A game of Wings of Glory using the
Standard Rules. With due acknowledgement to Grimjack of the LAF as creator of
Sub-Lieutenant Toastrack RNAS.
The scenario is that one of the
British aircraft has a camera and must take a photograph of the target by
stalling his aircraft within short-range of the target. The Germans must
prevent this from happening or down the camera aircraft before it returns to base.
Colonel W.
T. F. Kenwood-Chef DFC entered the pilots mess of No. 46 Squadron early that
fateful morning. It was a dull and misty morning with rain forecast over the
Ypres region all day. Roger Toastrack had a serious hang-over and was
concentrating on keeping greasy fried eggs in their current location, rather
than allowing them to make a re-appearance on his breakfast plate. Flight
Lieutenant Gubber had snitched a parcel sausage-side and gone goose over stumps
frog-side and 46 had held their traditional wake for a departed pilot.
Toastrack
had been on attachment to 46 Squadron for some time trying to pass on his
legendary skills at advanced navigation to a load of pongoes. A hopeless task,
he felt.
“Ah,
Toastrack,” boomed Kenwood-Chef. Toastrack’s head-ache was not improved by the
foghorn-like tones of Kenwood-Chef’s normal speaking voice. “Got a little job
for you this morning, I want you to rendezvous with a reccy bod and escort him over
the lines to Roulers. The Château de Rumbeke to be precise.”
“Belgian partisans report intense activity
with high-ranking German officers toing and froing constantly. Top brass wants
to know what the devil’s going on. Off you pop, there’s a good chap.”
That’s how Roger
Toastrack found himself at 10,000 feet with a wintry dawn about to rise, flying
his Sopwith Camel and waiting to rendezvous with a ‘reccy bod’. The ‘bod’ duly
arrived in an Airco DH.2 fitted out with an aerial camera of the latest design.
Top brass wanted plenty of photographs. The pilot was none other than Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St.
Barleigh MC.
George was an old school chum from Roger’s days at St. Cakes School. Happier
times before the war, under the stern and forbidding eye of the headmaster, Mr.
R. J. Kipling BA.
Meanwhile,
over the other side of the lines all is not well. Manfred von Richthofen has
been briefed on Jasta 11’s latest mission by none other than Erich von
Falkenhayn himself. Lothar, Manfred’s younger brother can see that Manfred is
not happy about the mission.
“Those
imbeciles at the High Command want us to fly round-the-clock protection over
the Château
de Rumbeke”, expostulated Manfred. “….and do you know what is the reason for
this? A high-class bordello has been set up there for high-ranking officers and
they are concerned that the Britishers may try and bomb the chateau and wipe
out the whole command! Bloody good luck to them, I say!”
Manfred and
Lothar find themselves patrolling the skies above the Château de Rumbeke and out of boredom are
indulging in some aerobatics.
Then Manfred
sees two specks approaching from the British lines. Signalling Lothar to
continue the patrol, Manfred von Richthofen turns his bright red Dr.1 towards
the enemy.
Approaching
Roulers, Toastrack espies probable German aircraft and alters course to
investigate. George makes adjustments to his course to head directly for the
chateau and obtain the much-needed photographs. If he could be heard above the roar
of the Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine, you would be able to hear him whistling the tune of Camptown Races.
Initially,
Toastrack moves out of Manfred’s line of fire. Then both pilots circle around
to get in a firing position. George bravely flies on alone towards the chateau.
Lothar, seeing combat is about to commence, carries out an Immelman turn and
head towards the action.
Manfred and
Toastrack open fire at the same time at short range. Both cause severe damage
to the others aircraft and both pilots are wounded. As Lothar turns to enter
the fray he crosses the nose of George’s Airco and George opens up with the
Lewis. Lothar’s engine is damaged but he is still able to fly.
George then
crosses Lothar’s sights and takes some structural damage to the Airco.
Undeterred, George maintains his steady course towards the target. Manfred
side-slips the Dr.1 and Toastrack performs an Immelman, leaving them both
unable to fire at each other.
George is
now positioning himself for the photo run over the chateau. Toastrack, thinking
of the mission, tries to break contact with Manfred’s Fokker and flies to
engage Lothar to keep him off George’s back. Manfred, diving Toastrack’s
intentions correctly, performs an Immelman putting himself in a perfect
position, right on Toastrack’s tail. Unfortunately for Manfred, just out of
range for his twin Spandaus.
Lothar,
seeing the Honourable George slipping past him, also performs an Immelman and
tries to manoeuvre himself into a firing position. Unfortunately for Lothar, he
crosses Toastrack’s sights. Toastrack opens up with his twin Vickers. Lothar’s
engine is hit again and the yellow Fokker spirals down to the ground, out of
control.
As Lothar is
going down in an uncontrollable spin, George stalls the Airco over the chateau
and gets a lovely series of photographs of staff cars unloading a series of
high-ranking army officers. He wonders what the Germans are planning. Maybe a
big new offensive? George performs an Immelman and plots a direct course for
home, tea and medals.
Manfred,
having watched his younger brother shot out of the sky is out for revenge.
Banking right, he unleashes a long burst from the twin Spandaus and has the
satisfaction of seeing Toastrack’s Camel erupt into flames. “Buggery,
bollocks,” ejaculates Toastrack, “I’m in the soup now!”.
Manfred now
flies too close to Toastrack’s Camel to shoot at him and instead fires at
George who is still pushing the Airco flat out for home. Luckily for George
there is no damage to his aircraft, but he pluckily returns fire with his Lewis
and Manfred’s rudder jams.
To avoid
mid-air collisions, Toastrack banks left of George and Manfred banks right. As
Toastrack and George pass they exchange cheery waves. Not a very cheery wave
from the Red Baron though.
Toastrack
now finds that his Camel won’t fly straight and nearly collides with the
Fokker.
Manfred
performs an Immelman turn and once again hits Toastrack’s Camel with his
machine-guns. To George’s horrified gaze, the Camel explodes in mid-air.
George is
now in a very sticky situation, probably the stickiest situation since Sticky
the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun. He needs to get the Airco and its
precious cargo of photographs back to safety but the Red Baron’s Dr.1 is a
faster machine. George has a head start on him but will it be enough? George flies
straight and true and as the minutes tick by, it looks like he’s going to get
the tea and medals after all.
As George
nurses the Airco back over his own lines, Manfred is forced to turn back due to
the intensity of the Allied ack-ack. Good old George!
DE-BRIEFING
There was 1
point awarded for an enemy aircraft exiting the game. 2 points for each enemy
aircraft shot down. There was -1 point for having one of your own aircraft shot
down and an aircraft exiting from it’s starting side with the photographs earns
2 points.
Thus, the
game concluded with an allied victory of 3 points to 1.
We await
with bated breath to see if Lothar and Toastrack escaped death to fight another
day.
