Volume 31, Number 3
2019 Armistice Day Tourney, Red Baron Fight XXX Set for This Weekend
It's been a long time coming, but the Dawn Patrol season opens this weekend with two of the Indy Squadron's three premier events. The 30th edition of Indy's Red Baron Fight was postponed from its usual spring time slot. Despite repeated attempts at rescheduling, the decision was finally made to push the event into autumn. That means defending champion Rick Lacy got to wear his crown for another few months, but the Silver Goblet is up for grabs this weekend to a new winner.
It also means that both RBF and Armistice Day games will be held on the same day for the first time since 1994, and for only the second time in the squadron's thirty-year history. Records are not precise, but it appears that both RBF V and the 1994 Indy Squadron championship were held on November 12, 1994 according to Indy Squadron Dispatch articles from the period.
2019 Armistice Day Tourney, Red Baron Fight XXX Set for This Weekend
It's been a long time coming, but the Dawn Patrol season opens this weekend with two of the Indy Squadron's three premier events. The 30th edition of Indy's Red Baron Fight was postponed from its usual spring time slot. Despite repeated attempts at rescheduling, the decision was finally made to push the event into autumn. That means defending champion Rick Lacy got to wear his crown for another few months, but the Silver Goblet is up for grabs this weekend to a new winner.
It also means that both RBF and Armistice Day games will be held on the same day for the first time since 1994, and for only the second time in the squadron's thirty-year history. Records are not precise, but it appears that both RBF V and the 1994 Indy Squadron championship were held on November 12, 1994 according to Indy Squadron Dispatch articles from the period.
Immediately following Red Baron Fight XXX is the Armistice Day Fits Tournament to name a new squadron champion for 2019. Indy's highest award, the Victory Medal, will go to the highest scoring eligible player to continue a tradition that dates back to 1989.
This weekend's activities will be held at Danger Room Games, 833 E 53rd St, Anderson, Indiana 46013.
Start time is 11:00 am ET sharp. Please be on time. We are under a time limit and starting late is not an option. It would be very difficult to allow a player to "fly into" the game after the first turn without unbalancing the scenario. Remember, the scenario for Red Baron Fight is balanced according to the number of competitors. Latecomers should expect to either sit out the entire game or - at best - be assigned the weakest plane on the board if 100% of the other players consent.
The Armistice Day tournament will commence as soon as possible after RBF XXX. The tournament must end around 8:30 pm in order to toast the winner, present awards and clean up before the venue closes at 9:00 pm. Calling the game on turns is not a viable option because it artificially manipulates the outcome of the game, so please help us stay on schedule throughout the day.
We expect a solid field of at least eight competitors, with up to twelve being possible. Please bring chips, salsa, water, soft drinks and anything else you might enjoy consuming during the competitions.
This weekend's activities will be held at Danger Room Games, 833 E 53rd St, Anderson, Indiana 46013.
Start time is 11:00 am ET sharp. Please be on time. We are under a time limit and starting late is not an option. It would be very difficult to allow a player to "fly into" the game after the first turn without unbalancing the scenario. Remember, the scenario for Red Baron Fight is balanced according to the number of competitors. Latecomers should expect to either sit out the entire game or - at best - be assigned the weakest plane on the board if 100% of the other players consent.
The Armistice Day tournament will commence as soon as possible after RBF XXX. The tournament must end around 8:30 pm in order to toast the winner, present awards and clean up before the venue closes at 9:00 pm. Calling the game on turns is not a viable option because it artificially manipulates the outcome of the game, so please help us stay on schedule throughout the day.
We expect a solid field of at least eight competitors, with up to twelve being possible. Please bring chips, salsa, water, soft drinks and anything else you might enjoy consuming during the competitions.
| Pewter RBF XXX Cup Arrives The cup for Red Baron Fight XXX has been engraved and delivered. It appears to be one of the finest RBF awards we've had in recent years. The cup is from a new supplier, "Silver & Pewter Gifts," in Livingston, Montana. They were kind enough to engrave and ship the order very quickly even though one pewter cup makes us a rather small customer. The cup has a brushed satin finish and the engraving is very well done. It is designed as a legitimate drinking vessel should the owner choose to use it as such. Perhaps the best aspect of the new cup is the fact that it very closely resembles the larger cups commissioned by the Red Baron himself, Manfred von Richthofen, for every tenth aerial victory. This year's award is unmistakably a direct descendant of the original cups that inspired it. This year's Red Baron Fight Silver Goblet is seen at top right. For comparison, a photo of the cup commissioned by Richthofen to commemorate his 12th victory on December 11, 1916, is shown at bottom right. |   |
Historic Becker Medal Collection Acquired for Upcoming Indy Squadron Awards
Charles Becker must have been quite the marksman. He won the Wabash Valley Rifle League's 100-yard sharpshooting competition in 1947. At the Penn Rifle Club in 1954 he took top honors in the Dewar Course, a special competition comprised of twenty rounds fired from fifty yards and another twenty rounds on a 100 yard range. Three years later he won the 100 yard rifle competition at the Valley City Rifle and Pistol Club using only iron sights on his firearm. He claimed the championship in at least one other shooting competition of the period as well.
