Waldemar Kurtz

(oops, Shredward beat me to this...) I think this may be a case of two places with names that are very similar. for example-- on some old maps I could find that "Metz-en-Couture" would simply be called "Metz". in which case, there would be confusion in combat reports for people who didn't know the difference! you might find a report where somebody claimed a victory at "Metz-en-Couture" (which is in Flanders) and if they abbreviated the name, you might think that they were all the way down in Alsace. so I pulled out my maps from "The War in the Air" and looked through some German trench maps of Cambrai in late 1917 and I noticed some bewildering conflicts. for example, Lagnicourt is actually west-by-southwest of Pronville, which is in turn southwest of Epinoy. with the game's in-flight map Lagnicourt is actually northwest of Pronville. another oddity is that Riencourt is west of Lagnicourt when it was actually almost directly north of Lagnicourt. assuming that Cambrai is anywhere close to where it's supposed to be on the map--which I doubt! the most likely aerodrome is located somewhere near the village of Baralle, which is west of Marquion. I don't think I've ever read about an aerodrome being used there. it was, by all accounts, a tiny little village oh well... so far as I can tell--this is best approximated by "Marquion"--assuming it hasn't already been represented elsewhere.

I did something kinda similar with RB3d-- but it didn't use all of the names-- it stopped around 2-300. but, my question then is, so long as the data is formated in the same manner you have here-- then I could presumably expand ALL of the various names of the various flying services? I've already decided I wanted to scrabble together an alternate list of American names for a Lafayette Escadrille career... cuz, I just don't feel quite right seeing all of those French names in a squadron that's supposed to have American volunteers! so if I just switch the appropriate "FrenchLastNames" and "FrenchFirstNames" out (and save the originals as back-up) the problem's solved, right?

"These bombs may be used against kite balloons. they can be burst at any desired height below an aeroplane, and when burst spread out a shower of burning phosphorus over a circle of about 250 yards diameter. consequently, a balloon will be hit if it is not more than 125 yards from the center of the burning particles. ..." "the lumps of phosphorus slowly burn out while falling, and about half burn out while falling the first 2,000 feet from the burst. consequently, bombs should be timed to burst about 700 ft above the target, and any bomb which is burst more than 3,000 ft above the target is practically useless" "when attacking an object of known height, all bombs are set to the same fuse timing. since each covers a circle of 250 yards diameter, it is useless to release two at the same moment, and since the aeroplane will travel about 40 to 50 yards per second, an interval of about 4 seconds should be made between the release of successive bombs. if this is done with four bombs, an area of about 250 x 800 yards will be covered, and thus considerable errors in range can be made without missing the target." I just got "Details of Aerial Bombs" a reprint of the Air Ministry's 1918 publication from the Imperial War Museum as printed through the Naval and Military Press. (ISBN 184574278). it's got all sorts of things from how to assemble the bombs properly, how the bomb racks work. even going into detail about Very cartridges, flare launchers... high explosive, incendiary, and leaflet boms-- pretty much anything and everything connected to bombs and flares in the RAF gets covered. a fun, fun book.

I've never posted pictures before--so here goes my first try my brush with death. this Camel was pressing his attack SO close that we clipped each other's wings.

