homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Wings: Over Flanders Fields DEAD IS NOT DEAD

Vater leads us toward the action and we ruin the Engländer’s fun but, though the numbers are in our favor, we don’t bring any of them down. They’re able to get away from us in the thick clouds.














CAPTION: The SE5a Strahle is fighting is the WOFF skin for Alfred Stewart Hemming of No. 41 Squadron RFC. I believe Sandbagger did the SE5 and SE5a.













CAPTION: Arthur Rahn is seen here fighting Frank Harold Taylor, RFC-41

CAPTION: Hugo Schäfer is engaged with G.H. ‘Beery’ Bowman on RFC 41.


















CAPTION: Carl Eber’s opponent is Harry Ellis Watson of RFC-41.

We come in for our landing over the sugar factory grounds. The smoke stack is a great orientation mark but must be a serious hazard, coming in this way in poor visibility.

We’re back on the ground at 1300.














NOTE: Can’t ever see one of these smokestacks without thinking of Bruno Stachel.

ENDE

Ah, very nice Jerbear, that's one of RAF-Louvert's custom airfields!
Very nice combat pics you keep posting!

Regards

I want everyone to see the fantastic work you guys have done over the years on these Mods.

They add a great deal t the overall atmosphere of the Sim.

I'll change the posting and all subsequent ones to reflect that is was from RAF Lourvert.

Thanks again for all the work you guys put in. As they say 'Down South': "I'll thank ya 'till yer bettuh paid Suh."

DA BEAR

Ha Ha, good one! That's "Louvert" so drop the first "r" in your previous post.

Best Regards

I guess the eyesight's goin' too.

Welcome to my world! 76 and still ticking!!

111

30 NOVEMBER 1917 – SECOND PATROL


Our machines are immediately fueled up and taking off again at 1440. Vater leads Seppl, die Schlange, Viebig, Paul.

Instead of joining them, I’m instructed to take Sigi and Deberitz with me to escort an Infantry support aircraft coming from FFA8b at Avesnes-le Sec, to make contact with the the Felgrau advancing around Moeuvres. The mission is to determine the extent of our line of advance south and west of that point.

We ascend to just below the cloud cover and circle over the Arras/Cambrai road until the two-seater appears.



NOTE: This story is adapted from a report from Fliegerleutnant Johannes Fischer of FA8b, found in “The German Army at Cambrai,” by Jack Sheldon, Pen and Sword, 2009.

The cloud cover of the morning still hangs in the air and the gigantic land battle is still raging just as hot as before.

We follow close behind and above the DFW through the clouds into the clear air at 1200 meters, and strike out for Moeuvres
.
When Franz in the DFW has determined that we have reached our destination, we all glide down below the clouds and we stay two hundred meters above the DFW as it continues down, firing flares.













CAPTION: FFA8b is not featured in WOFF. I don’t know what they were flying in November 1917 or what their aircraft looked like, markings wise. I chose this one from my Two-Seaters Mod because I like it.

The skin itself is listed in the Mod as off_DFW_CV_ace_t_FA 23 Lb 1917_Paul_Wenzel,

WOFF’s Wenzel flies a DFW in this unit from November 1916 to the end of March 1917.

The Delila device is based on information from the Wingnut wings Rumpler CIV early kit and the one photo that exists of this machine from the first Rumpler CIV production batch.

Since I had given Wenzel the Dalila Rumpler, I just gave him a Dalila DFW too. In for a penny, in for a pound.

This DFW is from the 3rd production batch, as interpreted by Dan San Abbott and the good folks at Wingnut Wings. The colors used are the same ones used by WOFF on their skins.

You will probably never see this skin in the WOFF sky unless you fly with FA23Lb or use it as a personal skin, as I have here.

There is no reply from below, so the Infantry support crew go down just above the ploughed up ground, searching for any signs of our men.

They’re taking a great deal of ground fire, so they must be over Ententland. They turn about and head back south.













We’re buffeted by a hail of shells whizzing about us as they arch toward their targets. Shellfire suddenly erupts all around the DFW, throwing them from side to side and up and down.











They fly up and down, firing more flares, so low that the flares they fire upwards fall to the ground and continue to burn.











In several places groups of men wave and lay out strips of white cloth.

Moving closer to Moeuvres, the battle is an immense muddle of groups moving about, fighting with rifles, bayonets and hand grenades. Despite the noise of our engines, we can hear the intense firing.

