1916 Piggy's Sad End

WW1 Air 1916

Briefing by Major "Piggy" Camerun Squadron Commander

What ho fellows?  Settle down there.  

The Brass have decided that we need to get some crates over sausage side and give the bally old Hun a damned good spanking.  Bit of a snag, the General has noticed that I`m letting the side down, so I`ll put it to a referendum for you chaps, shall I lead you over there and put myself in harms way?  I know you will vote to keep me safe as fellow Bullingden boys, show of hands to keep me here... Nobody?  Oh!

Up it is then. The Hun will expect us at 8am sharp and we don't want to surprise them or anything.  Not cricket what?
Carry on...

Die Deutschen

Eindekker A1 ((Double machine gun))  
Hauptmann The Baron Manfred von Pumphosen
Eindekker A2 (Single machine gun)
Lt. Max Todtraum
Eindekker A2 (Single machine gun)
OberLeutnant Fitz Sexpest 

The Jolly old Brits

DH2  (Single Lewis gun)
Major "Piggy" Camerun
DH2  (Single Lewis gun)
Capt Boris Knobson
DH2  (Single Lewis gun)
Lt "Not quite Bullingden enough" Javid.  

The Game

The Bullingden Boys cross the Lines, hunting the Hun 

The Pumphosen Staffel, at a greater height

The d4 is my sun marker and the fat Baron attempts to manoeuvre

The dogfight starts

Some fair shooting from the DH2 but its results are inconclusive

Piggy over-flies his aim and is surrounded

These WW1 air combats have a circular motion to them

The Baron gets onto the tail of Lt. Javid, and downs him

Fitz Sexpest discovers his spandau is jammed

Piggy gets a shot into the Sexpest

The last round, the Baron moves perfectly and puts a long burst into Piggy.  Poor old Piggy explodes in mid air.  Its how he would have wanted to go...

1916: RFC Troop Spotting

WW1 Air 1916

Briefing by Major "Piggy" Camerun Squadron Commander

What ho fellows?  Settle down there.  

The Brass have decided that we need to get some crates over sausage side and spot what the bally old Hun is up to over there.  We will sending over a BE2 with some new fangled camera gear.  Bit of a snag, the Hun keep shooting these poor old kites down.  A flight of DH2 will go as escort. The Hun will expect us at 8am sharp and we don't want to surprise them or anything.  Not cricket what?

8am sharpish then chaps.

Now obviously we're all in this together and I would obviously love to be over sausage side with you chaps, obviously, but I have an important pork related matters to attend, obviously...

Good Luck Chaps...

The Germans have (as always) anticipated the incursion across the lines.  Their Eindekkers are up in pairs and will defend the rear echelon areas.

Die Deutschen

Eindekker A1 (A Flight Plane 1)  Hauptmann The Baron Manfred von Pumphosen
Aircraft A1 has the new twin machine gun configuration that all Eindeckkers are to be converted to in the near future.
Ace, Aristocrat, Jovial, Popular.
Interests.  Gluttony
Special Skill Leadership

Eindekker A2 (Single machine gun)
Lt. Max Todtraum
Cunning, popular
Supports the Kaiser
Up from the ranks

Roland C10 OberLeutnant Fitz Sexpest 
Fanatic, Revenge
Up from the ranks
Special Skill Crack shot

Rumpler B1
Lt Hans Untergloves
Inept, Religious
Up from the ranks 

The British

DH2 A1
Capt Boris Knobson
Meek, Popular
Position
Special Skill Leadership
Privledged

DH2 A2
Jacob Rees Arsehoole
Fickle Popular
Government
Up from the Banks

DH2 A3
Brian Bailey Long
Aggressive
Government
Military Family

B2 
Joan Bercow
Doesn't turn easilly
Government, likes order 
Up from the ranks

The Game

The BE2, as an aeroplane it's a shocker.  The dice roll of 1 indicates that the escort are late, again.

And here come the Bullingen boys, DH2S,  load those Lewis guns.

Out of the clouds, the Baron and his Cirus of dirty fokkers 

And a randomly generated Rumpler.

Boris Knobson gets a shot in on an Eindekker, and is engine begins to misfire

But Baron Pumphosen is on that BE2.  Poor shooting though

The Rumpler comes in obliquely, and gets a lucky hit.  Rees Arse'H goes in.

Shot down by a Rumpler, at long range?  What would Quiggles say!

Baron Pumphosen is on the BE2's tail.  Double spandaus!  Down goes Joan Bercow.  As in real life we are running out of any quality candidates.

Knobson gets a hit on Fitz Sexpest.  

Lt Brian Bailey Long and his wingman Gorgeous George turn up, late, having been lost.

At this stage the British have an advantage.

An attempt to swarm the Rumpler fails as the Hun shoots past one DH2 and downs another.  Bailey Long lasted twenty minutes!

And the Baron is on them, an Ace!  Gorgeous George runs out of ammo.  Change that drum boy!

But it's a game of chicken, and the Baron dies not miss.  George is hit.

The Bullingden boys flee in some disarray.  Boris will later give a speech in the Mess lauding this as a great Victory over those Europeans.   He has one game left of this series of three to actually score a victory, and has been warned that Major Camerun will personally lead the next flight over the Hun lines.

