Albrecht_Kaseltzer

Jean-Fidele Hierrot: October 1915 Report, Part I The month of October got off to a slow start due to bad weather. On October 2, Jean-Fidele had a claim get rejected: while he'd downed an Aviatik C.I two-seater, his flight mates had gotten stuck in a cloud and weren't able to confirm his account. Escadrille N12 would go on to get rained out multiple days in a row that week at Rosnay. During this downtime, however, Jean-Fidele received word from de Gennes that his last two claims from the end of October were confirmed, increasing his total to 3. Sadly, that was going to be the last conversation Jean-Fidele would ever have with de Gennes. Days later, Escadrille N12 was rocked with the news that the squadron leader was killed in a patrol over enemy lines. Enemy anti-aircraft fire was only growing in its intensity, raising the imperative for all patrols to ascend to as high an altitude as possible, as soon as possible, upon takeoff. Raymond de Pierre de Bernis assumed command. Day 1, he declared to be "a day of mourning"; day 2, he declared to be "a day of revenge." In Jean-Fidele's case, that "day of revenge" came to an abrupt end when he dove too hard after some Aviatik two-seaters over French lines, and broke off the left half of his lower wing. The Nieuport threatened to spin. To gain back control, hoping it would even out the overall lift and allow him to land safely, Jean-Fidele repeated some tight high-speed, high-G turns to deliberately break off the right half as well. The gambit worked, and Jean-Fidele made it back to Rosnay on a modified Nieuport 10 "monoplane." On day 3, the second day of revenge, Jean-Fidele stayed on the ground while mechanics rebuilt to lower wing on his Nieuport 10. On day 4, the third day of revenge, Jean-Fidele was once again sent back to the ground. While attacking a formation of Aviatiks, Jean-Fidele came up from below and behind one of the two-seaters, when the enemy pilot pulled the Aviatik's nose up to induce a stall. For that one moment before the stall hit, though, the rear gunner had a clear shot at Jean-Fidele, and that one moment was all that this particular gunner needed to damage Jean-Fidele's engine and put our intrepid hero out of commission for the day. By the time Jean-Fidele crawled out of his cockpit, de Bernis commented, "Maybe the good lord is telling us what happens when we go out in search of vengeance." "Yeah, les boches give us more c--- to get revenge for..." The next day, a new transfer, Armand Callinet, joined the unit. While de Bernis remained nominally in charge of day-to-day operations, Callinet became de facto flight leader for the squadron - much to Jean-Fidele's benefit, as he would soon see. TO BE CONTINUED

My favorite out of the custom skins I've made for my German pilot Conrad Kuenzl. I present his Albatros D.III, "Der Löwe von Sachsen": After bouncing around the Kest and Kasta systems throughout most of 1916, Kuenzl finally got his big break with a post at Jasta 6 in November 1916. That was followed by a transfer into Jasta 11 just in time for Bloody April of 1917, which is where the above shots are from. Here are a couple shots of Kuenzl's D.I, "Lazarus," a reference to the fact that (a) his last flight in an Eindecker ended with him surviving a crash, (b) flying a D.I with Jasta 6 revived his combat pilot career, and (c) the D.I was to revive the German air service in general. He has 41 kills as of May 1917 - 11 behind Richthofen, but easily his closest rival.

I use Serif PhotoPlus, and I apply the following built-in filters or effects: 1 - "Artistic - Watercolor" (high detail) 2 - "Artistic - Paint and Ink" (high detail, low ink) 3 - very very subtle blur I stop there for pictures that are meant to emulate the illustrations of old time-y books, like this one that I first came across when I was like 9 or 10: If I want to make something look more like a photograph, I continue with the following: 4 - Very, very hard sharpening effect (especially with a large radius) - this creates somewhat of a 3D effect. 5 - black & white / sepia filter 6 - soften to taste Before I figured out the built-in watercolor / paint filters, I got similar results with the harsh sharpening effect + softening and then fiddling around with the color balance.

(Note: Esc N12 was grounded for Oct 1 & Oct 2 due to poor weather, and in the meantime both of Jean-Fidele's pending claims were confirmed - bringing his total to 3).

Jean-Fidele Hierrot, Escadrille MS12: September 1915, Part 3 The next day, Lieutenant de Gennes made an announcement: Escadrille MS12 was now going to be known as Escadrille N12. The Morane-Saulnier two-seaters were out; Nieuport single-seater scouts were in. This also meant that, while pilots were here to stay, observers were soon to be transferred. Given the nature of war, Aldric and Jean-Fidele never had a chance for a formal good-bye. Another pilot, Raymond de Bernis, handed Jean-Fidele a hand-written note that went as follows: Since there weren't enough Nieuports at first, Jean-Fidele was out of a job until finally getting to join a single-seater patrol on 22 September. All was uneventful for a day or two, until Jean-Fidele's flight came across a pair of Aviatik B.I's deep in French territory. While Jean-Fidele's Nieuport only had a gun mounted on the top wing, the aircraft came with a mercifully located pair of criss-crossed bracing wires that made for a convenient aiming assistent - and Jean-Fidele let loose, drilling two dozen rounds straight into the general area of the Aviatik's engine. As Jean-Fidele pulled away, he could see the Aviatik sputter, and he caught a glimpse of his opponent slumped in the cockpit. Just as importantly, Frederic Quellenec saw this, too, and volunteered to serve as a witness as Jean-Fidele filled out his claim form. After remembering to sign off as "Sous Lieutenant Petit-Sous," Jean-Fidele submitted the paperwork to de Gennes. A day later, the announcement came that de Gennes's commanding officer had accepted the claim. Jean-Fidele Hierrot had his first confirmed victory! *** Later in the week, Escadrille N12 was summoned for a scramble mission: an Aviatik flight had been sighted overhead, right there at Rosnay. Following the lead of Adjutant Jean Marie Navarre, N12 swept up into the sky. Jean-Fidele was particularly aggressive on the stick, trying to match the Aviatiks' altitude as quickly as possible. It worked, as Jean-Fidele soon found himself in the perfect place for a shark to be: directly below and behind the hapless two-seater. He sent about 20 rounds into the first Aviatik, then looped back around to get at the second, and emptied out the remainder of his ammunition drum. At that point, Jean-Fidele rejoined the formation. As the flight turned back to land at Rosnay half an hour later, Jean-Fidele could spot smoke stacks where his adversaries had fallen. That evidence, combined with the testimony of squad mate George Pelletier d'Oisy, formed the basis of Jean-Fidele's third and fourth claims, in pursuit of his second and third confirmed victories. However, as of the end of September, both claims remained unconfirmed - the chain of command was moving rather slowly for some reason.