The DFW buzzes up and down again, shrapnel and bullets tearing holes in their wings, until the Beobachter has a fix on the extent of the battle line.

Further east, the roads leading south and southwest of Bourlon, which are under fire, overflow with German reserves moving forward. Here and there a rider can be seen, hurrying by the advancing troops.

I don’t like flying under thick clouds like these. You feel as though you’re in a ship’s cabin and you’ll bump your head on the overhead.

Four hundred meters above us, an air battle is in full swing whilst below us, thousands of soldiers are going down, killed or wounded.















CAPTION: I chose to depict the air battle going on above as being between Jasta 17 and RFC-3. The skins are all from the WOFF Skin Pack.

Top to bottom, they are; Obltn. Rudolf Freiherr von Esebeck, the Staffelführer; Adolf Schreder; Kurt Freiherr von Rudno-Rudinsky and Julius Buckler in one of his “Mopps.”

The RFC-3 skins are mostly the squadron default. The 1917 aces in the WOFF Skin Pack are all for people who joined the Squadron after this time.

Not all the enemy aircraft have an opponent, and peering through the smoke that shrouds everything, I keep one eye open for them and one on the Arbeitsflieger, as they occupy themselves confirming the line the Feldgrauen have established. It would only take a few seconds for one of these falcons to swoop down and pluck our infantry Hasen out of the air.




One of them does just that.









I fire three rounds to signal attack and the three of us streak down to intercept.










I see the Beobachter swing his gun up and begin to fire at the same time as the three of us open up on the Cockade.

The Lord emits a cloud of black smoke, then erupts into flames.













The flaming plane streaks right for the DFW, less than a hundred meters from the ground, as if it will ram it. There’s no time for them to get out of the way and I see the pilot getting out of his seat to jump.



When it’s only 30 meters away, the mass of flames shears away, climbing like a flaming arrow in a steeply banked turn, then it skids around , noses downward, roaring past the DFW within what looked like a few centimeters

The Camel smashes into the ground just in front of a German reserve position, tail up. Then with an explosion of flame it collapses.



We leave it smoking behind us as we depart from the desolation of the battle area, which is littered with several smashed aircraft, lying on their backs with broken wings or strewn around like half burnt moths under a lamp light.

The enemy has been pushed back ten kilometers in the south of the break-in area, but in the north, where we have been, the British have been able to mount strong counter-attacks. But still, large gaps have been torn in their line.












When we land at about 1600, we find that Vater’s patrol engaged several SEs over Tourcoing without result. Alter Herr Dingel* and Viebig received a number of hits on their machines and Viebig came back with a bullet hole through his glove, but thankfully, none in him.


*Historically, this was Hugo Schafer, but since in the story he is with me in my Kette, this will not do
.
This air fight, according to information in Osprey’s “Jasta 18; the Red Noses,” by Greg VanWyngarden, was with No. 41 Squadron.
















CAPTION: In these two shots Walter Dingel is being attacked by Cpt Roy Williamson Chappell of No 41 Squadron. His SE5a skin is from the WOFF Skin Pack, it is Sandbagger’s work. The Dingel’s skin is also a WOFF skin which was done by a fellow named Finn.














CAPTION: WOFF SKIN for Lt. Alfred Stewart Hemming, a South African.













CAPTION: Viebig’s Pfalz is under attack from Lt Ernest Francis Hartley Davis, a Canadian who joined 41 Squadron 31 October.

All these pilots were with the Squadron during the Cambrai battle.

A flight from the Flashar Staffel comes in at about this same time. One of their number, a Ltn Josef Mai, has brought down his 5th Lord, an SE5 near le Pave’. They carry him on their shoulders to the Pilotenkasino.











CAPTION: The pilot Mai killed for his 5th Luftsieg was Capt. R. T. T. Townsend of No.56 Squadron. Townsend is not represented by an ace skin in WOFF. This is the RFC-56 squadron default.















Rudi and die Schlange flip a coin to see who will make the claim for the Lord. I’m sure the working fliers will also. May the best man win. The two-seater crew are from this sector, so they probably will be favored since we’re just here visiting. That’s my guess, but the decisions of the Schiedsgericht* are often a great mystery.


* Arbitration council for kill disputes within a Geschwader. The board had one rep from each Staffel and one from Geschwader HQ. After arbitration, the claim is sent to Armee HQ. I assume there must have been other such councils within every local air command.





ENDE

It's ok, they're just sleeping!

Great stuff, BTW!