Carrick, keep the pressure on!

17 March, 1916 10:45
Senard, Verdun Sector
Escadrille N37
Adjutant Gaston A. Voscadeaux
2 confirmed kills

Dark clouds sprawled across the entire sky. Their colour ranged from dark grey, to beige, with brown and mauve in between. Gaston thought the tan canvas of their mounts was blending pretty well with these rain-laden clouds. He was leading a flight of four, escorting a duo of Nieuports 12 in the ‘A’ Flight en route to recce enemy front lines north of St. Mihiel salient. There was plenty of cloud cover over the target. Gaston followed the N12s and was thinking to himself that a flight of Eindeckers could be hiding in these clouds above them and none of them would be any wiser. He didn’t have the chance to finish his thought when two Fokkers jumped out of the brown cloud ahead of them. The good thing was that they looked just as startled by the sight of six French machines in front of them, as the French aviators were surprised at the sight of the duo of monoplanes coming out of the clouds. The improvised attack was uncoordinated by both sides, but the sheer numbers on the French side forced Germans to go on defensive. As the Boche leader flew by followed by his wingman, they were split by the French flight. The trio of Gaston's flight mates jumped on the lead Fokker jostling for position, while Gaston had the other one all to himself. Few turns later he was on his tail firing his Lewis. It only took a few burst and the Boche was spiraling down. Gaston knew the other Fokker is being taken care of, so he allowed himself the luxury of watching his victim go down. He lost him just as he was about to hit the ground - nearly stalled from all the excitement. After gaining control of his plane, Gaston reacquired the smoking crater that used to be a living being. He knew he had him, but did anyone else witness it? The two N12s were circling nearby doing their own thing and all his wingmen were still in pursuit of the first Fokker. Voscadeaux was certain he couldn’t count on the Huns in the trenches watching below as witnesses. He remained with the observation machines until they turned for home and then he followed them back. No sign of the rest of his flight, but he was certain they could take care of themselves. As it turns out he was wrong and the Fokker got away from them. Despite minimal chances of success Gaston had made the claim on the Eindecker and hoped for the best.



"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys,
The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain,
From out of my arse take the camshaft,
And assemble the engine again."