CA-WW1 - The Red Battle-flier

[33LIMA 972]

Recreating the Red Baron's early career in Wings Over Flanders Fields!

 

The man and the book 

'When he had come down to about three hundred feet he tried to escape by flying in a zig-zag course... That was my most favorable moment. I followed him at an altitude of from two hundred and fifty feet to one hundred and fifty feet, firing all the time. The Englishman could not help falling. But the jamming of my gun nearly robbed me of my success. My opponent fell, shot through the head, one hundred and fifty feet behind our line. His machine gun was dug out of the ground and it ornaments the entrance of my dwelling.'

 

Such is the description in 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' of the end of the famous air fight on 23 November 1916, in which Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen brought down the DH-2 flown by foremost Royal Flying Corps ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC. Their dogfight heralded the start of a long period of German technical superiority in the skies over the Western front, culminating in 'Bloody April' the following year, when the RFC was made to pay a high price for its support of the Army in the Battle of Arras.

 

Manfred von Richthofen, the renowned Red Baron - probably the most famous fighter pilot, then and always - personified that superiority and 'Der Rote Kampflieger' is his wartime account of those days long ago.

 

Well, sort of. According to William E. Burrows,* the book was mostly written during von Richthofen's extended leave after 'Bloody April', at his East Prusssian home, with the help of a female stenographer. Sent in sections to the Air Ministry for editing and censorship, The Red Battle-flier was essentially a propaganda effort for public consumption. How much is in his own words, or how accurately it conveys his own thoughts and feelings, is debatable. Burrows says von Richthofen's family '...insisted privately that Manfred's writing had been re-worked and made into the diary of a killer' and that Jasta 11's Hans Georg von der Osten '...says emphatically that Richthofen did not write any of the finished product, but he has no idea who did.' Compared to similar works by Billy Bishop and James McCudden, the book is certainly lacking in technical detail. However, it's still a fascinating and oft-cited picture, painted at the time, of the career of one of the world's greatest fighter pilots.

 

* 'Richthofen - a true history of the Red Baron' by William E Burrows

 

The book starts with early days in military academies and, once the war begins, cavalry service on eastern and western fronts. There, frustrated at the immobility of trench warfare, von Richthofen applies for the air service and flies as an observer on both fronts. He develops a taste for air combat and inspired by the successes of early aces Boelcke and Immelman, trains as a pilot. His big break comes in the late summer of 1916 when he is chosen by Boelcke as a founder-member of the newly formed Jagdstaffel 2. Operating the deadly new Albatros D I and D II fighters under the keen eyes of master tactician Boelcke, the new fighter squadron is soon reversing the tide of British air superiority, despite the death of their leader in a mid-air collision in late October.

 

 

Von Richthofen scores steadily, his victories including Lanoe Hawker. In January 1917, he's posted to command Jasta 11, flying the V-strutted Albatros D III, although he reverts to an older Halberstadt for a time, while lower wing failures on the new aircraft are sorted out. By this time awarded the 'Blue Max' - the Order Pour le Mérite - his own Albatros is soon painted in the Baron's trademark red. Under his leadership, Jasta 11 builds up a first-class combat record and soon has a bevy of aces.

 

 Jasta 11 - in cockpit: Manfred von Richthofen; standing, left to right: Allmenroeder, Hintsch, Festner, Schaefer, Wolff, Simon, Brauneck; sitting, left to right: Essler, Lothar von Richthofen, Krefft.

 

The story continues through 'Bloody April' and on to early July 1917, when von Richthofen is shot in the head, temporarily paralysed and blinded, in a fight with FE2s of No. 20 Squadron. Spinning down, thinking 'this is the way it looks just before death' he recovers just enough to make a forced landing, before clambering out of his red-nosed and red-tailed Albatros D V (seen below after the event) and collapsing into a thorn bush. 'I had quite a respectable hole in my head', his account of the fight ends, 'My thick Richthofen head once again proved itself. The skull had not been penetrated.'

 

 

 

There were apparently plans to update the book to cover von Richthofen's subsequent career but his death in action in April 1918 left such possibilities in limbo until after the war. I'd recommend the 1933 edition, which includes some of von Richthofen's letters home, a little material he apparently wrote for a second edition, and post-war contributions by brothers Lothar and Bolko. While the preface to a 1918 English wartime translation (available online here) described it as giving '...the general impression of the writing of a gentleman prepared for publication by a hack journalist', 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' can't help but convey something of the essence of the experiences and feelings of the great fighter pilot.