SORTIE NO.1 let's see, the first sortie was a scramble (man, I hate those things!!! ) so I'm getting ready to take off and head to the front with some bombs (I'm trying to pretend we had plans, and got caught by surprise). so I find myself in 70 minute long dogfight against 6 SPAD XIII from Escadrille 3! I managed to shoot down two of them before I got SOO frustrated I gave up and landed. those SPADs just wouldn't not fly away and leave me alone... but they wouldn't attack me either. so I had two guys trying to shoot me down and another guy who wiped out the rest of my flight--and three guys just wandering around up above me making it impossible for me to escape towards the front lines. so, FINALLY, after blowing off about 1100 rounds (with the front gun and the observer) I shot down two of them and landed. (I got one of them confirmed, and the other rejected--even though they both crashed right in the middle of two different German aerodromes!) SORTIE NO.2 a ground attack near the trenches west of Cambrai. I blow up 7 entrenched troop positions, a couple of machine gun nests, and cripple a wave of attacking British infantry before flying home. SORTIE NO.3 another annoying scramble mission. I run like hell to the lines--hoping to either catch some friendly infantry, or drop some bombs on the British advancing army. the Camels wipe out my wingmates (who I don't have a chance in hell of saving) and follow me 7 miles to the front, shooting all the while. I finally cross the trenches and am flying SO low that when I drop my bombs on the British advance troop positions that the frag-pattern blast nearly blows me out of the sky. I hit the ground, bounce really hard, and level out. I strafe a British tank in front of me and then I see a wall of machine guns opening up right in my face. my engine cuts out and I crash in the British trenches. (I figured, "WOW, this must be the shortest career ever") and then I get told "you escaped captivity after 19 days!") SORTIE NO.4 (it would have been a scramble but I thought, "screw that!") and hit time advance! then I find myself on an arty-spot. as we're approaching Douai, getting ready to head towards the line our paltry flight of three DFW C.Vs gets attacked by 6 Sopwith Camels! these guys were shooting us up badly. one of them get so close his right wing-tip hit my left wing and he ended up ripping about 20 percent of his right wing off. miraculously he seems to have suffered no deterioration in performance--whereas I had quite a bit of trouble. my observer shot up a few other guys, and I spiralled to the ground--getting shot up by Camels all the while. I crash-landed behind our lines and found myself thinking.... "I am not long for this world, am I?" this has been the exact opposite of my otherwise pleasant and unexciting early war BE2c careers!

speaking of which, would it be possible for me to edit the mission files to simply remove scramble missions from the list of available bomber missions? I notice I get a crap-load of scramble missions and have yet to get a single "close air support" or escort mission. for a Schusta this would have been unusual. the Schlasta were basically dedicated close-air-support, ground attack types that also did escort work for other two-seaters. and yet I find most of this career has been frittered away on scramble missions. I've also noticed that bombers are never given "Ground Forces Attack" missions--and yet I get them in the SPAD VII a lot. which doesn't really make sense to me. a Hannover CL.III squadron should be getting that mission a couple of times a day. I've tried adding "Ground Forces Attack" to the "GermanyBomberMisssionTypes1918" but I ended having the careers crash because of it. apparently just doing a cut-and-paste of the necessary text data doesn't quite work! oh yeah, and I'm staying away from the Battle of Cambrai until I get better, lol!

I've been taking your advice on taking whatever they give me--but 80 percent of my career has turned into scramble missions where I get shot down inside of 10 minutes--and if I'm lucky, I just start landing before I get killed. not a lot fun, to be honest. maybe that's how it was in late 1917 for a German two-seater career--but... I wouldn't want to make a habit of that. unremarkably, I got shot down by a swarm of SPAD VIIs from Escadrille 153 near Arras. I was supposedly going to bomb the railyard west of the city without any sort of escort. we all got wiped out in about 45 seconds. I lost control of my machine so I just pointed my nose at the nearest British trench and BOOM! at least I took somebody out with me!

even though the BE2c is actually faster than the Fokker E.III in the game (which ain't historicallly accurate)... that's still pretty good! Sholto Douglas pulled off the same thing-- hedge-hopping his way to safety and narrowly evading Boelcke and Immelmann in the fall of 1915. in fact he was flying so wildly and putting his plane through all manner of heavy manuevers that his observer actually threw up and collapsed in the cockpit. that moment was apparently dramatic enough where Boelcke thought he'd killed the observer! (guess he wasn't close enough to tell the difference between blood and vomit!)... .... so maybe you'll take over the whole Royal Air Force one day! ;)

