Cameljockey
Flame On!
Scramble! Incoming aircraft! I jump in my trusty Albatros DIII(early) and without a look I fire her up and push the throttle to the firewall! I see my wingman off my left shoulder as we pick up speed and lift off. As I look over at my wingman I glance up and I see them! Triplanes! Four of them and they're coming hard! I wheel my Albatros around and meet them head-on as they come down. I pick out the leader and I see that it's none other than "Collie" and his boys from the RNAS. "I got me a live one here!", I thought as we climbed and dove, twisting and turning, trying to gain the advantage. I got quite a few rounds in him, receiving none in return. We were down to about 300ft and I did something really stupid. I tried to climb with him one more time and I stalled it and it flipped over on it's back and headed for the dirt. I kicked the rudder hard right and pushed the stick all the way over and it did a kind of half spin and flipped back over, but still headed for the dirt. I hauled back on the stick as hard as I could and had the nose pointed toward the sky about the time she pancaked. My run in with Raymond Collishaw cost me 17 days in the hospital. At least it didn't cost me my life!