homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Wings: Over Flanders Fields REPORTS FROM THE FRONT

I don't remember that many engine problems.

Really fantastic reports, Jeff! Just spent a good little while this morning reading through them. I'll have to fire up an early-war British campaign!

Cheers!

@ CaptSopwith....glad you are enjoying the reports! Flying in 1915 is quite different than later times, but I am looking forward to the "Fokker Scourge" just to see what happens (other than losing my own head of course )

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George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

(Note: A three-fer!)

Twenty-sixth mission Monday 3 May PM...An art obs to the front lines near our aerodrome, led by Alwin and Reinard. Low haze and clouds made things difficult,



but Captain Reinard dropped a bag (Writer's Note: A message bag with a streamer attached, kind of like this one shown below)



and hopefully they got the message as to where to aim their shot.

Twenty-seventh mission Tuesday 4 May AM...A bombing mission to Bertincourt; Command must think we are doing a good job as we are being sent to aerodromes farther and farther away from our home base! Intell says we scored some hits.



The enemy airplanes had an interesting paint scheme that made it difficult to see from the air, but we could tell where they were, and following 'Bay' and Reinard, our bombs scored.





Twenty-eighth mission Tuesday 4 May PM...A recce mission to the front near our 'drome. The ground haze has cleared, and visibility was good. Uneventful.



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Regards,

Jeff

Born in 1883. That would make him 32. A bit of an oldster compared to the other lads, isn't he? I figure career soldier. Cavalry maybe. Transfered to the air service just before the baloon went up. Sent over to France with the first bunch to go in 1914. I would take that "Rookie" out of there, though. At 32 and still a rookie Sergeant...well....we hope our boy has been a better soldier than that.
Wait a minute! I just noticed his date of enlistment. April 1915. So one month after joining up, the old codger is not only a Sergeant, he's graduated flight school, been posted to a squadron, and is already flying combat missions. Hmmm..........
Good screenies, however.

Pooch

Consider the following, and they were'nt the only ones over 30:
Oblt. Friedrich Christiansen
*12 December 1879
1918 he was 38 years old

Lt.Jakob Wolff. At the outbreak of war he was 46 years old. He served with Jasta 17 in 1916 and 1917 and achieved 4 victories before he was WIA on 27 Jul 1917.

What about Boehme? having scored 24 victories and beeing born on July 1879?
On the Allied side, wasn't Mannock well over his thirties? Propably not the oldest but respectively well known.

@ Pooch....glad you have taken fancy to my pilot!

Mr. Lyons is still 31 (December 5th birthday) and basically fell under this category: "...direct entry to the service was permitted, primarily in order to obtain a sufficient quantity of trained mechanics. By the end of the war the vast majority of RFC men were direct entry." (stolen from http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people.html). I have him gaining a good amount of knowledge from messing around with motorcycles, but also hanging around some other characters in the Southend area, and a little less from the “Colony of British Aircraft” just up the way in South Fambridge...he took his "trade test" in late summer 1914 (check page 24 of this thread), so he was actually 30 when he enlisted (WOFF only shows when he becomes a pilot [however, JJJ65's pilot log editor might change this!])....and this:



(stolen from WIkipedia)

....but you are absolutely correct in that he is an "oldster" for sure compared to pretty much all of his digital squad mates (I think one was born in 1886). He took the RAC cert in January of 1915 because he was encouraged to by superiors (hey, that's my story )...yes, definitely moved up the ranks pretty quick, and maybe some resentment among his colleagues, but (lol) here he is

Regards,

Jeff

Ha ha, yes Robert_Wiggins, I was thinking about old Jakob Wolff...he was my current age at the outbreak of war, but definitely an outlier....IIRC, Manfred von R said he was a fine fellow, but just too damned old

Regards,

Jeff

Ah....I should have read the entire post before commenting. I have a bad habit of doing that. I see that you already have your man's background thoroughly thought out. Well done. So much for my cavalry idea. Hope he makes it long enough to make it back to home and blighty but, well...we're all aware of the odds against it I'm afraid.

Yes, odds not too good, for any pilot really. Best hope of survival might be injury beyond repair (like amputation...I always remember that graphic from Red Baron 3D). I do have more traditional ways of entering service in mind for next pilot careers (if needed), but then again, every life story has interesting points, eh? And I really have no idea of actual history of WWI pilots, only what I find on the internet....you could call me "fullofit jr."

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George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

Twenty-ninth mission Wednesday 5 May AM...an art obs to the front with 'Bay' and Reinard. Weather was dubious at takeoff with rain, however the rain stopped and it wasn't half bad, except for not being able to see the ground all that well.



Nonetheless, Reinard dropped a bag and we headed home.