I'm more prone to being a shooter-- but I always like to dictate the terms of combat as much as possible. it's not unusual for me to grab a Roland C.II or DFW C.V and then single-handedly attack flights of 6 or more Sopwith Strutters and FE2bs over German lines. the main reason I don't identify with being a 'shooter' is that I always try to have a way out of the situation if I can help it. I often spend 10 minutes or more stalking a single enemy machine. usually attacking from blind spots. on average, when I engage the enemy, I get around one-to-three confirmed kills. so I picked "two". I didn't count missions where no enemy activity is encountered or combat was not engaged-- because that doesn't really reflect the situation properly. if I included how many victories I get per sortie--well, then it would be less than one per mission. but if I consider only those "combat missions" as the frame of reference than "two" is the average. since I like to fly two-seater careers a lot I generally avoid combat except for all but the most favorable circumstances... or when I've got absolutely no choice! if I'm flying a DFW C.V and I get bounced by 8 Sopwith Triplanes and Nieuoprt 17s there's no way in hell I'm getting out of there without a fight!

I was running repeated bombing passes on a moving German train, and although at least three of the runs looked like direct hits, there was no discernible damage. to make matters worse, in the mission debrief it seems to have come to the conclusion that nothing happened! I assume that bombs are the best way to destroy trains--but are the light early war 20 British pound bombs good enough?

since Lille was historically an important railway hub for the German army for most of the war-- I find that if I just fly around Lille for awhile I will eventually find trains. I've found trains there two missions in a row. the problem is, I can't seem to destroy it with my BE2c!

attack them where they are most vulnerable: the FE2b (a pusher) is best attacked from below and in front. there is no engine to protect the pilot and observer. attack all tractor types with either an overhead pass or from 6 o'clock low-- preferrably both, and in that order. but, yeah, the best method for dusting off two-seaters is a shallow diving attack head-on. you'll hit the engine (if you aim well) and force them out of the formation. at which point you can take your time and pepper them at medium ranges. then fly at their 6 o'clock low. get direction below them, perhaps 400 feet below, then zoom climb and give them a quick burst. then immediately turn away-- otherwise they'll turn and kill you at the top of your zoom-climb. make sure you kick the rudder bar around a lot as you dive away. if you've played your cards right, and aimed well, after two solid bursts like that the two-seater is doomed. if you don't get them one of your squadron mates will-and that's just as well. the aforementioned method works in WWI and WWII flight sims. I've used it on the original Red Baron, Aces over Europe, Aces over the Pacific, Red Baron 3d, Flying Corps Gold, European Air War, Combat Flight Simulator's 1, 2, and 3... and, of course Over Flanders Fields. I don't turn with two-seaters unless I've killed the observer. if you HAVE to turn with them-- stay on the blind side. they can't shoot through the wings and fuselage. early in the war, the Roland C.II can only be safely brought down with zoom-attacks from below. conversely, the best German interceptor for dealing with Allied two-seaters early in the war is the Roland. it's not until the arrival of the Albatros D.I and D.II that the Germans acquire a scout that has the speed and firepower to take out enemy two-seaters. the BE2c is actually modelled more like the BE2e or the BE12-- thusly the Fokker E.III and Halberstadt D.II will have trouble keeping up with it.

"Lawrence of Arabia"... oops, I guess that wasn't on the list!

so, if I'm joining the Lafayette Escadrille and don't really want to see tons of French names among the AI pilot roster-- would it be safe (or advisable) for me to go in and swap out the original data for the names and replace it with more 'American' sounding ones. I know with good 'ole RB3d that this was not a problem-- you could add hundreds of names (although it seemed to stop searching after about 200 names) for fun and variety. anbody else tried this out?

I always ALWAYS A-L-W-A-Y-S cherry pick my flights. why? because the mission planner loves to assign my flights to ridiculous sorties. I think my favorite is where I was based near Calais and I get sent to fly a mission all the way down near Cambrai and St. Quentin! I just can't believe that would ever happen. obviously a carry-over of the CFS3 game engine!

