Jay Mischo prepares himself for the first mission of the day.  At first it was to be a four-man mission (Chris Janiec and me in Camels against Jim Barber and Carl Fritz in a Roland D.VIa and a Hannover CL.IIIa.)  We thought it would be over soon, until Graham Cox and Jason Stubbs arrived (add another Camel and a Pfalz D.VIII).  Right as that was about to start Bob Stiegel and Jay Mischo arrived adding a fourth Camel but this time a SSW D.III to the Germans.  What was to be a short mission took three hours.

Jim plots out the move of his Roland D.VIa (Jim was disappointed it was not the later "b" model) while Bob Stiegel watches secure from the cockpit of his Siemens-Schuckert D.III.

Chris Janiec consults the rules while Graham Cox watches the dogfight.  Late in the fight the Camels were shot up pretty badly.  Chris' had taken a lot of damage spread out across all locations and went home, I went home too after my engine started smoking and my tail skid was shot off (as was Chris').  Jay was in the process of bugging out and Graham, who stuck around too long, took a fatal bullet from Bob Stiegel's SSW.  He was dead long before his Camel hit the ground.

Graham sets up the four balloons and flak too numerous to count for the second mission.  It was the "Common Mission" devised by Graham Cox as a tribute to Frank Luke.  It pitted American SPAD XIIIs against a 50/50 split of Albatros D.Vas and small block Fokker D.VIIs as they tried to protect one German balloons for each American SPAD present.

Jim Barber, the pilot of an Albatros D.Va, tries to stare down his American opponents during this brutal and bloody mission.

Jay watches as Chris Janiec watches the dice roll.  Chris attacked a balloon by himself (well in all honesty Jason Stubbs was in the vicinity, but his usefulness there came into serious question).  Shot heavily by flak, he tried a desperate gamble and attacked his sausage from the top at close range.  The balloon did go up in a ball of flame (turn 2), surrounding his battered SPAD.  He flew through the maelstrom, only to have his engine completely destroyed by ground forces.  I believe he had 9 hf of damage in the engine . . . 

. . . before it exploded!  He was low to the ground when it happened, and he survived the resulting crash.  Nearly taking out the Archie that helped bring him down, he pulled himself from the scattered fragments of his SPAD and dove into the nearby river.  The rest of the battle raged above as he crossed the river, miraculously dodging German bullets turn after turn in heavy troop concentration.  

Jay Mischo's SPAD was stuck in a bank, allowing Graham in a Fokker to shoot the helpless pilot, forcing him to crash which resulted in the American's death.  Carl Fritz had brought down another balloon with Jason Stubbs' help.  The remaining two balloons had been brought down to earth safely.  Chris valiantly evaded German troops, almost as Lt. Frank Luke had done 82½ years before.  Crossing the river, he watched as the two Americans fended off the German defenders.  Carl was being chased home by my Fokker, and Chris was afraid Jason would attempt to land in this exceedingly hostile location and attempt to rescue him against a local ratio of 3 to 1 Germans to Americans.  Remaining mission-oriented to the end, he left the stream on turn seven and allowed himself to be captured.  His selfless act allowed both Carl and Jason to make it home.

As promised, we flew an Italian front mission.  Four Öffag D.IIIs, series 253, squared off against an Italian photo reconnaissance flight made up up two Pomilio PEs and their escorts, two SPAD XIIIs, returning from taking photographs of a railroad depot.  Jim Barber and Jason Stubbs flew the Pomilios, with Carl Fritz and Jay Mischo in the SPADs.

Jason Stubbs decides which maneuver to use.  Both sides had a security blanket, as the fight was at low level, just below the clouds, so climbing was a means for quick escape.

During the fight, Jason managed to shoot a hole in the fuel line of Bob Stiegel's Öffag.  As the fight occurred within Austro-Hungarian territory, he was able to make a safe landing a short distance away.

Jason laughs as he reads the results of a burst from my Öffag.  A bottom shot put one round through the observer, critically wounding him and knocking him unconscious.  That alone wasn't so bad, but one of the other rounds also hit the observer's flare pistol, causing it to explode and catch the rear fuselage on fire!  Either problem alone isn't so bad, but both in the same turn can be deadly.  Fortunately for him, the observer managed to wake up and put the fire out while the pilot made good his escape.  The observer survived to return to duty, but the film was ruined.  Fortunately again for the Italians, Jim Barber's Pomilio made it home also with the film intact.

The fourth mission of the day, SPAD XIIIs versus a small block Fokker D.VII, two Pfalz D.XIIs, and my Albatros D.Va, just above the clouds, was a bit too much for Jay.  We flew the first half before dinner, and it seems the rare are at 12,000' coupled with a full stomach was just too much for this Fokker pilot.  The mission ended with Carl Fritz giving me my only damage of the mission, but nicely putting a bullet through my fuel tank.  I had just enough fuel to take me into the clouds and far enough so that after the engine quit I could glide to our emergency airfield and execute a safe landing.

We started the fifth mission late in the day and Jim wasn't up to his usual speed which earned him the nickname "Flash" earlier that morning.  I forget who had the idea for this Snickers ad, but I thought it deserved a place on the page.  The mission put four British Camels on the Italian front against two Phönix C.Is and their two Berg D.I escorts.  The Camels pretty much chased the Austro-Hungarians off the board, but not before Graham critically wounded Jim's Phönix pilot.  For a final laugh of the day, Jim ended his 3,000' out of control spin at only 50' off the ground, but unfortunately it was over a clump of 50' tall trees, destroying the Phönix and her crew.

CAUTION!  WARNING!

The following link will take you to two photos that may not be suitable for anyone.  During the early morning of February 10th, Carl Fritz, Chris Janiec, and I were subjected to a horrible sight . . . that of Jim Barber "bathing" in the kitchen sink while Chris tried to prepare his breakfast.  Click on the Exclamation Point only if you haven't eaten recently.