homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Wings: Over Flanders Fields DiD Centenary Challenge

MFair;

How do you find time to run two campaigns?? Amazing!

Wahhhhh... not a good day for the Kaiser. (April 1917)

Two of us (FA13) with two DIII esorts asigned to bomb a dump some 10km over. Well not good news me thinks.
However, as we go over at 2200m the sky is clear and things look pretty good.
I can now see the dump. We line up and just before I release my bombs the rear gunner warms his MG up.
Crap!! looks like the whole RFC has moved in behind us to cut off our retreat. My Wingman is miles distant and, of course, our DIII's are making for the hills.

Nose down and pray we make it to the lines. I now have N17's, Se5's and Spads all getting in the way of each other trying to line me up!
My gunner is going mad with his gun and I'm trying to give him a shot while not slowing down. Now ground fire is being noticed....gota reach our side.
And low and behold, 200m, and our ground pounders are firing all they have at the EA.
I can't realy decide who is the worst threat..the enemy or our own small arms or the bloody Royal Artillery.

An Se5 try's his luck but the gunner wards him off. Then a N17 (Ball) hangs onto me and we are turning while being thrown around by 105mm shells.
A Spad appears out of no where and dives straight into the ground...must of been a newby. A second N17 takes a shot from my gunner and his dive also ends the same way.
The last N17 (Ball) I can't get any bead on him, and as by mutual concent we go our own ways.
My engine has been hit and I am forced to land by some ruins, where we take cover and wait.

I got the claim for the Se5

Lederhosen, that was a white knuckle ride hoss! Glad you made it.

Robert, How do I find time? One, being somewhat retired helps tremendously. Two, having a very understanding wife is crucial!

Nice report Lederhosen. I enjoyed it emmensely!

Jeez Lederhosen, might be time to buy a lottery ticket.

+1

Jara, when are you going to join us?

I am very sorry Banjoman, but I am not able to write such amazing stories (my English is very limited) and my stick time is almost zero, because I spend the most of my WOFF time by coding, modding and testing

Sorry to hear that, especially since you aren't getting paid for all of your work. If you ever change your mind you know you are more than welcome.

Armande Arquette: My first entry into the DiD centenary event.

April 10, 1917:
"I arrived today at the aerodrome at Souilly. I had been assigned to escadrille 23 and being in desperate need of replacement aircraft I was excited to be delivering my very own craft personally to the field. However, dreadful weather today made the cross country trip much less of a sightseeing tour as it was a dreadful calamity. I touched down just after 1400 hours and was given a brief tour of the field and her accommodations before I was instructed to take my newly delivered Nieuport 23 up again. The chap that would be assigned as my wingmate, Maurice Camplan, was an accomplished flier, with 4 victories already under his belt. He was also one of the higher ranking officers in the escadrille. Probably assigned to try and keep me alive long enough to be useful.

April 11, 1917
My first flight was a large circuit around the surrounding area, including a fly-over of the City of Verdun which sits just a stone's throw from our field. I was horrified at the sight. The city was half reduced to rubble, with hollowed out shells of buildings that once stood. A testament to the destructive power that had been unleashed on the continent for the past 3 years.

April 12, 1917
Maurice took me up again this morning for a patrol just our side of the lines. He pointed out the major landmark of the Meuse river. When we returned to the field Maurice walked up along side of my craft as I was shutting her down... "if you ever get yourself into trouble", he said to me, "be sure you put your craft down on OUR side of that river, if you don't....well, you probably won't be around for me to tell you a second time". With that, he turned sharply for the mess hall.

Tomorrow we go up again. Our patrol will take us a little further East and South to the city of St. Mehiel. I've been told that there is almost nothing left that even resembles a city there. The Hun are total in their destruction of the territory that they take."

Macklroy, glad to have you join us. Just remember to update your status every Saturday, you can find the link to the Google form on the front page of this thread. By doing that, I can include you in my weekly status reports and everyone can follow your progress. Once again, glad to have you aboard.

I do not complain, Banjoman, not at all. I found I like coding/modding as much as flying. It is really addictive too.
Thx for invitation, Banjoman. I truly enjoy reading outstanding mission reports here and I am not going to spoil it with my "hodgepodge"

Is there a way to join the campaign in a scout or is it mandatory to start two-seater? Sorry if it's a dumb question.

Ace

According to the rules, you should start him in a two seater. You can transfer him to scout after a few missions. From two seaters there is not a lot of scout sqn you can choose from but once in a scout sqn you can tranfer again to the scout sqn of your choice. This is just one of the draw backs of available units in transfers. I

Best Regards

AceMedic88, the rules don't specifically state that you have to start in a two-seater. When we started this campaign that was all that was available. I don't have a problem with you starting in a scout since one group is in 1917 and the other is almost there.

Thanks Banjoman...I'll let you know when I'm ready to start

I don't know if any of you are in the same boat as me but I've never been good at making up fictional names so I use this website to generate them randomly:

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

It occurred to me that some of you may find it useful, all you need to do is go to the real names sub header and you can choose between different nationalities, it's a really great site and I use it a lot.

Journal Entry: 15 April, 1917
Auchel/Lozinghem

The absurdity of the brass hats never ceases to amaze me. Today, I received a urgent telephone call from wing informing me that as of this moment I was ordered to no longer fly combat patrols. Of course, I was shocked and asked for clarification of my orders. I was told that information would be forthcoming, but did I understand completely that under no circumstances was I to fly. I answered that I did and the line went dead. To clear my head, I took a stroll through the countryside. Springtime in France is amazingly beautiful and one can almost forget there is a war going on, except for the constant rumble of the distant guns. After about an hour and feeling refreshed, I returned to my office just in time to hear the telephone ringing. I quickly answered and this time it was Wing Commander Vaughan-Lee himself. He is never one to mince words so he got right to the point, "Ethelstan", he barked, "since you have just scored your 100th victory you are much too valuable for Britain to lose, so you will immediately pack your things and take command of the Advanced Pilot Training squadron at Eastchurch." He continued, "tell your second that he is now in command until further notice. Any questions?" Before I could answer the line was dead. Much too valuable, what rot, what rubbish! The fact that I have managed to survive somehow makes me more valuable than the sum total of all of the men I've lost. What an outrageous thought but if I have learned anything in the navy it is this, arguing with the brass hats accomplishes nothing, so I called my adjutant into my office informed him of the new situation, asked him to make my arrangements to Calais, and finally told him that when Askew returns from the morning patrol to send him to me right away. I can only imagine the horrors of trying to teach clumsy, heavy handed students the fine art of handling a machine in combat. Oh well, we shall see and it can not be any worse than actual combat.

Ace, that site is cool, but remember your first name of your first pilot has to start with an 'A', your second 'B', and so on as you progress through the war. That is how we keep track of how each person is doing.