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Thanky!
Yeah, Alvin has some serious psychological issues, mostly revolving around what happened in Blackpool a year ago, and they color his perceptions on most things. His cousin Ambrose, though a year older, is a lot more naive about the war, and more caught up in the whole courtly knights of the sky thing and the great adventure of it all.
Both character arcs are on a low simmer at the moment, though Alvin's has the possibility to go to full boil pretty fast, depending on circumstances. Assuming that their fire isn't put out with a mishandled emergency landing or the arrival of Eindeckers...
There will be a bit more about what happened in Blackpool, probably sometime later this week unless something really interesting happens in his daily flights.
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Journal Entry: June 15, 1915 St. Pol-sur-mer Well, yesterday was pretty much a dud day. Thayer and I flew our morning and afternoon sorties as usual but we didn't see anything, just performed our duties and returned home to our airfield. I'm sure it won't be long when I wish everyday was as yesterday. Had a rather nice game of football yesterday with the lads, it is a wonderful pasttime that not only invigorates you physically but also mentally. I get the impression from some of the fellows that they don't approve of what Thayer and I are doing. No one has confronted either of us, but I notice the looks. I would ask them, aren't we in a war and aren't those Hun machines that we've brought down actively pursuing activities that will harm our lads. I'm no great moralist, but it seems to me that if I've a chance to protect a Tommy from some Hun depredation, then that's my duty and by Jove, I will not be condemned for not doing my duty. Furthermore, I've heard nothing negative from Ackerman in regards to our performance, so I will continue as before until I'm instructed otherwise. Dear reader, let me tell you about today's excitement. Our morning patrol was another Line Patrol maybe the brass is starting to see the merit in what Thayer and I are accomplishing. Anyway, we arrived at the front being led again by Lieutenant Epps who if the truth be told, I'm rather fond of, he's a terrible footballer, but he is a smashing good flight leader. We had just begun our patrol when I noticed off to the southeast of us two Hun machines that were dropping bombs on our boys. I was outraged, their lives are bad enough without bombs falling on them. I signalled Epps, who must have been looking away because he never noticed them. I didn't need Thayer's command this time as like I said, I was outraged. I've found that the best way to approach one of these Hun machines is to fly at the same altitude and parallel. Then all you have to do is apply and reduce throttle to approach them and then a little rudder to ease into position. I had hardly gotten us into position, when I hear Thayer commencing to fire his trusty Lewis. It isn't long before the Hun is smoking and we witness him crashing just past the lines. I return to Epps and he waggles his wings because he had witnessed the whole thing. We return to a delicious luncheon and I took a short nap before the afternoon sortie. Imagine our frustration, when Ackerman orders us to fly a training flight for the afternoon sortie to test the new rigging that had just been completed on our bus. We had just taken off when I happened to glance back out our field and noticed explosions. For a minute, I was perplexed as to what was happening and then it hit me. I quickly looked up and there were the Hun bastards that were bombing my airfield. I looked at Thayer and he nodded his approval and our training flight quickly became a hunt. I squeezed every inch of altitude out of our old bus and I finally caught up with the Huns over Dunkerque. I began my attack on the leftmost aeroplane in the formation and it wasn't long before Thayer had his engine smoking. I followed him down and the Hun attempted to land just east of Dunkerque, but he cracked up in some trees. As I swooped over him, I saw the pilot and his observer crawling gingerly out of the wreckage. I turned for home and landed without any difficulty. The first words out of everyones mouths were, "Did you get one of those bastards?" I assured them that we did. Now, I'm not noticing those looks near as often and from as many men, maybe now the fellows understand that this isn't a game and to win we need to kill as many of them as we can or it might not ever end. By the way, that was our fifth kill and we had quite the bash that evening. The cowards who bombed us. Hun about to crash into the trees.
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Almost There, Sgt 2 Sqn, Rfc Flanders
June 15, 1915
Posted to a recon flight (2 Be2,s) up to Loos and back. It was a nice and smooth flight at 2000 meters. No enemy machines spotted. All back safe.
2 points
Last edited by carrick58; 06/16/15 04:02 AM.
