Wings of Glory Campaign: Turn 1 - Over No Man's Land

 

Wings Of Glory Campaign Turn 1

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

Current Turn = 1

Entente ASP = 0

Central ASP = 0

Entente SP = 7

Central SP = 6

MISSION #1

THE FIRST PATROL

 

Date:

April 1, 1917

Time:

0815 Hours

 

Location:

No Man's Land: Somme, France

 

Entente Objective:

Establish Presence

Central Objective:

Establish Presence

Entente Aircraft:

James Thenur - Nieuport 16

Jean Navarre - Nieuport 16

 

Central Aircraft:

Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) - Albatros D.V

Hermann Frommherz - Albatros D.III

Combat Report

Map at beginning of Mission, Entente on Left

Entente rookie pilots Jean Navarre and Thenur take their brand new Nieuport 16s out towards no man's land for their first patrol from the new aerodrome. They get to their patrol location and begin the hunt for enemy planes. Almost immediately, coming toward them out of the sun are two German Albatros planes. As they approach, they can see that the blue one is an Albatros D.III; reports indicate rookie pilot Frommherz flies it. The other plane is a red, hand-painted Albatros D.V; intelligence reports identified the pilot as Baron von Richthofen. Due to him painting his planes red, he received the nickname "The Red Baron."

The four aircraft close rapidly over No Man's Land. When they get into weapons range, the planes break and begin firing. Thenur, in his camouflaged Nieuport 16, gets Frommherz in his sights and fires. Bullets rip through the blue Albatros' canvas and wooden frame; it takes light damage but not enough to stop it. 

While Frommherz dodges fire from Thenur, he manages to get a shot off at Jean Navarre. Most likely due to Frommherz dodging incoming fire at the same time, his rounds rip the air around Navarre's Nieuport but do no damage.

The last attack before the formation breaks apart comes from the Red Baron, who opens fire on Thenur with his Albatros D.V's twin machine guns. The bullets rip into the rear of Thenur's plane, and he quickly realizes he has a problem. Until he can get it fixed, he isn't able to turn to the right.

Both of the Entente planes stall in hopes of lining up shots on the German planes, and it partially works. Thenur lines up a close-range shot at Frommherz and fires his guns at him; his plane must have been loaded with some bad rounds because he causes no damage to the Albatros.

The Red Baron slid onto Thenur's tail and fired. The Nieuport's lightweight wooden frame offered little protection, and several rounds struck home. Thenur realizes his rudder is stuck and will have trouble getting away from the Baron.

Thenur executes an Immelmann maneuver, surprising the Red Baron on his tail. When Thenur exits the loop facing the Red Baron, the two planes nearly collide. Navarre uses the Red Baron's near collision to his advantage and fires at him. Bullets rip into the Red Albatros, the Red Baron takes his first damage of his career but nothing major is damaged.

Frommherz finds his plane flying away from his wingman, so he performs an Immelmann maneuver and gets his plane pointed back towards the action. As Frommherz gets ready to reengage in the battle, the Red Baron now finds himself leaving the battle as well and also performs an Immelmann maneuver to get back into the battle.   

After that maneuver, the Red Baron gets his plane behind Navarre and unleashes his machine guns on his Nieuport, causing greater damage. Navarre's engine takes some damage and begins to smoke.

While the Red Baron continues on the six of Navarre's Nieuport, Frommherz turns his Albatros toward Navarre as well. The Red Baron fires again at Navarre and hits it but causes little damage.

Frommherz turns toward Navarre, and in his excitement to fire at the enemy, he nearly collides with the Red Baron. His shots do hit the Nieuport but cause minor damage.

Navarre knew he was living on borrowed time.

The Red Baron settled the Albatros behind the struggling Nieuport and opened fire one final time. The German rounds struck true. A moment later, Navarre's Nieuport 16 exploded in the skies over No Man's Land.

Jean Navarre became the first Entente pilot lost in the sector. Less than an hour into the campaign, the Entente was already down one aircraft and one pilot.

Thenur sees his wingman die, and he's enraged. He goes full throttle and turns to attack the German planes. Before he can get within weapons range, Thenur realizes that engaging two enemy aircraft with a damaged machine would be suicide. Reluctantly, he turns away from the battle, hoping to get his revenge in the future.

As Thenur disengages and turns for home, the two German pilots celebrate their first victory of the campaign while Thenur becomes the only Entente pilot to return from the patrol.

 

Casualties

 

Entente

Jean Navarre - Killed In Action

XP Awards

James Thenur - 2 xp

Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) - 6 xp

Hermann Frommherz - 3 xp

Territory Results

Central earns 1 ASP

After The Battle

After landing at the aerodrome, Thenur brought his crate into the workshop to have it repaired.  Thenur sat in the cockpit for several minutes after landing. The mechanics were happy to see him safely home, but all he could think about was Navarre's burning Nieuport falling toward No Man's Land. The mechanics did their normal excellent work and got it ready to fly overnight.