Bloody April Day One, Last Mission of the Day XIII Army Wing

Mission 5 Photo-Recon Road Network

Elton tells his escort he wants to switch it up, the NIE17s to take a high-altitude approach while the Fe2 comes in underneath them at 4K. “This will take 1,000 meters off my initial dive on target and give me more distance from any German aircraft. They may not see me if you two get in their face fast enough. We stack up and go in together.”

The two Americans nodded glumly and rolled their Lucky’s nervously between dry fingers and lips. They couldn’t take their eye off the sky. It was so wet.

“Lt. the planes are ready for takeoff.” This was the Flight Deck Officer on Duty (FDOOD) Adams. The Scotsman had seen fit to have his deck crew stay on top of the chocks under the flight’s wheels. No one was to leave a plane unattended once on the runway. The wind and rain made accidents more likely to happen which would damage planes. But even in this mid-day’s morass Adams still strutted with his clan bag pipes under arms. In tartan kilt Adams would follow behind the departing planes under his watch, the almighty screeching sound (which was the source of the 11ths squad mascot) of old Jacobite martial songs ringing out. Ballads of blood-frenzy, of doomed souls fighting to the last lifting them up into battle. All were glad not to hear any of it over the diesel engines when planes took off. 

The three pilots dashed from the assembly hall and under the wing of their planes as quickly as they could. Grounds crew hoisted them up and once secured they slid off the plane and the choks removed. Elton took to the air first followed by Brendon and then Tye. The three Americans had been through flight school together in Yorkshire so their flight plan was quickly set up. In fifteen minutes they should see the front lines.

Everyone but Reinhardt expected the Allies to throw it in for the day. The Roten Spinnen could claim three confirmed kills on the day. Two Fe2s and a Nieuport fighter. Dietmar has been confirmed a kill. The front reports his Alb2 was shot down by a lone Allied fighter over No Man’s Land. This has made the men sour along with the black weather and everyone wants to drink. No more flights, let us just drink.

The groan was palatable when the air raid siren warned of danger, another threat which must be met by the Spiders. Reinhardt was out of his tent before it sounded, it seemed. He was in front of Nicole’s tent when the grumbling Lt. stepped forth. “I got this sir. Those two fucking Italians need not sleep in any longer. Let me send them up Reinhardt. If they don’t make it back...” Here the Austrian gave an exaggerated shrug, revealing the true state of his intoxication. On his knees in the mud he waved two thickly-haired hands up in the air. “I say send the EYE-TALYUNSS!” Too late. Reinhardt did not expect the Austrian to hit the bottle until six o'clock. Nicole was a superstitious swine and kept to his routines, drinking like a fish from six to midnight being one of them, but he had never seen the Ace so blatently flirt with a court-martial. Maybe Nicole only flies when the Baron is in rotation. Manfred was on two days leave and may be reassigned anyways. 

He walked away from the blubbering Nicole and told the Deck Officer on Duty to pull out the Italian’s d2’s. “He doesn’t know about Diameter then.” Reinhardt mused. If Nicole found out in his current state his friend had been killed while he drank himself stupid he would likely end up shooting the Italians, some how reasoning it was the Dago’s fault.

Vasco and Teibaldo trotted out to their lime-green fighters purring on the runway. Despite their age the d2’a were in showroom condition. They were part of a gift from the Kaiser when the Italian’s made their disastrous junket into Ethiopia. Somehow this pair of fighters was left behind in the hangers of Sicily and forgotten. Vasco and Teibaldo, having the dubious fortune of never seeing action while in Libya, were recalled upon their discovery and sent to the Western Front to fly them. Reinhardt had no measure of their value as pilots. Perhaps Nicole has a point. No need to risk German lives when one doesn’t have to. Capt. Reinhardt gives his orders to the Italian aid and returns to his tent to finish his reports.

The pair of Italianians in their striking fighter planes stay in visual contact all the way to the front, but the weather has spread them a 1000m apart. At 3K Teobaldo’s Cativo Grifone is out of position to protect Vasco's Tutti tre Morti. Teobaldo spots the enemy bomber reported the same time he hears Vasco being shot at by two approaching Nieuport fighters. His orders are to attack all recon aircraft, but to do so would leave his wingman to die! Teobaldo hits the throttle and hammers the Alb2 up, up. The Allied fighters strike together in a head-on attack against Vasco. It is near suicide, but they do rip up Vasco’s plane. Every time he hits right rudder there is a violent shaking. He must have hit one of the Allied planes, it has dropped out of formation. The other NIE17 banks right for another pass. 

