Volume 38 Number 5
Camels Dominate Red Baron Fight XXXVII
Stephen Wins 12th Career Classic
The thirty-seventh running of the Red Baron Fight saw Stephen (Capt. Bretton Pyle, 14/5) claim the honors, and his fifth confirmed kill along with them, in a tournament that also produced a hard-fought supporting engagement between Rick's Albatros (Uffz. Axel Rathmann, 16/3) and the guns of Ethan's 10-mission Camel pilot.
As is tradition, one flier took the seat of the Red Baron himself: Bob drew the honor this time, going up in the all-red Fokker Dr.I that the role calls for. It was a quiet outing by the usual standard — Bob came through entirely unhurt, but also left the fight without a kill to his name, missing on two long-range attempts: a head-on shot at Ethan's pilot, and a fifty-foot deflection shot on Stephen that needed a six to miss and got exactly that. Bob later jokingly complained that the Germans "weren't able to come together as a team, because my wingman wouldn't fly back to me."
That wingman trouble told. Rick had, by his own account, a fairly ordinary tournament — one long shot landed for five points on Stephen, nothing more — until Ethan's pilot caught him with a critical strut hit that cost him fifty feet of climb rate and four hundred feet of dive, more than enough to explain why, in his own words, "I couldn't keep up with everybody else." He brought the Albatros home safely regardless, closing the tournament at sixteen missions and three kills.
The decisive moment came late, in the engagement between Stephen's Camel and Dory's Albatros. Stephen latched onto her tail and held it for three turns, and rather than take a conservative shot he elected, in his words, "to go for broke and use up my long bursts and just risk a jam" rather than let the position slip away. The gamble paid off: he shot her left wing clean off, ending the fight and, with it, her aircraft's flight. The kill was Pyle's fifth confirmed of his career, and it made him an ace — his record advancing to fourteen missions and five kills. He came through the tournament himself with five hits taken in the left wing and no criticals, still fully flyable.
Stephen Wins 12th Career Classic
The thirty-seventh running of the Red Baron Fight saw Stephen (Capt. Bretton Pyle, 14/5) claim the honors, and his fifth confirmed kill along with them, in a tournament that also produced a hard-fought supporting engagement between Rick's Albatros (Uffz. Axel Rathmann, 16/3) and the guns of Ethan's 10-mission Camel pilot.
As is tradition, one flier took the seat of the Red Baron himself: Bob drew the honor this time, going up in the all-red Fokker Dr.I that the role calls for. It was a quiet outing by the usual standard — Bob came through entirely unhurt, but also left the fight without a kill to his name, missing on two long-range attempts: a head-on shot at Ethan's pilot, and a fifty-foot deflection shot on Stephen that needed a six to miss and got exactly that. Bob later jokingly complained that the Germans "weren't able to come together as a team, because my wingman wouldn't fly back to me."
That wingman trouble told. Rick had, by his own account, a fairly ordinary tournament — one long shot landed for five points on Stephen, nothing more — until Ethan's pilot caught him with a critical strut hit that cost him fifty feet of climb rate and four hundred feet of dive, more than enough to explain why, in his own words, "I couldn't keep up with everybody else." He brought the Albatros home safely regardless, closing the tournament at sixteen missions and three kills.
The decisive moment came late, in the engagement between Stephen's Camel and Dory's Albatros. Stephen latched onto her tail and held it for three turns, and rather than take a conservative shot he elected, in his words, "to go for broke and use up my long bursts and just risk a jam" rather than let the position slip away. The gamble paid off: he shot her left wing clean off, ending the fight and, with it, her aircraft's flight. The kill was Pyle's fifth confirmed of his career, and it made him an ace — his record advancing to fourteen missions and five kills. He came through the tournament himself with five hits taken in the left wing and no criticals, still fully flyable.