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Please remove all of "My Pilots" from this event " Albert Bergman" and "Bob Daniels".
Thanks, CW3SF
Last edited by CW3SF; 06/16/15 01:50 PM.
Origin made- silverstone case,ASUS Max VI Extreme , CPU intel Core i7 4770k, cooling asotex 570LC, NVIDA 3G GTX 780 Ti , Mem 16GB Kingston Hyper X DDR3 ,game drive 120GB INTEL X25 SS, OS drive 1TB, Win 7 home Prem.Logitech G105 key board,BenQ XL2430 Gaming Monitor. All pilots owe me a beer. Retired USAF Rescue/Survival, Special Forces, and MI (after I got old and grey).
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Now we all know about the Bloody Baron and such, but there was another Fox that was known, but alas all but forgoten before Richthofen started making his way into the history books. A BBC cleaning lady accidently nocked over a pile of old films while dusting the vaults. After trying to put things back in order she managed to mix the dates up, and so, as if by Godly intervention, this story came to be discovered.
make mistakes and learn from them
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Journal Entry: June 17, 1915 St. Pol-sur-mer
I really don't understand my fellow fliers in the squadron. We get explicit orders for both the morning sortie and the afternoon sortie, to prevent the enemy machines from crossing the lines by any means necessary. So, what does Flight Lieutenant Sheely do during this morning's sortie when a Hun machine passes right over us, nothing is the correct answer? I'll tell you dear reader, he would've let the Hun pass completely unmolested if Thayer and I hadn't been present. Let me tell you exactly what happened and you can be the judge if we acted in a proper military fashion. We took off this morning for our usual morning sortie and this time we were ordered to do a line patrol, which consists of flying over a certain section of the front with the specific intent of stopping the enemy from crossing said front. Everything was going according to plan and we arrived at our patrol sector without incident. It wasn't long before I saw a Hun approaching us at a higher altitude. I motioned to Thayer and he acknowledged me by getting his Lewis prepared. I waved at Sheely and received no indication that he saw me, so I waited patiently for him to act. The Hun actually flew right over us, maybe 100 to 200 feet above us and no reaction from Sheely. Just so the reader understands, the Hun was flying across the front and toward our territory, exactly what we had been ordered to prevent. Well, you may call me many things, but I do understand explicit orders, so I pulled our bus into a climbing turn and began to pursue the Hun. I managed to close with him just south of Niewpoort. Thayer began firing and managed to disable his engine and the Hun had to crash land just inside our lines. I can't believe that Thayer and I are the only ones that truly understand what we are involved in, this isn't a gentleman's game, this is full scale war and I'm terrified that it will get much worse before it gets better. I wonder if maybe it's because my father fought in the Boer War and I remember his stories of how hard the Boer's fought and how it was necessary to totally defeat them if we wanted any chance for peace. I'm sure some of my fellow fliers think I'm a monster, but if by killing these Huns I could shorten this war by one day, then I would kill many more. I'm sorry if that sounds brutal, but that's the way of it. Now for some happier news, apparently, the CO had put my name in for a DSO and tonight after dinner he announced that it had been approved. We had quite the party, which I'm sure I'll regret in the morning. Sorry dear reader, but Thayer had forgotten his camera so no photographs of this sortie.
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Ken, my latest report isn't directed at Alvin, I'm just frustrated with the AI pilots. Even when we have orders to engage the enemy they just fly right past them. I guess when we get fighters maybe then their behavior will change.
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Yeah, had the same thing with a solo AV breezing along 500 feet below a flight of three of us for a good 3-4 minutes. Roughly same course (I think his waypoint was the same airfield as ours), none of the AI pilots showed the slightest interest. Alvin was happy. I was neutral, since I'm not fond of the limited movement range of the gun on the BE - used to pointing and shooting with my single-seat campaigns, though I've been very successful with Strutters in a 70 Sqdn campaign.
I think a lot of it has to do with the two-seater AI (see the same thing in RoF) - if they've got two seats, defense seems to be in their blood. If an enemy aircraft comes into the gunners field of fire and range, the gunner will usually open up. Pilots will generally continue on blissfully until the plane starts getting hit, and then they start evading, but to escape the fire, not to attack.
