Wulfe, wonderful storytelling, as always. But I must remind you, they’re not called Fourkkers. Are you trying to become an ace in one day? Good on ya! Congrats on the confirmed one. Glad the Airco agrees with you. I kept spinning the bloody thing. Also, beautiful shots. Lou, we can all agree with Rankin for once. And may I say, that is what, fourth move in the span of a few weeks? That is crazy. When you get to Lahoussoye, don’t bother unpacking. Carrick, what are you aiming at? Make sure your aim point is above the crossed wires. You should land more hits this way. Scout, my only advice for linking up with escorts is to follow the route exactly. The map in the briefing room isn’t the best. If you can, use the mission editor map. The flight path shown there is much more precise and I’ve had successes following that path to get to the rendezvous point. Now finding that dot circling somewhere around is another matter.
7 April, 1916 05:30 morning mission Senard, Verdun Sector Escadrille N37 Sous Lietenent Gaston A. Voscadeaux 11 confirmed kills
It felt good to mount Violette again. (Lou, stop sniggering) The Ack-Emmas tried hard to match the paint colour on the new wing, but it still stuck out like a sore thumb. Gaston will just have to get used to it.
They were on their way to Stenay to attack the rail yard there. During the attack Gaston saw his wingman wobble a little. He didn’t think much of it at the moment, but when they've returned, he'd learned Adelus was hit and bravely continued until he brought his plane home. He was taken to the hospital. Other than that the attack would go just fine if one of the numbskulls didn't decide to fire his rockets just as Gaston was overflying the target. It nearly gave him a heart attack. He returned to base with his pride just a little bit on the well done side.
7 April, 1916 13:40 afternoon mission Senard, Verdun Sector Escadrille N37 Sous Lietenent Gaston A. Voscadeaux 11 confirmed kills
The afternoon CAS over enemy troop camp north of Chalons was supposed to be lead by Gaston with Adelus as his wingman. Since Adelus was in hospital, his place was taken by Sous Lieutenant Medeville. He even took Adelus' plane up. They were making good time to the frontlines. The camp was just beyond. Voscadeaux kept an eye on anything out of place in their vicinity. The trio of low flying Eindeckers qualified as being out of place. Gaston lead Medeville in a shallow dive to avoid over stressing their airframes, but Medeville was too impatient. He entered a vertical dive and went for the Fokker formation on his own. Gaston could only shake his head in disbelief, but followed Medeville nonetheless. He watched the other French pilot overshoot the Boches and spoil the element of surprise. Voscadeaux knew his speed would be too great to make an effective attack. He aimed for the leader and let off a few rounds, then dove under and pulled up. The forces pushed Gaston into his seat and he could feel his body becoming several times heavier. He clenched his teeth as the blood was leaving his upper body. He leveled out and took a deep breath, everything returning to normal. The Fokker he had just attacked was now attempting to return the favour and latched to Gaston's tail. Voscadeaux banked immediately and started to climb. Medeville was right there and chased the Hun away. It looked like the two will keep chasing each other's tail for a while. Gaston started to look for the remaining two monoplanes. He assumed they would try to run for home and directed Violette to turn north. He flew for a while and searched. How could two Hun machines disappear so quickly? He will never hear the end of it from Medeville. He turned back to rejoin his wingman, probably enjoying the view of his enemy's wreck somewhere over NML. Gaston was now flying south and he couldn't believe his eyes. There, dead ahead of him two specks moved west against the light grey clouds. His two Fokkers! His face must have looked like a snout of an old fox entering a henhouse. They haven't spotted him. He could see them clearly. One was typical tan colour and the other was green. Voscadeaux snuck behind the green one and opened fire. Solid hits all over the machine. The enemy banked to avoid further onslaught. Gaston let him go and switched to the tan one ahead. Another barrage of bullets. The French ace could see the Fokker taking massive damage. He had to let him go as the green one was back for more. The Hun was flying brilliantly, performing all the tricks in the book. He even faked an inverted flat spin. Marvelous show, but Gaston still came up on top and sent the Boche to his death in a corkscrew, trailing smoke. The green Fokker was now yet another crater in the landscape of the No Man's Land. Gaston couldn't help himself. He broke into a song:
To arms, citizens, Form your battalions, Let's march, let's march! Let an impure blood Water our furrows!
He flew on. At the edge of the German trenches soldiers were pulling out injured pilot from the tan Fokker. Gaston saluted and continued to sing the Marseillaise. Back at the aerodrome Medeville was already out of his plane and coming over towards Voscadeaux's machine. "- What took you this long? Lost your way? Ha ha ha!" Gaston pulled his goggles off and raised two fingers. The laugh stopped "mid-sentence" but Medeville's mouth never closed.
"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."