Rick Rawlings
No 24 Squadron
Oct 24, 1916
Bertangles West

We went off on an airfield attack the other day headed to Athies. Gerry Knight made captain and he was in charge. To show his newfound authority, he took us south of the airfield to make our attack from a side the Huns wouldn't be expecting. The problem was, this took us over a pair of observation balloons, lighting up the sky with ground fire and alerting everyone for leagues around of our presence. As we turned north and approached the field, the Captain kept right on past, choosing to instead attack a couple of Halberstadt scouts a few miles to the north. After dropping one in a quick fight, I decided to make my way back to the front since any element of surprise was now completely gone.

As I was crossing the lines, I was approached by a pair of Rolands who apparently felt they needed to get their fun in for the day. I chased one back over the lines with some damage and was angling to swoop down and finish him when his observer made one of those long range shots for which they are famous, holing my fuel line. I made it back just short of the lines and came down by the river. I spent the next two days crawling through the reeds to make it back to Bertangles. Knight asked what took me so long... dizzy

Kill confirmed.

They are sending me off for a week for my troubles.



The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...