I never knew Charles Becker. I have no idea who he was. But his medals ended up at the National Road Antique Mall on US 40 in Cambridge City, Indiana this summer. On behalf of the Indy Squadron, I took a chance and bought all four of them.
My thought process was as follows... Midwestern men from the 1940's were actual men. They could shoot, hunt, fish and could comfortably manage themselves in the great outdoors. Charles Becker must certainly have been such a man, and was probably a veteran of World War II as well.
The fact that his medals ended up in a glass case at an antique mall obviously means that either there are no surviving members of his family, or those survivors didn't care enough about his medals to keep them. Either way, they are now lost and otherwise meaningless.
If Charles Becker was alive today, what better outcome could he hope for other than seeing his medals live on with new purpose via a military gaming club whose members appreciate history?
One of the four medals - the 1947 Wabash Valley award - is a gold/bronze medal hung from a red ribbon. It is this one that initially caught my eye. It is the perfect size and color to use as a future Victory Medal for the Armistice Day Fits Tournament. Rather than split up the set, I bought all four medals and decided to figure out how to use the others later. Every medal is 100% original and remains in its original presentation box yet today.
So here is my idea... the Victory Medals for 2019 and 2020 have already been created and engraved, so we have no need for a new Victory Medal until 2021. I suggest that we engrave "Indy Squadron 2021" on the reverse side and use Becker's red and gold 1947 Wabash Valley award as the 2021 Victory Medal.
We could then engrave the reverse side of the other medals for use in 2022-2024, despite the fact that the ribbons on these medals are not the correct color for the Victory Medal. We could purchase a matching red ribbon to present with each medal. These medals would be awarded with both their original ribbons from the 20th century, and with a new red ribbon as well.
If the new owner of the medal wants to maintain the Indy tradition, he or she is welcome to place the original medal on the new red ribbon. Or if he prefers, the new winner is welcome to leave the medal in its original condition. Either way, the Indy Squadron has maintained its tradition of awarding a gold medal with a pure red ribbon to every Indy champion since 1989, and the decision on how to wear the medal is left entirely up to the new champion who earned it.
What do you guys think? Is this a fun idea? Or would you prefer to ditch the concept entirely and continue awarding newly minted Victory Medals from a trophy shop? Please let me know!
Charles Becker must have been quite the marksman. He won the Wabash Valley Rifle League's 100-yard sharpshooting competition in 1947. At the Penn Rifle Club in 1954 he took top honors in the Dewar Course, a special competition comprised of twenty rounds fired from fifty yards and another twenty rounds on a 100 yard range. Three years later he won the 100 yard rifle competition at the Valley City Rifle and Pistol Club using only iron sights on his firearm. He claimed the championship in at least one other shooting competition of the period as well.
I never knew Charles Becker. I have no idea who he was. But his medals ended up at the National Road Antique Mall on US 40 in Cambridge City, Indiana this summer. On behalf of the Indy Squadron, I took a chance and bought all four of them.
My thought process was as follows... Midwestern men from the 1940's were actual men. They could shoot, hunt, fish and could comfortably manage themselves in the great outdoors. Charles Becker must certainly have been such a man, and was probably a veteran of World War II as well.
The fact that his medals ended up in a glass case at an antique mall obviously means that either there are no surviving members of his family, or those survivors didn't care enough about his medals to keep them. Either way, they are now lost and otherwise meaningless.
If Charles Becker was alive today, what better outcome could he hope for other than seeing his medals live on with new purpose via a military gaming club whose members appreciate history?
One of the four medals - the 1947 Wabash Valley award - is a gold/bronze medal hung from a red ribbon. It is this one that initially caught my eye. It is the perfect size and color to use as a future Victory Medal for the Armistice Day Fits Tournament. Rather than split up the set, I bought all four medals and decided to figure out how to use the others later. Every medal is 100% original and remains in its original presentation box yet today.
So here is my idea... the Victory Medals for 2019 and 2020 have already been created and engraved, so we have no need for a new Victory Medal until 2021. I suggest that we engrave "Indy Squadron 2021" on the reverse side and use Becker's red and gold 1947 Wabash Valley award as the 2021 Victory Medal.
