Raine, good to hear George is fit for duty and will soon be back taking names and … you know, doing the thing he does best. Bronwyn will have to wait a wee bit longer.
Albert, it was a touch and go for a while there, but Pyotr is back, taking names and … you know, doing the thing he deals best. Hopefully there’ll be more of those patches and we’ll get a fix for those three-ship missions. Speaking of which, chalk up another one of those to James. Luck was with the Americans this time and they were able to take the gasbag down unmolested. Then another quiet sortie. Must be true about all the Huns concentrating around Paris. Consider Smirnov’s balls getting busted.
It took him an entire day to get back to base. He was tired, dirty and hungry. The next morning he was told his Hun with the white tail has been confirmed. No other claim of his came through. Pyotr was not at all surprised. He was supposed to stay on the ground today and rest but when the air raid klaxon went off he quickly forgot about the orders and jumped into the first available airplane and took off. As he was rolling down the field, he could see one of the pilots in flying gear running out of the hut, waving his arms. It must have been his plane. Pyotr was just hoping it wasn’t le Capitaine. They caught up to the bombers with the Front in sight. Pyotr was behind a pair of Rumplers and getting closer. He targeted the trailing one, dipped his nose to pick up speed and climbed to get the bomber in his sights. He opened fire and continued to fire until the two-seater wobbled and got out of the way. Smirnov didn’t follow. He quickly switched to the other bomber and resumed firing. He walked the bullets all over the fuselage. The rear gunner must have been green, for none of his rounds hit the SPAD. Pyotr stopped firing only after the top port side wing came off and the Rumpler went down. He looked around for more, but the clump of bombers ahead was too far away. There was nothing else to do. Smirnov turned around and brought the borrowed machine back to base.
"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."