The damaged plane is the Sick Vulture, Brendon’s plane. The damage is so extensive a non-powered crash landing is inevitable. The squad will never get a definitive answer to which of the many planes that crashed down in No Man’s Land this day was his and if some how he survived.

Tye can only hope the recon plane is far from the fight now. He only cares to get his first kill and then head for home. He drops the Mad Sparrow’s nose and comes at the lower Alb2 as steep as he can. The Italian pilot can’t even get a snapshot off at the NIEU17 as it barrels by over his 10 o’clock. A hole ripped and flapped open where bullets danced down one of the wings. Teobaldo rolls the Cativo Grifone right and makes his wide turn to reengage. Tye points his plane back up and dares the green Albatross to follow. The pilot of the Cativo Grifone obliges and gives chase. The Tutti tre Morti dives, but not to attack. Vasco is seeking his wingman’s left. Per textbook. While not an aggressive move there is nothing to fault the Italian for flying “smart”. 

But aggressiveness has a quality all its own. Tye stretches the seconds he has ahead of the trailing d2. Quick bursts from its guns make it clear it is closing in on his six. Tye juggles his throttle and peddles. The Nieuport complains as Tye bends the tail over clockwise and begins a violent corkscrew, shedding altitude. His timing is well calculated. He gets five seconds of reversing the tables and trashes Teobaldo’s rudder controls. Vasco is now on Tye’s tail, but his aim is off in the stormy weather. The Mad Sparrow takes a few shots through the canvas, nothing more. Tye pulls an extreme loop which the Italian is unable to counter. “His plane must be crippled as well!” Tye thinks as the adrenaline pumps through him, the death-dealing cold all but forgotten in the heat of battle. Completing the loop Tye’s luck holds and is able to run a long burst through the Albatross from stem to stern. Black smoke pours from the stricken airplane and it careens towards the ground. More gunfire reminds Tye he still is in danger. Diving right and seeking a westerly course he gauges the last enemy plane cannot keep up. He points the Nieuport west, locks the throttle open and scans the skies until the front is well behind him.

Elton has already brought in the Fe2. He had taken the critical photos needed and the film had already moved up the chain of command. Hopefully it paid off, XIII Army had lost pilots and planes all day up and down the front. The 11th lost two planes and their pilots. 60^th lost Crimson Claw, Comanche and Sick Vulture along with their pilots. Duke survived his crash landing but Swamp Fever and Duke would not return to the war. Six pilots in all. The “Night Sheets” could claim two D2’s shot down. They were losing 3-1. As far as the Royal Flying Corp is concerned the war in the air was proceeding on schedule and in their favor!

After debriefing Tye found Lee in his tent. “I was hoping you could tell me about your day.” Lee said. To entice the tired pilot he revealed an unopened bottle of Old Irish from inside uniform. 

“What do you want to know?”

“Not here, this place has no atmosphere. Follow me.” Tye had to hurry after the quick striding Lee. The urge for a drink was strong, overriding all present needs. If he was going to relive today’s action a stiff drink was the only sane thing to do. Lee kept walking, almost jogging now, across the soggy runway and towards the dark forest at the north edge of the aerodrome.

“Where are we going?” Tye asked again. Lee swatted the cigarette out of his hand before he could light it. “Shut up, you want to spoil it?” At the fence line Lee pulled back a small, ripped up part of the fence and held it expectantly. “What are you waiting for?” There was nothing to do but follow his lead. On the other side it was a wet ten-minute walk through the woods. Tye was going to demand a drink before he took another step forward when they came out on a cart track running behind the quiet homes of a French town. After passing three such places Lee stopped at a large, two-story brick building. Stairs in the back descended to a basement entrance and here Lee gave a sharp knock. Tye smiled as the door was open and warm light and warm music spilled out. There were some Canadian brass playing high-stakes Canasta and 6 French pilots entertained the hostess with their drunken pledges of eternal love. The mousy bar tender, a short, blue-buttoned gentleman in his fifties called “Popaul” offers the two Americans a table and lights another oil lamp. Glasses are produced, francs are passed and Lee pours the eagerly awaited Old Irish.

“Those bombers are going to get us killed.” Lee states flatly.

“Not the Germans?” counters Tye.

“Oh, Jerry will get us sure as anything. But they are going to do it a lot quicker while we play wet nurse to the 11^th. Those Fe2’s have no business up there against these d3’s.”

