Battle Report, Late Winter 1915Oddly enough, for once one of the sides airforces don't seem to have a new trick to use this month, that airforce being the Luftjäger. Of course, they have done one thing of major note, but it is not related to equipment...
The Gwylio Awyr Brenhinol on the other hand have more than just a trick or small minor little thing to gently nudge things in their favor, for this month sees a new threat for the Luftjäger take to the skies, the
ACG-AMD AC15 "Nodwydd", a small, fairly fast and agile single seater aircraft powered by a Rhodri 10-180 D15, which for those in the Luftjäger who have been keeping track of the naming convention can easily tell it has 180 horse power. But this isn't the main noteworthy thing about the Nodwydd, for the main noteworthy thing about the craft is its duralumin frame, giving it both inertia and a bit more weight than it otherwise would have, and a bit more durability. Lastly, its armed with two sets of the
Cadwynog ŷd AGAA C15 Mark 1, which other than fixing a bureaucratic error in the name, also gives quite a major increase in fire rate, at the expense of making it run out of ammo faster. Additionally, they put the thing onto a Saethydd among other things in what is called the
Saethydd ACG-AMD AC15 Mod B, which is basically a Saethydd with the forward pilot fired gun removed, a new engine, the new gun replacing the gunners old one, a pair of
Llygad Hir cameras, and a Bloeddiwr 79 with a small wind generator for power. All of this makes it not as fast as it otherwise would be with the engine, but its an overall improvement to the old Saethydd in most respects. Needless to say, they have been quite busy.
The Eastern FrontOnce more again, the sky's of the eastern front remain filled with only birds and balloons. Despite the relative quiet on this side of the lines, the Navy of the Prens seems content to use the balloons purely defensively at the moment as civilians on both sides of the channel are able to relax, abet the ones on the shores of King Cadigan's land with the extra reassurance of the balloons, which still occasionally help artillery do more than just harass ships flying the flag of Schwarzes Holz that stray too close to the Pren's shores. Still, once again the front is quiet, with both sides getting more and more entrenched, waiting for the inevitable invasion that seems to never come.
The Central FrontOnce again the Central Front is full of areal activity from both sides, and its here where the first bit of combat with the Gwylio Awyr Brenhinol's new Nodwydd partakes in. Compared to a modern Adderbolt, its a slower aircraft, yet its just as agile and while its engine isn't powerful enough to bring it to such speeds, the Luftjäger quickly learns that it can fly faster than an Adderbolt in a dive if its high enough above them. In a one on one fight between equally skilled pilots and at the same altitude, generally speaking, the Adderbolt has a advantage due to its average speed so long as it utilizes it, however, the frame of the Nodwydd makes it take more passes to down and one mistake on these passes can be devastating for the Adderbolt pilot due to the heavy firepower the Nodwydd has that will almost guarantee more than just a scratched paint job and a few meaningless holes as damage if it is aimed properly. Of course, in reality, things are never even, and usually Pren Gwyn pilots after spotting enemy aircraft will maneuver to make sure they have a better altitude at the start of combat. Over all, things would be for the most part even between the Adderbolt and their new rival aircraft, or they would be if it weren't for one thing. Numbers.
The skies here are filled with Adderbolts, and for every one Nodwydd, there are three Adder's hunting for Pren Pilots to add to their tallies. Most of the time, the Nodwydd is outnumbered, and its biggest weakness comes into play here, its ammunition count. The Cadwynog ŷd AGAA C15 Mark 1 is highly effective and fast firing but this, even with more ammo compared to its predecessor of a gun, is not enough for longer bouts of combat, and with so many Adderbolts in the sky, should a Pren pilot be outnumbered, unless they are very careful with their ammo, they can find themselves with no real offensive capabilities, and like the old days of summer, find themselves dodging and waiting for their enemy to run out of ammo while using a pistol and nothing more. In a sense, the Nodwydd is mainly hampered by its speed, as once it gets into combat it cant easily get out of it unless it is at a high altitude, and as fights go on, altitude tends to decrease. Of course, thats not all, there is still the new Saethydd mod B, which is quite a nasty shock to any Luftjäger pilot who happens to think they are dealing with the older Saethydds and finds the power of the guns mounted on it like a few did, though while better than the old Saethydd, its still not as maneuverable or fast as the Adderbolt.
