The combat takes a turn for the worst for the RFC, a bloody splash of flame and a Sopwith Pup spirals earthward (see below):
Off camera the pilot of the "Pink Terror" decides to bug-out, his plane barely flyable, but he loses all experience from the mission. Meanwhile the most unlikeliest of RFC heroes, the RE8, comes to the rescue tailing a German scout hunting N17. In fact the picture below shoes a string of consecutive "chasers" RE8 to German Scout to N17 to Albatross (see below):
"Ye gads" the RE8 has bagged (another) Hun (see below):
Nursing a still smoking N17 Pierre maneuvers head-to-head for another machine gun to machine gun duel (see below). However outnumbered three (of which two are the terrible N17's) to two the Boche Albatrosses now think better of it and the Hun duo scoot "doing a runner".
In doing so the Entente break an embarrassing series of Imperial German Air Service wins (having scored two planes two 'downed' to one in return - the 'Pink Terrors' bunk counting the same as a down as it crash landed behind Entente lines) and brings about a strategic shift in the air power above the trenches. The Germans are only deemed to have a 'marginal advantage' and what is more have two of their most experienced air-crew about to become POW's.
The champagne corks start popping at the RFC mess with the French pilots and their N17's being toasted as "putting the wind up the Huns" when all of a sudden the alarm bell rings ...
To be continued ...
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