“Well, the Fe’s are going up tomorrow. And we will be going up with them.” Tye salutes the granite hard truth with another swallow of the Old Irish.

“Yes, but how far do we have to follow them? As soon as Jerry shows up they are supposed to disappear leaving us to face the attack. I say we disappear and hunt Jerry before the bombers attract attention.” Lee has given this some thought since he saw Hildred and Taylor go up in flames. Three drinks deep he lays it out on the table for Tye. “We keep up with flying the bombers low, nothing above 3K, fighters at ceiling at 4.4K. As soon as we see trouble, we go at it. The bomber has really been on its own anyways. If the Germans want to shoot it down isn’t nothing we can do to stop it.”

“So what do you want to do, put the 11^th on notice?” Tye was being sarcastic. Lee made to close the deal. Pouring Tye another glassful he said conspiratorially, “I tell Emmerson to put us together. As long as you don’t raise a stink it should be no problem. After that we do our best to stay tight up there and let the bombers fend for themselves. I guarantee Jerry will target an easy kill over two fighters who look like they know what they are doing.”

The French hostess of the speakeasy peels away from her countrymen, stands on the sturdy bench and begins singing a song currently popular among the men. The native pilots accompany her in the sodden shouts of the truly drunk while enthusiastically shaking the bench between red-flushed hands.

“Here, why don’t you hang onto this.” Lee passes over the whiskey bottle. “I’’ll go catch Emmerson before he turns in. I recommend on the way back you keep to the road. You’ll just fall in the river if you go back through the woods. The MPs won’t give you any trouble trying to get in to the aerodrome. I’ll make sure we get an afternoon mission tomorrow.”

Monday's Rain of Death, Western Front, April 9, 1917

 Jasta 11 has the superior phone network of the German Army to inform the aerodromes where and how many Allied planes are crossing “No Man’s Land”. The mission parameters for the Germans is simple. Reinhardt gets the report on the Allied flights in his sector and decides who goes up to take it out. Being a man of honor, he will be found most mornings taking the dawn patrol himself. The wire chatters away, 3 Allied planes crossing the frontier! Reinhardt calls for Norbert and Christian on deck. The Zum Ruhm, Rachieniel’s Ruin and Unruhinger Tod are pulled out on the runway and started. The brilliant red spider emblazoned on the tail sections stands proudly on the grey canvas stretched tight over the Albatrosses’ aerodynamic frame. The new d3 has turned the tables in the skies and the nimble NIE/17 withers under the sustained fire of the German’s twin Vickers. Reinhardt, as Ace, is the first up into the frosty morning. Raindrops begin to spit across the wings and soon the flight captain is heavy with the wet.

The fighter group climbs to 4K and soon spots the enemy. Two Nieuports are at 4K while the Fe2 is a thousand meters higher. The Allied strategy is to engage the Germans and let their recon plane cruise by unmolested. Reinhardt pulls back on his stick and begins his long climb to intercept the Fe2. Once he gets in range the Fe2 doesn’t stand a chance. The pusher-prop aircraft dives to increase speed, but the d3 is much faster. One well-sighted blast and Reinhardt rips past the flaming Fe2. Pieces of scrap and fuselage rain across the sky like tickertape. The Ace records his 6 kill, banks hard left and dives towards his wingmen. They must have rattled the Allied fighters. The Nieuports are diving for the home front and Norbert and Christian seem keen on pursuing. Reinhardt follows after until they see his wing-wag and the fighter group returns victorious to the aerodrome.

With Mission 1 a failure Mission 2 is sent immediately out. The rain is hard driving and the recon group climbs high hoping to get above the clouds. 4,500-5,000 meters and the rain is present. O’Dennell’s coordinates are the same as the last chap’s. And he didn’t come back. “When you see the Huns, dive to the deck and make your run.” This is what Workman had told everyone yesterday. “The fighters will keep the enemy off your tail long enough to take your photos. Remember, no photos means no successful mission. No successful mission and poor Teddy down there doesn’t get to go home!” I wonder if Workman forgot to follow his own advice? There was no debrief to be had so O’Dennell could only speculate.

Five more minutes and many compass corrections later O’Dennell starts to dive. He can’t see anything from the front perch of the Yorkshire Pudding this high up in the rain. The brown, ugly cut of the trench lines cones into view. No sign of his escort? Then the wet droning in the wind is ripped apart by screaming air and hissing bullets! A German fighter comes out of the black clouds on O’Dennell’s 10 o’clock, stitching his left wings and tail section. A Nieuport gamely follows in hot pursuit but the Albatross seems unphased by its fire. I wonder how much harder I can dive? O’Dennell wonders. Then, he can’t, doesn’t want to believe his eyes. A shadow, a fury of grey death rings yellow fire at him. He doesn’t even hear the growling diesel engine as the Alb3 kills him in the onslaught of head-on gun fire. The Fe2 lopes forward and spirals down with a dead man at the stick.