I fly with the labels on, to be honest. about half the time I turn them off when combat commences-- just so I can figure out what's going on. labels can obscure the target. my computer isn't that high-tech, so I use the labels to see enemys that my box won't even animate--because I have all the graphic settings set pretty low. anti-aircraft fire can be used to find enemy machines. I usually LISTEN for them and then start sweeping areas that I know are going to be targets... like front line positions, cities, or aerodromes. since I use TAC, it's much easier to find out where the archie is bursting. but the lables are useful because while I easily recognize hundreds of paint schemes and squadron colors-- I can't remember them all THAT quickly. so I use this to help me ID enemy machines. I'll alternate between the "Scroll Lock" positions every so often. this allows me to quick-check my six and wings. but at other times I'll want to use the joystick to scroll around the cockpit. another method is to adjust the point-of-view. I usually try to have it set as high and as far back as possible for a little while (it's like standing up in the cockpit, which some people obviously did). this allows me to scroll around in the cockpit and look for ground targets/landmarks, look over the sides of the wings and fuselage. and it allows me to look over the top wing (which is where most of my enemies seem to show up). you can always jump back to the default position by the key commands "spacebar" "shift" and "ctrl" (aka "sit down") another tip is this-- the longer it takes your mission to load properly after the debriefing, the higher the probability that you will run into enemy machines. if it jumps straight into the mission the odds are that you won't see anything! which means you can focus on ground attack or just keeping an eye out on enemy ground activity. I wish I could remember all of the key commands and quote them to you here. but press "Esc" and it will call up the pull-down menu. then you can just look through all of the key commands in the appropriate spot. find out what works best for you by experimentation and getting killed a lot! ;)

last night I had to use every trick I could think of (which wasn't as much as I had hoped it would be). I was flying a Nieuport 11 on a recon patrol when my flight of three got attacked by six Fokker Eindeckers from above. I didn't even see them, as I was busy firing rockets at trucks and infantry on the ground. but I suddenly turned around to make another pass and I saw a huge furball of a dozen planes twisting around just above the hill tops! I found one guy and shot him down and found myself under fire. I turned hard to the left, and that didn't shake him, then reversed direction and that had no effect. this Fokker was all over me for some reason. I then tried kicking the rudder bar around and turning again-- same result. only this time I fell into a spin! I had maybe 500 feet and a huge mountainside beneath me... I was pretty sure I was gonna die. so I cut the engine and rolled even harder to my left. then I pulled back on the stick and got ready to die... but I head a loud crack and my machine bounced harshly off the downward slope of the hill and I firewalled my engine and started to climb. just barely crashing into another ridge on the mountainside. I gained some alt, hoping the Fokker had ignored me or thought me dead--but no such luck. this time he came at me again--but he was far enough away I could gain some altitude. I held down hard left rudder and began a slight right hand turn, and then reversed that. I could see he was getting even closer. my hope was that he would overshoot me. but he just started climbing. so then I began pulling the nose up and down to bleed off speed. that got his attention, he tried attacking, so I began to dive. as he got closer I pulled up as sharply as I could and kicked the rudder over hard left and fell into another spin. I tumbled over three or four times and then recovered at his 4 o'clock low. since I was already in a pursuit attitude I climbed up behind him and emptied 80 rounds into the guy and killed him. but by now I had three other fokkers to worry about. so I was weaving in and out of the hill tops. every time I went over a ridge I'd see how safe it was to dive-- the dive full out with hard rudder to one side or the other. the AI tends to (like people) not always account for side-slipping, so that saved me a dozen times over on this mission. your evasion tactics should vary from plane to plane. if you can turn better than most of your adversaries than a flat or rolling scissors might be the key to getting out of trouble. if you can outclimb then climb. if you're in an SE5a against a Dr.I a very shallow high-speed climb is the best way to get out of there. or, for example, the Roland C.II is technically supposed to be about 10 mph faster than the Airco DH.2 at low altitudes-- so this tactic should work in that situation as well. I understand full well the strategy of flying towards the nearest friendl landmark bristling with machine guns. on the very next mission I was foolish enough to chase a low flying Fokker near an infantry position and I saw at least 6 machine gun nests open up on me. the air was filled with so many tracers I could barely see! so I let fly with all of my rockets (didn't even try to aim) and ran the hell away. I didn't want the German THAT badly! it's terrible, I know, but I've been taken prisoner behind friendly lines so often (just becaus EA were nearby) that sometimes I just put the machine down somewhere flat-- put the throttle on 10% and jump into the observer's chair and open fire on anything that gets close enough for me to kill! it's preposterous for me to land 3 miles behind the front lines and be declared a POW just because there's three enemy aircraft overhead. so, if I know that I'm doomed and have to make a dead-stick landing-- I usually try to jump into the observer's chair as quickly as possible and just start blasting people away.

