The First Kill

On 5th October 1914 French Corporal Louis Quenault and Sergeant Joseph Frantz became the first aircrew to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

The pair were returning from a mission to bomb the German lines in a Voisin III. As they were returning home and heading towards Chemin De Dames they encountered a German Aviatik B  piloted by Sergeant Wilhelm Schlichting, accompanied by his observer, lieutenant Fritz von Zangen.

Quenault and Frantz had a Hotchkiss machine-gun fitted to their plane. The Voison III was a pusher, and the gun was fitted on a tripod firing forward over the head of the pilot (the observer sat behind the pilot in this type). Frantz engaged the German plane, which tried to escape, being armed only with a carbine carried by the observer. The action lasted around 15 minutes and, as the Hotchkiss jammed, the French crew saw the German aircraft flip over and crash. Both occupants died.

For this feat of arms, Louis Quenault received the Military Medal and Joseph Frantz was made a knight of the Legion of Honour.

This first certified victory confirmed the usefulness of arming aircraft and rekindled the interest of the French general staff in developing machine gun systems.

I thought that it would be fun to play this action through as a quick lunchtime game using Spandau & Lewis.

The Voisin was rated as 3C5 with an observer fired pivot gun shooting into the 12 arc. 

The Aviatik was rated 3C+6, with the observer having a rifle.

I tasked the Aviatik with observing a village across the board. The Germans would win if they could scout the village and then return home. The French plane appeared randomly along one of the side edges. The French win by shooting down the German aircraft. I just used a 16" board for this game as the planes are so slow. 

The German plane headed straight for the target. With nothing to do until they got there the observer fired a couple of shots at the French aircraft to no effect. The French fired a burst from their machine-gun, also with no effect.

The Germans scouted the village, whilst the French, unlucky with their movement rolls, struggled to turn into their rear (which had been the plan).

The only chance the French now had was to latch on to the German as it flew for home. However the wily Germans managed to slip past the French plane and left it behind. 

So a quick game, and possibly one that's a little too easy for the Germans. I may make them roll to spot the target, meaning that they might have to make multiple passes and spend more time vulnerable to the French aircraft. Still, it passed the time, and it was good to get my aircraft out again, even if just for a short game.