 

 

The air war in autumn 1916

Flying for the German side in the last few months of 1916, as the Battle of the Somme ran its course, is surely one of the classic scenarios for a simulated WW1 fighter pilot career. The best French or British fighters - the Nieuport scouts, the DH-2 'pusher' and later the superb Sopwith Pup - can turn tighter. But flying the Albatros D II, you can mostly out-run, out-climb and out-dive your opponents; and you have two machine guns to their one. As for your natural prey, the two-seater 'working aeroplanes', these were vulnerable enough to the indifferent Fokker monoplanes of 1915-16; compared to the much-superior Albatros, one can really speak of predator and prey. And it was at this time that Oswald Boelcke established and taught systematically the basic principles of air combat and squadron tactics, setting the pattern for years to come. 'Der Rote Kampfflieger' vividly conveys the excitement of  'Boelcke's Cubs' as they take to the skies and cut a swathe through the ranks of the RFC and it's an experience I was looking forward to re-creating in Wings Over Flanders Fields.

 

The mission

Sure enough, Jagdstaffel 2 is in the WOFF order of battle for the Luftstreitkrafte and I opted to begin a career at the start of October 1916, by which time the Halberstadt has disappeared from the WOFF squadron line-up and we are fully equipped with the sleek, twin-gunned Albatros. Here's the enlistment screen, showing we are correctly based at Lagnicourt. Note that the squadron's roster not only includes our real-life Commanding Officer, the famous Oswald Boelcke, but the man who was his most famous pupil, Manfred von Richthofen himself.

 

 

And here's the briefing for our mission. It's a defensive patrol, up to and behind our own lines, fully in keeping with our defensive strategy, whereby we let the enemy come to us! Having de-selected 'Always lead' for this campaign in the WOFF 'Workshop', I'm pleased to find that today, I'll be flying in the flight - 'Schwarm zwei' - led my the great man himself, the illustrious Boelcke! There are four of us in the flight, with another six pilots providing 'top cover'. Woe betide the Tommies today!

 

 

And here we are, lined up on the grass at Lagnicourt. I'm in the middle of the line, in the Albatros with the darker, reddish finish and a white hoop painted on the nose, aft of the spinner. This is the 'skin' for the machine flown by Manfred von Richthofen himself, which I had taken the liberty of selecting for my own plane during the briefing phase. This was the period when the Germans had adopted camouflaged finishes, but before it became fashionable for units or individuals to paint their aircraft with prominent or brightly-coloured markings.

 

 

Taking off promptly so as not to be left behind, I sped off with the others and (using the labels to confirm the plane of my leader) slotted into position on the right of our vee formation. Boelcke is second from the left; you can perhaps just make out the black and white quartered wheel hubs on his otherwise factory-finish Albatros.

 

 

Soon, we were climbing steadily, flying a loose orbit just to the north of our airfield, presumably to gain a respectable altitude before turning for the run south and up to the German reserve trenches. Above and behind us, our comrades kept watch and my confidence soared, buoyed up by the impressive spectacle of this pahlanx of German hunting machines sweeping the skies for the enemy!

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

Into action!

 

 

Finally, having reached about 2500 meters, our leader swung us slowly around to the right and we settled onto the long leg to the south-south-west, down towards the Lines. Our four Albatrosses were still shadowed protectively by the staffel's other flight, above and behind. My dislike of the chore of formation-keeping, bereft of peripheral vision, is part of the reason I fly as patrol leader and never as a wingman, given a choice. But on this occasion, I found that I was managing to hold my place fairly well without undue hassle, albeit at the expense of keeping a good look-out, especially up-sun in the mostly clear skies. I turned on the Tactical Display ('TAC') briefly, noting the very thorough navigational and formation-keeping assistance it offered, but as I was managing ok, I turned it off again.

 

Instead, I turned on the WOFF autopilot and let that take care of formation-keeping while I scanned around us. I looked in particular in the direction of the sun and, all around, kept an eye out for the tell-tale black puffs of German AA fire that would signify the presence of enemy aircraft on our side of the Lines. But the skies remained obstinately clear of any signs of the enemy, so I tried out a bit of time compression, going up to 4x. I soon turned it off, unwilling to 'fast forward' past the moment that contact with the enemy was made. This was my first time flying as a wingman in WOFF and I was keen to get the most from it, not least the better to recreate and savour the experience of von Richthofen flying behind the famous Boelcke. Just as WOFF was enabling me to do, on this very mission!

