Can't fly it any other way

[Olham 164]

The immersion is such; the feeling of reality so strong, that again I couldn't leave my comrades alone,

where I should have run away as fast as possible. Instead, I led my flight of us 4 Albatros DIII into a

fight of 6 Tripes against flight 1's 5 Albs. Just when we arrived, 4 - 6 more Tripplanes came down on

us from high above!

 

They all were from RNAS-1, and there were several aces among them. But my bird and I were like

shielded by Mars himself - I came out of this alive and sound, without catching a single round.

I deminished RNAS-1 by 7 Tripes and pilots; among them Richard Minifie, Cyril Burfield Ridley, Roderic

Dallas, Anthony Spence and Samuel Kinkead!

 

This was my best fight ever so far - Gee! It was so crazy! (see "Reports from the front")

 

When you face a situation like that - what would you do? Do you leave it, or do you enter?

Edited June 25, 2009 by Olham

[Rickitycrate 10]

I say fight! What fun you must have had.

[Dej 17]

You certainly get in close Olham. What's your average rounds expended per victory?

[Duce Lewis 3]

Gotta support A Flight so I'd fight

...but I'd try to stay high til the fight dissapated

Congrats!

[Hasse Wind 46]

I don't know what to say Olham. You slaughtered them! I guess the infamous Tripe isn't that good against a great pilot in his trusted Albatros. :yes:

 

I'm now so used to my Pfalz mentality of avoiding action whenever the odds are even slightly unfavourable that I would probably have stayed away from that fight. I prefer taking the craziest risks in QC.

[Olham 164]

Yes, it was a kind of tense and intense excitement, Rickity!

 

Dej, I don't know my average, but in this case it were 1.000 rounds divided by 7 = 140 (rounded).

But I think, two of the Tripes where hit extremely, one exploded, and the other burnt right away.

That may have left more rounds for the others. Next time I'll watch the after-combat-replay.

 

Hasse Wind, I made very good use of my wingmen in this fight; assigned them opponents flying high

(so they got out of the worst), or those who chased one of us. For the first time I was sure, that the

wingman 1 (my personal wing) NEVER goes off fighting - even if I pressed "attack" several times.

And when I pressed "help", he always attacked the craft closest to me. So I called for help only, when

some ace wouldn't go off my tail. But if you are at an opponents tail and press "help", he'll fire at that

craft, too. So better avoid that.

Stick to your "Pfalz mentality", until you really feel at home in the Albatros. Only now, after so long

mostly flying these craft, I feel I can take on any fight, that's equally numbered (3 Albatros against 5

Nupes IS equally numbered to me - always was bad at mathematics).

[Vasco 3]

LOL! Great flight Olham,

 

I'm running the DiD settings in my campaigns and for my first week (RT) of flyings I was throwing myself at anything that came my way, whether or not the rest of my flight were with me. As a result I died regularly with plenty of claims filled but few confirmed.

 

This time around I'm flying with Jasta 4 during February 1917 and I've been more circumspect about engaging hostiles as soon as I see them, especially in the s**tty historical weather! I've now amassed about 15 flying hours, 19 confirmed kills and another 4 awaiting confirmation with this pilot, but for me the immersion factor has manifested itself as fretting about taking him up again - I've had some really lucky escapes and now I'm suffering from the breeze vertical!

[Olham 164]

Yeah, the wheather in early 1917 must have been nasty, Vasco. You got to choose between "early 1917: bad wheather, but Albatros

a superiour craft)" or "summer 1917: gentle sunlight bathing the landscape in gold etc., but more S.E.5a, plus Camels around".

But your confirmations and claims proportion (and that of others) makes me wonder, what I do wrong. My pilot has 39 claims, with

9 confirmed?

Vertical breeze - is that prison camp, or what do you mean?

[Macklroy 2]

As long as I 'believe' the fight to be in my favour, I press the attack.

 

BUT!

 

Sometimes you gotta know when to fold em...

 

 

This poor camel pilot had no idead what he was getting into...

 

 

...and this was the last time he was seen.

 

 

 

Leason learned! It's quite a relief that one has the chance to learn all of these leasons without fear of death. In 1914-18 they had no such luxury.

 

S!

[Olham 164]

The red one - is that the 'Red Baron' himself? And who is the other pilot? Craft seems to be striped

in deep red and ockre? Picture 1: that sight should make one's blood freeze, I suppose...

[Vasco 3]

Vertical breeze - is that prison camp, or what do you mean?

