33LIMA

The end? Keen to leave my surviving flight-mate in no doubt that I want him to rejoin formation, I gave the recall signal, and watch as my green flare arcs up then falls astern. He can catch up later, for I am keen to get up to the level of the suspected enemy formation. It driftc west, towards the enemy side, drawing fire from our flak as it does so.For now I'll be content if they stay over there. Our flak dies off as the enemy flight continues to slide off to the west. It looks like they have finished whatever it was they came here to do, and there is no way I'm going over into enemy territory after what I think is probably a formation of Sopwith 2-seaters. Looking behind to see how my comrade is getting on, I get a shock. He's still there, but so are three enemy machines, which I identify immediately as Sopwith Triplanes. This is very bad news. My flight-mate is badly outnumbered until I can get back there. And even when I do, it's two against three. And the three are in machines which, though having just one MG, are one of the few enemy machines now at the front with a performance good enough to best the Albatros. I curse my decision not to go home and for a moment consider running for it myself, but of course, I cannot abandon my comrade. As I race to intervene, one of the Sopwiths dives down somewhere out of sight. I know he can climb back up quickly enough when he chooses, but I ignore him for now and steer for the other two, who are harrying my comrade. The latter sensibly dives away, using his superior speed. The two Sopwiths dive after him, and I roll left and push my nose down to where all four aircraft are now whirling around below. I'm still too far away for a shot but know our only chance is for me to get into the fight before the enemy can defeat us in detail, one at a time. If my comrade goes down before I get over there, that'll likely be the end of me, too. Suddenly, there's a jolt and my machine rolls right, before nosing into a vertical dive. I throttle back, but all control is lost! It's not hard to see why... There's a burst of fire and clumps of soil fly as my Albatros hits the ground nose first, with a sickening thud. Evidently, Richard Stachel's bid for the Blue Max is over! I return to PWCG to complete the formalities. I find I can fill in my claim for two Nieuports shot down, then watch the animated, map-based mission debriefing. I then turn to my combat report, and here for the first time, I find that I have survived the crash, albeit seriously wounded. Later, I confirm my suspicion that this is because in PWCG's campaign options, I had accepted this as the higest level of injury my pilot could suffer! I have since changed the setting to 'Death' - I can always re-fly a mission before quitting RoF for PWCG, if I'm minded to save a deceased pilot. Unfortunately, the two who collided have died. I have no idea what it was got me, and speculate in my report that it could have been flak, enemy fire or structural damage. A collision, with an enemy I had not seen, is another possibility. But really, I have little idea what it was. My pilot's journal/dossier/logbook confirms that on this Friday the Thirteenth, I have increased my score by two victories - to thirteen! Thus in a sense, Stachel's luck has sort of balanced out. He was unlucky to lose two flight-mates to a collision and unlucky again, to lose those wings; but extremely lucky not to be wiped out in the resulting crash. So...Herr Leutnant Stachel has survived Friday the Thirteenth, and lives to fight another day! Meanwhile, the war goes on, and the staffel Kriegstagebuch records the salient points of what's been an eventful day, in our sector and elsewhere. Methinks, I'll need not to push my luck too hard, on the next mission!

Richard Stachel's quest for glory continues, apace! It's been a long time since I kept up with the mission reports all the way through a campaign. But I think I'll make an exception and follow my PWCG/RoF career flying as Richard Stachel for Jasta Boelcke; in between such other reports that take my fancy. Will Richard beat his more famous brother Bruno to the Blue Max? If you want to find out, read on - and watch out for further installments! Here's the PWCG briefing for my third mission, the date having advanced to 7th April. I have been tasked with leading a patrol up to the lines near Foncquevillers. Although we don't know it, we are a couple of days away from the start of the big British push that will become known as the Battle of Arras. You can see the town of that name just west of the lines, somewhat north of our patrol route. I don't know if PWCG/RoF will reflect the battle in any way, for example in terms of levels of ground or air activity. I have but an early Core 2 Quad PC and a 1Gb GTS 250 which nevertheless enables me to have graphics settings quite high, but so as not to push it, I keep ground object density (in PWCG) set to low. Nor have I activated the 'moving front' option. Wings over Flanders Fields has several variants of the lines to suit different phases of the war, but like First Eagles, I think the trenchlines are visually static in Rise of Flight, with the 'moving front' changing the territory occupied by each side, not the in-game visual or map representation of the front. I decided to go with the five aircraft allocated, and didn't need to swap pilots to get to lead, as I am the senior officer detailed for the patrol. One of the neat features of the First Eagles campaigns is that replacements can be slow to arrive and in picking pilots for each mission, you need to strike the right balance between having a strong enough force in the air and conserving staffel strength.At any rate, German staffels were smaller than RFC/RAF squadrons and in PWCG/RoF, it's probably realistic enough that we are putting one patrol into the air, at any point in time. Here we are, lined up and ready to start engines. Once my motor's running, my pilot will automatically wave his hand above his head and the others will then start up, too. You can see to my right is no less than Verner Voss in his colourfully-marked machine. This should probably be an earlier model built by the parent firm rather than OAW, with the straight rudder. You can see that the white swastika/hakenkreuz marking has been 'Bowdlerised', for obvious reasons. The reason the lighting is dull is because we're under the moving shadow of a cloud. This time, I make a greater effort not to drift to the left on takeoff and succeed, possibly as there's less of a crosswind. I'm also beginning to learn that I can allow my machine to fly itself off the ground, if I avoid flying like 'heavy-handed Hans'. 