Chapter 4

We were jumped by five D. VIIs on our way to the target. My God, those Germans were aggressive! We were higher than them, yet they attacked us. The D. VII had a decent rate of climb, but not as good as the SPAD 13. Maybe it was the 5:4 advantage that they enjoyed. Whatever it was, they came at us like a swarm of hornets.

We had no choice—we had to answer their challenge or be shot down as we tried to get away. We had talked about a change in tactics when in a dogfight over the last few days. Jack wanted us to stick together as pairs. He and John made one pair and Bill and I made the other pair. I was encumbered by the bombs I carried, so Bill was the leader of our pair. He also had more experience with the SPAD 13 than I did, so it was logical that he take the lead.

Jack and John dove at the leader of the German flight and Bill and I went after the second one in line. The Germans followed their usual pattern of splitting up into individuals. At least at the start of the battle, that gave us the advantage of having four machine guns spitting out bullets versus their two guns. We could also cooperate with our attack, and the German had to try to watch two planes coming at him instead of just one.

As we dove, I dropped just a little bit below Bill and wound up on the same level as the D. VII. Bill was closer to the German, so he naturally paid more attention to Bill, and that gave me a chance to pour bullets into his engine while the German was concentrating on Bill. I must have gotten lucky because some of my bullets actually hit the engine of the D. VII. We saw smoke pour out of the engine compartment, and the D. VII suddenly lost power. He nosed over and headed for the ground, but I did not get an opportunity to watch him as he went down. Later, when I did have a chance to look, I did not see a smoke plume on the ground, so I guess the D. VII recovered enough to fly home.

Meanwhile, Bill and John must have eliminated their target because I counted on three D. VIIs still engaged with us. Oops! Dammit, I noticed that I had developed a leak in my fuel system, and I could see my fuel gauge drift toward empty as I watched. There was no choice, I had to head home if I did not want to lose my plane. Hell, had I done that, I don't know who would have been more irate, Sgt. Alfred or Col. Handly.

Anyway, I attracted Jack's attention and signaled that I had to return to base. He waved at me, and went back to combat with a D. VII that was getting too personal. There were now three on three in the battle, and I hated to leave, but there was no alternative. Talk about close timing: I ran out of gas just as I was about to touch down. I didn't even have enough gas left to taxi off the runway. My ground crew had to come fetch me. Fortunately, I had remembered to dump the four bombs while I was still over territory held by the Germans.

Jack, Bill, and John showed up about 45 minutes after I set down. I was glad that it was up to Jack to explain to the CO why we had not attacked the observation balloon. Oh, well, it would be there tomorrow, and we could go after it again. There were no more kills after I left the fight. Everybody had started to run out of gas about the same time, so the battle broke off with John getting credit for one kill. We didn't claim mine because nobody had actually seen it go down.

We were still confined to base because of the CO's punishment of us for getting drunk, so we spent the night in our own bar. The NCO (Non-commissioned Officer) who acted a bartender and policeman of the premises knew how much to let us drink, and then he cut us off. We had sense enough not to argue with him.

The next morning we were up and out after that observation balloon with orders not to let ourselves be distracted. Well, I couldn't figure out how to keep from being distracted when someone was shooting at me, but I promised to give it a try. This time, we made it to the targeted balloon without wasting gas, so we had no excuse not to attack the balloon. Not that we would have shirked our duty, but I did think that I should mention it.

We followed our usual procedure of Jack and either Bill or John, this time it was John, attacking the observation balloon while Bill and I went up to attack from the top. Bill was orbiting the area while I lined up my attack run. This time, I dropped only two bombs, and they landed where I had wanted them. It was only a few seconds before a jet of blue flame rose from the balloon's envelope. I could not tell whether both thermite bombs had been set off, but the result was satisfying.

As usual, some D. VIIs came after us as soon as the balloon began to gush flame. Bill and I left the burning balloon to engage them, and Jack and John were right behind us. We had decided to fight in pairs as long as possible so Bill and I went after the leading D. VII after I dumped my remaining bombs. Our attack was not exactly coordinated because there was considerable difference in the altitude of our two planes.

By the time we made contact, the four D. VIIs and I were at the same altitude, but Bill was diving for all he was worth to catch up to me. From the results, I think that the Germans had not seen Bill until he began to shoot. He had started out so high that they had not noticed him.

I was flying head on at the lead D. VII and shooting a series of short bursts at him as we approached each other. He was doing the same thing, but neither one of us was scoring any but the most insignificant hits. My speed was still down from what it should have been because I was still carrying the mechanism for dropping the thermite bombs. Anyway, just as we were about to pass each other, I turned a little from the German and he was exposed to the fire from Bill.

I was so close to the German that I could see the blood spurt from his chest when the bullets hit him. He must have been killed instantly because he very slowly leaned to one side, and his plane spun away to that side as he pushed the stick over with his knee. The D. VII was known for not spinning, but this one did as the rudder was forced to one side. Chalk up a D. VII for Bill.

Jack and John showed up only moments later, and the four against three was too much for the Germans. They scooted toward home when their comrade hit the ground, and we were forced to let them get away because of the concentration of AAA fire being thrown in our direction. We had done our primary job, and we were not reticent about heading for home.

We landed, reported in, and were at the bar fighting the effects of castor oil when a man showed up ordering us to report to the CO. Col. Handly was livid when we showed up. He scared the hell out of us because we had no idea what we had done to cause such a reaction from a man who was normally so even tempered.

When he saw our reaction, he calmed down enough to tell us that he was not mad at us. He had just received a message from a higher level in the chain of command regarding our method of attacking observation balloons. It seemed that some idiot, promoted well beyond his abilities, had just read the reports we had submitted on using incendiary bombs against observation balloons.

Since this was not the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for attacking observation balloons, we had been ordered to cease and desist and go back to the approved method. The fact that we had been so successful with our technique had no effect on the idiot's assessment of our results. We had not used the approved method, so we must be wrong.

Col. Handly told us to stand down for three days while he followed up on this rank stupidity. The fact that it was a General who had issued the order was going to make it difficult to get it rescinded, or at least changed, but he was going to do his best.