It's irritating, but at least with your kills you'll probably get promoted soon, and be leading your own flights much of the time.
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Ken, my latest report isn't directed at Alvin, I'm just frustrated with the AI pilots. Even when we have orders to engage the enemy they just fly right past them. I guess when we get fighters maybe then their behavior will change. I'm sure it has to do with how the files are written. Only one 2-seater (that I know of) acts like a scout and thats the Roland. All other 2 seaters will fly their merry way and will not attack. In fact the Roland goes berzerk if any enemy gets near. Its just something that one has to think of before you go out on the mission.
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Last edited by lederhosen; 06/18/15 11:44 AM.
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Banjoman, Lederhosen: I'm pretty sure that's how they're programmed as well. Keep in mind some of us are being unusually aggressive in the BE 2c. (I'm looking at you Thayer!)
Lederhosen: What does Basil think about the Pfalz? I ran a few QCs yesterday and was impressed. The rear gunner is definitely a step up from the Aviatik B.I
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I think the bird fly's better than the Morane actually...dont pull up so much
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Catknight, he's just following orders. What's interesting is when I joined 1 RNAS there were two pilots that had 9 kills, but no one since June 1 has made any move to engage the enemy, except the dynamic duo of Ethelstan and Thayer. I think you're right and they are just programmed that way, I'm sure things will change when we get to single seaters.
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Sgt , Almost There 2 Sqn, Rfc Flanders. 18 June 1915. Bad Mission: B flights 2 a/c corkscrewed up to 2000 meters and headed for the lines for a Arty Spot mission near Oppy. Broken clouds all the way then 10/ 10ths clouds cover over target. The leed machine waved Washout so we RTB. Points 1 capture
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. Sergent Tremblay and his gunner/obs Sergent Fauchard have been awarded their first victory. Yesterday afternoon they were assigned a patrol of the lines at Bapaume and were accompanied by Sgt. Rouquette and his gunner/obs Lt. Sallares. The two Moranes climbed into a beautiful blue winter's sky as they worked their way northeasterly. At Beaumont-Hamel Sgt. Tremblay spotted an aeroplane straight east of their position that looked to be doing a reconnaissance. He signaled his flight mates and guided his mount to investigate. The intruder turned out to be a lone Aviatik who, upon seeing the approaching pair, swung around and headed for home. However, Allard and Jerome had gotten close enough before being spotted so that they were able to overtake the enemy craft as it was nearing Bertincourt. Sgt. Tremblay drew up alongside the Boche, who did little to avoid them at that point, and after Sgt. Fauchard sent but two short bursts from his Lewis into the enemy plane it erupted in flames and fell. It fully startled the Frenchmen who then watched as the burning ship crashed between two tent hangers at the aerodrome below, setting both of them alight. It was a gruesome thing to see. Upon returning to camp Sgt. Tremblay and his gunner turned in their report, which was supported by Lt. Sallares and his pilot. This morning confirmation of the claim was given and Allard and Jerome had their names added to the escadrille's tally board. Sgt. Tremblay closing in on his prey. Pulling up along side and turning into the Boche to give Sgt, Fauchard a clear shot. The Aviatik bursts into flames almost at once from Jerome's handiwork. The fireball hits the ground and torches the hangers on either side of the impact. Allard makes a final survey of the unnerving scene before heading back to camp. A victory to be sure, but not one the young Sergent is feeling altogether good about as he continues to imagine what the end must have been like for his foe. C'est la guerre. .
Three RFC Brass Hats were strolling down a street in London. Two walked into a bar, the third one ducked._________________________________________________________________________ Former Cold War Warrior, USAF Security Service 1974-1978, E-4, Morse Systems Intercept, England, Europe, and points above. "pippy-pahpah-pippy pah-pip-pah"
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Good job Lou, it looks like the Morane is a better plane for giving your observer a shot. The BE.2C has the observer in front of you and it makes it awkward sometimes when you are trying to line up a shot.
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