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Regards,

Jeff

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

Thirtieth mission Wednesday 5 May PM...a recce mission over Haubourdin and Phalempin. Weather poor, with thunder and lightning (Note: using Panama Red's lightning mod)!







As bad as the weather was, I believe I understand why we were sent. Both aerodromes had what appeared to be new kinds of monoplanes in front of their hangars. A biplane of some sort was also landing at Phalempin, but that was second fiddle.



Indeed, the archie was rather fierce, even up at 65oo feet where we were at, and in a rainstorm nonetheless.

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Regards,

Jeff

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

Thirty-first mission Thursday 6 May AM...a recce mission with 'Bay' and Reinard over the front. On and off rain, but some glorious views, and also some terrific wind.









...we made it back without incident.

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Regards,

Jeff

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

Thirty-second mission Thursday 6 May PM...another recce mission, but with three aeroplanes. Captain Halifax tells me that we will start to see more of these three plane flights as time goes on. The weather was poor (Writer's Note: haven't had any time off due to poor weather as of yet), but yet we slog on.



Everyone made it back without incident.

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Regards,

Jeff

There will be a lot of "Slogging on" flying the Morane, I hope you have a good book to read. There's also a lot of "Holding on" if the weather is rough and you had a big breakfast. A few times I found myself in the position of wanting to scrub a mission because the weather was just too rough and dangerous. You really get the early war feeling where even the weather can kill you.

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

(Note: a two-fer!)

Thirty-third mission Friday 7 May AM...an art obs mission to the front just to the north-east of Arras.



Captain Reinard noticed some stuff and dropped a couple bags for the artillery men on the ground.



Thirty-fourth mission Friday 7 May PM...a bombing mission to the front with 'Bay'. He scored some hits, I did not.







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Regards,

Jeff

Chuckle....yeah, I actually do read some books on occasion when I have auto pilot on, but ones I can put down right away...and adding JJJ65's roll mod makes things even more interesting concerning "holding on"! I (and even AI flight leaders) have struggled to gain altitude in some situations, but burnouts (knock on wood) have been much less than with the BE2c career....good flying to you!

PS, I enjoy your videos....they often come up on youtube autoload right after mine

Regards,

Jeff

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

(Note: a two-fer!)

Thirty-fifth mission Saturday 8 May AM...another art obs just to the east of Loos. Mission went well, with better weather.



Thirty-sixth mission Saturday 8 May PM...a bombing mission to the front near where our art obs was earlier today. No hits were scored, however, Captain Halifax noticed an aeroplane heading east about 5oo feet below us. It had no markings that we noticed, however, after some investigation later at base (Note: in other words, checking out the 'skins' file lol), we were told that some of the French squadrons do not have roundels on their top wings, nor their tails.





It was a bit harrowing for a moment as it could have been a Pfalz (Note: during the war, Pfalz built licensed versions of the Morane L!), but it all ended well, except no hits on the Bosche. Lastly, we landed at our base allright, but 'Bay' landed a bit close to a tree...he heard about it!






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The saga continues!

Regards,

Jeff

PS, I'm now having an issue with my screen recorder as the audio is out of sync with the video....am looking to fix it.

EDIT: And, after spending about an hour yesterday evening to no avail, today I remembered reading the Geforce Experience has video capture...tried it and it works great! Also it has a screen frame capture (for pictures as opposed to video) and that is great too! Small issue of popups happening during flying, but I think better than being out of sync!

George Lyons
Sergeant
3 RFC
Chocques, Flanders
May 1915

Thirty-seventh mission Sunday 9 May AM...a fairly routine recce mission to Haubourdin and Phalempin. A nice takeoff and good flying weather with some low clouds.



(Note: takeoff views an homage to Robert_Wiggins )

Only moderate archie, and those new monoplanes were not present.



It seems 'Bay' and Reinard's crate was having issues keeping altitude as we drooped to around 45oo feet as we crossed the front, but we made it back.

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Regards,

Jeff

Very nice video Jeff. I see you gave serious Justice to the views of the dromes and the wonderful WOFF clouds.

You may want to start thinking about getting some serious armament soon. It won't be long before those Fokker make their presence felt!!

Thanks Robert_Wiggins!

Alas, Command will not let me put my own forward firing gun on my aeroplane for fear I will shoot off my own propeller (real version: alas, I do not know how to mod a WOFF:UE Morane L to add a forward firing gun ...actually, it shouldn't all that difficult, as the Pfalz E.III was a close copy of the A.II, which itself was a "beefed up" copy of the Morane L, and WOFF:UE has the Pfalz E.III; but I've not flown one (or against one) to know if it has a forward firing gun....I'll have to check on that today!)

Regards,

Jeff

If it works, then all you would need is a new allied skin.