What? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?

[catch 81]

@Rick Rawlings

Hey Rick I need to clarify something regarding the rules of engagement. I have not reported on all missions. At least one was boring and I didn't think worthwhile, one was aborted early due to trackir issues and one was aborted after 4 minutes when I realised I had not loaded coopers for a railyard attack!

Is this ok? Spiv still lives of course but I'm left wondering whether he may have died in one of those aborted missions?

[Baldric 42]

Thanks fellas.  I'll have to find a better tasting mud for those speciality type coffees. 

[Rick Rawlings 133]

Good work, everyone!

Stache: sorry to hear about Reed! I have really enjoyed your videos,  I hope you keep up with them!

catch, that is fine, we'll imagine he went immediately back to base and landed safely, being sure not to neglect any semi-visible trees on the approach! 

[catch 81]

6 minutes ago, Rick Rawlings said:

catch, that is fine, we'll imagine he went immediately back to base and landed safely, being sure not to neglect any semi-visible trees on the approach! 

Good. Thanks mate. 

As for that ruddy tree, I am steering well clear of it. I think it's a triffid! The chaps have tried to poison it but it just steps aside?

[Baldric 42]

2 hours ago, catch said:

Good. Thanks mate. 

As for that ruddy tree, I am steering well clear of it. I think it's a triffid! The chaps have tried to poison it but it just steps aside?

The lads were barking up the wrong tree.

 

 

 

 

Right, I'll get my coat...

[catch 81]

Ha! Don't forget your hat 

[catch 81]

It's a real shame about Lou and RL issues. Time is running out and I fear he won't make it into this comp. Perhaps I was right in an earlier spectacular cinefilmography in which I speculated that "Chuffs" had bought it. 

And then he goes and sells it on ebay!  

[catch 81]

Entry from Old Naps' diary dated 15-Dec-17

"Spiv was an Australian larrikin from the school of hard knocks. A bit rough around the edges but likeable nonetheless. His flying was unremarkable afflicted as it was with poor gunnery skills. But he did his bit. And one can ask no more than that. On that fateful day, 13th Dec. 1917, some say his machine appeared to shudder momentarily before bursting into flames as he touched down. I suspect his aeroplane was suffering "combat fatigue". I cannot imagine what his last thoughts were! My hopes are that he suffered little. This damned war has taken too many too soon." 

Entries such as this formed the basis of Napier's Great War memoir "Above The Mud" first published by Goldfish & Steiner in 1922.

 

 

[Rick Rawlings 133]

Here's where we stand so far:

Pretty grim. Someone is going to win this just by surviving!

 

 

[Baldric 42]

Dohh, Spiv!

 

(Personal Journal & Log)

03December 1917-- Intercept enemy, our sector FF8303...Early pre-dawn brief 'brief'.  I found my right hand shaking slightly as we were given our coordinates...must be the cold weather.  Forecast for snow and heavy cloud.  We'll be lucky to see anything in the soup up there.  We took off at 0700h, just 'B' Flight since 'A' had suffered a mauling late yesterday.  I hate helping to clean up someones gear.  I borrowed Spiv's pilfered motorbike and went into see Dorothy last evening.  We talked about our upcoming leaves, trying to coordinate.  London at Christmas would be nice.  Bugger, I'm finding keeping the journal difficult...my thoughts are all over the map.  Again as we flew over No Man's land the searchlights flicked their fingers around.  The ack-ack that came up exploded pretty harmlessly below us.  Then the nightmare...Naps got lit up like a Christmas Tree, then the same happened to me.  Evasive action.  Through the gaps in the thick clouds those bloody lights had found us and warned the enemy.  It was a large flight of Albatrosses and they hit us hard.  I almost got one but he was a slippery character.  Tud's got his first-- that surprised me given how long he's survived in 40RFC-- I just assumed he never talked about his victories.  After a short and violent scrap, the five of us managed to repel them despite their superior numbers.  I'm thinking they had a lot of fresh out of school pilots.  I think I'll go ahead and put in for some leave.  Oh look now I've made a mess of the last line...this shaking hand is making me doolally.

 

 

04December 1917-- Attack enemy aerodrome at Haubourdin (The Reprise!).  The hats must have thought the enemy aerodrome need more destruction of their tents.  We took off smartly, formed up and promptly ended up all higgledy-piggledy near the target.  The bloody snow and clouds...I wasn't even sure we were attacking the right aerodrome.  I had taken a couple of coopers with me and dropped them on the grass where the enemy would taxi.  There were no aeroplanes parked.  We shot up more tents, I put a few rounds into a truck and parked staff car.  The ground fire was heavy as usual, but the aerodromes ack-ack was, thankfully, lacklustre.  I got lost on the way home and landed near the port of Dieppe.  I managed to get a message to Dorothy that I would be really late getting back and not to worry.  She called me a bloody idiot and burst into tears.  I better see if I can buy her a bit of chocolate somewhere...  

