Raine, despite the apparent language barrier Dominique's unnamed wingman and Dalgliesh could become good friends based on their numerical interests. Banjoman, thanks for the new report.
"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."
Dudley Nightshade Flt, Lt. 6 RNAS Bellevue, Air Field
3 Apr 1917.
I say bit of a flap, It seems like after a fight with the Huns, Old Fletch went Bonkers. Climbed up a bloody tree and shot his revolver at anyone approaching him. We got him down ,but only after he ran out of bullets. Bloody sad, because I can confirm his kill. a recon type over by Vaast. The C.O. said to take his machine as mine,but not the Wine in the footlocker that the belongs to the Mess.
Today we transferred to Pronville, which just happens to be where my good friend and old wingman Manfred commands Jasta 1. I have not seen him since I was transferred to Jasta 2 and I am really looking forward to hearing how he has handled the transition to command. I was not anticipating any action today since Pronville is only about 5 kms away from Lagnicourt. It should have only taken us around 30 minutes to make the flight, but of course, I had not accounted for the cheekiness of the Tommies in their Nieuports. As we were approaching Pronville, I saw two Nieuports flying along as it they were on a Sunday stroll. I realized at once that this time we might catch them since they were so far over our lines. I signaled the attack and immediately one of the Nieuports must have realized they had been caught because he quickly turned and began to flee with three of my flight in hot pursuit. The other actually turned to engage me in what was a hopeless gesture. On one hand, I admire the British for their willingness to fight against all odds and then on the other hand, it disgusts me for their wanton disregard of their lives and the lives of their men in pointless attacks. We twisted and twirled with neither getting an advantage. I fully expected him to break off and climb away as they usually do when they grow bored with an engagement. This Tommy was different and that ultimately was his undoing. Eventually due to my superior machine, I was able to deliver a burst that obviously damaged him because that was when he decided to disengage, but it was too late by that point. I settled in for the coup de grace and after I fired I could hear a loud crack, even above the engine and wind noise. I watched mesmerized as half of his top left plane detached itself from his machine and fluttered past. The enemy pilot had a panicked look on his face and fortunately for him, did not have far to fall.
Upon landing, I was greeted by Manfred with a huge bear hug and congratulated on such a wonderful victory. Unbeknownst to me, they had watched the entire engagement from the ground. It was wonderful to return to the comrades that I had shared such hardships and victories. It distressed me just a little to see that they are still flying the outdated Fokker biplanes. Manfred clasped my arm and as walked to the Adjutant's office, asked me to tell him of my victory. It is good to be with Manfred again.
Last edited by Banjoman; 04/03/1706:01 PM.
Member and provider of banjo music for the Illustrious BOC
Salute gentlemen. I would love to get involved with this campaign. I had a blast in Olham's DiD revival campaign. I read up on the rules and think I understand them.
If I was to create a new pilot today, would I be starting on April 3, 1917? Could I run the first couple of 'training' missions within QC to avoid losing squad mates due to landing and exiting the sim while they are out and about on mission. Or is that part of the danger?
22 Nov 1916 @ 08h17 Arrival at Auchel airfield and Orientation flight
Arrived early today at Auchel after a short hop from Choques, and was quickly greeted by a Capt. displaying a rather unusually chipper nature towards a man of lower rank such as I. Charles Henry Chapman Wooven Capt., showed me to my quarters and asked of my background.
I explained I was from Vancouver, Canada, practiced as a gunsmith there, and spent my idle time building an aeroplane and racing motorcycles and that seemed to prick his interest even more. I told him I had joined the local militia, The Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles in 1904 as a drummer and bugler and gained a rank of sergeant when the War broke out. “A lad of many useful talents it seems” said he. “Where have you served since?” he asked, and I replied that I had come overseas with the Canadian Mounted Rifles and then switched to the Pioneer Corps where I gained some reputation as being somewhat of an expert with machine guns, having made several improvement suggestions, although none of them bore fruit in production. I then gained a transfer to 10 Sqn as observer in BE.2c’s “I dare say we may find some practical use for your skills when you are not flying”. Get settled in here, and then come over to the briefing room and we shall have you shown the place, and at that he stepped sprightly off towards the briefing room.