With two failed missions in a row the squads operational staff is in a panic. Emmerson suggests flying a decoy. Scrub mission 3 and send up instead a single bomber. At the plane’s ceiling, just like the last two. When the Germans scramble to intercept we send in a flight of Nieuports low and hit our urban bombing target of the day, Mission 4. The Germans should have less planes to throw at our bombing mission since we have three busy elsewhere.

Westly draws the short straw and is sent up in the Paradise Garden without escort. He is instructed to fly at ceiling towards the same point as the last two missions. When he has lured out German fighters, hopefully three of them, he is to turn around and fly back as fast as he can. 60^th squad air control gives the bomber from the 11^th ten minutes lead out before the flags are shown for the 3 fighters going out to conduct the real bombing mission. Taylor, Lee and Hildred in route have a mind only for vengeance. The squad has yet to see a bomber safely home and Jasta 11 has been chasing them away with their fields of twin-Vickers machine gun fire. The bombing target can wait. But no one challenges the Allied flight. They line up over the city road junction and toss their bombs over the side. Not until they are returning over the Allied lines do they encounter the d3 Gottes Verrater and the d2 Schuchtermer Rabe. Trying to use their numbers against the Germans, all three pilots head for the d2. Dietmar is no coward and both Albatross’ charge at the attacking Nieuports. The Crimson Claw is smoked by Korbinian but Taylor gets a lucky critical firing defensively and the Gottes Verrater ends up with severed elevator cables. Korbinian banks left in a bid for friendly lines. Lee and Hildred joust with Dietmar. All three planes are taking hits and Hildred breaks apart under a blast from Dietmar’s Vickers. Only Lee is left and he is not giving up until one of the two pilots remaining is dead. An engine hit forces the Schuchtermer Rabe to lose power and go into a glide. Lee makes another pass and kills the German with a well-sighted tail attack. HQ will call this mission a success! Lee sees it as the German side of the ledger still is not in the red!

With no break in the weather and the wet fields of muddy France being lashed by freezing rain XIII Army HQ orders another recon mission immediately. They have not received any useful intel from the Wall Cat’s today and are ordered to photograph road networks immediately behind the German trenches. HQ needs these photos or the ground attack tomorrow in this sector will be going in blind. Failure is not an option! Elton from the 11^th and Brendan and Tye of the 60^th are tasked with the group’s most important mission yet!

Bloody April 4/9/1917 during Richthofen's War

 I've played with all the variants, except the 5-Second Game for this wargame classic. I can only see to mash the variants I have played together and run the full campaign scenario, Bloody April, which comes with the original game. I am playing a solo run through so my game master knack for creating stories, plots and adventure seeds will embellish this play and create my own fictional battle over Arras during this Allied offensive. None of the titles and descriptors relate to anything in real life. I completely made all this up for color as I played through the daily missions.

Personalizing the roster for both sides is the first step. The Allies consist of two squadrons from the 13th Army Wing. These are the 60th Fighter Squadron, the "Night Sheets", and the "Screaming Wall Cats" of the 11th Bomber. The sluggish Fe2s 11th Bomber must work with the NIEU17s from 60^th or they will be nothing but target practice for the German Alb3s!

These two elements assemble in Pizel on Thursday 4/5 under grey skies. The 9 Nieuports are piloted by Emerson (RAF), Darin (RAF), Duke (USA), Linwood (RAF), Taylor (CAC), Lee (CAC), Hildred (USA), Brendon (USA), Tye (USA). Emmerson is an Ace and the "Old Man" of the squadron. His fighter is called Wicked Jinx and he never goes anywhere without his wingman Darin and his plane Dead Bride.

 

11th Bomber matches with 9 Fe2. A single-seat photo recon aircraft, the pilot is responsible for flying and taking the mission photos. He is equipped with a front-firing Lewis machine gun, but the Fe2s best strategy is always to dive and bug out from any fighting. These brave and fool-hardy pilots are Workman (RAF), O'Dennell (RAF), Westly (RAF), Hayes (USA), Elton (USA), Zachary (RAF), Allan (USA), Karl (USA) and Ezekial (USA).

