Trials of a Frenchman
I have to confess that I do in fact have other WWI games as well as this one. On my PC I sometimes play one called Wings Over Flanders Fields in its latest incarnation. The reason I like that one is that with my stunning lack of skill I can pick a mission and get the AI Autopilot to fly it for me from take off to landing. I can watch from various views and see what my AI pilot gets up to. Anyway, a new career was started yesterday for my 19 year old French pilot Cpl. Emil Blanchet. He was tasked in this his first mission to fly over the lines and let his Observer take some photos of what the Germans were up to. The mission lasted some 68 minutes from start up to landing.
All went well until Emil actually reached said lines and those horrible Huns started throwing every bullet and shell in their inventory at him. It was the most terrifying experience in his short life and I think he has an accident too. After hanging around and watching those shell bursts for an interminable period of time his Observer (an entitled officer) tapped him on the shoulder and indicated it was time to go home. An almost perfect landing and he shakily climbed out of his airplane and saw a short distance away a gaggle of nurses watching the planes. Instantly transformed (and hoping his pants had dried out) into a French peacock, he strutted over towards said females only to be interrupted in his preening by the intelligence officer who told him the mission had been a failure because no plates had been loaded into the camera.
At least he survived to do a second mission later but I cannot help but wonder how many times failure to load camera/guns/bombs or rockets actually happened back in those grim days.
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