 

Olham,

 

The 'Breeze Vertical' was an alternative expression used by British aircrew during the period for 'Getting the wind up' i.e. suffering from combat stress.

[+Polovski 460]

It's amazing what mood a simple picture with little content can purvey. Love the first pic Macklroy just imagine being there, as Oldham says your blood would freeze. In those days word of mouth rumour or newspaper articles often inaccurate no doubt, would be the only info you had to go on.

[Macklroy 2]

The red one - is that the 'Red Baron' himself? And who is the other pilot? Craft seems to be striped

in deep red and ockre? Picture 1: that sight should make one's blood freeze, I suppose...

 

 

Yup! none other than MvR! The other is one of his glorified wingmates. (the name of which i do not know) I took that pic some days ago. I like the first one as well. I could hardly believe what i was seeing. As I took this pic in the first few weeks of flying OFF. Havent run into the barron since. I just figgured he's goin easy on me since his flight mopped up my poor rag tag band so efficently on our first meeting.

[Olham 164]

To meet the man himself would be an impressive feeling to me, I'm sure. And the chance to meet him

is reason enough for me to start an English campaign now, close to Brayelles.

[Macklroy 2]

It's amazing what mood a simple picture with little content can purvey. Love the first pic Macklroy just imagine being there, as Oldham says your blood would freeze. In those days word of mouth rumour or newspaper articles often inaccurate no doubt, would be the only info you had to go on.

 

 

Yup! blood froze then immediatly boiled over when I saw the rest of the flight break through the clouds above him. I think every one of the flight of six maybe save one was painted in fantastic color schemes. Really quite a head game.

 

"Is that?...no...couldn't be. Not THIS far north! All red... IT MUST BE! So this is it......"

 

S!

Edited June 26, 2009 by Macklroy

[Olham 164]

The pilot in the red-yellow striped Albatros DV seems to have been Wilhelm 'Willi' Reinhard.

I would have added his pic and victories, but since 20 minutes, it is impossible to get through

to the Aerodrome site from here, at 00:39 after midnight. Must be 18:30 American east coast

time more or less - UncleAl, Cameljockey and OvS are hopelessly blocking up the web.

 

 

Edit: ah - at 01:50 h I got in at last! So here's Wilhelm Reinhard's picture. He had 20 victories

and succeeded MvR after his death as Geschwaderkommodore. After getting wounded in 1918,

he was in Berlin-Adlershof for test flights. A wingfailure made him crash fatally, in June 1918.

He had almoast made it...

Edited June 26, 2009 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

Great pics, Macklroy! Now imagine being in that situation in the Be2c as you see an all-red fighter approaching...

[Duce Lewis 3]

Olham, I had to make the decision this morning

 

It was an artillary spotting mission, A flight leads with 4, I followed with 4

Tanked up with 75% extra fuel load and off we went

 

Halfway to the target a small flight of Biff's and Se5's (3 total) showed up

A Flight was ahead and higher so they took them on 1st

We struggled to catch up but I managed to get a solid burst into an Se

He spun down but a wingie zoomed past and issued the coupe des gras shot

That's the trouble with flying the elite Jasta Boelke (D7's)

The wingies are good ...good thieves

 

We reformed, A Flight in the lead again

Approaching the line, a flight of 5 Se5's appeared and dove on A Flight

There was no hesitation as we pressed on to join the fray

Maybe it was the Se's altitude advantage but 1st there was 1 D7 smoking then another

A Flight was geting a butt whipping before our eyes

 

By the time I was able to assign targets, there was only 1 A Flight D7 left down low

Nevertheless we roared in, slightly lower than most of the Se's

Dove slightly wide and then pulled underneath into an Immelmann

Picked out a target and gave a burst then broke for another Se

The fight was a wild one as it seemed Se's were coming out of every direction

Saw a wingie get hit and go down smoking

Oh crap it's 5 on 3 now but I wasn't worried yet

 

Then 5 more Se5's showed up high above

They didn't join in right away, but their presence affected the fight

It was hard to concentrate on targets when having to continually look up to see when they're gonna dive in

Finally one came down and made a look-see pass slightly above

I was turning at the time and kicked top rudder and hit him with a short burst

Maybe this triggered the rest as we were soon swimming in Se5's

 

Now it was our turn at a butt whipping as the blued dots on the TAC turned black

All alone now, I had 6 Se's in close proximity with at least 3 making passes

A quick check of the map showed that we had drifted over enemy territory

The only thing that had saved me so far was that I'd stuck to my rules;