 

The flight down to the Lines was uneventful, and I was beginning to wonder if the the patrol would be a wash-out. But suddenly, Boelcke's Albatros dipped into a dive, dropping straight ahead, down towards the German reserve trenches. We followed, falling a little behind as Boelcke swooped on ahead of us and with my own aircraft still in autopilot.

 

 

For a second or two, I could not make out what had caused our leader to dive, but soon noticed the black German AA bursts a few hundred feet above the eastern extremities of the shelled area. Obviously, our experienced leader's keen eyes had spotted this sign of English aerial activity well before I had!

 

 

I looked beyond the flak bursts, and soon picked out a pale brown aircraft wheeling around, not far above the ground. An enemy! He seemed not to have seen us, perhaps pre-occupied with strafing our troops. But, unfamiliar with the keystrokes, I fluffed switching off the autopilot - no way was I going to let him fight the upcoming battle, that was my job!  By the time I'd hit the correct key combination to end autopilot, I was somewhat disoriented and had lost sight of my intended target. Looking around, I soon saw him again, in a turn not far to my rear. It was a DH-2 'pusher' - a fighter aircraft, and there were two of them! Furthermore, no sign could I see of my own flight-mates, though I had little time to spare looking around for them, with two English fighters in my immediate vicinity.

 

 

For a moment, I was rattled. Thanks to my bungled autopilot turn-off, I was now low down and with two DH-2s for company. Quickly, I made my plan. I would quickly go onto the offensive, going all-out to get one of the De Havillands - or Vickers single-seaters, as the Germans called them. If I could grab a quick kill, or even badly damage one of the English packing-cases, the score would be even and I could afford to tackle the second enemy in a more leisurely fashion. If some of my comrades turned up to help, or kept the second DH-2 off my neck, so much the better. But I had no idea where they were and could not rely on any assistance. This, it seemed, was going to be down to me, and me alone. Time to get busy!

 

Throttle fully open, I found myself in a low level, close quarter turning fight with the two Englishmen. Time and again they turned into me and I was unable to get my nose around fast enough to get the nimble De Havillands into my sights, before they flashed past. So I started trying to gain a little height as I turned, and was soon able to acquire a slight height advantage. This I used to pick my moment to dive down onto one of the DH-2s, while the other one was a little way off and unable to intervene quickly enough. Swoop down, line him up, fire a few short bursts, and then pull back up in a climbing turn, to regain my position. This seemed to work - not only did the second Englishman fail to get a bead on me, but I was able to repeat my short, swooping attack.

 

 

 

The second time, finding myself in a good position below and behind my target, I took a chance and stayed with him, pressing my attack instead of climbing back up. I noticed that he seemed to be manouevring less briskly, now. Sensing a kill, I closed rapidly, squeezing off several short bursts as he grew larger and larger in my sights.

 

 

 

 

Finally, just as I broke off to avoid a collision, his prop spun to a halt and the very next moment, a trail of black smoke tinged with flame licked back from his engine. The elation I felt was exactly the same as that described by von Richtofen in The Red Battle-Flier, when in a similar attack from behind and underneath the enemy, he knocked down his own first kill, also a pusher, an FE2. So far, so good - one down, one to go!

 

 

I continued my break, just in time to avoid a burst from the second DH-2. And still no sign of anyone else! But that's fine, I thought to myself. Now, it's just me in my big, beefy two-gunned Albatros against the remaining Englishman in a plane exactly like the one I had just sent down burning. There's no reason at all why I shouldn't be well able to deal with this gentleman in a similar fashion. And that's exactly what I set out to do.

 

Throttle wide, I evaded the DH-2 in a series of climbing turns, choosing my moment to wing over and drop down onto him. Then round and round we went some more, but I was able to make better use of the vertical and put in a series of 'boom and zoom' attacks. Again, I was finally able to get behind and below him - and stay there, snapping out burst after burst.