2 I begin a left hand circuit to let the others catch up, with the little of village of Pronville, from our base which takes its name, a short distance away. I have settled for an echelon right formation, in part because this gives me more space to turn hard to the left, if need should arise. In that sense, I am following the pattern noted by WW2 USAAF P-47 ace Robert S. Johnston, who observed that enemy fighters he suprised from behind usually broke left, perhaps because that was more natural to right-handed pilots 1. One of the nice things about this campaign is that flight time to the front is quite short, enabling everything to be flown comfortably in real time, with no resort to time acceleration. It also helps that by default, our patrol altitudes are quite low - in the order of 2,000 metres. We have hardly reached the front when I observe a line of aircraft heading our way, somewhat higher up. I turn anxiously towards them, climbing hard. If they are enemy scouts, this is going to be a rather dangerous start to the mission. I try to padlock the nearest and fail, realising why as they pass over and I get a good look at them from below. They are five Albatrosses, like our own. I use the RoF view system to lock onto one and get a screenshot. I don't recognise the yellow markings; Jasta 10 was known for this colour on its Albatrosses and Pfalzes so perhaps it's them. As you will have gathered, I neglected to check in PWCG which other units were operating in our area! We don't have to wait too long for the real enemy to show up, however, and this time, I padlock him just fine. He's coming right at us and it's only as we close that another one, hidden by my upper wing, comes into view - there are two of them. I get off a few rounds head on and then come hard around after my chosen target. The two Englishmen are in Sopwith Pups. Our formation breaks up to attack them and I stay above the scrap. Three of my comrades go for one of the Sopwiths, the last one for the other, the one I'm watching now. After some twisting and turning, the Sopwith goes one way, the Albatross the other, so now it's my turn. I drop onto the enemy's tail and begin shooting. He can turn inside me easily enough, but I stay above and behind him, until I can make another pass, with a wary eye behind - not so much for anothe enemy, but for flight-mates attacking recklessly, as is their wont. Instead of the slow-firing 'pop-pop-pop gun' described by Pup pilot Arthur Gould Lee 3, I have two faster-firing MGs and their fire soon takes effect. The Sopwith's prop spins to a halt, then his right-hand wing strtcture collapses and tears away. I look around for the other enemy and see him well below, still fighting against three Albatrosses. Suddenly, it's two Albatrosses; one of my flight makes an unusual movement then falls away, trailing white smoke. I can only hope that my comrade will get down in one piece and, if he force-lands between the trenches, make it back to our side of the lines. The others waste no more time in exacting retribution, and soon the Sopwith is shot down, too. As usual after a fight, I begin a spiral climb to clear my tail and assess the situation. I throttle back as I see my flight-mates begin to spiral up after me. They seem a bit slow to rejoin formation so I give the recall order, firing a green flare which bursts astern, lighting up my machine. Almost certainly that was superfluous, but they can't fail to get the message now! However, instead of rejoining, my flight-mates seem even more hesitant. Now what? I know instinctively what the answer must be and look behind, where it must surely lie. And there they are - two pusher-type fighters, known by the Germans as Vickers but in this case, DH2s, are falling like a pair of hawks onto my comrades below. Naturally, I bank around after them. You can see what I mean, about how much farther away planes can look from the cockpit view. They are three against two but the sooner I get over there and into action against those impertinent Englishmen, the happier I will be! ...to be continued! 1. Recounted by Martin Caidin in Me 109, Purnell, 1969 2. Heavy-handed Hans flies Halberstadts In handy Halberstadters, for a flight our Hans does start His CO says 'Oh dash it! For I fear that he will crash it!' See how heavy-handed Hans ham-handles handy Halberstadts! Royal Flying Corps song, c.1917 3. No Parachute and Open Cockpit

Thanks Jeanba, I will try out that damage mod. I was pleased to see the flak was back, in the 4th mission, after I noticed my ground obect density was low and increased this to medium. I may try out the Checksix BE.2 also, even if it is a 'Frankenplane'. A BE.2c or 2e and a French 1916-17 two-seater like a Farman F.40 (which as you have said elsewhere, would have been a better choice for WoFF than a parasol or a Nieuport 12) would make a really big difference to the RoF planeset - though it is now quite good for most of 1917 and 1918, with the addition of the Strutter and the DH.4. S!