Stay high and fire short burts then break into a turn

 

Spotting one Se make a pass, I pulled inside him with a semi-wingover

Hit him pretty hard forcing him to snap roll and dive away

Hair stood up on the back of my as I knew his buddies were lining me up

Kicking rudder into a diving turn to gain speed and change course as quickly as possible

 

Prang, Crack, zhhht, zhhht, zhhht, hit by a short burst form his m8

Looked to see an Se roll and zoom past

The only thing that saved me was that I'd initiated the turn before he hit me

The clock starts ticking now as I must assume my engine's on borrowed time

Controls took some hits too as they're not as responsive, but I can still fight

 

Knew I had to get outta there, engine's gonna die, how can I deadstick throught this mob?, even if I can, POW at best

Turn, fire, turn, fire, every time an Se rolled into a dive, it was victory

They didn't crash but I needed to drive them down

 

Eventually it worked, top of the heap, hauled back on the stick and tried to climb away

But they weren't through with me yet, clawing after me

One seemd the highest so I reversed and dove on him, firing a strong burst then zooming away

 

Some had crashed so it was now 4:1, most of them down low

Leveled out and crossed back over the lines, but still they followed, one of them gaining height

When he got within 1/2 mile, I turned and attacked

Learned long ago never to take on AI head-on, but made a curving attack flying towards a point 100 yards behind him

Whipped into a wingover as he passed, neither of us firing shots

 

Had a good position but he snapped rolled and dove away a couple times

Just let him go and resumed course for home ...those other 3 are down there

But he still didn't give up, engine must be damged as he soon overhauled me

Same thing, when within 1/2 mile, turn and attack

Zoom past, wingover, roll and dive, let him go

 

Still he followed but now a flight of 3 D7's showed up and headed for the 3 Se's down low

Don't know who they are but I'd like to kiss them, blue fusalage and all

When He got within a 1/2 mile, I swung around for the attack again

But this time he changed his mind and broke away

Maybe he went to help his buddies but who cares, I'm alone now

 

It sure was a lonely flight and landing back at base, 8 flew off, only 1 returned

 

I must admit, I cheated, and put in a high number of claims then reduced

I wanted to see how many I'd gotten

In the end, we'd fought even with the Brits

We got 3 from the 1st little skirmish, I got 3, and the winigie must have gotten at least 1 vs. our 7 losses

Even so, I still feel like we got beaten up pretty badly

[Rickitycrate 10]

Long post but a fun read Duce. Thanks. What a flight sim. All the unscripted action you could have hoped for. And being pursued like that and the sadness of returning alone. I hope you get those confirmed or at least survive to find out.

[Olham 164]

Hi, Duce

So you're flying the "dark side" as they keep saying here - my side!

Herzlich willkommen! Und danke fuer den Report! (Can you translate that?)

 

Yes, wings from the other flight do that, but at least you can stop your own

flight wingies (when you are lead) by pressing "R" (return to me).

Then they should stop. Also, when you chase a marked target, and you press

"H" help!, your direct wingman 1 will fire at that target, except when he finds

someone behind you to attack.

 

Great report, could see it all happen. I'd like to encourage you to report the

special fights in "Reports from the front" sticky thread - I do that regularly.

You could add screenshots.

 

If your engine hadn't been hit, you could have finished them off by dive attacking

and zooming up again, but this time, you did the very best you could do by getting

back to base alive. Gut gemacht!

 

You will grow better and better, once you find "your" fighter and stick to it long

enough to REALLY learn how to fight in it.

 

Have fun, blue skies!

 

PS: blue DVIIs could have been Jasta 15 who saved you, if my memories don't fail

me there - OvS?

(Did they have red cowlings?)

Edited June 27, 2009 by Olham

[Duce Lewis 3]

Thanks guys,

 

Rick, long and lonely is right

It was 1 of those 'I think I'll get up and walk away from the computer now' type of fights ...long and intensive

All defensive but had to get some offensive hits in to get outta there

 

Olham, I've been a dark side member since shortly after P2 came out

Fell in love with the DVII after the 1st flight

 

I'd have put this in the Special Reports Sticky but it was so similar to your fight, I posted here

I used to post write-ups and screenies alot but so far in BHH, I've only taken 1 screenshot!

Just love flyin her I guess

 

I only got a quick glimpse of the 3 D7's from the rear

Light to medium blue fuselages

Whoever they are, I'm toasting them with champagne tonight