CA-WW1 - Wings of War

[33LIMA 972]

Flying the famous Fokker D VII in another WOFF campaign mission inspired by a World War One classic!

 

The man and the book 

I believe Rudolph Stark's 'Wings of War' was first published, in English at any rate, in 1933. It was translated by Claude W Sykes, described by Norman Franks as 'among the better aviation writers of the period' in his introduction to a recent reprint of Sykes's 'German War Birds', written under the pen-name 'Vigilant' and one of my favourite WW1 air war books from my younger days.

 

'Wings of War' starts during 1917 with Stark a two-seater pilot, yearning to transfer to single-seater 'scouts', as fighters were commonly called in those days. His transfer comes through and he receives his fighter pilot training at Jastaschule 2 at Saultain, near Valenciennes in occupied France. There's little said about this period; he completes his training just before Christmas 1917 and the book really begins with his posting to the Bavarian Jasta 34 at Chenois, flying against the French, not far from where his two-seater unit was based.

 

Stark flies a sleek Pfalz D III, his lilac personal colours being painted on top of the type's distinctive silver-doped factory finish. His first air combat in single-seaters is nearly his last. With two others, they attack a twin-engined Caudron but a French fighter loops onto Stark's tail and riddles his Pfalz, holing the petrol tank. Stark is lucky to escape after an involuntary spin earthwards. Racing for home, seemingly pursued by further gunfire, he lands to realise the rattling behind him is his seat-belt buckle flapping against the fuselage, the belt having been parted by a French bullet.

 

In March 1918, Jasta 34 moves north, to Le Cateau, to participate in the German spring offensive against the British. This was designed to win a decisive victory on the Western front, using troops freed up by the collapse of Imperial Russia and the truce with the Soviets, before the arrival of substantial US forces in France swung the balance of forces irreversibly against Imperial Germany. The fighing is intense and Stark, still apparently flying the Pfalz, claims his first victory in late March, a British two-seater. In May, Stark is made temporary leader of Jasta 77, based at the same airfield, and in June, he is appointed to command another Bavarian jagdstaffel, Jasta 35, in the Cambrai area. By August, their attacks having stalled, the Germans are facing a British counter-offensive and Jasta 35 is pleased to receive its first Fokker D VIIs, as replacements for some some of its older aircraft. Supplies of the superb new German fighter are limited, though, and in September, the staffel is compelled to accept instead some more machines from Bavarian manufacturers, the Pfalz D XII, to the disappointment of those pilots who don't get Fokkers.

 

It is all to no avail. Driven back on the ground and outnumbered in the air, the Germans are clearly losing the war. Falling back as the front is pushed east, Jasta 34 fights on, to the Armistice in November, bombed on the ground and harried in the skies above.

 

While Stark's book covers just the last year of the war, he had an interesting and eventful time of it, flying in combat the Fokker Dr I triplane as well as the Fokker D VII and the Pfalz D III. His combat memoir is a vivid one with rather more detail on places, units and planes than you tend to get in a wartime account. In fact, most printed descriptions of the Pfalz D XII rely heavily on Stark's quoted views of the type. 'Wings of War' (mine is the 1973 Arms & Armour Press edition) also benefits from the inclusion amongst its illustrations of reproductions of several of the author's own paintings, depicting some of his fights in the air. Highly recommended.

 

 

The air war in autumn 1918

By this point in the war, German fortunes were in terminal decline. In an effort to contest the increasing numerical and technical superiority of enemy fighters such as the SPAD XIII, the Camel, the SE5a and the newer Dolphin, the Germans had, in early and mid-1918, held competitive trials for fighter prototypes from many manufacturers, with frontline pilots participating in the evaluations. Anthony Fokker's entry to the trials was his company's V11, which, with a fuselage lengthened to solve initial handling problems, was the star of the show in the early trials. It was ordered into production as the Fokker D VII, regarded by many as the best German fighter of the war and a worthy match for anything in the enemy camp, with its responsive controls and relatively viceless handling. But many units had to soldier on with obsolescent Albatros and Pfalz scouts, against stronger enemy air arms which now included the RAF's 'Independent Force' carrying out 'strategic' day and night bombing and the first units of the United States Army Air Service, flying first the elegant Nieuport 28 but by the end of the summer, transitioning to the often-unreliable but sturdier SPAD XIII.

