Day 5: At the going down of the sun

Second Lieutenant Conway watched the three SE-5s as they came in to land. He’d finished unpacking and felt at a loose end, so he’d decided to look around until Major Stanhope returned from his patrol.

“That’ll be Mister Osborne’s flight, Sir.”

Conway turned round to see a short, round corporal of about forty, wiping his oily hands with a rag, having wandered over from the hanger.

“How do you know, Corporal… um…”

“Mason, Sir; Corporal Mason”, he smiled, “It’s the sound, Sir; I can always recognise the sound of my own engines. You’ll most likely be joining his flight, Sir.”

“What makes you say that?”

Mason nodded at the aircraft taxiing toward the hanger, “Because there’s one missing.”

And with that, Mason turned and waddled back to his work.

* * *

After what seems like an age, we finally got to finish the last game for the 5th August; the third game of what has turned out to be the bloodiest day yet. Sunday, 5th August 1917 has resulted in three tabletop games and two further ‘abstracted’ missions (i.e. missions without opposition, where the only thing to do is roll for success).

This last game of the campaign ‘day’ saw Capt. Osborne and his flight patrolling the northern Bois de Jacinthes sector when they encounter Hauptman Ganz’s kette escorting a bombing mission. For this game, Henry had a full formation of five Albatross D.Vs and a pair of Halberstadt CL.IIs for the bombing run.

I, on the other hand, had just four SE-5As. Osborne, Raleigh and Lowry (who had been transferred from ‘A’ Flight to even up the numbers) were all experienced pilots now. The fourth SE-5 was flown by the Honourable Algy Forbes-White, who was still green.

Being heavily outnumbered, I decided to concentrate on the enemy scouts. We’d started at opposite ends of the table, so I had time to split my forces into two pairs and approach the Germans from different angles. Again, I wanted to avoid the lottery of a head-on approach.

As the fighters closed in on each other, it became obvious that I’d miss-calculated approach, so Osborne and Forbes-White were forced to dive to avoid being caught in the fire of the entire German kette.

Osborne and Forbes-White realise their mistake

Meanwhile, Raleigh and Lowry had successfully worked their way round to come at the Germans from the side. Their fire had no effect, but it broke up the German formation, which was what I’d wanted, and Henry’s planes were now in disarray.

Tally-ho!

By now Osborne and Forbes-White had climbed back up, Forbes-White seeing an opening for a shot on Ganz, but as he pointed his machine at the German leader the brightly-painted blue and red D.V of Karl Preissner appeared. Forbes-White fired, as did Preissner. It was a lottery, and Algy lost; his SE-5 went into a spin from which it would never recover and crashed just behind the British lines.

Raleigh and Lowry were pulling some impressive moves, making tight turns to pop up where Henry least expected them, then extricating themselves before he could get on them. But, fittingly, it was Osborne who got revenge for Trevelyan, Hayes and Forbes-White, his boys.

In the whirling melee that had developed over the trenches, a dogfight that must have been watched with fascination by the infantry in the trenches, Osborne saw his chance. Kicking the rudder and yanking the stick back and to the right he turned tightly to come up on Oberleutnant Wolfgang Heidler’s tail. A controlled burst from Osborne’s machine gun sent the black and white Albatross to the ground.

Howzat! Osborne knocks Heidler for six

As I withdrew, Henry’s bombers made their run. One was damaged, but the other did the job. The Tommies who were cheering me on just moments ago would now be cursing me.

And with that, the 5th August drew to a close; three tabletop games, six aircraft shot down. Bloody Betancourt indeed!

The RE-8 wasn’t from 76 Squadron, so I’d ‘only’ lost two pilots and aircraft shot down – Jessop and Forbes-White. Henry on the other hand, had lost three. With one replacement, 2/Lt George Conway, having already arrived I have 12 in my squadron, as does Henry. We both did some shifting around of our ORBATs; Henry, having lost Rittmeister Gerhard Anders, promoted Willi Roth (he who has twice sent Stanhope into a spin!) to Hauptman to take command of Kette II and we both organised our squadrons into three flights of four aircraft. 2/Lt Conway, as Cpl. Mason predicted, joins Capt. Osborne.

Elsewhere on the front, the Germans sent a photographic reconnaissance plane over the line in the northern Betancourt sector and I sent one to photograph the German lines around Tower Farm, in the southern Betancourt sector.