1916, the RFC raid on the railway yards

WW1 Air 1916

Briefing by Major "Piggy" Camerun Squadron Commander

What ho fellows?  Settle down there.  

The Brass have decided that the railway yards at Courtrai need a seeing to.  We are sending over some FE2B armed with Cooper Bombs to warm them up. The Hun will expect us at 8am sharp and we don't want to surprise them or anything.  Not cricket what?

Now poor old Old Red Jezza went down in flames and Nigel Porridge went into the shite nose first.  We've lost some proper stand up fellows but we have some excellent stand up fellows remaining.

Now we're all in this together and I would love to be over sausage side with you chaps, obviously, but I have an important champagne breakfast to attend.

Good Luck Chaps...

The Germans have (as always) anticipated an attack across the lines.  Their Eindekkers are up in pairs and will defend the rear echelon areas.

Die Deutschen

Eindekker A1 (A Flight Plane 1)  Hauptmann The Baron Manfred von Pumphosen
Aircraft A1 has the new twin machine gun configuration that all Eindeckkers are to be converted to in the near future.
Ace, Aristocrat, Jovial, Popular.
Interests.  Gluttony
Special Skill Leadership

Eindekker A2 (Single machine gun)
Lt. Max Todtraum
Cunning, popular
Supports the Kaiser
Up from the ranks

Roland C10 OberLeutnant Fitz Sexpest 
Fanatic, Revenge
Up from the ranks
Special Skill Crack shot

Rumpler B1
Lt Hans Untergloves
Inept, Religious
Up from the ranks 

The British

DH2 A1
Capt Boris Knobson
Meek, Popular
Position
Special Skill Leadership
Privledged

DH2 A2
Mick the Gove
Fickle Popular
Government
Up from the Banks

DH2 A3
Timmy Martin Witherspoon
Aggressive
Government
Military Family

FE2b B2
Eric Thornbury
Doesn't turn easilly
Government
Up from the ranks

FE2b B2
Jessi Phillips
Ardent Royalist
Government
Up from Sheffield 

Sopworth Pup
RNAS Patrol
Algy Soubry
Daring Popular
Religion
Privledged

The Game

The FE2B cross the line and discover the waiting Hun.

Lt Phillips goes down as Fitz Sexpest thumbs his firing lever.

And the drum on that Lewis appears to be empty.  The Eindekkers swarm Captain Thornbury.

Thornbury goes is as yet more Fokkers appear.   Where were Knobson and the DH2 cover?  Late to the party?  That's not like Boris!

The Bullingden boys arrive, in formation looking professional, for once.  But too late to save the FE2bs.

But there are days when crossing the Line is a bad idea.

The Baron gets on the tail of Lt Gove, and calmly shoots him through the head.

The RFC scatters.  Knobson turns for home.

Timmy Witherspoon goes for easy meat, a Roland out on the flank, but a burst from the rear gunner kills his engine, and Timmy goes down...

Knobson flees across the lines, his engine on fire, Eindekkers pummeling him.

But Algy Soubry turns up in a  RNAS Pup, and the Eindekkers veer away.

The Navy saves the day...

My full muster of Fokkers turn for home, utterly triumphant.

Quiggles bares his Bristols

Briefing from Major Raymond, Air Intelligence.

Settle down chaps, light up your cigarettes, I'm on the Albanian Rough Shag this week.  Good for the sinuses.
As you know the Hun Circus over at Vagraines are still making a concerted push on our Artillery observation planes.
High command want us (and by "us" I mean you) to attack their airfield.

We have two flights of the new Bristol Fighters attached to us for this mission.

Shoot them up gentlemen.

Your new Squadron Leader will delegate the operations.
Be brave gentlemen.

Operations Briefing
Squadron Leader James Quigglesworth.

What ho chaps.
What we have always done on this sort of thing, go over in dribs and drabs.  It's a tactic that has served us disastrously in the past, so I see no reason to change anything now.

Algy will lead A flight with Ginger in formation behind.  Maximum ceiling gentlemen but from the look of that cloud it will be 6000.

Bertie and Smithy will go this afternoon, same routine, doesn't do to surprise the Hun.

The Brisfit boys will be sending two flights to try out these new kites.  Old Tudor Davies will be leading them, probably with Donnie Estelle as his second.  A nice bus but not a patch on our Camels.

June 1917, The Brisfits appear
Algy with four Sopwith Camels
Ginger with four Sopwith Camels
Tudor with four F2 Bristol Fighters.
Donnie with four F2 Bristol Fighters.

The Stereotype Hun Briefing.
Jawoll mine Herren,
Pass the sausages and beer steins.  Let us get up there and shoot down the enemy
Get high and drop down on them!

The Pumpernickel Staffel
Six Fokker Triplanes
Two Eight Albatros
Two balloons and six AA batteries supporting.

In the Air...

Quiggles gets his Bristols out. 

Over the lines the Hun ambush

It's one of those swirling dogfights

But by and large the Germans get into position better.

Ginger goes down...

Five Bristols three camels make it home.  Four planes down including Ginger.

And three Hun kites down too.  A narrow win.  I need to brush up on my Bristols...