#4497488 - 11/17/19 05:24 PM
The King Should Demand a Refund
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,921
vonBaur
Senior Member
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Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,921
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Was balloon busting with RNAS 9. After I hit "Go to field" it dawned on me that I should have seen if I could put rockets on my N11. When the mission started, to my pleasant surprise, I already had them. After we took off and formed up I noticed that all the Pups in the flight were similarly kitted out. "OK," I thought, "a little overkill, forty rockets for one balloon, but it's not coming out of my paycheck."
Considering I only carry 194 rounds of ammunition and I've already run out of ammo without knocking down my opponent twice and had one of my "buddies" steal a kill on earlier flights, I decide that I'm going to pull out in front as we approach so I can fire first, just to be sure I get the kill. As I approach the balloon, with my squadron mates well out of range behind me, I fire all eight rockets. They all leave their tubes looking good...and then the smoke trails bend down. I was so close that I couldn't see more than two thirds of the Kraut sausage in my monitor (max fov), and I swear I could hear the Hun in the basket cursing me out as I barely avoided a collision. And all my rockets went low. I could have thrown a rock and hit the damned thing. I think I could have thrown a piece of paper and hit it, I was so close. Not even wadded up paper, just a flat sheet.
So I pull out and watch as the rest of my flight dives down on the enemy balloon and think, "Well, there goes another one to someone else." I watch as, one by one, each and every one of them fires his rockets from close range at the gigantic target hovering motionless in the sky. And I watch as each and every one of them misses. Some low, some high. But not a single rocket comes close enough for even a spark to ignite the highly flammable hydrogen gas just waiting to light up the French countryside. So I swung around and brought it down with 30 trusty British incendiary rounds.
As soon as I get back to base I'm writing a letter to King George and telling him to demand a refund from the French government. I'm going to file my claim, first...let's not get crazy. I said from day 1 that rockets fired from aeroplanes are totally useless. And they always will be.
SALUTE TO ALL!
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#4497685 - 11/19/19 05:02 PM
Re: The King Should Demand a Refund
[Re: vonBaur]
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,921
vonBaur
Senior Member
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Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,921
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Update: Well, we had to pop another of the Kaiser's birthday balloons (actually, it was the one they put up to replace the one described above, but I digress). Same plan with one slight modification. Because all the rockets missed either high or low I decided to approach along the long axis of the gasbag (suddenly my mother-in-law popped into my head...I don't know why*). I did make a slight miscalculation by committing too early to a north-to-south run, which put me coming at its nose instead of its tail, making for a smaller target profile.
Anyway, I fired off my rockets and this time I scored a hit. I was too close to see the impact, but my little Nieuport was rocked to the point of briefly losing control and my being wounded by the debris, so I must have hit it. SUCCESS!!! Or so I thought. Once I regained control I looked back and the balloon, though smoking, still floated. My flight leader and one other member then made a pass each, loosing their rockets in the standard broadside salvos and all the rockets missed. And then the balloon exploded.
As near as I could tell no one else had hit it, so I was curious to see how it would be scored. After the mission I was not "congratulated on my kill(s)" and when I checked the details it had been awarded to the last man to make a pass. Of possible note, even though six of my eight rockets stuck the balloon (which should have done the trick, considering flaming rockets passing through a few thousand cubic meters of hydrogen) he fired and scored two hits with bullets and I didn't. So next time I'm going to (a) make sure I approach from the low side to increase the target area and (b) fire a short machine gun burst immediately after my rockets.
*(I joke. My mother-in-law was a very nice woman and we got along very well.)
SALUTE TO ALL!
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#4498254 - 11/25/19 03:25 AM
Re: The King Should Demand a Refund
[Re: vonBaur]
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 740
Ace_Pilto
Livestreamer/YouTuber
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Livestreamer/YouTuber
Member
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 740
Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
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I usually leave the meme rockets at home. They just look silly.
Let's pretend I got the BWOC badge to embed here.
Wenn ihr sieg im deine Kampf selbst gegen, wirst stark wie Stahl sein. "The best techniques are passed on by the survivors." - Gaiden Shinji
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CD WOFF
by Britisheh. 03/28/24 08:05 PM
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