does anybody else have the experience of getting victories that they didn't claim? I've had it happen twice to one pilot. I shot down 5 enemy machines in a single sortie--but all but two these were made behind my lines with no witnesses. I definitely shot down two in flames, but couldn't tweak the second claim enough to have the manager accept it as valid. so, frustrated as I was, I put in a claim for a single victory and called it good. later on in the campaign I was given credit for two victories in spite of having made only one claim. I mentioned two aircraft in that single claim--but I specifically pointed out that only one machine went down in that claim. a week or so later, I shot down two enemy machines--and again, could only get the claims forms to accept ONE of the two claims. but when that victory was confirmed I was given another victory as well. so, what I'm wondering is, why wouldn't the claims form accept these additional victories--but the manager awarded claims that I didn't make? my best guess is that since this was a Bristol Fighter career that my observer must have scored some kills in the presence of my wingmen and these 'ghost claims' were added to my score.

that's true-- I've had British pilots flame 5 German planes in a single scramble sortie and have every last claim denied in spite of one of the German plans CRASHING into a hangar at my very own aerodrome!

oddly enough, OFF isn't very eager to discourage you BEFORE you blow something up. I think this must be a hard-coded CFS3 problem. because I can vividly remember flying a Junkers Ju.88 in at low altitude and spamming bombs and rockets at a oil refinery over England at no more than 700 feet. you can bet if a real German twin-engined bomber was scraping the deck at 300 mph there would be a wall of flak so thick you could probably walk on it! but the guns didn't even open up until AFTER I had flattened over half of the refinery. since balloons are actually ground targets-- I fear that OFF won't dish out preventative fire to keep you AWAY... it'll just open up with everything after you've made a pass at the target. although I do recall in earlier versions that I've had Fokker monoplanes turned into fiery cinders before I even reached the balloon--but for some reason machine guns almost never open fire until the balloon is already quite dead. I'm still a novice at this game--but I bet other people have noticed this too. RB3d (especially with the later WFP modifications) had pretty nasty defensive machine gun fire. they'd tear your plane apart if you flew level towards a balloon. the downside of RB3D is that the machine guns could reach up to ridiculous altitudes and kill you. (sometimes between 3-4,000 feet, which was just not even possible). in OFF you have to be pretty low in order to get killed instantly by ground fire. so, in this respect, it's a bit more realistic than RB3d...although both games have the balloons being a bit too easy to destroy. this is probably one of those few areas where I feel RB3d surpasses OFF.

I still attack balloons even if they're not designated targets and it never goes into my score. I don't think I've ever had a confirmed victory over a balloon so I stopped worrying about it. on recon patrols, if there's nothing else going on, and I haven't seen any enemy machines, I'll dive down and attack a balloon of opportunity. I figure they can at least add to my score in some small way.

ooooooooh! now all they've gotta do is build an LVG C.II and arm it with a Hotchkiss replica and then they can stage Oswald Boelcke's first aerial victory at air shows! :D (hey, a guy can dream, right?) that video is cool. thanks for posting it.

the chief engineer for the shipping company I work with has a big sign inside of the mech-shop: "if you make something idiot proof they'll just build a better idiot"

of COURSE you felt silly-- you didn't give Boelcke enough victories by the end of the war!

