Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 21:46:41 GMT
A Meeting on the Western Front
Introduction
Two of the most famous warriors of the British Empire in World War 1 meet for the first time…
Setting
The Western Front, France : 1916
Allied Forces for the British Empire
Dogfight
Captain Charles de Beauchamp, Royal Flying Corps, forced his Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 into a hard bank to the right, rolling over into a steep dive. From many missions in this plane, he knew he was pushing it close to its limits, especially with the engine damage the plane had taken earlier in the fight, but the superb German pilot in the Fokker hot on his tail wasn't exactly leaving him many options. He had to get out of the German's sights - and give himself a chance to answer back with his own guns. And his only chance was to pick up speed in a dangerous dive. He was perilously close to the ground when he pulled out and up, and he could see brown patches closing in around the edges of his eyes from the rising pressure (nobody called it 'g-force' yet), but the plane held together, the nose came up, over, and around, and he was behind the German, ready for his 19th victory. But he didn't even have to fire, as the Fokker E.III's single wing couldn't take the forces and crumpled upward. The doomed plane crashed into the ground. bounced and rolled once, then vanished in a tremendous fireball.
“Spike-bozzled without a chance, the poor bastard,” Charles intoned sadly and waggled his wings in salute to his brave foe, then began climbing, searching for landmarks. This particular encounter didn't feel like a victory; he wouldn't be reporting it when he returned.
It wasn't long before he spotted a landmark he recognized from today's pre-flight briefing - a devastated railroad track. He dropped much lower as he turned westward, and just a few minutes later, he saw his destination - a far forward temporary airfield, set up on an abandoned farm only a few miles from the current front. A still-standing farmhouse with a partially intact barn, a dozen tents in ragged formation, and a mixed group of 3 French and 2 English biplanes parked near the barn. He could feel a half dozen belt-fed machine guns tracking his landing, but they should be expecting him… if their telephone still worked. As he approached, he passed over a firefight…
In the Trenches
Major Iollan Blake, Royal Army Medical Corps, crouched low in a trench as he tended to a wounded Tommy. They were almost 5 miles back of No Man's Land, and supposedly the area was safe, but someone had forgotten to tell at least one German patrol. The squareheads had ambushed them and now had them pinned down in last week's front line trenches.
Suddenly a German appeared around a corner at the far end of the trench, a potato masher raised to throw. One of the major's mates who had luckily been looking in the right direction fired and the man went down. Blake dived across the wounded man before the grenade exploded several seconds later. A half dozen Alleymen who had been hoping for a secondary ambush around the bend in the trench were caught in the blast, and that minor advance was blunted. Iollan was buffeted by the explosion, but sustained no injuries.
As he pulled himself back to his knees, he heard the stuttering of a machine gun and the coughing roar of the misfiring engine of a diving plane. A quick glance skyward showed it to be a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5. Between the strafing run, the unexpected grenade explosion, and an enthusiastic rally by the Allied squad, it was only a short time before the German patrol was totally routed and Iollan's squad was returning to their outpost, carrying their wounded and shepherding a handful of prisoners
Charlie Champion, meet The Hammer of Harlem
The 'outpost' was an abandoned farm. The farmhouse was miraculously still standing, though the barn had taken several artillery hits and was partially demolished. A large meadow had been hastily converted to a bumpy but functional airstrip, and half a dozen biplanes clustered around the barn. The plane that had just aided Iollan's patrol had just rolled to a stop near the other planes, and the pilot was dismounting slowly as the patrol arrived. Iollan ordered his team to deliver the wounded to the makeshift infirmary inside the farmhouse, and headed to greet the pilot.
Charles hopped down from the wing and saluted. “Captain Charles de Beauchamp, RFC. Took some Archie damage in the last flight; wonder if your boys can't put the Silver Lady right tonight? And I'd like to use your phone to call in what I picked up in today's dekko. Big push coming tomorrow that I'd like to be part of!”
“Charlie Champion? I thought so, from the markings on your plane! I'm Major Iollan Blake, BEF. Sure, we'll take care of you. We're having Maconochie for dinner tonight, and we can even set you up with a cushy billet. ” Both men chuckled wryly at that. There was rarely _anything_ 'cushy' on the front. The major stuck out his hand. “I've been hoping to meet you some day!”
“The Hammer of Harlem? Been looking forward to meeting you, too! Thanks for the hospitality!”
The two tall, trim, powerfully-built men shook hands, in an iconic scene that was captured by a battlefield photographer and soon displayed proudly on the front pages and covers of newspapers and magazines through the Allied countries:
World United as Allies vs. the Central Powers
Major Iollan Blake, a black American of mixed Irish and African descent, enlisted in the British Expeditionary Force, and Captain Charles de Beauchamp, a French Canadian pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, are both heralded warriors in the service of the British Empire and the Allies, in the War to End All Wars.
“Hope we get a chance for a bout, soon,” Blake offered with a grin. “I'm looking forward to seeing how tough you fly guys really are.” Iollan was the heavyweight boxing champ of the entire British Expeditionary Force and had been considered a leading contender for the Heavyweight Championship of the World before the war had begun.
“Thumbs up to that,” Charles agreed. He was the RFC heavyweight champ, as well as being one of Britain's leading aces. “I'm really interested in seeing how I stack up to a guy who knocked down Jack Dempsey! Too bloody bad we can't throw up a gaff and duke it out tonight, but you'll need to be tip top when you go over the bags tomorrow.”
The two talked of boxing for a while, and then Charles had to break away to make his report. Though they encountered each other several other times during the War, they never did get the chance to duke it out for the unified championship of the British military. The vagaries of life kept them apart after the war, and they wouldn't meet again for over 25 years.