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Helmut von Hammer
Jasta 4, JG 1.
Marcke, Flamders.
kills 7

Some where on the enemy's side of line: Helmut moves only at night getting closer to his side lines and home. Crawling slowly and running in short bursts, he can only imagine what makes up the Sounds of the creatures of the Night

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Raine: LOL

Careful!! Tommys' Watchin!!

Raine, excellent story and an inspiring speech. There will not be any strikes at Siemens I expect. BTW, my Dad worked for Siemens at one time.
When are you due for an upgrade?

30 May 1917, Halluin
Jasta 18

“I saw what happened, is he going to be ok?” Grieffenhagen walked beside sweaty Runge with his hands clasped behind his back. Runge nodded.
“He’ll have a hell of a headache, but he’ll be alright.” They continued walking towards the hangars.
“I guess the airfield defense mission didn’t go as planned. Are we going to have to fly it again?” Runge wasn’t excited at the prospect.
“No, Jasta 11 will take care of it.” Jastaführer responded.
“Good, I wasn’t keen on repeating this.” Runge gained some spring in his step.
“Where did those Strutters come from, anyway? They were all over you before you could properly get off the ground.”



“If it were not for our Schwarmführer Schwarzkopf, who knows if we’d be talking right now? He saw them first, diving on us and begun evasive maneuvers. Because of that we were able to spot them in time. Schwarzkopf was then able to get on the tail of one of the Brits and shoot one wing off. He went down like this.” Runge made a gesture with an inverted hand pointing towards ground.




“He then went after the second Strutter and that’s when everything went to hell. By the way,” Runge smiled “the third Strutter saw what’s happening and turned tail. Anyway, Aldi followed that second Sopwith which now was diving like mad for the deck."



"I saw him pull up just above the trees. Aldi copied the move, but had to stay lower to avoid the rear gunner and that’s when he snagged the branches of that tree.” He turned around and pointed at the broken-in-half tree near the Albatros standing on his nose.



“He did a somersault in midair before ploughing the field below. I think he lost a tooth.” Runge speculated. Grieffenhagen looked again at the wrecked plane and added, “It’s a headache to be sure. I’ll have to talk to him and see if he’ll listen to me. He takes too many risks.” They kept walking. “Is Strähle with him now? I’ll speak to him later then.”


In other news, Cyrus Gold is no more. Lost lower left wing in a dogfight with some D.IIIs and spiraled into the trenches. RIP.

Fullofit, it seems you did not have a good day but happy to see Swarzkoph will be ok. That crash site did not look good! Sorry about Cyrus. That's a bad break.

Sorry to hear about Cyrus, Fullofit. Lucky day for Aldi, though!

Fullofit, I keep telling you that Aldi has used up all of his lives. You need to apply for leave or one day his luck will finally run out.

May 30, 1917 wasn't a good day. I was almost sure Aldi bought it and I had to pay for it somehow.

Well, Fullofit, you're the one who had good news on 30 May 1917. Franz Holzhauer led a Kette of six machines just west of their aerodrome to Sissonne for a defensive patrol. After about fifteen minutes a large formation of Np 23s showed up and there was a brief confused fight. Franz chased a straggler about 20 km down to the lines and began to turn back, but he saw another Albatros chasing a Nieuport over the lines. Not wanting to abandon a squadron mate, he followed to give him support. Within a minute or two he was fully engaged with the lone Nieuport which was well-handled. While moving in for the kill, bullets began to strike Franz's machine. I thought at first it was ground fire from a nearby French field. Instead it turned out to be four newly-arrived and very angry Nieuports. The battle descended to treetop level and Holzhauer tried desperately to inch towards the lines. Eventually, though, they hit his fuel lines and he was forced to land in a field, where he was captured.


Ambushed!

My only consolation was that Holzhauer downed two enemy aircraft on the previous day, one of which was confirmed. And, of course, he survived the war.

Raine, if it weren't for bad luck you would have no luck at all.

There’s definitely something going on. Raine, sounds like Franz will spend the rest of the war locked up in a posh French P.O.W. camp eating mouldy cheese and bread, washing it down with some soured wine. Ah, the life in Provence! Sorry to hear it. I guess time for a French aviateur?

They got Holzhauer ? https://giphy.com/gifs/screamqueens-fox-scream-queens-tv-3o6ZsS8GFJKJeJoRQ4/fullscreen

Franz should be carefull of whom he meets in the Camps. https://giphy.com/gifs/eK1wEASXgQTYs/fullscreen

Raine;

Things have got to look up! Maybe you need to "rein in" your pilots aggressiveness a little. No need to chase an opponent 20 km across the lines for a kill. It's too risky. Anything can happen, lack of attention, engine failure, etc. etc.

Better luck with the new man and I feel for you!

Raine, Fullofit - great AARs! This thread is a virtual goldmine.

Sorry for your losses!

Thanks for the condolences, guys. I was really getting into the Franz Holzhauer story. Watch for the new fellow's story soon.

Robert, my decision was tough. I had already turned back from chasing the damaged Nieuport when I saw an Albatros that I took to be my rookie wingman (I was right) heading over the lines alone. I flew to join him and hopefully get him to follow me back. I recall thinking that I didn't have a good feeling about this one.

When the damaged Nieuport's big brother and his friends showed up, my damned wingman took off and left my pilot on his own to deal with the whole gang of French scouts. When Franz gets home in 1919, he'll have to look up the wingman and bop him on the nose!

FalkeEins -- are you going to join the campaign? We'd all love to have you as a regular.

Raine

Any chance of an escape from capture?? It could make an interesting story, oh and, possible discussion with wingman!!

Raine, what a bloody few days this is turning out to be! Bad luck all around. Sorry for your pilots capture but looking forward to the new fellow and what I know will be a great history lesson.

I considered it but the flieger I'm focusing on, Abelhard Fuchs, isn't compliant with the DiD rules.

I'm just starting navigation training via the campaign's training feature and I didn't do any of the manual creation/stationing/etc.

I'm sure Abelhard won't last forever and I may consider it from there but I'm in no way the literary geniuses that you guys are.

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FalkeEins, please consider! Its a blast. Don't worry about the literary part, a short combat report will do, Besides, most of us are not in the genius category by a long shot.