Just like my Red Baron 3d Pfalz D.XII... ...my Aerosim/CFS2 Val... ...my Panzer Commander Tiger... ...or my M1 Tank Platoon II M1A2... ...nostalgia can strike at any time!

Stachel learns to follow, as well as to lead! My next PWCG/RoF mission for Jasta Boelcke is something different - balloon defense. In Germany's First Air Force, Peter Kilduff - better known for his Red Baron biographies - devotes a chapter to the work of the crews of German observation balloons. Being tethered close to the front, attack from the air wasn't the only deadly danger they faced, as related by Leutnant der Reserve Peter Rieper: "We were constantly bombarded, this time by 15cm incendiary shells which made a frightful crash when the explosions hit anywhere near the balloon. That was really not nice. One did not want to do the French a favour and haul down the balloon. There was nothing else to do but to have the balloon constantly raised and lowered between 700 and 1,500 metres to make it more difficult for the enemy battery commander to regulate the explosions. "While I got off with twenty holes in the balloon in this manner, it did little good for my neighbour. He was shot down in flames. Both observers jumped out with parachutes and, while one came down smoothly, the other, hit in the carotid artery by a shell fragment, was a corpse when he hit the ground." The other difference, this mission, was that for a change, I accepted a slot behind another leader - the staffelfuhrer, Lambrecht Bing (a fictitious pilot I think - the Aerodrome reports that Jasta Boekcke's real CO was Franz Walz, during this period). No matter - I know that like me, my RoF alter ego Richard Stachel dislikes formation-flying, but he needs to learn a bit of discipline. So he'll be one of the four pilots flying behind the boss today, 10 April, 1917. I forgot to take a picture of the mission briefing but before we leave Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator to fly the sortie in RoF, here's the PWCG intelligence map, which I have not illustrated before. As seen below, you can click on any marked airfield and see displayed what squadrons are based there - in this case, that 25, 29 and 60 Squadrons are based at Savy-Berlette. The last squadron I recognise - it's a famous fighter outfit, whose many famous pilots included Canadian Billy Bishop. The red arrows obviously denote the current British offensives - the Battle of Arras, April 1917, above whch was fought 'Bloody April'. I did remember to take a pic of the mission map in RoF, though, and here it is. We have to fly up to the north west to the balloon position, which you can see is not far behind our lines, opposite the town of Arras itself. Here I am, lined up at Pronville in the middle of five OAW-built Albatros D.IIIs. The boss is far left, and engines are already being run up for take-off. I have forgotten to swap my mauve and green camouflaged bird for the one with brown and green, which doesn't have the pixellated wings, but never mind! Now, a confession: first try, I cracked up on take-off, tipping over and bending a wingtip, then nosing over and damaging my prop. The windsock was fluttering briskly and seemed to indicate a strong crosswind from my left. But instead, as soon as I began to roll, I swung dramatically left into the wind, not away from it. The replay isn't much better, and I have to cross my controls, with a lot of opposite aileron, to keep the wings level. As to the direction I take off...well, let's just say I make it off the ground, this time. I have a bit of catching up to do but I am soon slotting into my number three position in our echelon right formation. I don't know why, but the formation flying doesn't seem nearly as much a chore or as difficult as the last time I did this in RoF. Despite that, I'm not going to make a habit of flying behind somebody else, but today, I'm quite glad I'm giving it a shot. Soon, we are climbing steadily to the north-west. So far, so good! ...to be continued!