[catch 81]

The ranks are thinning. It's up to you and a few others now Balders. Carry on the good fight chaps and punch those ruddy huns in the bally nose!

1 hour ago, Baldric said:

I borrowed Spiv's pilfered motorbike and went into see Dorothy last evening.

You can keep it. I have no use for it no more. She leaks oil. A lot. British engineering.

1 hour ago, Baldric said:

She called me a bloody idiot and burst into tears. 

I think she likes you.  Although one can never tell really ....

[TROOPER117 146]

Spiv gone now too, (sniff)  

Keep going Balders... someone needs to keep our end up (ooh, er, missus)

[RAF_Louvert 101]

I had time the last two days to actually do some flying and was getting in an assortment of fine sorties with my pilot here when it all came to a grinding halt this morning.  So ends the life and times of the once devastatingly handsome and totally corrupt "Chuffs" Wellingham, his final curtain lowered in a snowy farmyard in France after a go-round with a gaggle of Pfalz scouts.  He had a good, albeit short run as an RFC pilot.  BHaH II is awesome - deadly - but awesome.

 

 

 

 

[TROOPER117 146]

Chuffs was snuffed!... oh dear Lou, and he was racking them up in spectacular fashion no doubt.

 

[Rick Rawlings 133]

*sniffle* It's always the ones that die that go first! Sorry to hear it, Lou and catch! catch, I am still not sure what happened after watching the video. You hadn't been hit because you encountered  no one, right?  That was terrible luck! This is proving harder than I thought!  If we can't pull this off in an SE5a, what is it going to take?

Edited June 15, 2021 by Rick Rawlings

[mandrews_2 11]

20 hours ago, Rick Rawlings said:

Pretty grim. Someone is going to win this just by surviving!

 

Don't let anyone say this isn't the most realistic WWI sim available.  I've already killed off my replacement pilot (collision with EA this time).  Time to start a third -- grist for the mill.

[mandrews_2 11]

20 hours ago, Rick Rawlings said:

Here's where we stand so far:

Pretty grim. Someone is going to win this just by surviving!

 

 

@Rick -- I was just looking at this (it's the engineer in me).  There isn't much consistency between Weeks and Sorties.  I suspect folks are interpreting weeks differently.  I was entering challenge weeks, whereas my game weeks would have been 4 (11/11 - 11/30).  Not that it matters now.  As I said, it's the engineer in me .

[catch 81]

8 hours ago, Rick Rawlings said:

*sniffle* It's always the ones that die that go first! Sorry to hear it, Lou and catch! catch, I am still not sure what happened after watching the video. You hadn't been hit because you encountered  no one, right?  That was terrible luck! This is proving harder than I thought!  If we can't pull this off in an SE5a, what is it going to take?

Don't remind me Rick! 

We did not engage anyone and the bleedin' DH4's missed their target anyway and did no damage at all (according to intel) so the whole sortie was a waste of time. But such is war. Admittedly, Spiv was becoming a bit jaded and perhaps a little careless but but but still  .... my sister actually called me right in the middle of it and I put my mission on pause while we chatted for 1/2 hour or so. I BLAME HER! 

 I'm sorry, I must contain myself. Chin up. Chest out.

I'm still unsure myself what happened in that fateful landing. It wasn't particularly bad and as far as I'm aware I didn't collide with anything. So once I'd recovered from the shock, cracked screen and some superlative and descriptive adjectives and nouns, I realised that many perished in "landing accidents" so put it down to WOFF's ability to randomly slot those in. For realism like. Good eh!

 

For the records. here is my log ....

 

 

 

[Rick Rawlings 133]

catch: understood. If I was doing a personal campaign, I would probably have rerun that one if nothing else seemed off, but that was the right choice for the challenge.

mandrews_2: yes, it should be campaign weeks in game time rounded up, but it's not very scientific! Also, long wound times can extend campaign weeks a lot, I made it quite far into January.

[Baldric 42]

(Personal Journal & Log)

05December 1917 Mission 17- Cold and cloudy.  Line patrol, both ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights.  A few more new guys.  My right hand is still shaky at times, started just gripping my sam-browne belt and the shaking subsides.  I’m up to two packets of cigs a day now.  As I recorded in my report we repulsed two separate flights of enemy aeroplanes over Arras.  Wallworks got one, then a minute later I sent one down into the Flanders mud.  We lost two of the new boys.  I put my leave request in.