Shortly there after, I arrived at the briefing room door knocked, and entered, to find Capt. Woolven in conversation with a number of officers who I was to soon be introduced to as the “New Lad”. The Capt. Waved me to come forward and immediately drew me to the attention of Lieut. Mark Everard. “Mark, this lad is apparently skilled in the use of the bugle and drums and just may fit nicely into our squadron band. What say you?”. Mark, with a two fingers to his mouth and a frown on his face said “We could use the talent for sure, as long as he is not inclined to practice early in the morning” at which point he looked directly at me and fingered the flap on his holstered webley. The Capt. Broke out in a hearty laugh, patted me on the shoulder firmly, and looking at me said “that is highly unlikely isn’t it Sgt.?” I replied “Formal military use of the bugle has never really been a great interest of mine Sir, but the band does sound like a fine diversion!” They both broke out in laughter along with the other two Lieut’s. in the room. “Sgt. Godfrey here, says he has worked on aircraft building, engine work related to motorcycle racing and apparently a gunsmith with considerable familiarity with maching guns.” Says the Capt. “Lieut. Whitney here, will take you on the rounds of the hangars and introduce you to the mechanics and fitters. It is my hope that there will be some shared knowledge exchanged over the coming days in those fields you are experienced in. Hopefully the squadron as a whole will benefit Sgt., but for now, I would like you to go up for a spin with Lieut. Green here and get the general layout of our area set into your noggin. If all goes well today, I will take you on as my observer for a short mission to the front tomorrow morning.” “Yes Sir!” says I. That is all for now Sgt. You may now accompany Lieut. Green on his rounds.
It seems that my arrival at Auchel has left a positive impression of me with the officers. That is something I hope to cultivate further, for I have my mind set on flying scouts, and to do so, I would need recommendations to gain access to flying school back in old blighty. Woolven had recently made quite a name for himself, having been gazetted for the MC, for an attack on a train on the 14th of this month, which was followed up by downing an Albatros DI on the 16th. I expected I could learn a few things from the Capt. that could help me achieve my goal.
Youtube Video:
(System_Specs)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper PSU: Ultra X3,1000-Watt MB: Asus Maximus VI Extreme Mem: Corsair Vengeance (2x 8GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, Unbuffered CPU: Intel i7-4770K, OC to 4.427Ghz CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M Liquid CPU Cooler Vid Card: ASUS GTX 980Ti STRIX 6GB OS and Games on separate: Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD Monitor: Primary ASUS PG27AQ 4k; Secondary Samsung SyncMaster BX2450L Periphs: MS Sidewinder FFB2 Pro, TrackIR 4
Macklroy, I'll be happy to answer any of your questions. If you wanted to start a pilot in the Intrepid Flyers group then the start date would be 12/5/16 or if you wanted to start a pilot in the Warbird Flyers group then you would use today's date of 4/4/17. Both groups started on June 1, 2015 but the Intrepid group was dated about six months before and that's why the difference in the dates. There are a couple of us that have pilots in both groups and you would be welcome to do that as well. In answer to your second question of using QC to fly your training flights, that is how we all flew them so it would be fine for you as well. I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction and if you have any more please feel free to ask. Welcome to the group and I'm sure you will enjoy yourself.
Member and provider of banjo music for the Illustrious BOC
Great stories folks. Sorry to hear of your loss Carrick. Midair collisions have doomed many a pilot. We have some fantastic story tellers here! Someone should be writing a book.