A few noteworthy things happen however, specifically in one of the first times the Luftjäger encountered the Nodwydd. A small flight of three aircraft, lead by Major Maldwyn Griffin with Flight Sergents Pryderi Penry and Garth Mathias engaged a flight of eight Adderbolts from Rote Geschwader, one of which had Nicholas von Rheinbach. While Maldwyn was shot down after shooting down two of the Adderbolts, he survived, unlike Pryderi who died shorty after getting his first victory. Garth, during the fight however not only managed to shoot down the flight leader, but also badly damage the Adderbolt Nicholas was in, and using their altitude to keep up with Nicholas, managed to shoot the enemy Überkanonen down, though Nicholas survived mostly unharmed. Needless to say, this made the remaining three pilots for the Luftjäger quite angry, so angry in fact that, for quite some time as he was out of ammo both for his main guns and his pistol, they kept attacking him until they ran out of ammo, in which they tried to actually ram him, which ended quite amusingly for one who crashed into another Adderbolt in their attempt, while the other managed to gently hit him but didn't manage to down him before he himself crashed. All three pilots managed to survive and escape capture, but their aircraft remained, and Garth claimed their aircraft as victories...And yes, he actually was promoted this time.
It should be mentioned however, that
Major Maldwyn Griffin shortly after the events described above, managed to get his fifth victory, specifically a pilot too distracted sending a radio message to notice Maldwyn before it was too late. He decided to mark the achievement by painting the aircraft white with a red nose and two swords crossed with a wreath around them on each side of the fuselage. Naturally, this decision was unopposed due to being the flight leader. He stated he did this as he wanted something nice and something that stood out like Garth's aircraft, which recently had playing cards painted onto its top wing, specifically four aces, one of hearts, one of clubs, one of diamonds, and one of spades, along with a king of hearts recently added after shooting down Nicholas. It should be noted however, that with all the activity, Major Maldwyn wasn't the only new Star Turn Pilot, or rather Überkanonen in this case. As not one, not two, but three of them seem to have made a dark shadow across the skies for the Brenhinol. Hauptmann
Brunhilde von Bothmer along with Oberleutnant
Irma Raedler and
Katherein von Loffen of the newly created squadron Kriegsmäid managed to prove effective Saethydd killers, even the newest Mod B wasn't safe from their strikes, though why female pilots even took to the skies in the first place will be addressed later.
Still, taking a step back and directing focus away from the battle in the sky and to what is happening on the ground, the Pren Gwyn general lucky enough to have access to the fruits of the labor the new Mod B has done finds it is wonderful for one reason and one reason alone. Areal Photograph Reconnaissance. With the camera's, it is able to take pictures of things on the ground, and when on bombing runs like it is with another squadron of Saethydds it is able to show the damage done which can be useful and can take photos of things of strategic or tactical value on the way to or back from the target. Meanwhile, the Luftjäger has a squadron of Radio equipped adderbolts, which for the most part are unopposed in their mission, relaying what they see up above to their side of the lines...
In the end, due to having one squadron on aerial superiority for every Brenhinol squadron in the air, not including balloons, the Luftjäger are able to push back and retake the land they lost, continuing the tug of war that never really gets anywhere. If they will break it and continue advancing, or if the land they took will be back in Pren Gwyn hands again by next month remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the Bergsteiger halt their advance, and try to solidify the gained ground.
The Western FrontOn the Western Front, due to the harsh snowy weather, both sides find there is less times when they can go up into the air and do things without being too dangerous due to wind, the cold, or both, though in the instances with the cold, the Luftjäger are able to go up safely due to their nice warm clothing specifically designed just in case such a situation arises. Though, it should be mentioned, such situations are rare as most of the time, its the latter. Still, despite the cold and snow, plenty happens here, like the battle for Dunklerfelsen that everyone reading this probably was waiting with bated breath for. There are plenty of factors to take into consideration, but an important one is that Nodwydd's are here and they are only outnumbered two to one instead of three to one. This means its much easier for them to actually cause issues for one squadrons hunting, specifically one squadron as the other tend to cause issues for the Nodwydd's instead, and it means that there are less aircraft to disrupt the Pren's missions. Both sides can more or less cause trouble to the other's missions that support the soldiers on the ground, that being bombing and artillery spotting for the Prens and radio recon for the Luftjäger, but the Luftjäger is a bit less effected by this due to having better control in the air while the Pren's have a particular squadron less effected specifically because the other is prioritized by the Luftjäger.
