homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Wings: Over Flanders Fields The "DiD Campaign Revival" - Intro, Rules, Reports & Records Chart

Done

Also done by me - Olham now has the latest picture which I think he will post tonight.

Flight Sub-Lt Alex Ackworth - RNAS 4 - Coudekerque - 21 July 1916 (Mission 21)

Today I get the afternoon flight led by Flight Cdr Edward. I am tail-end charlie again on a flight of 5 Strutters for an artillery spotting mission over ground units east of Bethune. We are granted an escort of 5 Nieuports 11 of RNAS 1 flying from Furnes. At least these will be able to keep up pace with us ! A couple more Strutters will form flight A and finish the job if necessary.

As we cross the Lys river, there is a cloud across our path and I decide to go around its right and catch up with the flight on target zone. As soon as I separate right from the flight, they all make a 90° left turn heading north, followed by the Nieuports. Great ! I now just have to do the same and try to catch up... In front of me I see the Nieuports diving and after closing in I see they are all after three Fokkers. Looks like our leader forgot we are here for the arty guys ! Having no interest to dive in the furball, I circle above and wait while scanning the skies for possible new enemy aircrafts.

After a few minutes, I see everyone under starting to fly large circles to reform. Seems that the Fokkers are dead or running away. I think we will get back to our mission, but Flight Cdr Edward takes the flight west after reforming. So much for the arty boys, they will have to count on Flight A to spot their fire.

As we near Bailleul airfields, my attention is drawn by high white puffs and I start climbing, only to discover four Aviatiks drawing circles up there. I try to catch one of them but they are too high and head home. I make a large turn to take the heading of Coudekerque, and spot a Fokker that has been following me from the front and managed to catch up when I was busy with the Aviatiks. I draw him over Bailleul to have assistance from ground fire. At one point he stalls in front of me, motionless in the air. I shoot four bullets, one hit, and like the last one he goes into a flat spin all the way down. I think my ground crew has found a crate of silver bullets and used them in my front machine gun !

Back to Coudekerque, claim for a seventh victory and promoted to Flight Lieutenant. A good day again !

Congratulations on the promotion Corsaire! With your flying hours and the attrition rate I would have thought it would have come sooner.

There were only one or two times in the beginning when we suspended flights because of lack of observers, but that's been a while that we don't loose many planes, most of the time they all come back with some needing repairs.
I guess it might change when we meet other enemies than the poor Eindeckers.

The re-run to Houplin wasn't considered a success by HQ although I did make a point to spray bullets at every hangar and the field itself. At least they are not making us go back.

In the afternoon, I was sent off on a lone wolf patrol. The idea is to surprise the enemy, but I was surprised by two Eindeckers while still climbing for altitude on our side of the lines. But not so surprised that I didn't see them at all. I made use of the DH2's superior flat turning to keep altitude while waiting for an opportunity to strike. First one, then the other decided this was a silly game to play over enemy territory and broke for home.

Bad idea to do that second. I was on his 6 and got in a solid burst at 30 yards. He went down and I saw him crash.

Later on I was attacked by 3 Eindeckers over Houplin. This time I was on the enemy side of the line and thought that my number was up. Happily the Eindeckers have no stamina. I turned, climbed west and then turned to face them. Then I repeated the process until I reached the lines after 5 miles that lasted an eternity.
The last Eindecker who had stayed with me decided he had had enough of me and headed East.

With no small amount of relief I flew home to Abeele.

MFair: U are right. The closer I get to 25 hours the more nervous I become. Anyone else have Budget Gunners like the kind I get ? They seem to fire on at a reduced rate. For example, 1st pass 3 bullets 2nd pass 7 bullets 3rd pass 7 bullets . land back at base with a few hundred bullets left over. It doesn't happen all the time, my Be2 gunner ,when he didn't freeze, got off 30 rds in 2 or 3 bursts which equal 10-15 rds per burst. No complaint about the game, I was just wondering ?

Here come the official "WOFF DiD Campaign Medals" for our pilot RAF_Louvert and lederhosen.

25 hours in the deadly world of WOFF are the first step to big achievements - congratulations, lederhosen!



50 hours - flown under the hardest conditions (LEVEL A and "hotspot") must be the result of tight concentration and awareness,
paired with the best abilities as a pilot and navigator.
You were one of my few top aspirants to achieve this, and now you did - congratulations, RAF_Louvert!




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Lou, thank you for the goblet graphic!

Corsaire, congrats to your promotion!
You know this will be an expensive evening for you - the boys are all at the bar already!

Last but not least - our latest chart.