December 5th, 1916 Dudley "Ducky" Duckett Detached Squadron RNAS Vert Galant
Had a miserable flight in weather not fit for dogs patrolling enemy lines southeast of Bapaume. The Huns were sitting in there warm quarters laughing at us. No contact. All of flight A and B back home safe. You all did not think I was going to let you have all the fun did you?!
Last edited by MFair; 04/05/1701:37 PM.
Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from either end. BOC Member since....I can't remember!
Thanks Guys. There are times when I think if not for bad luck, then I would have none at all. In real life, my luck is more like when it rains it pours. No one thing at a time its always a lot at one time. However, I do endeavor to persevere.
25 Nov 1916 @ 09h01 Patrol to Furnes and east to De Blankaart Lake
Today we had an OP flight up to the lines between Poperinghe and Diksmuide and hence to Furnes before heading home. Capt. Emmerson lead the flight with Capt. Cleaver and myself on wing. We had gusting wind between 7 and 9 kn from the SSW with periods of significant buffeting. Approaching Poperinghe two Rolands passed over head about 1500 ft above and ignored us. Half way between Poperinghe and Diksmuide we again encountered two Rolands headed east well above us. On the return flight we again encountered two Roland CII’s passing over us headed NE and appeared to be ignoring us. In no short order I heard machine gun fire and we took a couple of hits. Carlson handled the craft deftly allowing me an opportunity to return fire and then again on a head on pass slightly lower and on the Rolands port side. He passed us by without exchanging fire and headed directly east. I could see that Emmerson was engaged with the other Roland at the time. Carlson swung us back on course and we headed to Ste Marie Cappel . I could see we took a few hits to our port wing but it appeared no serious damage hade been inflicted. There was no sign of Cleaver or Emmerson on the return flight. When we landed at Ste. Marie Cappel, I noticed Cleaver had already arrived. We all converged at the RO and reported in. Cleaver, not having been engaged in the conflict had noticed that Emmerson had sent the Roland down smoking and that Emmerson’s craft shortly thereafter crashed. Later that day reports came in that there were no survivors.
I hardly knew Emmerson, having only just arrived in the Sqn, but I observed his loss had a significant impact on the rest of the men. We stayed at Cappel for a day while our FE was repaired and then headed back to Auchel. Although my encounter with the Roland was indecisive, I was satisfied to know I had driven him off. I was beginning to feel an itch to fly my own plane and have control of my destiny.
Youtube Vid: No vid capture of combat sequence due to accidental vid capture turned off and discovered too late. Some good demo scenes of wind mod though, activated in Mission Editor.
Last edited by Robert_Wiggins; 04/06/1711:32 AM.
(System_Specs)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper PSU: Ultra X3,1000-Watt MB: Asus Maximus VI Extreme Mem: Corsair Vengeance (2x 8GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, Unbuffered CPU: Intel i7-4770K, OC to 4.427Ghz CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M Liquid CPU Cooler Vid Card: ASUS GTX 980Ti STRIX 6GB OS and Games on separate: Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD Monitor: Primary ASUS PG27AQ 4k; Secondary Samsung SyncMaster BX2450L Periphs: MS Sidewinder FFB2 Pro, TrackIR 4
Sub Flt. Lt. Dudley "Ducky" Duckett Vert Gallant Dec. 6 1916
I thought today was my last! We had a morning patrol of the front. While patrolling our lines the flight of 4 scattered and I knew some Huns were about. I stayed in trail of the flight leader but could not see anything. After what seemed a lifetime of searching for the enemy bullets slammed into my machine and I went into a spin to get away. Coming out of the spin my controls were sluggish and fortunately was on our side of NML. I made for Bellevue which was in sight and noticed a DII after one of ours over the field. When I tried to line up a shot my engine sputtered and quit. Too low to make the airfield I made a hard landing in a field close to the aerodrome. We claimed 1 machine but my port wing was a mess.
Robert, Wish we could have seen the combat footage! Hope it works for you next time. Nice Report.
Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from either end. BOC Member since....I can't remember!