From gasbag to flak bursts! As we climb up to the north-west, I look around for the other two aircraft in our 5-plane, echelon right formation. I’m flying as number three, but the other pair, numbers four and five, aren’t to my right, as expected. I look up and behind, and there they are. I’m keeping formation fairly well but perhaps I'm still putting the other two off their stride. And on top of that, I don’t particularly want to be flying in an ‘AI sandwich’. So I decide to give myself and the others a bit more room, by sliding out and formating on my leader’s left, rather than on the number 2’s right. That way, we’ll all be happier…and safer. I‘m still finding formation-flying less of a chore than I recall, and I even manage to scan the skies around us dutifully, from time to time. About half-way to the balloon – it’s a short enough hop – we level out. I wonder if the boss has spotted something, but can see no sign of the enemy. Soon, we resume our climb. The balloon site is now just a few kilometres up ahead. I can’t see the balloon itself yet; it may be somewhere under my nose. Yes, comparing map and terrain, the balloon is just north of the river I can see up ahead, cutting across No-Man's Land; it will be just under my nose, a bit further north. The formation dips down now, into a long, slanting dive. It really looks like something is up this time, otherwise the boss would, I expect, stay high and just orbit our patrol area. Having seen no flak at all on the previous mission, I am now startled to see a lot of it. A string of black bursts erupts to our north-east. Almost at the same time, dense clumps of flak burst almost directly ahead of us, to the north of the balloon site. And that's not all. Looking up, I see more flak, and this time I can see the targets, too - four faint little specks wheeling around in a line, well out ahead of the flak, and good deal higher than us. This is looking dangerous - and complicated! Trying to evaluate where the greatest threat lies, I look for the targets of the other flak concentrations...and see nothing. At first. Then I spot a dark speck amongst the eastern bursts. I look more closely to see what he is, and as I watch, there’s a flash and he’s hit, falling sharply to the ground, shedding pieces as he goes down. I can see he is – or was - a pusher of some description. One less to worry about! The flak which claimed him suddenly dies off. By now, I'm level with 'our' balloon. I have no time to check if he's being winched down, though I think it's inconceivable the ground crew would leave him up here with enemies - and angry flak bursts - all around. At this point, a degree of confusion sets in. I see that my flight is circling, and that I have fallen out of formation. This could be just the chance those fellows up above are waiting for, the opportunity to pounce on a lone enemy who's fallen out of formation! I look up again anxiously. The flak's still bursting, nearer now. But where there were four enemies, now there is just one. Where have the others gone? As I struggle to make sense of all this, up ahead, amidst the flak to the north, I see tracers flying back and forth - an air fight has broken out. It's not our lot, too far away; I find out later on that there were two other Albatrosses from a different unit in the same area. I decide that the best thing I can do right now is to cover my flight's tails from the threat from above, whatever it is. The flak barrage up there is fairly ferocious and persistent and as I watch, I see its target is definitely a single aircraft, which is wheeling and banking in the black-flecked blue sky above me. It’s a Nieuport, I realise. It looks like he’s not sure whether to attack me, or the rest of the flight. I manoeuvre so as to keep him in sight and as far as possible, to my front, where he’s less likely able to drop onto my tail. I am not going to risk making myself even more vulnerable by climbing up to him. Instead, I wait to see if he can be enticed to come down to my level, while remaining ready to react to such a move. Finally, down he comes, and it’s me he’s coming for! And he brings the flak down with him! I turn in under him and he pulls up again. After another try at this, we end up in a turning fight. The Englishman seems to be a more capable foeman than those flying the Nieuports we met on my first mission, judging by the way he briskly throws his machine about the sky. He keeps trying to make head on passes. I have two guns to his one, but fear a collision more than he seems to. I don’t turn away – something every WW1 pilot knows ‘just isn’t done’ – but try to get a few shots off at him and then offset to one side of his track as we come together, rather than keeping him in my sights. I don’t get off many rounds, but I don’t collide, either, despite some near misses. He's so nimble that at times, it's like he's flying rings around me. It occurs to me that this is one fight I could end up losing. Fatally. I know I musn't let panic get a grip. Using the vertical, I keep trying to cut in behind the Nieuport as he flashes past. All the while, both of us are steadily losing height. Meanwhile, the fierce flak