Olham

A thread full of interesting stuff, indeed! This last post was also new to me; I know that rhyme from the German rock group CAN. They made their tunes incl. the singing and words mostly in improvised sessions. Their first singer, the American Malcolm Mooney, used this rhyme, or at least parts of it in the song "Mary, Mary". So now I know that he used an old nursery rhyme with a cruel meaning.

I'll see what I can do, Lou. And yes, Wagner's "Wallkürenritt" is a theme to raise immediate fighting spirits. And as you are going to fly a German carreer, I started a British one today - and not in the easiest kite. I'm flying with 29 RFC with McCudden and Tempest; we use the late DH-2. Challenging after an Albatros, but easier to fly than some think. I do even like this craft, for it's good forward view. And TrackIR makes it wonderful to strech up in your seat to look rearwards through the rotating engine! This kite has probably been flown far too little so far. (for more see "Reports from the Front")

RAF_L: ...immediately the pilot shouts "Clear", to indicate "Get out of the way you silly sod!", (as if any mechanic with half a brain wouldn't be well away as soon as the engine fires up). Yes, natural selection a la Darwin - those who didn't move, are dead. Thanks for the proceedure, Lou. So there are actually two voices necessary. I'll see if I can do it with a friend I make music with - he should know how to treat the files, and you could then "glue" them together with the right engine sound (inline! Please!!)

Cripes, what a challenge - maybe even more for you than for me, Lou! Ringo's and Pol's voices are really sexy compared to mine, which sounds like a Troll in hibernation mumbling something ununderstandable out of a cave. Does anyone know, what they would have shouted (in German) when they started an engine?

...and the Macchi sea planes! Imagine to have one of these!

Now I'm really wondering: since the release of HitR, I had not flown in 1918 much. And now I meet those guys in their SPAD XIII - not even aces - and they smoked us! They used a more "oval tactic" - all performing oval circling; approaching, firing, leaving fast! An Albatros D Va can't follow that, particularly, when they dive after passing you. So, each time I wanted to follow one, the oval of another came to it's closest point, and I got shot at. I could not find a way into the fight, nor a way out of it - I was lost! Did anyone else notice that? (I must write to the Geneva Convention - changing the SPAD, without getting me informed! Tch!!) It was a great flying of those French pilots - they used the best of their kites, and I'll have to be much more careful next time.

As I said above - Escadrille 94.

Good info, EricGen - would be great to have the Italian-Austrian theater in OFF, too, eyh?

Nieuports have the tendency to turn towards you, as close as they can. Best avoid them - if they are hit, they sometimes even collide with you. So stay high, and don't get too near them - even when you are behind them - they may pull up vertical, and you crash into them. Gute Jagd!

Your Staffel as well as your aircraft are a very good choice to start flying OFF. Jasta 2 has a high morale, so the pilots in 1. Kette (A-flight) should be really good in dangerous situations. Also the wingmen in such Jasta act and react more efficient than in the mediocre or bad ones. Your fighter, the Albatros D.I / D.II is a very stabile and sturdy craft. In it's time, it is fast, climbs quite well, at least below 5.000 feet, and it has a devastating fire power, as it fires about the double amount of rounds compared to the British and French single gun aircraft. Your strength is rather to "boom and zoom", but in LEFT turns, you can even keep up with Nieuports and Sopwith Pups. If you are not that good yet, the best you can do is to hit the enemy craft early in the fights, stay highest of all flyers, "pepper" as many as you can, and when they can only fly half of their performance - shoot them down. The Bordeauxred Baron (my alter ego): "Mmuahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!"

Zatt iss TOP SSECRETT, Herr von Oben - Militärisches Geheimnis!

Yes, that explains it. If you should get killed and want to start again there: Jasta 2 get the Albatros D.I earliest of all Jasta - I think on September 9th. You will get the same craft, as we don't yet have the D.I yet. You would have a bit longer time of good weather then, before nasty November comes.

They were French, Hasse Wind - it was a "non Full Did" flight, and I had switched the Labels on to check, which aces I had met. But the ones I flew closly to, were normal airmen. They were from Escadrille 94, which has a larger reaper than the Americans. It is all white bones and scythe, running forward. If you like that sign, this might be a French Escadrille for you - a good one even, as I saw!

There you are - congratulations, vonOben! Generally, you may get about a third of all claims rejected. Which squadron and craft are you flying?

Well, you had the craft type right - later on his SPAD XIII, his emblem was the rising black stallion, that we know from the Ferrari sign.

Hasse Wind: Did you see the emblems? Yes, they had reeper skelettons on their sides.

Gawd - when they started singing like castrated roosters, I never managed to drink enough to reach the state were I didn't bother. And I was in the army then!

Capitano Francesco Baracca, 91a Squadriglia, SPAD XIII

Not yet won, Davy, not yet - the boys seemed very low after their loss; but thanks anyway. Good old Neil definitely belongs into the Olymp of the Rockstars; that I don't like his voice doesn't mean anything. I even have a record of his music - the soundtrack to the Jarmush movie "Dead Man" (good film; good soundtrack).

Neil Young? Arrggghhh!!! What about Blur (well, they don't exist no more, but) or Archive ("Lights"!) ?

The Bordeauxred Baron: You von't hav to vorry about any of ziss, Herr Rabu, in a Dsherrmann plane. Der Dsherrmann fighters hav two 08/15 "Spandaus" vizz 1.000 roundz - so you can twitch, shoot from long distanz, jump from plane to plane - you vill get zem all down anyway. Mmuahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!

Old: yes; hippy: maybe; Can: yes; Tangerine Dream: "Rubicon"; Hawkwind: no, rather Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Procol Harum, Genesis (early), Yes, Greenslade, Eno - oh, what a fine time that was! ...

Okay, here's another one. When the Hugenots were chased in and driven out of France, the Prussian king took them, cause they were well educated and good craftsmen. Now, they also ran shop, and their word for iron ware or metal goods was "Quincailleries". The Germans liked to buy the good quality, but couldn't spell the name. A German attempt to read that without knowing the right pronounciation would sound: "Kinkylerees" (English spelling). But vernacular made "Kinkerlitzchen" of that (English spelling: King-care-lids-chen; although I think you can't spell the ch as it should be - not a "K" or "C" sound, but softly formed in the back of your mouth - aw, forget it, you wont get it right).

Thanks, Davy - yes, Melkweg! That brings back memories. As an art student, I was there back in 1980 or 81. They had a stage with instruments and drum kit. You could ask for stage time, and if it was your turn, you walked on stage with other musicians - amateurs or semi-professionals. You could play, until the guy tolled a ship's bell - then the next people had their turn. A great idea!

Think, UncleAl does it for the correctness of ranks, vonOben. You can be leader of German flights as a Leutnant, although there are Oberleutnants with you. Not sure about the Entente, but should be similar.