Creaghorn 10 Posted February 28, 2010 Ulrich Wolf, born and raised as a son of a teacher in Cologne, joined Kasta 14 in March 1916, after an extensive flighttraining in Berlin/Johannisthal. On April 1. he took for his first sortie in war as a pilot, together with Johann Strahlemann as the observer. He was glad he did not have to sit in the trenches anymore but nonetheless the white bursts of enemy anti aicraft around him was terrifying him. Bad weather and enemy anti aircraft fire, where he slowly got used to, were often hindering a good sortie, but still he tried the best he could to give his observers a good position for their recon missions. Like many other pilots, his weakness was landing the tough Roland two seaters. Occasionally he broke a wheel or his fuselage, but nothing harmful ever happened. In mid april 1916 he and his observer Strahlemann had then their baptism under fire. A bunch of Nieuport 11's attacked the formation. The rolands have been without escort so they had to fight their way out. Wolfs aircraft received some bursts into his fuselage but he was able to avoid getting shot down and to return to a nearby airfield, but Strahlemann received serious bulletwounds and died before touchdown. The air got more crowded and doing recon-jobs were getting tougher, despite getting more escort from fokker eindeckers. Wolf fought his way through the months of combat for almost half a year befor he had an accident in september 1916, landing his roland. He stayed in hospital for a week and during this time his and his friends Horst Pagels' request was accepted where he was allowed to transfer to a fightersquadron. He was assigned to Jasta 5 in the Verdun area wich was equipped with Halberstadt scouts. He had to get used to the agility and lightness of his fighter aicraft. He also listened carefully to his more experienced comrades and so he learned when to fight and when to run, how to detect advantages and disadvantages in time. On November 3rd. he got confirmation for his first shot down aircraft. a group of BE2c two seaters were loitering so he attacked one from it's 2 o'clock. Suddenly the hostile aircraft burst into flames and crashed northeast of Bapaume over friendly lines. He landed at a nearby airfield and was driven by car to the wreckage. Both inmates were dead and so much burnt that an identification was impossible. He was shocked about the sight but knew that it was his sad duty. Several days after it Wolf downed a Nieuport 17. Horst Pagels was more cold blooded and soon became an ace with 5 kills. Jasta5 later was equipped with the better Albatros DII scouts, but it wasn't before March 1917 before Wolf got his 3rd kill, another Nieuport. In bloody april Wolf managed to raise his tally to 6, where he earned his iron cross 1st class and made his family at home proud, before in may 1917 he got wounded in the leg by an enemy gunner of a Sopwith Strutter. In July 1917 he returend to duty and managed to shot down a Sopwith Triplane, an aicraft which was much superior to the Albatros scouts. At the end of 1917 his tally was raised to 12 and in end of january 1918 he added one more. while Horst Pagels had 30 and was a celebrated hero. Wolf always told Pagels that the chances to survive this war are small, but that he was still too reckless. His concerns became true when Horst Pagels didn't return from a sortie in end of march 1918. on april 2nd Pagels death was confirmed. He got shot down in flames over nomandsland by a Sopwith Camel. Wolf got leave and informed personally Pagels parents about his sons death. The airwar intensified from day to day. Most of the big aces were dead or wounded. On May 21st. Wolf brought down a Spad XIII. over friendly lines. The enemy pilot survived and Wolf had a chance to interview his victim and take him prisoner (he took him to a party in the officers mess of Jasta 5 ). On May 25th Wolf's luck run out. Despite beeing a cautious hunter no one could reduce the chances getting hit from the ground by enemy anti aircraft with good flying skills. He took his group to a dawn patrol to avoid enemy twoseaters pass nomandsland. Beeing over enemy lines his black Dreidecker received a direct hit and went down in flames. No one knows if his body ever got recovered or if he got a burial. In his families memories Ulrich is still flying into sunset and will do forever... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gaw 5 Posted February 28, 2010 R.I.P......damn......hate to see a canny player go down....sent dozens off to the morgue covered with medals and yet short of 17.5 hrs......there's a caution that comes over me as the dread number approaches and I've often wondered if that's the cause instead of the accumulation of odds against.....kudos to the devs for making this work on so many levels.....very cool....... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
catch 81 Posted March 1, 2010 Nice work Creaghorn ! Atmospheric. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dej 17 Posted March 1, 2010 Brilliant! Played by Creaghorn's hands this sim is as close to WW1 aviation as can be achieved today. If you're a realism-junkie, Creaghorn is your example. But, naturally, he'd also be the first to argue how far it is from the reality that was. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Morris 2 Posted March 1, 2010 Wow. lots of respect. m Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 1, 2010 Dej said it; I can only say "amen" to that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted March 1, 2010 thank you all. what's impressive for me is that an AI-pilot (horst pagels) survived so long (1.5 years) and made so many kills. that was very immersive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted March 1, 2010 Great write up (I seem to recognise one of those Alb's) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 1, 2010 How do you mean, Creaghorn? So the non-Ace AI DOES collect kills, and is getting promoted??? I never knew that! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted March 1, 2010 How do you mean, Creaghorn? So the non-Ace AI DOES collect kills, and is getting promoted??? I never knew that! they do collect kills and get ace status as soon as they have 15 kills if they survive long enough and if you survive long enough to follow it . i don't think they get promoted by rank though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 1, 2010 Hey, this is great to know! That will make me fly much more careful with them wingies from now on! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hasse Wind 46 Posted March 1, 2010 Creaghorn, do ANY of your pilots live less than hundreds of hours? Do you sometimes lose your pilot after a couple of sorties just like us mere mortals? Amazing, and perhaps the most remarkable thing is that you don't have 2000 kills after such a career. Your kill/flight hour ratio is very realistic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 1, 2010 (edited) What I wonder about is: how does he prevent from being jumped at from time to time. Me, I am always getting attacked, and forced to fight. You must have better eye sight than me, Creaghorn, so you can stay away from an enemy early detected? Edited March 1, 2010 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted March 2, 2010 (edited) Creaghorn, do ANY of your pilots live less than hundreds of hours? Do you sometimes lose your pilot after a couple of sorties just like us mere mortals? Amazing, and perhaps the most remarkable thing is that you don't have 2000 kills after such a career. Your kill/flight hour ratio is very realistic. i could never ever reach so many kills, and survive at the same time so long. more fights means more chances to get killed. there are 1000 factors wich can end your life, even without your fault, so i try to decrease the chances for that to happen. and when i fight, then only with the option to win. i try never to get into a "butch cassidy and sundance kid surrounded by 100 gunmen" situation but rather beeing a sniper who disappears after an attack. my goal is to survive because there is one precious life . p.s. sometimes of course i have pilots who die quickly after couple sorties or so and then i'm mad about myself. that's what i'm trying to avoid at all costs Edited March 2, 2010 by Creaghorn Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted March 2, 2010 What I wonder about is: how does he prevent from being jumped at from time to time. Me, I am always getting attacked, and forced to fight. You must have better eye sight than me, Creaghorn, so you can stay away from an enemy early detected? i posted some weeks ago, i think, that i fight for some minutes and then seperate from a fight and rejoin my group again, and so does the enemy AI. so it's no bloody fistfight but more a clash of some minutes, as it was in real. so your chance to get out of it increases automatically Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