barrage continues all around us, as if I don’t have enough to worry about. I notice that the enemy now has damage to a wingtip, probably from the flak, and wonder if I’m next for that treatment. The damage seems to have affected the enemy’s agility; not by much, but enough for me to to feel the tables are turning. He's now losing altitude in his turns, which seem less energetic, and now it's him, not me, who's mostly on the defensive. He's still twisting and turning like a hare but I'm able to get in a decent burst, then another. He flies away, banked to the right. Then I see a lower wing break upwards. The next moment, both wings on that side fail, and down he goes! I watch dispassionately, as he crashes in an open field... ...then swing into a climb and check my surroundings. I see a small village - Fresnes, the map tells me - just north of the nearby river, that will enable me to locate the site of the crash, for my combat report. This has been a hard-fought battle; if that well-flown Nieuport didn’t get me, it seemed our own flak would! So I’m keen to ensure I get the credit for the hard-earned victory and make a full report. I cimb up to the north-west. The flak over there has disappeared. As has everything else. No Albatrosses, no balloon, and no enemies, whatever they were. Looking up, I see four aircraft orbiting a hundred metres or so above me. The flak isn’t engaging them and as they come closer, I see they are Albatrosses like my own; the rest of the flight, evidently. I spiral up after then and rejoin formation, for they are indeed my staffel-mates. I don’t know what adventures they have had since my combat, but I'm glad that they didn’t suffer any losses, during my absence. I hope the boss will believe me, when I tell him that my failure to rejoin formation was motivated not by selfish glory-hunting, but to protect my comrades from the enemy up above! We orbit the balloon site several times. The balloon is no-where to be seen; winched down rather than shot down, I hope, though I fear the worst. I wonder if the boss is circling in case the balloon is winched up again. The skies around us remain empty and after a few minutes more, the boss turns and leads us back towards Pronville, down to the south-east. I quit the mission and note that the RoF mission end screen confirms my victory. So I exit the program and return to PWCG to submit a claim for one Nieuport 17 (Lewis) shot down. The mission debrief reveals that my flight-mates have engaged other similar machines and recorded some victories of their own. No word of the balloon! However, it is good to see that my EK1 (Iron Cross, First Class) has come through, to add to the EK2 awarded after my very first mission. I’m very pleased to have confirmed my recollection that upping the PWCG campaign setting for Ground Object Density from ‘low’ to ‘medium’ hasn’t noticeably affected FPS but has generated flak, to the point that it was, as in other WW1 sims, a reliable indicator of the presence of enemy planes on my side of the lines. The barrages were pretty intense and I was not surprised to see one claim a victim, and glad it wasn’t me or one of mine. I was also glad to find that flying behind an AI flight leader wasn’t the chore I remembered it to be. Before quitting PWCG I check out a few other features. For one thing, there’s the ability to create your own markings or annotations on the mission map, apparently month by month. And you can view squadron news and results. In Jasta Boelcke’s case, this confirmed that ace Verner Voss has indeed transferred out of the staffel. This seems to reflect reality nicely, as Voss went on a month’s leave in April, after being awarded the Blue Max, and didn’t return to the unit. This suits Richard Stachel nicely, as with 11 victories from just 4 missions, he’s well on his way to becoming the staffel’s leading ace! As for Rise of Flight, with Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator v.16, I'm finding that the single player campaign experience at last has the action, scope and immersion to match the great visuals the sim has always had. Top notch stuff. If you have any interest at all in WW1 air combat simulation and haven't tried RoF with current versions of PWCG, do so now! The free version of RoF - fully-featured, with SPAD XIII & Albatros D.V playable (now also with the Russian Nieuport 17) and the rest AI-flown - is available here. My system is slightly below the recommended specs in terms of CPU and GPU but with the most important graphics settings at or near the max, she flies as smooth as silk. You might still prefer the AI and/or superior planesets of modded First Eagles/FE2 or Wings over Flanders Fields, but Rise of Flight's free, got sdome advantages of its own, and there's no reason you can't have and enjoy more than one WW1 sim - I have and play all three. At any rate, Leutnant Stachel - Richard that is, not Bruno - has learned a bit of teamwork and is now champing at the bit to clip on that blue leader's streamer, take his place at the head of a flight and chalk up some more victories, on the way to that Blue Max. Will he make it? I'll keep you posted - just watch this space!