 

The mission

Here's my pilot for this campaign mission, evidently a family member of the author! I've started him off in September 1918, because this is the month from which the unit, in WOFF, is fully equipped with the plane I wanted to fly, the Fokker DVII. Previously, the staffel was said by Rudolph Stark to be flying a mix of the Allbatros DV, the Pfalz D III and (tho not featured in WOFF) unspecified Rolands.

 

 

And here's Jasta 35's line-up for the campaign. I'm starting off in the second flight, with myself and two other pilots. The author himself is in the first flight. As their designation indicates, our Fokkers are made under licence by the Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke (OAW). Despite the late stage of the war, we seem to have plenty of both aircraft and pilots. At this point, we're based at Lieu St. Amand, just north of Cambrai, in Flanders.

 

 

Here's our briefing for the first mission. The full staffel is turning out to protect a pair of Hannover CL IIIs on a medium-level reconnaisance mission, down to the sourh-west, to an objective just the far side of the trench lines. The first flight is described as flying top cover so I'll be taking on the role of close (or closer) escort for the two-seaters.

 

 

Here we are, both flights lined up on the airfield and good to go. In the briefing stage, you have the opportunity to pick a 'skin' for your plane and here, from those available, I'd chosen that of Xaver Prey. I'm not sure if this skin comes with WOFF or OFF - I've experimentally copied over the skins from OFF to WOFF using Jonesoft's mod enabler pending purchase of the official WOFF skin pack.

 

Anyhow, you can see from the line-up that there are variations in the 'lozenge' fabric covering of our machines, as there were in real life, but we all carry the Jasta 35b unit colours of a white chevron on the top of the upper wing and a black chevron underneath the lower one. My individual marking comprises the black and white bands you can see behind my cockpit, Rudolph Stark's machine had a lilac nose and fuselage band and a black-edged lilac tailplane.

 

 

Off we went, into the clear blue September skies. This was my first campaign mission in WOFF during this late period of the war. Flying for the side which was just two months away from collapse, I was more than a little anxious as to what the next hour or so would bring. With good reason, as it turned out!

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

Decisions, decisions!

 

 

I was soon joined by my two flight-mates, in the 'vee' formation I had selected in the 'loadout' screen'. I opened her wide and we began the climb towards the rendez-vous point with the two reconnaisance machines. Before too long, I was relieved to see them ahead. Hannovers are not the fastest of aeroplanes and I was able to overhaul them while still climbing. Soon, I was closing on them steadily, from above and behind.

 

 

At that point, I noticed a cluster of dark specks appear in the sky, about half right and slightly higher, some way off. As I watched, I realised these were German flak bursts. This didn't look good. If their targets were fighters, they were clearly a potential threat to my charges. I continued to shadow the Hannovers, but began a new climb, so as not to be caught at a height disadvantage by the incoming enemy aircraft, whoever they might be.

 

 

The cluster of flak bursts was slowly drifting left to right, and I was hopeful that they would eventually pass well astern. At this point, however, the Hannovers well and truly put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons. They began a steady 180 degree turn to the right, taking them back in the direction of the unseen enemy flight which was the target of that AA fire. I shook my head at their foolishness, then began a turn after them, easing off my rate of climb.

 

 

The flak seemed to slacken off for a while but then broke out afresh. now slightly right and low....and much closer. I still could not see the targets, even against the clear blue sky, but they were now so close that a clash appeared imminent.

 

 

As I turned into the patch of sky just ahead and above the flak bursts, it disgorged a shower of aircraft - five or six. Sopwih Camels, from the straight upper wing and dihedral on the lower one. Their formation burst like a starshelll and they came at us from several directions. I picked out the nearest and issued a hasty command to attack, even as I attempted a rapid turn to get around and onto the tail of my chosen Camel as he flashed past behind us.