Jasta 11, the Rote Spinnen is led by two veteran fliers, Reinhardt and Nicoli, both Aces. Reinhardt, Norbert, Christian, Burkhard and Korbinian are tasked with attacking any and all reconnaissance missions. Specifically targeting the reconnaissance plane itself. Nicoli, an Austrian and an ugly racist, leads the 3 Alb2s in the squadron in his own Alb3, Glockliter Kafer. The d2s are flown by Dietmar and two Italians; Teobaldo and Vaso.

Monday morning comes cold, damp and drizzly. The pilots today are going to have to do all they can to keep their numb hands limber and to stave off hypothermia while flying through the rain at 4,000 meters. The mission board for the day is up and XIII Army Wing has many recon flights to execute. The Arras Offensive is hot and the ground forces need to find the Germans flank. A constant update on German Reserves and troop movements is vital to sustaining the attack!

Mission, Daily 1. PHOTO-T: NIE/1 and NIE/2 will escort Fe/1 to the German lines for 11-hex trench recon mission.

Mission, Daily 2. PHOTO-T: NIE/3 and NIE/4 escort Fe/2 to the German lines for11-hex trench recon.

Mission, Daily 3. PHOTO-T: Fe/3, Fe/4, and Fe/5 to the German lines for 11-hex trench recon.

Mission, Daily 4. BOMBING-U: NIE/5, NIE/6 AND NIE/7.

Mission, Daily 5. PHOTO-R: Fe/6, NIE/8 AND NIE/9.

Adv Lvl Richthiofen's War again

 Just finished playing out yet another variant from the pages of the General, the old house organ of the long defunct grand daddy of wargame companies Avalon Hill.

This article is written by Kenneth Erby and smacks of the perfect tenor for the Campaign Game, the April air war when the Baron met his fate. This is indeed what the game was designed for, to play out this large, multi-day scenario. A week of airel combat over France April, 1917. The Brits need to complete a series of photo-recon and bombing missions and the Huns attempt to blow them to pieces. 

It is a complete departure from all three previous variants I have played through this weekend. Erbey believes the game is incredibly broke. Once you are aware of the nature of the flaw you may never enjoy playing it ever again. He argues effective fire should not be determined by range, but by how long you have the enemy in your sights. I fired up two NIEU/17's and a piece of shit Fe2 and headed for the German lines. The Fe2 was to conduct photo-recon on the trench line. Up against the Allied cause was 3 Alb/d2's, a plane which should soak the enemy planes in curtains of machine gun fire. The German planes have a clear advantage in firepower, and with the focus shifting away from range the agile Albatross easily got long runs at the Allies with excellent sighting numbers and BLEWY. The Fe2 got smoked first. I wasn't even intending for the plane to carry out the mission. I hoped to peel off a single Alby intent on shooting down the Fe2 and swing both NIEU/17's onto the German's tail. The pilot of the slower recon plane was instructed to tuck tale and dive for home as soon as the enemy is sighted. 

It all happened like that, except the German plane blew the Fe2 out of the sky before the NIEU/'s could catch up! They fired at the distant enemy’s tail but had to tuck tail themselves as the other two Alb/2's closed in. They got shot up but risking Overdive got them off the map in time to get home and land. I don't know if this variant destroys any "balance" between the planes and makes it unwinnable for the Allies in the Campaign Scenario? No one it seems has logged any record of playing it.

I then set up a single contest between a Fokker dr1 and a Sopwith Camel. The planes flew and engaged each other like you would expect in a real ariel encounter. The two kept circling each other, climbing and diving for extra speed, and making snap shots at their opponents tail briefly sighted. This has to do with the planes, in game turns, having equivalent firepower and turning ability. Trying different things to get a target sighted for 4-5 movement points, which increases effective fire, Snoopy fucked up and the Baron blew the shit out of the Sopwith. Speed reduced, no ability to climb, you can guess the rest.

Conclusion

More of so far what I think, because the 5-second game needs to be assessed. This variant will make for a faster playing campaign game. The performance differences between the planes is amplified so once combat is engaged slower, less maneuverable planes get wiped out quick. Evenly matched fighters circle each other looking to fly at their opponent for as many hexes in a row they can accumulate before firing, which is tough to do, for effective firepower.

But for setting up the board and engaging some friends for two or three random games I think you have to return to the Unexpected Manuevers with plotted movement or with preset flight controls prior to movement. This makes for free-wheeling fun and makes it harder to shake an adversary if they stay on your six too long.

There really is nothing left to do for this analysis except play the much touted 5 Second Game!