Albrecht_Kaseltzer

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Escadrille MS12: September 1915, Part 2 By the middle of the month, the German Aviatik two-seater presence was growing by the day. What had once been a major occasion in Jean-Fidele's first month with MS12 had now become commonplace - not every day, but once or twice a week for sure. Jean-Fidele and Aldric alike were just surprised not to have seen any of the dreaded Fokkers yet. And while the Germans were building more of an air presence, Jean-Fidele and Aldric were both building up their skills as pilot and gunner, respectively. On the 20th, Escadrille MS12's flight B was returning from a routine patrol when Aldric summoned Jean-Fidele. "Petit sous, I think I see something behind us!" "How far back?" "About a kilometre, maybe less. Just turn back around the way we came." "Alright, boss." After a gentle turn to break formation, Jean-Fidele caught a glimpse of a small Aviatik-shaped speck in the sky, and he could immediately see why it had gone undetected before: it had passed behind a cloud. The rest of the formation was getting ready to land, but this enemy aircraft was too close to MS12's own airfield to let this pass without a response. It was go time. Jean-Fidele felt somewhat like a shark hovering under the surface of the water as he pursued the Aviatik, making sure to stay below. The Germans' two-seaters were generally unarmed, but one never knew what to expect. As the Morane-Saulnier parasol slid underneath, Aldric opened fire upon the enemy craft up above. A couple times before, Aldric and Jean-Fidele had pursued an enemy two-seater, only to have to let it go. This time, however, felt different: Jean-Fidele had lined the MS "L" perfectly underneath the Aviatik, giving Aldric a direct line of sight for an extended moment. After about 20 or 30 rounds, Jean-Fidele could hear the Aviatik's inline engine start to sputter. The enemy was going down in flames. Aldric was visibly proud of his efforts - and deservedly so. For Jean-Fidele, however, this was a solemn moment: all he could think of was how his own brother, Etienne, had perished in Arras months ago. "My brother, I have avenged you," the pilot said to himself. Back at the airfield in Rosnay, Jean-Fidele and Aldric filled out their claim form. Unsurprisingly, given that the other aircraft were in a landing sequence a kilometre away, there were no witnesses and therefore de Gennes rejected the claim. Aldric just shrugged. "It's no problem." Jean-Fidele agreed. "What happened up there belongs to us and to us alone."

(Playing a bit of catch-up on the reports) Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Escadrille MS12: September 1915, Part 1 As it turned out, Jean-Fidele's frustrations with Capitaine Caillebot would be short-lived: early in September, Caillebot was transferred to a squadron closer to the Flanders sector, and Escadrille MS12 came under the leadership of Lieutenant Artur de Gennes. The new squadron leader was a welcome departure from Caillebot in many ways: he had one credited victory (compared to Caillebot's 9) - but whereas Caiilebot would brag about the same kill over and over again, embellishing the details along the way, de Gennes treated his single victory like the matter-of-fact statistic that it was. It was a thing that had happened. De Gennes also understood the power of delegation in a way that Caillebot never had. He ran a very tight ship at the airfield, but placed several other pilots in charge of actual air missions. For most of Jean-Fidele's squad mates, this was the first time they'd ever had such a responsibility, for Caillebot took charge of every mission himself. Consequently, this stifled the growth of many of the men in MS12, who'd largely served as little more than additional witnesses for their captain's claims forms. De Gennes proved determined to undo that. On the other hand, de Gennes's earnestness as a leader was a two-edged sword: the man was humorless and utterly mechanical in his communication. De Gennes had heard Aldric referring to Jean-Fidele as "Petit Sous," and assumed that was in fact Jean-Fidele's actual surname. Following a patrol behind friendly lines, Jean-Fidele tried to sign an official form as Sous-Lieutenant Hierrot, but de Gennes made Jean-Fidele re-do the paperwork. "No nicknames in my squadron! You go by your real rank and your real surname! Do you understand me, Sous Lieutenant Petit-Sous?" "Yes, sir," Jean-Fidele replied, while Aldric made a face that just reeked of I'm so incredibly sorry.

Or maybe Seb could strategically place pictures of her around the plane to keep his head turning at all intervals.

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Report #4: August 1915 On Saturday, 28 August, Sous Lieutenant Jean-Fidele Hierrot sent out two letters. This was the first letter, sent to his mother, Adélaïde: This was the second letter, sent to his godfather, Alphonse Gellée: That being said, after Jean-Fidele sent both letters, MS 12 would soon be under new management.