We could then engrave the reverse side of the other medals for use in 2022-2024, despite the fact that the ribbons on these medals are not the correct color for the Victory Medal. We could purchase a matching red ribbon to present with each medal. These medals would be awarded with both their original ribbons from the 20th century, and with a new red ribbon as well.
If the new owner of the medal wants to maintain the Indy tradition, he or she is welcome to place the original medal on the new red ribbon. Or if he prefers, the new winner is welcome to leave the medal in its original condition. Either way, the Indy Squadron has maintained its tradition of awarding a gold medal with a pure red ribbon to every Indy champion since 1989, and the decision on how to wear the medal is left entirely up to the new champion who earned it.
What do you guys think? Is this a fun idea? Or would you prefer to ditch the concept entirely and continue awarding newly minted Victory Medals from a trophy shop? Please let me know!
Book Review
"Camel Pilot Supreme; Captain D. V. Armstrong"
by Annette Carson
D'Urban Victor Armstrong may have been the finest Sopwith Camel pilot to have ever slipped on a pair of flying goggles. At least that is the compelling case made by author Annette Carson in the new book, “Camel Pilot Supreme.”
This book will be of particular interest to readers of the Indy Squadron Dispatch who have shown a long and intense interest in Sopwith's legendary fighter and its application in modern war gaming.
Armstrong, universally abbreviated to “DVA” throughout Carson's excellent tome, was more than just a gifted pilot. He was also an ace with five confirmed aerial victories as a veteran of numerous British units including RAF 39 and RAF 60. He was among the earliest aerobatic pilots. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, an acquaintance of luminaries including famed British aces Cecil Lewis and Billy Bishop and an early expert in night flying. This guy pretty much saw it all from the cockpit of a Camel.
Carson balances the drama of Armstrong's amazing and sometimes shocking exploits with a matter-of-fact method of storytelling. The author openly admits, for instance, that little is known of Armstrong's final month of service with 60 Squadron in late 1916, doing so in such a way that the reader is not disappointed. She cannot tell us what is not known.
But she did manage to find a cache of photographs and documents from the First World War depicting Armstrong and his many airplanes. In fact, “Camel Pilot Supreme” is littered with more than one hundred pictures, some of which were found among Armstrong's personal photo collection.
The reader is immediately drawn to the center section of the book which features many of these striking pictures as well as paintings and aircraft color profiles, all on acid free stock. However, once you begin actually reading the book page by page, scores of additional photographs come to light. To say that this book is well illustrated would be an understatement.
With 224 pages packed into a 6.5x9.5” hardcover volume, “Camel Pilot Supreme” is easily transported in a backpack or briefcase. It is perhaps your best chance to know the Sopwith Camel fighter airplane of World War I as intimately as the men who flew it.
Book Review
Fire-Step to Fokker Fodder: The First World War Diaries of Willam “Jack” Lidsey
by Andrew White
“Your son, Lt Lidsey, 16th Squadron RFC was admitted last night, mortally wounded in the head. I am truly sorry to send you this sad news.”
By the time you read the letter sent home to his parents by a nurse at the 42nd Casualty Clearing Station in Aubigny-en-Artois, France, you are already attached to 2LT William John Lidsey, better known as “Jack” to his contemporaries.
Lidsey's story is familiar. Fed up with the mud, blood and horror of trench warfare, he transferred to the British Royal Flying Corps in late 1916. He was rushed through training and thrown into the air a few months later as an observer in a BE 2e, an obsolete pusher-type aircraft that stood no chance whatsoever against a modern, well-flown German Albatros DIII or Halberstadt DII fighter plane.
Lidsey was dead barely four months after leaving the British infantry for a better life in the air, the 29th victim of Germany's famed “Red Baron,” Manfred von Richthofen.
All four of the daily and meticulously kept diaries of Jack Lidsey have been well known for some time. Copies still exist in both London's Imperial War Museum and the RAF Museum at Hendon. But author Andrew White wanted access directly from the source. After considerable trouble he finally located Lidsey's great niece who provided a transcript of the diaries directly from the fragile, pencil-inscribed originals, in addition to numerous photos and the family's blessing to tell the airman's full story.
White has not let them down. Rather than print the diary in its entirety and leave the reader floundering for details, the author has thoroughly researched his topic dating from the moment of Lidsey's birth. Despite the slightly misleading title, the final product comes across less as a diary transcript and more as a full biography of Lidsey's life and a postmortem analysis of his death.
The result is a captivating book that you won't want to put down. And with just 208 pages of medium, easy to read font, you won't have to. This book is highly recommended. It is a fascinating insight into the life and death of an otherwise nameless 21-year-old kid... just another of the millions slaughtered by western governments in the first of the 20th century's futile and terrible wars.
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