The last leg... Back at altitude, we continue our patrol to the south, above the line of the enemy trenches beneath us. Despite being only 2,000 metres up, we are not shelled by enemy flak. There is still not enough AA fire in PWCG/RoF, so I will look at some settings which may increase this – there are plenty of options in PWCG. I noticed recently that I had left ground MG fire turned off, a surprising default; perhaps they are overly deadly. RoF has a horrible ‘ambient flak’ visual effect which produces random bursts in the skies, like the random ground shellfire you also see. In WW1, seeing white flak bursts was a common indicator of German aircraft, black bursts denoting Germans firing at Entente planes. It’s bad enough that you see this important target indication quite rarely in RoF, but it’s in the ‘What WERE they thinking?’ category that much of the flak you DO see, is these random bursts, aimed at nothing. Fortunately, a mod to turn off this nonsense has long existed. But the ‘real’ flak bursts are still seen too rarely. Be that as it may… With a certain amount of ammo expended and probably four kills against one loss for the flight, I am not too disappointed to see no sign of the enemy, as we approach the southern limit of our patrol route. I decide that rather than pressing our good fortune today, we will go straight home, after the last waypoint. Just before we reach it, I decide to take one of my infrequent stabs at the padlock button, to see if there are any enemies in visual range. My view immediately locks onto something I can’t yet make out, to my right rear and lower down. In less than a second, I can see them - a line of tiny specks moving so as to cross diagonally beneath us. While you can’t see planes as far away as you should be able to from the default cockpit view, when you can see them, I find they can at least be identified at a reasonable enough range. I soon see these machines are R.E.8 s, RFC two-seaters most commonly employed for reconnaissance and artillery observation. Not this time, probably, because there are five of them, in single file; it occurs to me that these boys are possibly on a ground attack mission. I’ll need to do something about this, I know, but odds of four against five are not to my liking. I tend to agree with British ace and VC holder James McCudden, who thought a well-handled two-seater a match for a single scout. The enemy formation is not conducive to mutual support, however. So I decide to play ‘Devil take the hindmost’ and start spiralling down. Still, I hesitate, because unless I order my flight to stay out of it, I’ll drag them in, too. My indecision is ended for me by the tail-end R.E.8, which turns out of formation for some reason. It's now or never. I steepen my dive, exchanging bursts of fire with his observer on the way down... ...and then come up behind and below him. I fire into him from under his tail, where the observer’s Lewis Gun can’t reach me. But though I chopped my throttle as I dived, my excess of speed carries me up behind him again. He turns back towards the other R.E.8s and I cut inside him, firing as I come. I'm asking for trouble and I know it, sitting in this exposed position, just trading rounds with the enemy, but my blood is up! I find it quite hard to keep my sights on an enemy in RoF, tending to over-correct because of the degree of forward stick pressure needed to correct tail heaviness – pulling back on the stick seems to produce an exaggerated response. And I don’t actually use the gunsights, just aiming along the nose and pressing the trigger when the sight picture looks right. in this fashion, I fire a short burst from dead astern at rather long range as I manoeuvre to regain a better position, I am pleasantly surprised - and not a little relieved - to see the enemy observer slump down out of sight in his seat, even as his last tracer round flashes past me. Throttle wide open again, I surge up behind the R.E.8, snapping out short bursts which I can see are chewing up the big two-seater. His rudder is hit and flies off, falling below me somewhere. Finally, he rears up, wings over and plunges for the ground. Got him! As he falls, his right-hand wings break off and more through luck than judgement, I narrowly avoid flying into them. While all this is going on, three of the enemy have closed up and are racing for our lines, apparently unmolested. Their bomb loads are certainly intended for our troops, who may be seconds away from being bombed, unless we can stop this. My comrades are already pitching in, but Voss and one of the others seem to prefer to go for the same straggler, rather than tackle the rest of the formation. I waste no time and select another opponent, who is flying in a steep turn at the same level. You'll do, I tell myself sternly. In my haste to get at him, I’m hit again, but several bursts strip off the enemy's wings and down he goes. Somehow, I manage a second time to avoid running headlong into the detached wings, which fly up in my face. I pull hard back on the stick and they are gone. The fuselage of the R.E.8 drops like a bomb, the doomed observer rattling off a futile final burst as he races to his destruction in the shell-swept mud below. I have no time to watch. I continue to rise in a shallow spiral, looking around as I go. Down below, I can see Voss, with the distinctive white stripes on his upper wing, apparently tackling an R.E.8 head on. I spot another R.E.8, on his own, unmolested, lower down and seemingly headed for our territory. Oh no you don't! I nose down and around after him, but I have already noticed that something is wrong with my machine. The motor is running but not pulling as strongly as she should at full throttle. And my upper wing is somewhat the worse for battle damage. For a moment I hesitate, then I grit my teeth and press on. The Englishmen wheel around in a circle beneath me and come out of it heading back west, towards their own side of the lines. Too late, boys, I’m committed and I'm coming for you! But even in a dive I seem unable to gain much ground. By the time I’m at their level, I am just about in range, but we’re now heading into enemy territory, where my faltering engine could give up at any moment. I do not want to dally here, so I fire off my remaining ammunition at the retreating R.E.8, my rate of fire reduced by the low revs my motor is now producing. The enemy machine wobbles and begins a gentle but descending turn to the right as my first gun goes dry. The other one fires a few more rounds due to stoppages earlier, but then it, too, packs up. I can do no more, and turn for home. I wait for the engine up ahead of me to splutter to a stop but my trusty Mercedes doesn’t let me down, despite the damage. Though it takes longer than usual, I am finally back over our own front lines. The air battle is ended. And two other Albatrosses are closing up behind me. I know