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Report #3: 3-9 July, 1915 Just as Jean-Fidele started finding himself a bit more at home with Escadrille MS 12, the squadron's assignment for 3 July very nearly brought him back home in the most literal sense possible. The mission was an extended patrol behind friendly lines - nothing new there - but this assignment was projected to be over two and a half hours, much longer than the previous two missions. And, most poignantly for Jean-Fidele, this patrol was going to bring him just within miles of his family's home in Meaux. Captain Caillebotte talked out the orders for the day, and the men proceeded to load up their Morane-Saulniers and take off. Surrounded by comrades As the formation neared a factory somewhat northeast from Paris, Aldric noticed the young pilot giving a good, hard look at the scene below them both. "What are you looking at? Any boches I need to know about?" the observer asked. "Oh no, nothing like that." Jean-Fidele sighed. "It's just that a couple months ago, I was working at a factory much like this one, and not too far from here, either. I like to imagine maybe in another life, maybe somebody else would be flying this plane and I'd be building an engine or a spigot or whatever down there right now." "Go ahead, let's give this place a few turns." "But what about the formation?" "Never mind the formation. Does it look like they need us right now? Besides, we can just catch up with them. Go on, let's do a few circles over this town." Jean-Fidele complied. He had often thought about what he was fighting for, how the same Germans who'd pushed his family out of Alsace very nearly pushed his family out of Paris. Yet, at times the new pilot felt like he was living an entirely different life in an entirely different world than the one he'd been in before; for the first time since reporting to MS 12 in Rosnay, he felt in the most concrete terms how the world he'd left behind still very much cast a shadow on the new life he was now pursuing. *** The next day, Jean-Fidele read in the newspapers about how Germany's Kurt Wintgens had been credited with his second kill: another French pilot, dead at the hands of the enemy's new Fokker Eindecker weapon. "What I'd give to put a few holes through one of those things," Jean-Fidele told Aldric at the time. "Leave that to me," the observer replied. "Whatever magic the Germans have worked out, I've still got the gun and you've got the aircraft. We'll take an Aviatik down one of these days." That day, however, was still a ways away. On 5 July, Captain Caillebotte led Escadrille MS 12 on a scramble mission to intercept a formation of Aviatik two-seaters that were approaching Rosnay. The Aviatiks had gotten a good head start, though, and while the Morane-Saulnier L had somewhat of a speed advantage, that advantage wasn't great enough to close the gap quickly. The pursuit dragged on for over an hour, in part because the Aviatiks had disappeared at one point behind some clouds. Next thing Jean-Fidele knew, oil was splattering all over the cockpit. "WHAT ON EARTH?!" he shouted out, partly in pain but mostly out of sheer surprise. "Petit sous, look, smoke!" Jean-Fidele took a look back and sure enough, the engine was streaming smoke all over Aldric. The petit sous took the parasol down in desperate circles, looking for a clear landing spot. At this moment, thankfully, fortune smiled upon him and Aldric alike: an airfield. How convenient! From what Jean-Fidele knew of the area, this was likely the airfield at Ambrief. The Morane-Saulnier touched down at Ambrief, and the crew spent the next day or so working out arrangements to return to Rosnay. Upon their return, Aldric and Jean-Fidele found the entire squadron celebrating Captain Caillebotte's confirmed kill. "Heh, apparently le capitaine took down a two-seater while we were busy not dying," Aldric muttered. Jean-Fidele gained an appreciation for just how difficult that task truly is - for, a couple days later, MS 12's formation chanced upon a couple more Aviatiks, and Jean-Fidele & Aldric once again attacked the two-seater only for the two-seater to limp back towards German lines. There was clearly some damage to the engine - progress, at least! - but no cigar. At least not yet.

