Dogfight 1918

This is an attempt to use Wings of Glory on a hex mat. We use hexes in order to simplify play over the Internet while staying isolated at home. Each aircraft has a number of different manoeuvres it can perform, but instead of being represented by arrows they are represented by hexes traversed.

Lieutenants William Algernon "Billy the Bishop" Tempest and Terence “the Rook” Turner were flying a dawn patrol over the front in their brand spanking new Sopwith Snipe scouts when they spotted two rather colourful Fokker D.VII scouts coming straight towards them.

The RFC pilots held formation and slipped to starboard with The Rook flying on The Bishop's port wingtip. The Huns tightened up their formation. The enemies closed the distance separating them.

The RFC pilots side slipped to port. The Huns turned gently to port.

The Blue Fokker opened fire at close range on Terence “the Rook” Turner. The Spandaus tore up the Snipe and flames started to pour out of its engine.

The Rook opened fire on the Red Fokker at close range, doing a little damage before his twin Vickers machine guns jammed.

The Red Fokker opened fire on William Algernon "Billy the Bishop" Tempest at long range but totally missed the Snipe, perhaps he was distracted by The Rook's bullets. 

The Bishop turned his Snipe towards the Huns who were now moving slowly towards him.

The Rook turned his Snipe to port, dodging the incoming Fokkers as the flames shooting out from his engine started to damage his airframe.

The Bishop opened fire on the Red Fokker and both Fokkers returned his fire. A bullet from the Red Fokker, fired a close range, hit Billy the Bishop half-an-inch below his heart. But luckily he had a pewter hip flask in his breast pocket and he we only slightly bruised rather than being seriously wounded. 

The Bishop stalled his Snipe as the Fokkers slowly closed the distance. He continued all the time to fire at the Red Fokker, tearing up large holes in its fuselage and wounding the pilot. 

The combined fire from both Fokkers was surprisingly inaccurate.

The Rook circled round behind the Fokkers, trying both to put out the flames coming from his engine and unjamming his machine guns at the same time.

Billy the Bishop and the Red Fokker flew past each other with inched to spare. The Blue Fokker stalled while The Rook flew in front of it, being too busy unjamming the machine guns to notice.

Having unjammed his machine guns in the nick of time, The Rook opened fire at the Red Fokker, but his Snipe took heavy damage from a combination of flames from its engine and machine gun fire from the Blue Fokker.

Both The Rook's Snipe and the Red Fokker were kills.

The dogfight continued with both pilots wanting to avenge their fallen comrades. The Blue Fokker got in a rather nasty close range shot at Billy the Bishop, but before it could do too much damage, both machine guns jammed.

Neither pilot was now particularly interested in continuing the fight. The Snipe was badly shot up and the Fokker was in pristine condition but with its Spandaus jammed. The Hun waved at Billy, who waved back with a strange two-fingered gesture, and both planed turned for home.

Lieutenant William Algernon "Billy the Bishop" Tempest returned safely to his aerodrome. Much to the amusement of his ground crew, when he hopped out of the Snipe's cockpit, everyone could see that his trousers were wet. The ground crew spread the rumour that the Billy had wet himself during the action. Actually it was cognac from his damaged hip flask that had leaked, Billy offered up his trousers asking everyone to smell the crotch, waving them under the nose of quite a few airmen, but nobody wanted to take him up on his offer! 

Lieutenant Terence “the Rook” Turner managed somehow quench the flames coming from his engine and glide the Snipe back towards his own trenches where he managed what was either a hard landing or a surprisingly gentle crash. Luckily he was stopped from plummeting into a trench by its protecting barbed-wire. Even he returned to the aerodrome, although somewhat the worse for wear. He was however greeted with less mirth than his comrade in arms.