 

 

My intended target was hard on the heels of one of my flight. All the more reason to get after him! But in my haste, I tried to turn too tighttly while still climbing and I spun out. I should have put the nose down or at least levelled off, as I turned.

 

 

 

I lost ground, but recovered quickly from the spin and was soon after the Camel again. He, too had lost height ,in pursuit of my comrade who was turning desperately to get away. I got in a good burst, which seemed to cause the Camel to stagger then spin, down and out of the fight.

 

 

I cleared my tail and turned to stay above him, watching to see if he recovered. He did. By this time, I was well below the rest of the fight. Now, I had a decision to make. Should I climb up to rejoin the main battle? Or was it better to go after the Englishman down below, in the hope of getting the first victory of my career with Jasta 35? In retrospect the right answer was to climb up and rejoin the fight. I had saved a flight-mate and driven a Camel down from the battle, so evening the odds. By rejoining my comrades above I could have helped them defeat the remaining Englishmen. But I had lost sight of the others, and was reluctant to leave the one opponent I could see. So I dived down after the Camel, noticing that he was now flying straight and level for home.

 

I was soon on his tail. A quick look around me revealed nothing. The Camel turned right as my first burst seemed to go straight into him. I also turned right, managing to keep pace with the likely-damaged or wounded enemy, despite the rotary-engined Camel's reputation for a right turn that few other aircraft could follow.

 

 

Suddenly, a burst of MG fire whacked into me from somewhere unseen. Blood spattered my goggles...my blood. Cursing my stupidity at being caught thus, I broke hard, but my machine answered the controls only sluggishly. The reason wasn't hard to see. My lower left wingtip was in tatters.

 

 

My attacker was the Camel which you can see on the right of the screenie below. By the look of it, he'd clobbered me with a deflection shot from somewhere ahead but out of sight. As I fought for control of my damaged Fokker, out of the corner of my eye I saw an impact in a field to my right. It was some consolation that the Camel I had attacked had crashed -  you can see the grey burst of smoke from this to the lower left of the picture. But it looked like I would be the next man down.

 

 

Even as the last of the German flak bursts aimed at the Camel I'd shot down faded, I banked around towards what I hoped was a suitable field for a forced landing. Somehow I managed to keep my wings level, plonked my Fokker down onto the grass and switched off the motor. By some miracle, she didn't roll over or cartwheel to destruction. To my right as I trundled to a halt, my victim burned in a nearby field.

 

 

 

Above, my conqueror wheeled around and then headed off towards the Lines and home. As it happened, he was from No. 4 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, so at least I'd been shot down by a pilot from a pretty illustrious unit, famous not least for an air fight the following month when, greatly outnumbered but flying the new Sopwith Snipe (also featured in WOFF) they reportedly claimed ten Fokkers downed for just one loss.

 

 

And that was the end of my mission. It was in fact also the end of my career. The debrief - despite permitting me to make out a claim for my victory, which I did -  informed me that I had died of my injuries. There are many cases on record of a badly-injured pilot making a forced landing but not recovering from their wounds, so while disappointing, this was not unusual.

 

 

As so many likely did, I paid a high price for making a bad decision, in this case, going after a Camel who was out of the fight instead of rejoining my comrades. Nevertheless, the mission was a telling and convincing recreation of the battles depicted by Rudolph Stark in 'Wings of War', brought back to life in Wings Over Flanders Fields, whose superb single-player campaign system and great new AI and visuals make it so very well suited to such endeavours.

 

That completes this particular series of mission reports, though others like them will doubtless follow. I hope you enjoyed reading the reports as much as I enjoyed flying the missions, however they ended! For now, keep your eyes open for the announcement for the CombatAce Wings Over Flanders Fields competition, which will be posted by Skyviper soon. Good hunting...or should I say, hals und beinbruch!
 

[+Polovski 460]

Great write up 33Lima!

 

 

One note: copying the old skins from P3 in may "work" for some craft but others it won't as they have had model changes.  Also in the new skins pack available on our website a vast number of skins have been overhauled,improved or new ones added, so worth having for those who have not yet got it.