Here's a new one.... Alfred got Promoted to 2Lt...yippy.
But I wanted to know a bit more about this sort of thing.

Seems measures had been taken before the war started, and that NCO's could become "Temporary Gentleman"...that is hold a Temporary commision for the duration of the war. Now this had been seen as a necessary evil in 1914 and that Officers from the ranks would have to replace dead ones. Thus all Temporary Gentlemen would have to take part in a very short emergancy training of one month in Sandhusrt..... Emergany training for proper Gentlemen was 4 months!!! holy crap, my basic Tarining was 6 months plus another 6 for infantry.

So perhaps, for this Campaign, The promotion from Sgt to 2Lt should force us to take a month off.

I know this could happen to Hun NCO pilots as well, but it was quite uncommen. Most NCO pilots were sent to the bombers with the scouts being almost completely reserved for Officers.NCO pilots would then have to stick it out no matter how good they were for the most part.


so I'm going to advance the date by say 2weeks travel and a months training. Then fly 1 mission per week till I catch up to the real date of this year and fly in sink with my other DID pilots.

Nottingham, May 1915.

„Morning Mom“
„Morning Alfed. You sit down here and I’ll get your breakfast.”
“Ta Mom”
“Morning Son. Here’s a letter in the post for you. Looks all official and such, here.”
“Hmm, it’s from London.”
“Go on then, open it. Don’t keep us in suspense.”
“To Sgt……….. “
“What’s it say then?”
Alfred looked straight into the fire place with a sort of dumbfounded expression. Both parents started to worry.
“Is it bad news then?”
“What, err no Mom. Seems I’m to be a Temporary Gentleman, whatever that means. I’m to report to Sandhurst Officers Training School by the end of this week.”
“Well what’s that mean then? How can anybody be temporarily a Gentleman. You’re either born that way or not.”
Alfred gave the letter to his mother. A small smile started to grow as Alfred thought about it.
“Good Lord! You have to buy all this then. Why it’s a small fortune. You don’t have that sort of money Alfred.”
“What you talking about Woman, give me the letter will ya.”
Alfreds Farther read through the list of things that would have to be paid for. After a deep sigh he looked at his wife.
“Well, we have a little put a side don’t we. And I know we were saving it for Alfreds future an such, but I don’t want someone saying that our Alfred can’t afford to be a Gentleman. You don’t fuss about this Alfred, if they says you’re a Gentleman then you are one.”

Sounds fine to me lederhosen.

Good backstory lederhosen

Clarke went POOF with a WOFF mishap, so here is Dolf....

MudWasp,
Saw what happened to your rig in the Albatros challenge. Too bad about all your pilots. I'd hate to lose the pilots for this challenge with 180 missions under their belts. Tough luck!

I think I screwed up and backed up pilots after my WOFF went wonky. Not sure why or how WOFF gets corrupt, but it happens.

Cennydd Cadwallader will never enjoy squinting into those bright early morning suns, but he has to admit that there are a few moments to remember:


and it puts a softening glow to the machines:


... makes it easy to forget that the whole reason of being up there in the first place is to kill people.

Loftyc, just wait for the searchlights to add to the ambiance.

Maybe a good idea to keep a second backup somewhere, say twice a week so if it ever happens again you only loose a couple of days. Isn't it wonderful how hindsight is 20- 20!

Dolf is becoming acquainted with his squadmates and his Aviatik BII. All three models of the Aviatik are currently in use with Ernst Udet being the only C-1 equipped pilot. Unfortunately when he leads a flight he forgets our Aviatiks are slower. The best formation so far has been with Dolf leading the flight in a BII at a speed which the BIs can keep up with.

Moranes were sighted on a frontline bombing run. Fortunately they didn't engage our flight.

MudWasp, the survey hasn't been updated with Dolf so that's why he isn't in this week's status report.

Here you go guys this is the latest status report for last week's activity.

Thanks for posting these Banjoman. I'll make sure to update on Fridays in the future.

Some pics of an afternoon bombing run from Colmar to the nearest enemy airfield Fontaine. Three of us in our flight with Udet in the Aviatik CI and Beineck and Dolf in the first BIIs.


Fontaine is easy to get to by simply keeping the hills off the right wing with a rough heading of South West. On the way there Beineck's Aviatik BII caught on fire and exploded. Now we are down to four pilots with another on leave.

Dropping bombs on Fontaine



Udet's CI carries more bombs and took another 10 minutes or so to drop his bomb load. Getting home to Colmar was simply a matter of keeping the hills off the left wing and a rough heading of North east. The sun was setting and the full moon was rising as they landed.

Nice report MudWasp, it won't be long till you get a scout.

Pic says it all





Thats my own third fire this campaign. I've witnessed two others turn into meteors thus far too. With all the info
turned off these massive failures are just tooooo sudden and hard to respond too. Other engine failures you can hear before they
happen. Anyway of having ..say a smaller fire before the thing errupts????

Another 6 days off from Off

Glad you lived!
Plane usually explodes when I get a fire.

Sight and sound we can simulate in WOFF. Not smell though and I'm guessing there would be a strong fuel odor in some of these fires.

You know, I've read a bunch of WWI memoirs and I can't remember a one of them that mentions their plane or wingmen's planes bursting into flames. I wonder if maybe the engine failure code could be tweeked a little?

In another topic, does anybody mind if I create an additional pilot to fly as a German in the Intrepid fliers group? We don't have any Germans in the Intrepid flier group.

Banjoman, I'm not running this rodeo but the more the merrier I say!

Go for it with the german pilot. Hey, i think I screwed up the alphabetical naming sequence with my pilots, should have had Clarke start with an "A" as he was my first pilot in that time period