Flashy Prangs His Kite!

There were some special events planned and the arrival of the Maxim teams in Turn 2 was featured in the last post. At the start of turn 3 there was another event planned.

At GHQ there were great concerns over the location of I Corps under the command of Sir Douglas Haig. Staff officers at GHQ were assuming that Haig would support Smith-Dorrien and his II Corps in the coming stand at Le Cateau. Instead, the only sketchy information which GHQ had received, indicated that Haig was drawing further away from II Corps instead of coming to assist.

Major Robert Brooke-Popham, commander of No. 3 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps was tasked with finding Haig’s location.

No. 3 Squadron were equipped with single-seater Sopwith Tabloids which were being used as scout planes. Major Brooke-Popham immediately sought out his most daring pilot, the Lord Flashheart and tasked him with locating the missing I Corps.

Sopwith Tabloid

The Lord Flashheart

Flashheart’s mechanic, one James McCudden had the Tabloid ready and Flashy took to the skies. His search began in the skies over Le Cateau and Flashy intended to widen his circle of search until he located the missing Corps. Unfortunately, it was not to be. A stray rifle bullet (probably fired by the 26th Magdeburg down below) ruptured the fuel line of the Tabloid which rapidly began to run out of ‘juice’.

The game required the plane to crash in the centre of a tile determined on a roll of a D6. I was fervently hoping that it would crash directly onto some German infantry. However, my dice rolling being what it was, Flashy came down fairly well and pranged his kite in the fields outside Le Cateau.

The Lord Flashheart scrambled out of the Tabloid cockpit and saw how close the approaching German column was. He readied his revolver and prepared to sell himself dearly.

The German commanders would score more victory points at game end by taking the pilot prisoner rather than killing him and this is what they did.

Lord Flashheart was surrounded by German soldiers and was forced to surrender.

Flashy was escorted to the rear to take no further part in the battle.

As this was taking place, the decimated section which had advanced up the cobbled road was reaching the British barricades. The next post will feature the vicious hand-to-hand fighting over the barricades and will show how the valiant ‘Die Hards’ fought a rearguard action worthy of their regiment’s name.

(It is true that a scout plane was sent by GHQ to look for Haig on the morning of the battle of Le Cateau. James McCudden was a mechanic and later observer in No. 3 Squadron until he trained as a pilot in 1916. He went on to achieve 57 aerial victories).

To be continued…