the center of the DF. He definately heard the pilot scream this time. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the plane roll over and begin it's quick spiral into the ground. He kept his altitude and flew back towards the flak smoke and the dwindling DF.

The Df was pretty much over. Jack searched for his wingmen, who must have been looking for him, cause when he checked his six he saw 2 chasing him. No sign of the third, so He took the remaining 2 towards the general area of the Strutters Recce zone. He ran into 2 escortless Strutters there and guessed/hoped they were the right ones to escort. No trouble presented itself during the escort over the front and slighly behind enemy lines. None as the Strutters headed back into friendly turf either. The Strutters took him right over his own airfield before they went into a landing pattern at a nearby field. Jack then RTB.

The debriefing showed that 4 of them each had a claim to fill out and that one, Marcel marc Dhome, was forced to ditch in a field. All were were unharmed, Marcel's plane was damaged.

image post

Balloon near the River Ben our sector of the lines. 1545 hrs: take off 4 Spads of 2nd Flt plus 1 a/c from 1st Flt for high cover.
easy flight in the gathering darkness. I got a few hits on the gas bag the overshot. Looking around, spotted # 4 a/c getting the Kill the bag went up in a fireball. Sad to say, a smaller fire was low and off to the right. It was #3 a/c Marc Pardines ground fire must have got him. His Spad trailing Flames rolled over and impacted the ground near one of the Hun gun pits. The flight RTB.


picture uploader

Taking off at 15:45 is only with NVGs ! That's usually the time I decide it is last limit to fly back home !

The continuing career of William Henry Wiggins:

18 Dec 1917 @ 09h17 Patrol Enemy Front Lines East of St. Mihiel

I lead this patrol with Leps and Cardon on what proved to be an uneventful trip. It was a beautifully clear day with winds a 3 knots our of the WNW. As we approached the lines I took us up to 19,000 + feet for our two leg trip back and

forth between our lines and the target area. We did not encounter any enemy craft. We came back to base and all landed safely.

Mission #19

Congratulations on surviving another campaign Robert! Maybe another prize in store.

Thanks MFair. The prize for me is being able to survive it this time. I think Mudwasp has this one wrapped up unless he has some bad luck. Corsaire also is still in the running.

I have learned to appreciate the strenghts of the Spad but the visibility is horrendous.

Good luck to Corsaire and Mudwasp! Don't do anything foolish!

Congrats, Robert, I will try to finish it also, but will have a lot less victories. (so far 5 planes and 1 Drachen)

As promised folks!!

I finally received my framed picture from our local framer. Doesn't it look sweet over my work station!




Again, I want to thank MFair the fine donation and for his persistence in making the delivery happen. It was no easy task.
I Also want to thank Russell Smith for his part in the delivery process and for the fine piece of work he created in the print "The Eagle and the Butterfly".

I will cherish this one because it will be a reminder of all the good times I have had with the members of this forum.
This is definitely the finest group of people I have had the pleasure to interface with online.

I know I am in the running for the latest Challenge but I want to say right here that if by miracles I should win this one (for that to happen Mudwasp would have to get himself into one hell of a lot of trouble), I will decline the print and suggest that it be given to the runner up. I would like to see someone else have the pleasure of Russell's art work.

Best Regards to all.

Congrats on living thru the Challenge, Robert !
That print looks right at home there...

Congrats on surviving the challenge, Robert! I hope to emulate your successful completion during the next challenge. But knowing Rick, he'll think of something really challenging for the next one.

Congrats on surviving 19 missions Robert. That was no easy task. Nice setup and print by the way.

Attaboy RW.....good show!!!! Wish I'd kept my head and hung in there with you guys.....