Hasse Wind

Yes, it's best to aim sharp with the Lewis. I wonder if they ever tried to put a bigger drum into it or test some other method of loading the gun. But I imagine an experienced pilot can change the drum quite quickly, though it couldn't have been easy to do in the heat of battle.

And because it had no interrupter gear, it had a better rate of fire than the single guns in front of the pilot the Entente were so fond of using in most of their fighters. It is definitely an advantage in firepower.

That's a very nice looking SE, Widowmaker! Too bad the Yanks didn't use those planes. Today I started a new pilot for the British and joined the RFC 60 in August 1917. They have the SE.5, and I must say I like it more than the Spad after a couple of missions. No kills yet, though... but I have never flown the SE in career mode before, so it takes some time to get used to it.

Of course. I was going to buy the Fokker book there was talk about in the E.V thread a few days ago, so I might as well add that Jasta 12 war diary to the deal.

There seem to be only 2 of those Jasta 12 books left - could you please leave the one alone whose seller also ships to other countries than Germany? I've sometimes been unable to buy rare books on Amazon because the sellers won't ship them out of their own country. Bitte? :yes:

Hah, I wonder if those tourists ever found out they weren't exactly at the right place! About the pic: I think it's actually a still from a film that shows the action at an aerodrome just before take off. I've seen the film in OFF and instantly recognized the three guys walking toward the camera. But I saw it only once and since then I've turned the movies off.

Interesting find. If you search there with "deutsche luftkriegsgeschichte" you can find another book of that same series about Jasta 32.

I've read about some ammo counters they tested during the Great War, but I've never actually seen them in photos. That certainly looks like one to me. What else could it be? Anybody any ideas? Thanks for posting these Olham, my morning has now began in a very interesting way! I think I'm going need some more tea...

Hey, looks like one of my claims in OFF, or very close to it. I guess I'm on to something with those high approval ratings. :yes: Great find! Edit: At the bottom of the scan they mention that document is a facsimile from the Geschwader's war diary. I'd sure like to read those war diaries!

Well, that should confirm that they were shipping the E.V in July 1918. These are just the kind of documents one would find in the Fokker and Luftstreitkräfte archives if one were to go there and spend some time going through the papers. Fascinating stuff and really interesting they are available on the net. You could indeed buy more stuff with less money 90 years ago. I have no idea what those Marks would be in today's money, but I'm sure they would be a LOT more. Aircraft are expensive today, and so they were back then during WW1.

I think if one knows how to fight effectively with the Alb, it's not really very difficult to move on to the Spad. As long as one remembers the Alb is nimble compared to the Spad! But I still find it's much easier to get kills flying the Alb than the Spad, because you don't have to be so dogmatic about boom and zoom tactics in the Alb - some models, especially the D.III, are so manoeuvrable that you can even do some turn fighting with some opponents. But that's certainly not advisable when flying the Spad.

I can confirm that the Nupes and Pups are great for gliding, as I have personal experience from doing just that with both plane types in OFF. Rear gunners used to be so deadly in previous version that I took hits in my plane's engine all the time. I lost one Spad pilot early in my OFF career when his oil tank took a hit behind enemy lines and soon after the engine stopped working. Fortunately I was pretty high, but still that wasn't enough to bring that brick over friendly lines, and I had to land very near the front on the wrong side. That guy is now eating turnips in a German POW camp.

Great pics, Macklroy! Now imagine being in that situation in the Be2c as you see an all-red fighter approaching...

I knew those upper class crumpet flyboys had all the luxuries, but I didn't know they were also served milkshake. A proper turnip diet would do them some good, ja?

I didn't know that. But overwhelming majority of American squadrons did get the Spad, so there mustn't have been many units that had the Nupe till the end of the war. American Camel squadrons were also rare. I agree that the N.28 would be great to have in OFF, but it's not as important as getting more two seaters. But the more planes we have, the better!

Damn, I nearly choked on my tea when reading about Cameljockey's tripod! I'm on vacation, I don't want choke to death now! But speaking of this online requirement BS in RoF, it looks like another bad example of screwing perfectly legal customers in the name of the holy war on piracy. Such protection has never prevented a single game from becoming cracked. Companies MUCH bigger than Neoqb have tried it and probably wasted millions of dollars in their schemes, but the results have been so useless that I can't understand why they continue favouring this kind of copy protection. Electronic Arts for example has lost a lot of sales with their DRM scheme and has yet to prevent their games becoming pirated.

Good to hear more about your plans. I hope French two-seaters are somewhere on your priority list, because currently there are none. At least the Breguet and the Salmson should be there for late war, and you could also give them to Yankee squadrons. Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated!

I don't write my reports like some novelist (my English isn't good enough for that in any case), but I try to add to them as much information as I think is necessary to get the best results. I write a short description about the events leading to each kill and always try to mention time, place and altitude, how many rounds fired (approximately), who were there to saw it, what happened to the enemy plane when I hit it and what special features the planes had. Since I don't use labels, I don't often know which enemy squadron I was facing (try to find out without labels the differences between British squadrons in the heat of battle!), so that information I leave out when I'm not sure about it. Writing my reports like this has given me a success rate of 70 or 80 per cent, sometimes even higher. But sometimes the claims do get rejected for some unknown reason even though I had witnesses and plenty of information. C'est la guerre! :yes:

I don't know what to say Olham. You slaughtered them! I guess the infamous Tripe isn't that good against a great pilot in his trusted Albatros. :yes: I'm now so used to my Pfalz mentality of avoiding action whenever the odds are even slightly unfavourable that I would probably have stayed away from that fight. I prefer taking the craziest risks in QC.

That always online requirement, even for single play, is going to prevent me from buying RoF. And it doesn't seem to have much to offer in any category compared to OFF. I hate all that DRM crap and refuse to support companies that treat their customers like potential criminals.

Looks great! Being a huge Nupe fan, I'm really looking forward to taking that beauty for a flight. And it should nicely fill some holes in the French escadrilles and give more variety for choosing the right one for a campaign. Olham, the Nupe used by the Americans was the N.28. But it was fairly quickly replaced by the Spad and wasn't as well liked by most of the pilots because it had some serious structural flaws in its wings and an unreliable engine. But it did at least have two MGs.

Very interesting stuff, Olham! It's amazing to see these rare photos emerge from the mists of history. That book seems to be available on Amazon.de. I think I'm going to order it.

Yes, it actually seems that the SE.5a was a little bit faster than the Spad XIII, but only about 4-5 km/h. But my limited sources don't mention if that was some special version of the Se with a more powerful engine. So maybe the Spad XIII was faster most of the time before they improved the SE.5a. I've only flown the SE once in quick combat and never in campaign - I really must give it a try some day! Olham, as far as I know (which isn't that far really!), Lewises were always drum-fed. It would most likely have been too bothersome to have two such MGs in front of the pilot. But this is just guessing really. I'm sure somebody will soon enlighten us some more. :yes:

I prefer brightly polished aircraft. I leave the weathering to my Spandaus/Vickers - they do a very good job at adding signs of heavy use to enemy planes.

Well done, Jim! When you're done with the learning period, join a Quirk squadron in early 1917, for example. Then there'll be something else coming after you than the useless Eindeckers. As an Albatros pilot, Quirks are my best friends on the way to getting my Pour le Merite.