Olham for info your result sheet still shows "updated 10 July 2014".

Drinks are on me for anyone who can make it to Coudekerque airfield.

Augustus Snodgrass
Sgt, Rfc
70 Sgn.

Went on 2 hops today.

A.M. Flew in 8 a/c flight down Arras. Results: B flight no contact. A flight seemed to run afoul of the Huns and lost 2 a/c. Huns ?

P.M. Went over to Bray 7 a/c. A flight (3 a/c) got into a furball low level with 2 fokkers. I spotted a Bandit Train 5 a/c climbing towards us off to their side of the lines. Flying smart, B flight (4) headed home. Out of nowhere 2 fokkers fell on our six as 3 more climbed under us. Scattering, the Meat Grinder began down to the deck. Pot shots were made every where and at everyone . My backseater may have got one. after I made the firing head on attack. I ran for it and landed at Chiplly AF to check damage on a/c. The Sqn had 3 damaged + 1 wnd Gunner on this one. Claimed 1 Fokker.

cool

Basel had 2 missions today.

First one he was put forward to lead "A" flight for the first time. Nervs and excitement.
Nice pre-flight with the lads, engines started, flight line ready to go. Basel gives the signal and off they go..BoomBoom hahahaha.

2 min into the climb and Basels engine leaks oil...bloody AM!! Wash out and back to land. Squadron C.O. not very pleased, "bloody poor show Basel, bloody poor"

Corrections made to chart.

See u in the mess Corsaire! I have a tremendous thirst to cure!

The continuing career of Albert "Mushroom" Ward:





20 Jul 1916 @ 15h27 Bombing Enemy Front Lines South of Diksmuide, East of De Blankaart lake.

Shook lead the mission with Hervey, Mesurier, Myself, and Huskisson accompanying.
“A” flight sent two covering Strutters flown by Soar and Hill. We also had two DH. 2 escort from RFC-29. The mission flight was quiet until we were approaching the target area. I spotted 5 EIII’s a short distance below and on my port side approaching us. I was anticipating an attack but they flew right on by us. I don’t see how they could have missed us so they must have had something important on their minds. We bombed the target lines successfully and returned back to base. All the time I was watching for the EIII’s but no sight of them. When we got back to base we discovered that Soar and Hill got two EIII’s so I suspect they met the same group that passed us. The CO announced that Hill had been issued the Military Cross so we have cause to celebrate tonight.

YouTube Video:

Hi mates,

Just a quick question. How do I differenciate between the warzones? is Flanders always high activity?

Hope to get some flying Times under my belt today.

Cheers

The zones and their difficulty levels are on page one of this thread. At the moment Flanders South is a hotspot and Flanders North is medium.

It's about time I also did some flying. At the moment I am staying alive by hiding in the mess

There is a chart in the original post giving details of what status each region is in throughout the war. After the rules and before the workshop settings.

Flanders divides into a north and south region. The south is a hotspot because of the Somme offensive, but the north is quieter as it is only medium. The Somme offensive will calm down in October before all regions except Verdun become quiet for the winter months, when campaigning becomes difficult.

LtCasey, for your reports you only need to know, if your home base lies in
Flanders North or Flanders South.
You do NOT need to valuate sorties according to their routes.

If you tell me an airfield you want to fly from, I can tell you which zone it is.

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corsaire, congrats on the promotion Sir. Seems you and I are the leading DID officers at the moment as Artemus was recently promoted to full Lieutenant himself.

lederhosen, excellent job on making it to 25 hours, that is a milestone in this campaign Sir.

Lt. Burroughs is out of the fight until Friday. During his AM mission yesterday he was hit by one of those infamous sniper shots by a German gunner from about 500 yards out. The brave RFC flyer landed his kite at the nearest friendly base where he was patched up and told to go rest for the next four days.

Wonderful reports, screenies, and videos folks. Thanks again to all for sharing them here. Unfortunately my work schedule has been keeping me very busy and what free time I have at home I spend getting in my DID missions which leaves me no time to post any of my pilot’s adventures. Sorry for that, (posting this from a hotel room in Wisconsin at the moment as I am on the road yet again).


Olham, one small correction to your most recent chart: Artemus is still shown as a 2nd Lt and as mentioned here he is a full Lieutenant now. Just note that for your Wednesday chart and also mark him as ‘wounded’ on that one as well. Thanks again for hosting this great campaign.


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Lou, that gawd-damn chart must have a life of it's own; like a djungle.
You could swear you had changed something, according to the latest data -
and next day you discover: the old thing has grown back, like the arm
of an octopus...!

Or - maybe I get old...

I prefer the first version.