CA-WW1 - the French and the Yanks

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The other nationalities in Wings Over Flanders Fields  

Part 1 - the French air service 

 

I can't do a biography-based mission report for the US and French sides as I only have memoirs by British and German pilots. But for the sake of completeness, I'm going to do a separate pair of  mission reports in Wings Over Flanders Fields, one flying for the Aéronautique Militaire, the other for the US Army Air Service. First up, it's the French service, flying the little Nieuport 11, aptly nicknamed the bébé (baby). 

 

The plane

Oddly enough, pre-war Nieuport designs were monoplanes. Their first biplane was the two-seat Nieuport 10 of 1915, which set the pattern for the aircraft which were to follow: biplanes with a much smaller lower wing, joined to the upper one with a V-shaped interplane strut. These were intended from the start to be armed. The early Nieuport 10 AV had the observer in front ('en avant', hence AV) with a circular cut-out in the upper wing, to enable him to stand up and fire a carbine or a Hotchkiss machine-gun pintle-mounted on the wing in front. But the later Nieuport 10 AR, and the more powerful Nieuport 12 which followed, moved the observer to the rear ('en arriere', hence AR) where he manned a Lewis Gun on a moveable or rotating mount.

 

The Nieuport 10 AV

 

During 1915, some Nieuport 10s were flown as fighters on patrols, with a Lewis Gun fixed above the upper wing to fire ahead, high enough to miss the propeller arc. Their success inspired the Nieuport 11, a smaller, nimbler development. This was arguably the first real fighter aircraft; genuinely capable of air-to-air combat in a way the inferior Fokker monoplanes were not - the latter being interceptors rather than fighters, with a synchronised gun but primitive wing-warping roll control and generally not well-suited to dog-fighting. In the hands of France's emerging aces like Georges Guynemer and Jean Navarre, the Nieuport 11 was instrumental by early 1916 in reversing the German's brief period of ascendancy in the air, 'the Fokker Scourge'. The British contribution was the DH-2, but while also better than the Fokker, this 'pusher' design was a technological blind alley. By contrast the Nieuport 11 proved capable of significant further development. Later versions, the Nieuport 16, 17, 23, 24 and 27, were widely used by both French and British, and later by the US Escadrille Layfayette. RFC aces like Albert Ball and Billy Bishop also rose to prominence flying Nieuport Scouts. The type was widely used by Italian and Russian air forces as well as on the Western Front, despite a continuing and alarming tendency to failures of the weak lower wing, often killing the pilot. All in all, the Nieuport V-strutters were one of the war's classic designs, inspiring the layout of the German Albatros D III which from early 1917, largely swung the air superiority pendulum back towards the Germans.

 

Recommended reading on Nieuport aircraft would include Crowood's 'Nieuport Aircraft of WW1' by Ray Sanger and Osprey's 'Nieuport Aces of WW1' by Norman Franks.

 

The unit

For this mission, I created a new French pilot and assigned him to Escadrille N.12 (the French gave squadron numbers a leading alphabetic designator which - though a change could sometimes lag behind a change of aircraft - indicated the principal type of aircraft flown - 'N' for Nieuport, Spa for SPAD, for example). The unit had a long and worthy combat history. There's a great online source here; even if you speak no French, the  illustrations, maps and tabular information tell their own story. The unit marking was a blue and while 'fanion' or guidon with the number '12', usually in red, carried on the side of the fuselage.

 

As you can see, it's 1 May 1916 and we are based at La Cense, near Compiegne. Happily, we are close enough to La Belle Paris for us to have some interesting and diverting 'R and R', on our days off. But that's a very different kind of mission with quite distinct objectives!

 

 

The mission

Here's the brief for today's mission, which takes us well away from the delights of Paris. It's a patrol along a dog-leg route, up to the trench lines, which are not too far away. I'm leading a flight of three; a second flight of two aircraft is also flying the mission, as 'top cover'. Our briefed mission height is 10,000 feet.

 

 

Starting on the grass in front of the sheds at La Cense, I waited till the first couple of machines had roared off then sped after them. All of us were in green and brown 'shadow shading' camouflage, apart from one fellow who was in clear doped linen, with prominent blue, white and red chevrons on his fuselage. This was the aircraft of squadron ace Lt Pierre Dufaur de Gavardine, said in the Osprey aces book to have scored six victories with the unit, before being badly wounded early in 1917.