one went down in the fight against the Sopwiths; the second must have fallen fighting the R.E.8s (though at the time, I mistakenly thought he’d been shot down fighting the ‘Vickers’). Whatever successes we have achieved, bringing back three out of five is a bitter enough blow. Soon after crossing the lines, I end the mission – I’m not flying home to have my remaining comrades perform RoF-style landing crack-ups! The first surprise is that the basic RoF mission result screen credits me with five victories – one more than I was confident off. Back in PWCG to make my own report and watch the map replay, I submit a claim for a Sopwith, a DH.2 ‘Vickers’ and three R.E.8s. I assume that the last one I fired at must have gone down, though I didn't think so, at the time. Things get really strange when the PWCG replay and overall mission result credit me with four R.E.8 s shot down, not three. I don’t recall shooting at, let alone down, four individual two-seaters, but this is the number that goes into my official tally. Six victories in one mission! This takes my score to ten, from just three missions. Below is my combat report, written immediately after the mission, when I became confused about when the second Albatros went down – it was in the battle against the R.E.8s, not the DH.2s. You can't see the first part of the report, but the tabs above which enable me to view my two previous reports are visible. I recall that I paused the mission for screenshots while knocking down the first R.E.8, and I wonder if that could have messed up whatever log file PWCG used to record the results. In truth, I think I really got just two R.E.8s, just maybe a third at a long stretch, though not the four I’m credited with! But if the ground observers got mixed up and confirmed kills I didn’t make, I’ll not argue…tomorrow, they could err in the opposite direction! PWCG also informs me that Verner Voss has transferred (or gone on leave, or both) and amongst other news, lets me view a captured newspaper, hot off the press, announcing the start of the British offensive at Arras. I should not be surprised that news travels so fast; a British war diary from Normandy in 1944 recorded sardonically that one day, the unit had the rare privilege of capturing a town ahead of the BBC! I still have the impression that in RoF, my shooting is somewhat more effective than I’m accustomed to, from other WW1 sims. It’s like my hits are too damaging, or too frequent, or a bit of both. I think there’s a mod which reduces the structural damage effects – wings do seem to come away rather frequently – so I may try that. I do know that PWCG lets you tweak AI pilot quality, by changing the probability of your meeting novice, veteran or expert enemies, and I may try some adjustments there, too, although I don’t want to be fighting with, or alongside, AI supermen, every time. I tried the similar option in First Eagles, and that made enemies much scarier overall, but too much so for my liking. A bit less lethality all round, but especially from my own guns, would probably keep me happy. I’ll not rush into making adjustments, though, in case this mission was a fluke. Otherwise, my main concern in the campaign so far is aircraft visibility – they are too rarely revealed by flak bursts and are not visible at long enough range from the cockpit view (despite AI enemies apparently being able to see and home in on me, from a point I still can't see them). I will try to find a setting which increases flak levels; I vaguely recall that increasing ground object density (now set at ‘low’) may do this, hopefully without nobbling performance. And I’ll find out if anything can be done to increase the default zoom level, while in cockpit, without magnifying the airframe around me; I’m certainly not going to get into manually zooming in and out while scanning. For now, however, I can compensate on both fronts for by occasionally tapping the padlock button, simulating me (or a flight-mate) picking up on targets during scanning – though it would be better if I could ‘padlock nearest air’ not ‘…nearest enemy air’ so it acts only for spotting, and not as instant IFF. Anyway, I’m definitely enjoying this campaign, which is proving happily eventful, without straying into ‘air quake’. Today, Richard has not only survived being somewhat shot about by the two-seaters, he’s still in hot pursuit of his Pour le Mérite. He’s somewhat disappointed that his big score – taking him up to the ten victories said to be needed in the German air service to ‘make ace’ – hasn’t yet earned him another ‘gong’ to hang next to his EK2. But he now feels he’s earned his place in the jagdstaffel which bears the name of the great Oswald Boelcke; more welcome than brother Bruno seems to feel in his unit, by all accounts. Ten victories in three missions, an enemy bombing attack smashed almost single-handed…surely, great things must lie ahead for Oberleutnant Richard Stachel…

V-strutters versus 'prehistoric packing cases' 'The Englishman sat in a prehistoric packing case', Manfred von Richthofen is quoted as saying of one encounter with a 'Vickers', as the Germans called different types of 'pusher' aircraft like the DH.2s we are now fighting. The Lewis Gun-armed Vickers FB.5 'gunbus' must have made something of an impression. But this is the spring of 1917. The time when machines such as the DH.2 and FE.2 played their part in ending the Fokker Scourge is long over. Prehistoric the pushers are, by this point in the war. Now, all we need to do is...prove it! We start well. By the time I arrive over the air fight, one of the enemy has already gone down, shedding his wings as he dropps like a stone, trailing a faint wisp of pale grey smoke. The other pusher tries hard to get away, which gives me a chance to join the combat. Naturally enough, this is exactly what I do. As with the superior Sopwiths, my usual tactic with a more agile foe is to avoid getting sucked into his kind of fight by staying long with an enemy who's making a tight turn. Instead, I make slashing attacks, keeping my speed up and my own turns, short. My twin MGs are soon shredding the enemy machine, who wings over and falls into a steep dive. I watch him go but don't follow, wary of a trick - and of colliding with a flight-mate. But the de Havilland doesn't pull out. Job done. Back up I go in my usual spiral and this time, my flight-mates are happy to follow. The 'pusher' fighter had its day, but that day is over. And we have succeeded in proving that it is so. In doing so, we have drifted back east, into the skies over No Man's Land. So I lead our formation back to the west, to pick up our original patrol route. I haven't fired off too many rounds and though I'm tempted to get out while ahead and avoid further losses amongst my flight, I decide that duty requires us to continue, at least for a little while longer. So on we go. ...to be continued!