I've never lived long enough in Phase 3, and I've been working too much to get one of my campaigns to become an 'ace'. but this weekend my FA62 pilot was finally able to get 5 victories confirmed. I use the HUD and tactical display because my graphics are so poor that I can't see anything without using labels. I also use warp because, quite honestly, if I've worked 10-12 hours in a day I don't really want to 'live the experience' in real time. however, I did put on all of the most difficult reality settings and I NEVER ressurect a pilot or replay a mission. cuz, seriously, it's not THAT hard to start all over again. Flieger Albert Beuhlighen of Feldflieger Abteilung 62 June 1rst to 3rd, 1915 (6 sorties and 4 victory claims) what's interesting is that even though I only posted 4 victory claims I was awarded 5 victories. in one combat I could have laid claim to shooting down five enemy machines--but for lack of witnesses, it would say "CLAIMS ERRONEOUS" so I would deliberately remove certain claims until it finally said that it would be prepared to accept them. if I were to bypass the claims process I would probably have 8 confirmed victories instead of 5. SORTIE NO.1 claim no.1 1/;6/;1915 ;10h;40 ;Flanders ;Douai ;Artillery spotting ; Flying: Fokker EIII. On this day claims: ;1 ;Bris Scout A . ;as we departed from Douai, slowly gaining altitude, I saw four specks at 2 o'clock high and began climbing. by the time we reached 5,000 feet and got within 1,000 feet or so I could clearly see that we had crossed paths with four British biplanes, of the Bristol Scout A variety. I closed in to attack the trailing machine, but they all broke hard to the left and went under my left wing. I then hastily summoned Kurt Fellinger and Gehard von Rieck-Eggbert to help me attack! I could see plainly that these British aircraft had machine guns mounted on the port fuselage and aimed off at an angle away from the propellor. this gave me great confidence that even though a British airmen were sitting right on my tail that he could do me no harm! moreover, if I went into a climbing right-hand turn there would be little hope of him scoring hits on my machine, for fear of stalling out in his plane. remembering this fact helped save my life at low-altitude. the battle spiralled down to several hundred feet, barely tree-top level. I had selected one fellow and opened fire as I saw him attacking Gerhard. I saw a British machine falling down, end-over-end at 10:48 when it suffered a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire. finally, at 10.51 I was able to fire a long burst at a Bristol Scout in a head-on pass (which favored me greatly, as he couldn't even shoot at me with us going head-to-head)! at 10.51 this Bristol Scout fell NW of Douai, as witnessed by Kurt Fellinger and Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert. at 10:56 I witnessed Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert shoot down a Bristol Scout in flames NW of Douai.. Witnessed by: Kurt Fellinger, Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert Status : Confirmed ; SORTIE NO.2 (W/O RESULTS) well, this flight wasn't uneventful, it's just that I wandered off from the formation to attack an enemy machine behind our lines. since none of my comrades followed me, the victory was unable to be confirmed. I didn't even bother TRYING to fill out a claim form for this one. 14.33 enemy flight encountered NW of Douai, but they made no attempt to engage us (probably went unseen) 14.39 another enemy flight (5 strong) above us, got as close as 4000 ft, but they took no notice of us 14.44 arrived over Loos VimyRidge 64, subject to moderate shelling. 