 

 

I was quickly off the ground and climbing steadily. With the front just a short distance away, I hoped to meet the Boche in the air before very much longer and perhaps indulge the superiority of my neat little aircraft, at the expense of some inferior Fokkers, Aviatiks or the like. Would my hopes be realised or dashed? I would find out in good time.

 

 

...to be continued!

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Over the front!

 

With my two flight-mates in Vee formation either side, I climbed hard on the short leg to the north-east, with the other flight also going strong, just ahead and above me. Approaching the waypoint nearly half-way to the Lines, I checked my map then, at the right moment, eased off my climb rate and turned ninety degrees right, keeping a more careful look-out, now.

 

 

In the danger zone to my rear, the skies remained clear, except for my faithful flight-mates. It wasn't long before we had company, though. Anxious to meet the Boche in the air, I had edged out into No-Man's Land and soon had Archie for company. The barrage was reasonably accurate but not particularly intense. I threw in a few random course and height changes, just in case.

 

 

There was now no sign of the other flight. Seemingly alone with my own flight, and as the Boche airmen were not co-operating with my plans for fame and ace-dom, I decided that a little show of initiative was now in order. I turned left into enemy territory, soon leaving the trench-lines behind and below.

 

 

For a while it looked like this flexible interpretation of my orders might draw a blank. Then I saw them. Two pale dots appeared in the sky, slightly higher and half left. They were edging slowly left to right, deeper into enemy territory. After tracking their progress for a while, I turned onto an interception course, cursing the Archie bursts close to my plane, which might give my game away, if these two dots were enemy aircraft. As indeed they were.

 

 

As I slowly closed the range, the dots resolved themselves into a pair of white aircraft, which I correctly judged to be Aviatik two-seaters. This was more like it! I slid into position, behind and below them in the approved manner, and crept ever closer, waiting for the right moment to let them have it.

 

 

...to be continued!

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Into action!

 

I was soon at reasonably close range and started shooting. This is where it got tricky. With my machine-gun several feet above my head and no proper gunsight, I found it rather hard to get my rounds on target. The rather low rate of fire from just one gun and the visible dispersion of my tracer rounds didn't help. the natural thing to do was use the crossed bracing wires in front as a reference point and aim off accordingly. By the time I had sort of worked this out, it was time to break off and come around for another pass...and then another!

 

 

A third attack proved un-necessary. While lining up I had given my two comrades the signal to attack and one of them took me at my word. I straightened up and came in for another pass at the Aviatik, but he was no longer there. What was left of him was falling in flames, shorn of his wings which fluttered behind him, as my victorious flight-mate flew past in triumph.

 

 

Right, then, the second Aviatik would be mine. Again I attacked. And again, I broke off my firing pass with the Aviatik flying serenely on. This was not how it was supposed to work out.

 

 

Having broke low, it took me longer to come around again. I made a second pass, during which my ammunition gave out. As I rolled out again as if to line myself up for another firing pass, I could see that a flight-mate was taking full advantage, and had beaten me to the mark. Not that I had any rounds left, anyway...just one gun, no proper sight, and under two hundred rounds, even for that. I was too used to flying Albatrosses!

 

 

For the second time, mixed feelings were the order of the day, as I watched my comrade's target stream black smoke and plunge earthwards. Two kills from the mission, two German working aeroplanes and crews who would work no more. But neither of them were mine. I consoled myself with the thought that my attacks had perhaps softened up both victims and contributed to my team's success.

 

 

I rolled in after my successful comrade and then throttled back till they were both back in formation, which took some time, as one of them had lost a bit of height. Then I opened her up and steered us both back towards the front.

 

 

One of my flight-mates gave me some anxious moments, falling well behind then doing it again, after I orbited so he could catch up. But we made it over with no more than some desultory Archie fire to worry about. As we reached our side of the Lines, I nosed down into a gentle dive to complete the transit back into safer skies.

 

 

Soon we were back at La Cense and in the circuit. 

 

 

I have screwed up several virtual landings by pausing and un-pausing the action in an effort to get a decent screenie and managed to do it again today. The crash didn't look too bad but was fatal, although it was galling to read that I was considered a victim of enemy action. Perhaps the CO thought that would look better in the unit records than 'Killed after crash landing while trying to take a screenshot'. Can't say I blame him, I suppose.

 

 

I enjoyed flying the little Nieuport 11 but was a bit disappointed at the paucity of targets...and my inability to hit them hard, when they did show up. With such an armament as I had, I really needed to get much closer and conserve my limited supply of ammunition. Nice that a good combat flight sim can reinforce the same lessons the real pilots of World War One had to learn!