 

 

 

The end came suddenly. The second De Havilland burst into flames under the fire of my twin Spandaus from close behind and like the first machine, fell to earth streaming fire and black smoke. This time, with the skies around me seemingly clear, I watched him all the way down to a firey end in the vicinity of the German reserve trenches. My first mission with the Jasta and I had knocked down two English fighters in dramatic and unquestionable fashion! I felt sure the boss would be proud of me…wherever he, Boelcke (and the others) had got to.

 

 

I climbed up in a wide spiral, still at full power, checking the air was indeed clear of further enemies and seeking any sign as to where the rest of the staffel might have gone. I also noted the time and, checking the map, my location, for the victory claims I would make when I returned to base. The large town nearby, with its westernmost side mostly wrecked by shelfire, looked to be Bapaume. As far as timing was concerned, I reckoned my two kills had been scored within minutes of each other, shortly after 08:50.

 

My immediate desire now was to rejoin the staffel. I turned on the TAC briefly and tried labels, but with the former's range set at under half a mile (I use the TAC only to select or padlock targets I have already identified visually, so I keep its range short to avoid the 'AWACS effect') I saw no sign of other aircraft. The TAC did show a red line which seemed to indicate that to regain formation, I needed to fly out into No-Man's Land or beyond. On my own and low down, and reluctant to accept the TAC's assistance in reacting to something I could not see, I was unwilling to do that. So I orbited on our side of the Lines, gradually regaining some height and waiting to see if the Jasta would return. But they did not; the skies around me remained obstainately empty of other aircraft, as far as I could see.

 

I still had adequate fuel and about 700 rounds left for my guns and I contemplated flying the patrol route on my own. After debating the pros and cons, I decided instead to go home. If I met a foe en route, I would consider an attack, but otherwise, honour was satisfied and I was content to bank my successes and live to fight another day. I had lost track of the others, but felt it wasn't entirely my fault if the rest of the boys had left me in the lurch and gone chasing after some other enemies towards the wrong side of the Lines! But I didn't feel miffed - they had their reasons and I had two kills!

 

 

The flight back to Lagnicourt proved uneventful and I was soon turning into my approach, then touching down, rolling to a stop just in front of our canvas hangars. I switched off the motor and briefly enjoyed the quiet of the countryside and the sudden release of built-up tension before exiting the mission.

 

 

 

While I forgot to check the screen which would have listed the outcomes for the flight as a whole, I didn't forget to fill in claims for my two victories! Here's the page of my logbook which records my claims, and you can see I've expanded one of the entries to show what I recorded in my combat report.

 

 

The note WOFF has added about my chosen witness seems to augur well for my claims being confirmed, but time will tell! My reports are actually longer than those generally submitted by von Richthofen (these are reproduced in 'Under the Guns of the Red Baron') but I like to make good use of the facility to record a concise but descriptive report about each successful air fight. In doing so, I also like to use appropriate language - for example the Germans tended to refer to a manouevring battle or dogfight as a 'curvenkampf' or turning/curving fight (by WW2 anyway) and they often described RFC pushers as 'Vickers' types, presumably inherited from the 1915 Vickers FB5 'gunbus'.

 

This was a classic Jasta operation which nicely recreated the sort of missions and fights recounted in 'The Red Battle-flier'. The mission profile was exactly as usually flown by the Jastas, in this case in full strength, with our own flight supported directly by the others, in an impressive show of aerial force. It felt great to find myself flying as one of 'Boelcke's Cubs' with the great man himself out in front and to see him leading us down and into the fray. My own air fight was exciting and dramatic, while the results seemed to reward my attempt to exploit the advantages of my more powerful and better-armed machine, just like von Richthofen himself did in his battle with Lanoe Hawker. As for the aftermath, it was not at all unusual for the skies to be filled with planes one moment then for a flier to find himself seemingly alone in an empty sky, the next. Back at base, the ability to complete decent combat reports - which distinctive feature has been improved significantly since OFF - added to both the enjoyment of the experience and to the immersion, the sense that you have just participated in the recreation not only of an air fight, but also of the whole experience of flying with Boelcke and Jasta 2 in the hostile skies of the 'Great War for Civilisation'. Magical stuff, another classic aviation memior brought to life by Wings Over Flanders Fields. And after previous CA-WW1 missions flying two-seaters, it was both a step up in pace and a welcome change, to be flying again with the hunter rather than the hunted!

 

 

Coming next in CombatAce-WW1 - 'Winged Warfare' by Billy Bishop