06December 1917- Mission 18.  It was a scramble this morning, Naps yelling at the new boys “Come on idiots, don’t just stand there, GET ONE UP!”  MacLanachan crashed on take off, luckily wasn’t seriously hurt although his machine was a total wreck.  The enemy must have been from Haubordin as they punctured a few tents.

07 December 1917 Mission 19- Revenge! Aerodrome attack at Haubordin.  We put holes in their tents, they put holes in ours, then we do it all over again.  I swear there are monkeys running HQ.  This is routine, search lights, some mediocre ack-ack.  Fire off a couple drums of Lewis, a bit of Vickers and Bob’s Your Uncle.

Was given leave as of 08 December, the C.O gave me two 48 hour passes since the weather socked us in anyway.  I spoke with Dorothy’s Matron and she was granted the same.  I borrowed Dalgleish’s motorbike because it had a sidecar and we rode like mad people for Dieppe.  Officially married there by a kindly old priest.  No questions, just a donation, and it was done.  The hotel we stayed at down by the beach was a fine establishment and treated us well.  Dorothy’s French was very good (Leicester girls must get a decent education!)where mine was a smattering of bad Quebecois.  Somehow we made it back safely.  I need to be more responsible now.

12 December 1917- Mission 20– heavy weather, rain.  Pesky enemy.  Another early morning scramble.  This time we all got up safely and we chased the rotters all the way back over German lines.  We were embroiled in a massive scrap and I managed to assist Naps in knocking down two machines. McElroy went west. My claim was rejected.

13 December 1917- Mission 21--broken cloud cover- Escort of RE8's from RFC21 over the enemy sector at FA6102.  We were met with heavy concentrations of ack-ack as the surveillance boys did their work.  We were bounced on the way back over our lines by a couple of Albatrosses. ‘A’ flight killed them both, a revenge for McElroy.  We landed after escorting the RE8's back over their field.  I’ll write more later as I’m off to see my wife...

 

 

So that's it for me I believe- 3 weeks x7 missions = 21 missions  11November1917 to 13December1917 which included two periods of washout days.  Surviving is a first for me, I usually don't last that long, usually buying it on the first day or at the midpoint.  I think the longest I've lasted was in one of Olhams DiD campaigns with Jasta V (but in the end Rolf Meyer still died).

This RR Challenge was really fun.  Some of my given missions were certainly lacklustre, but they were all exciting to fly.  I felt it was more of a reflection of history-- not every sortie was a clash with the enemy nor very exciting (authors of that day didn't write about the boring bits I'll hazard).  The weather in this campaign period also seemed to affect enemy activity, and may also reflect a need to preserve what they had for Ludendorff's Offensive.

I'll send in the form.  There are other survivors so I'm cheering them on.

[Rick Rawlings 133]

Yay! Somebody made it! 

Having said that... you were supposed to skip two in-game days between missions! So that makes your time way short! Don't worry about it now, but when you enter your time, multiply your days survived times three and the divide by 4 to get the weeks, rounding up!

[CastelEtzwane 23]

On 6/15/2021 at 1:12 AM, catch said:

Entry from Old Naps' diary dated 15-Dec-17

"Spiv was an Australian larrikin from the school of hard knocks. A bit rough around the edges but likeable nonetheless. His flying was unremarkable afflicted as it was with poor gunnery skills. But he did his bit. And one can ask no more than that. On that fateful day, 13th Dec. 1917, some say his machine appeared to shudder momentarily before bursting into flames as he touched down. I suspect his aeroplane was suffering "combat fatigue". I cannot imagine what his last thoughts were! My hopes are that he suffered little. This damned war has taken too many too soon." 

Entries such as this formed the basis of Napier's Great War memoir "Above The Mud" first published by Goldfish & Steiner in 1922.

 

 

This is what happened to my pilot as well !!

A clean landing resulting in a flameout . . .

Are there unseen objects on this airfield ??

[mandrews_2 11]

I wonder if the landing gear is giving out.  Landing gear damage was added is a feature in the BH&H2.

[lofty_c 9]

wow.  just like that...

We were dropping some eggs on Haubourdin, and some of the Huns had enough notice to get up in their Pfalzes.  I already put some holes in one, but another was on me.  I turned off, and caught sight of the bugger who shot at me, who had kept going straight.  No problem, just circle around, whoa, a little wobble there, whoa it's slipping, hey, it's falling.....!

 2nd LT Lofty C stalled and crashed.  He was given a funeral with full military honors near Haubourdin.  wow.  just like that...

[Rick Rawlings 133]

Darn it! That's always how it happens: just like that. It was an excellent run though!

 

*edit: You were already at a pretty low altitude?

Edited June 16, 2021 by Rick Rawlings