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Report #2: 2 July, 1915 Well, it certainly didn't take too long: Jean-Fidele had his first encounter with the enemy today. Sous-Lieutenant Hierrot and his observer, Aldric, took off with MS 12 for another patrol behind friendly lines. All was calm and clear until about thirty miles from the Rosnay airfield, when Aldric called out for Jean-Fidele's attention: "Petit sous, petit sous!" Petit sous was quickly becoming Jean-Fidele's nickname, a reference to the fact that the rookie pilot somehow finagled his way into a commission as a Sous-Lieutenant despite his small stature and obvious youth & inexperience - he claimed to be 19, but nobody located more than two metres from a bureaucrat's office chair believed him. (Of course, Jean-Fidele thought it prudent not to mention the role that long-time family friend Alphonse Gellée played in getting him that commission. Jean-Fidele's Oncle Alphonse, the man from whom his parents borrowed Jean-Fidele's middle name, built a business partnership with Jean-Fidele's father back at the vineyard in Algiers - but before that, Gellée had served as an officer in the French army in Africa and Indochina in the 1870s and 1880s. Upon making his return to France in 1910 - for reasons unrelated to the Hierrot family plight - Gellée found himself back in touch with many of his old military contacts. Thus, Gellée seemed like a natural person to reach out to when Jean-Fidele decided he was going to enlist in the aéronautique militaire, and Oncle Alphonse was adamant that Jean-Fidele get posted as an officer. Jean-Fidele did not know the full details, but when he received a commission as a Sous-Lieutenant, he put two-and-two together to figure out that Gellée had pulled some strings for him.) "Petit sous, petit sous!" Aldric shouted again, "look behind you!" And sure enough, there they were: a pair of blocky, lumbering figures overhead. German Aviatik two-seaters, likely performing reconnaissance to gain intelligence on French army movements! This was not to be tolerated! Aldric's view of the Aviatik This was Jean-Fidele's first time in armed combat against the enemy. Just keep low, just keep low, the petit sous kept telling himself, they can't shoot down. Performing a couple awkward loops below the Aviatiks, Jean-Fidele gave Aldric enough time to drill 71 rounds in the general vicinity of one of the two-seaters - yet, it was all to no avail, and les boches flew on unperturbed. Aldric started shouting again. "FORGET IT! We need to join back up with the formation!" No argument from me, Jean-Fidele thought, and he promptly steered the parasol back towards the MS 12 formation. Meanwhile, Aldric wouldn't be caught dead saying it aloud, but he quietly respected the petit sous's willingness to run head-first into battle - on his second day on the job, no less.

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Report #1: 1 July, 1915 Jean-Fidele reported to Escadrille MS 12 in Rosnay today. This was his first time at the front, though the trip wasn't very long: Rosnay, being in the department of Marne, was a mere 55 miles from the Hierrot family home in Meaux, just outside Paris. Jean-Fidele could remember the incoming German invaders who'd descended upon Meaux just nine months ago, before getting pushed back in defeat at the Battle of the Marne. Given MS 12's operational imperatives, there wasn't time for introductions with all the squadron. Jean-Fidele was really only able to get acquainted with two of his comrades: Captain Jacques Caillebotte, a well-built man with a voice to match - the Platonic ideal of what a captain would look and sound like, a rugged military veteran whose presence and physicality immmediately came off as overwhelming to Jean-Fidele (who, not coincidentally, was feeling very much his age of 17 at the moment); and secondly, Aldric Lyautey, a wiry, taciturn fellow who at best seemed to tolerate company - just as well, though, since he was assigned to be Jean-Fidele's observer, and Jean-Fidele wasn't feeling particularly social at the moment. Aldric Lyautey, Jean-Fidele's observer Today's mission proceeded without incident. The Morane-Saulnier L model the flight was flying wasn't too different from what Jean-Fidele had been trained in, and there wasn't an enemy aircraft in the sky. While MS 12 was patrolling behind friendly lines, however, an intense thunderstorm broke out. Jean-Fidele spent much of the mission wondering what would happen if his aircraft got struck by lightning - would he be the first such case in aviation history?

Out-of-character (OOC) note: Jean-Fidele's portrait is a combination of these two pictures: On the right is me at 18. On the left is a young Fidel Castro. (It's been a running joke in my family to call me "Fidel" because of the perceived resemblance to his high school photo). This, btw, is also where Jean-Fidele's name comes from: Fidele is fairly obvious, and Jean is the closest French rendering of my actual name (Ian). "Hierrot" is something I made up, a French-ish version of my girlfriend's nickname for me in her native language ("Yero," a shortening of the Tagalog "kompanyero").

SLt Jean-Fidele Hierrot reported for duty with Escadrille MS 12 at Rosnay, in the Marne region, on 1 July 1915. His biography reads as follows:

For one of my campaigns, I'm taking a bit of an unorthodox approach. I present...Squadron Commander Malfie Cho of No.1 Wing RNAS: Mind you, I started him at the bottom rank and he worked his way up over the course of 100+ missions with RNAS Eastchurch/RNAS 1/RNAS 3. I made a map showing the locations of his 14 confirmed victories up to (but not including) the Battle of the Somme; red = confirmed victories, blue = major landmarks (major battle site, airfield etc): Note that you'll only count 13 red marks for confirmed victories; on 6 March 1916, Malfie took down two Eindeckers north of the German airfield at Ghistelles, and the crash sites were so close that they show up as one circle. More in-depth reportage is soon to come.