A potential 1916 scenario I may well write up at some point, with a few tweaks to make it manageable for Algernon Pulls It Off!
'Commanding officers of squadrons were instructed not to fly, but this order was often ignored. Major 'Ferdy' Waldron commanded 60 Squadron, flying from Vert-Galant and took off with a patrol on 3 July.
Both Armstrong and Simpson fell out, through engine trouble, before we reached Arras.... Waldron led the remaining two along the Arras-Cambrai road.
We crossed at about 8,000 feet, and just before reaching Cambrai we were about 9,000, when I suddenly saw a large formation of machines about our height coming from the sun towards us.
There must have been at least twelve. They were two-seaters led by one Fokker (monoplane) and followed by two others. I am sure they were not contemplating 'war' at all, but Ferdy pointed us towards them and led us straight in.
My next impressions were rather mixed. I seemed to be surrounded by Huns in two-seaters. I remember diving on one, pulling out of the dive, and then swerving as another came for me. I can recollect also looking down and seeing a Morane about 800 feet below me going down in a slow spiral, with a Fokker hovering above it following every turn.
I dived on the Fokker, who swallowed the bait and came after me, but unsuccessfully, as I had taken care to pull out of my dive while still above him.
The Morane I watched gliding down under control, doing perfect turns, to about 2,000 feet, when I lost sight of it. I thought he must have been hit in the engine. After an indecisive combat with the Fokker I turned home, the two-seaters having disappeared.
I landed at Vert Galant and reported that Ferdy had 'gone down under control.' We all thought he was a prisoner, but heard soon afterwards that he had landed safely but died of wounds that night, having been hit during the scrap'
A.J.L. Scott - The History of 60 Squadron
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