14.52 W of Roucourt, another encounter with EA at "Waypoint 11" 14.53 two Bristol Scouts observed at height of 7,000 ft heading SW 14.56 stalked enemy formation and closed within 700 feet, whereupon they broke hard right and dove away selected one fellow, closed within 150 feet and fired about 50 rounds into him and scored hits, but he kept turning. I saw the other fellow flash in front of me in a left-hand turn. I dipped my nose down, and then after I'd built up some speed, pulled up and caught the first Briton in my sights again--he was some 300 ft away and I fired another 50 rounds.14.58 with the first fellow a thousand feet below me, I turn my attentions towards the other fellow--who's still pursuing me. I keep up with my right-hand turns, because I can again see that they have port-mounted guns.14.59 attacked Briton at 300 ft in a head-on pass with 30 degrees deflection and 20 rounds 15.02 my first victim crashed N of Roucourt as there were no witnesses to verify I had brought this fellow down, my claim was rejected out of hand--as my other flight-mates had abandoned the battle. SORTIE NO.3 claim no.2 2/;6/;1915 ;8h;35 ;Flanders ;Douai ;Reconnaisance ; Flying: Fokker EIII. On this day claims: ;1 ;Bris Scout A . ;take off from Douai at 08:27 with Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert, Kurt Fellinger, and Walter Becker. as we approached the front lines, within sight of 1915 Loos VimyRidge 65, we were attacked by three Bristol Scouts. I turned left and signalled to my comrades that we were under attack. they immediately broke hard-left and began to fight. one of them gets right on my tail and I do everything I can to shake him. I turn right and he stays on my tail. I have no luck in getting rid of him, but I can comfort myself that since his machine gun is mounted on the left fuselage he can't attack me without stalling. so I began climbing to make things even more difficult. but this does no good, so I turn left and dive, then snapping back over again the second he gets on my tail. now I'm getting frustrated! he's been all over me, and nothing seems to shake his resolve of killing me. so I get an idea: I'll go into a diving right hand turn (where he can't safely shoot) and then pull up sharply . he's still on me the whole way through, but at least he can't hit me. then I hear the groaning of a machine gun and fear that I'm done for! I look behind me and see numerous strikes on the Bristol Scout, pieces of wing and debris are flying everywhere! Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert closes within 100 feet or so of the enemy and his firing constantly. the Briton goes nose-down and is smoking badly. this adversary fell at 8:42 I now see that Kurt Fellinger is in trouble, and I dive down as low as 300 feet to blast a Bristol Scout off his tail with some 50 rounds. none of my shots seem to land home, however, but at least this has discouraged the enemy! Kurt turns into a climbing right hand turn, while the Briton goes into a left-hand turn. no sooner than I can try to reposition myself this chap is on MY tail! so here I am, turning all over the place, yanking my nose up and down, stomping on the rudder bar and flying like a maniac--but I can't shake this fellow. then I look behind me and Gerhard is pouring hundreds of bullets into this fellow. a few seconds later the Bristol Scout falls to the ground tail first and explodes. there is now just one Bristol Scout remaining. I'm immensely frustrated by my inability to shoot down an enemy machine. I begin my attack--but am astonished by huge bursts of flak, perhaps the anti-aircraft gunners have mistaken my new Fokker E.III for a French Morane Saulnier H-type. once I get my bearings I dive down on the last Bristol and open fire, but he breaks hard left and I have no hope of staying with him, so I climb. now Becker is in trouble, so I try to help him out. I dive down and fire on this Bristol Scout and succeed in getting him to abandon his pursuit of Walter Becker... but now I'm in trouble! I go into a steep climbing right hand turn and he chases after me. this time, I hear the groan of a German machine gun and it is Kurt Fellinger who rescues me. FINALLY, at 08:51 I get a chance to attack the enemy. I close within 30 feet and fire some 30 rounds and see a few hits. we're at a height of roughly 300 feet. the Bristol Scout has a large black "1" on the upper right wing, and a British flag on the fuselage behind the roundel. it appears to be from RFC-3 Squadron. after I see hits on his machine, he pulls up, and then pauses in mid-air, and falls to the earth tail-first