The bombing campaign in Dunklerfelsen is one that results in a bit of a realization. The bombs that the Prens have aren't that effective at destroying buildings. Yes, the average house will probably lose its attic, but the rest of the structure will remain relatively intact and defensible, meaning that the main way of breaking fortifications down, be they minor or not, is by artillery, and the balloons the Prens have aren't exactly hard targets. This is especially for the skilled pilots of foreign stock with the special identifier of a sword inside the traditional roundel of the Luftjäger who are also the ones who are the ones to cause issues for the Nodwydd using squadron of Ysbïwr.
Of course, the action while not as intense still gives rise to special pilots this season, with
Gunso Seiichi Katagiri managing to get his tally to seven at the end of the season. Needless to say, not many Schwarzes Holz citizens really cared about the news, other than feeling happy that they were on their side, though citizens of Shirohon were quite happy about the news. The other special pilot is one flying for Brenhinol and Pren Gwyn's prince, specifically Captain
Gruffudd Taaffe, who managed to get a total of six victories at the end of the season. He decided to do what Garth and Maldwyn did but take it a bit further by painting his aircraft entirely white and green, with a checker like pattern near the nose, and a box pattern down the rest of the fuselage while having the lower left wing entirely white and lower right wing entirely green with the upper wing green with white stripes and a box where the roundel is. The bottom of the wings were white, and the elevator of the craft was painted similarly to the upper wing. Lastly to finish it off and add the last patriotic touch, a red dragon on both sides of the fuselage...
The Squadron leader was just as surprised as you probably are...though he didn't force him to paint over the aircraft due to the simple fact of all the effort he put into it, and because Aces painting their aircraft seems to be a growing tradition for the Pren Gwyns. Also, it should be mentioned that the pilots are not the only special and skilled people in the air here as a Star Turn Gunner has arisen in the form of Flight Sergeant
Shuhrat Kessikbayev, a immigrant and Saethydd gunner who once flew the Saeth. He managed to get his fifth victory in his gunner position, becoming the first pilot, erm, gunner of the war to do so. Though admittedly, in less than spectacular fashion than most others, and even more so considering the Schwarzes seemed to rarely go after him or his squadron.
At the end of the month, the flag of Schwarzes Holz still flies over Dunklerfelsen thanks to the snow, the areal radio recon, and the fighters prioritizing the aircraft over Dunklerfelsen and leaving the aircraft on the road to Sprungburg alone for the most part. Though, it was at a minor cost of land...
Behind the FrontlinesMeanwhile, in Schwarzes Holz, a controversial move has made headlines, what could be so controversial? Simple, the Kaiserliche Luftjäger allowing women to fly and fight for their country. Now, one might ask how this came about, and it all starts with a man named Wolfram Von Bothmer, a mediocre pilot who managed to get one victory. Now, how did this man cause all of this? Simple, he died. No, really, he died and his death is what set the dominoes in motion. Shortly after his death, the Kaiserliche Luftjäger ended up getting a request by a relative to buy an adderbolt with spare parts and ammunition. This would have been the end of the story, but an engineer named Ernest von Arnegis sent this relative a letter offering them to join the airforce, and two weeks later, the Überkanonen named Brunhilde showed up and to the surprise of many, was accepted into the airforce. Her training was practically unneeded, and it seemed as if flying was as natural to her as breathing. This set a precedent and resulted in the creation of Kriegsmäid Gescgwader, the first all female squadron for the Kaiserliche Luftjäger... Needless to say, reception to this action is...mixed between the population.
Meanwhile, on the Pren Gwyn's side, Garth decided to spend some of his saved funds to buy his Saeth and save it from being turned into materials used elsewhere, not wanting to have the fighter that kept him alive for half a year turned to scrap. Oh also, their air force has decided to have their pilots ignore the enemy pilots who have bailed out, being quite honorable.
The Outside World:The German Navy fails to destroy Russian forces in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, hampered by a British submarine attack. Adolphe Pegoud, the first French Ace, is killed in action by his former student, now flying for the Germans. Airship raids on London result in mixed successes. The British deploy poison gas of their own in the Battle of Loos. Overhead, the Fokker Scourge continues, and German pilots such as Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann continue to add victory after victory to their tallies, while the Allied media feeds the panic over the purported capabilities of the Eindecker.
It is now the Design Phase, Early Spring 1915.