Lt Frommherz's famous 'Blaue Maus':

Death of an RE8... Bomber escort, Rise of Flight style... Jasta Boelcke over the lines.. Death of an SE5a... And another one gone... ...and another one gone.. ...another one bites the dust!

This one... ...don't play it much these days, but Microprose's European Air War's still on my hard drive. In terms of scope, content and approach to the single player campaign experience, it's still the classic, object lesson in how to put together a WW2 air combat sim, down to the radio set, creaky bedsprings and the bloke with a cough in your nissen hut, while you viewed your logbook or applied for leave. That was how to do it, and still is. As Mark Anthony would have said, if he had been addressing the crowd on sims and not the death of Julius Caesar: ANTHONY: Here was a combat flight sim. When comes such another? FIRST SIMMER: NEVER! NEVER!

They also served, who 'only' stood and watched...

I prefer the good old days of physical media, a decent-sized box containing a full manual, a keyboard chart and maybe a printed map. But I would never let that prevent me having a game that I could only get by download, from Steam for example.You can close Steam before running the game, though I leave it running as I like it's F12 screenshot saver option. Anyone with any interest at all in WW2 naval combat should have Atlantic Fleet, and even if you haven't got such an interest, you may develop one, playing.

Back to the front with 1C/777's World War 1 air combat sim! 'Is Rise of Flight dead?' is a question that's been asked online, of late. There have been no new planes or updates for some time, while the developers have been concentrating on other products. By my definition - for whatever that's worth - a game's dead, not when the developers lose interest, but when people cease to play and enjoy it. I had ceased, mostly, despite buying a good many individual planes, like the Pfalz D.XII... ...the Fokker Dr.I... ...and the Nieuport 28... Heck, I even got the Gotha and some two-seaters, including the rather unlovely RE8... Not that you need to pay anything, of course, since RoF is free, with the Albatros D.V and SPAD XIII flyable and the others appearing as AI-flown unless & until purchased. And the D.V is one of my favourite WW1 birds, sleek, often colourful, and in RoF guise, free to boot - what's not to like about that? However, RoF never really took off for me (dire pun intended). I have zero interest in multi-player, for one thing. And RoF single player could be a bit...well, anaemic, once you got used to the generally very attractive graphics. The campaigns seemed to me to be a tad unengaging, and the AI a bit of a mixed bag, from sniper-like gunner/observers to fighter jockeys with a rather repetitive box of tricks (if attacked, turn a bit, then go low and turn a lot more, on the deck). Even after Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator came along to offer an alternative single player campaign system, I still never caught the RoF bug. Mainly, the combat zone seemed dead. There could be enemy flights going about their business - you could cycle through them using the very capable view system - but unless you had the 'AWACS map' active, they might as well have been flying under a cloak of invisibility. In First Eagles and to a large extent Wings over Flanders Fields, many enemy flights would have been rendered visible through being engaged by friendly flak, at least over the lines or your own territory. Not very often, in RoF. Many's the time, bored with the empty skies, I would cycle views to an enemy flight, then once I had established its location with reference to the scenery, be dumfounded as to why it was invisible from the player's aircraft. But the other day, CombatAce forum member Jeanba posted a favourable comment about the improvements the mods had made to RoF, so I thought, well, I'll give it another go, what have I got to lose. And you know what - RoF's still got some 'little foibles', but I'm glad I did. This double mission report will, I hope, explain why! ...to be continued!