completely out of control. the machine explodes in a massive ball of fire E of 1915 Loos VimyRidge 65. my witnesses were Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert and Kurt Fellinger. Witnessed by: Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert, Kurt Fellinger Status : Confirmed ; SORTIE NO.4 02/06/1915 I was on a recon patrol and I got shot down in less than 15 minutes! it happened so quickly, I didn't realize my predicament until my engine stopped working and I was forced to land w/o power! I was able to crash land without injury. which surprised me enormously, as in Phase II if you didn't make a perfect landing you pretty much died instantly! and when I saw my Fokker go up in flames and the screen go black--well, I figured it was over. but, surprisingly, I lived to fly again. SORTIE NO.5 02/06/1915 claim no.3 2/;6/;1915 ;16h;17 ;Flanders ;Douai ;Artillery spotting ; Flying: Fokker EIII. On this day claims: ;1 ;Bris Scout A . ;we take off on an artillery spotting patrol. at 16:30 on our way to the front we see three Bristol Scouts approaching us (they are heading east). they are above us and to the right. they dive on us almost immediately and we fight back ferociously. after a twisting dogfight we descend down to about 2,500 feet. I select one adversary and fire from a range of 400 feet. he begans turning and zig-zagging, but I stay with him, and fire about 100 shoots into him. finally, I close within 100 feet of the fellow and polish him off with a few short bursts. I look behind me and see that Gerhard is watching my back, also firing on the enemy. at 16:35, at a height of 350 feet I fire 30 shots some 50 feet away from this Bristol Scout and he falls. the Bristol Scout crashed NE of 1915Artois Festubert 447. witnessed by Gerhard von Rieck Eggbert . Witnessed by: Kurt Fellinger, Walter Becker, Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert Status : Confirmed ; claim no.4 2/;6/;1915 ;16h;17 ;Flanders ;Douai ;Artillery spotting ; Flying: Fokker EIII. On this day claims: ;2 ;Bris Scout A . ;at 16:37 I attack a Bristol Scout A at very low altitude and fire 100 rounds at a height of 320 feet. the Bristol crashed NE of 1915Artois Festubert 447 at 16:37. Witnessed by: Kurt Fellinger, Walter Becker, Gerhard von Rieck-Eggbert Status : Confirmed ; [on this sortie I also attacked a BE2c behind German lines and set it on fire. however, since my wingmen were not close enough to witness the victory I had to eliminate this from my claims. the following was a rough copy of my original combat report for this victory. since it became clear NOBODY was watching me, and they were all simply returning home, that I couldn't lay claim to this victory. E of 1915Artois Festubert 447 returning home I see lots of tracers streaking up from the ground and presume that enemy machines are nearby 16.45 I dive down and attack the two BE2s as they head West 16.46 I attack the trailing machine and score a few hits. but I overshoot him, I cut my throttle and then aim for the leader. I fire maybe 70 rounds into him and see the spatter of blood from the cockpit. we are at 800 ft 16.47 the enemy has gone into a shallow dive and crashes NE of Festubert 447 16.47 I attack the remaining BE2c, I stalk in behind him at a range of 150 feet and close within 80 feet before breaking off, I fire another 50 rounds or so. 16.49 the BE2c has crashed just beyond the front-lines] SORTIE NO.6 03/06/1915 3/;6/;1915 ;6h;34 I'm badly shot up after one quick pass by the enemy. my Fokker is forced to crash-land in a forest about a mile back from the front lines. again, I assume the worst has befallen me, and that I'm going to die. but after the screen fades to black, I arrive into the duty room and have been congratulated on my 5 confirmed victories and that I've been given a medal: the Iron Cross! (on a side note, I'm flying a career for AFA 209 where I've already shot down three FE2bs using the DFW C.V--but even though I've gotten three claims in 2 days of intense combat I'd have to consider this career a failure thus far because I haven't hit anything with my bombs yet apart from mud and water!)