Stephen Skinner, Sopwith Camel (130hp) 87 points
Bob Meister, Fokker Dr.I 65
Ethan Skinner, Sopwith Camel (130 hp) 39
Rick Lacy, Albatros DVa 25
Dory Oda, Albatros DVa high compression 8
Bob Meister, Fokker Dr.I 65
Ethan Skinner, Sopwith Camel (130 hp) 39
Rick Lacy, Albatros DVa 25
Dory Oda, Albatros DVa high compression 8
In Memoriam:
Ken Mrozak
by Rick Lacy
I started playing FitS in April of 2000. Somewhere along the way I met Ken Mrozak. My initial impression was he was a larger than life, loud, intense personality. He became a semi regular at Indy Squadron games, driving 4.5 hrs just to play for a day. I never quite understood him doing that at the time, but he always added flavor and competition to our game days.
I got to know Ken better over the years between his visits down here, MiniCons, and GenCon. I found him to be quite knowledgeable with history, quite well read in science fiction, and beneath the loud exterior he was someone with a heart that cared about his friends more than his personality let through. While he was never one to back down from an argument in the first years I knew him, later on we had several discussions in an amicable non-strident way. I grew to enjoy his humor and see the desire he had to be included and liked. I felt perhaps he was more lonely than he let on.
At the same time, I came to realize a lot of other FitS players didn’t care as much for his presence, something else I didn’t really understand – I mean, it’s just a game and every one of us has personality quirks that can be annoying. The true mark of a person is looking past that and getting to know and understand them better. Ken got to know my family and was especially fond of my daughter, almost like she was his grandchild. That meant more to me that I can really express.
There was no one I knew who loved the game as much as he did, and I enjoyed having him at the same table as he was a skilled player and shrewd opponent. I will admit I got annoyed every now and then because it seemed like he would go out of his way to target me whenever possible…but at the same time, I took that as a compliment in that he felt I was a legitimate threat to be eliminated. I still smile remembering one mission where he and I were wingmen and his Billy Bishop pilot was getting mauled and I helped him get away. I am glad I didn’t mind playing in games with him as much as others because I would have denied myself the chance to get to know a unique soul with a heart for others that he worked hard to let out through the harsh personality.
My last contact with Ken was in Milwaukee at the MiniCon in 2026. I delivered to him a custom counter I made that was in the scheme of the Indy Squadron players because I felt he deserved one being an honorary member due to his many visits to our game days. And then he did the most touching thing I ever saw from him – he gifted me the bell he used every time he rolled for a pilot hit because I pranked him several years by hiding it on him. That bell is going to stay in my FitS kit now and I’ll ring it once every game day and at MiniCon’s going forward to remember Ken – a curmudgeon, a lover of history and good stories, a worthy opponent, and a valued wingman.
Ken, I’m sorry we lived so far apart, I would have loved the opportunity to get to know you better. Godspeed my friend.
Ken Mrozak
by Rick Lacy
I started playing FitS in April of 2000. Somewhere along the way I met Ken Mrozak. My initial impression was he was a larger than life, loud, intense personality. He became a semi regular at Indy Squadron games, driving 4.5 hrs just to play for a day. I never quite understood him doing that at the time, but he always added flavor and competition to our game days.
I got to know Ken better over the years between his visits down here, MiniCons, and GenCon. I found him to be quite knowledgeable with history, quite well read in science fiction, and beneath the loud exterior he was someone with a heart that cared about his friends more than his personality let through. While he was never one to back down from an argument in the first years I knew him, later on we had several discussions in an amicable non-strident way. I grew to enjoy his humor and see the desire he had to be included and liked. I felt perhaps he was more lonely than he let on.
At the same time, I came to realize a lot of other FitS players didn’t care as much for his presence, something else I didn’t really understand – I mean, it’s just a game and every one of us has personality quirks that can be annoying. The true mark of a person is looking past that and getting to know and understand them better. Ken got to know my family and was especially fond of my daughter, almost like she was his grandchild. That meant more to me that I can really express.
There was no one I knew who loved the game as much as he did, and I enjoyed having him at the same table as he was a skilled player and shrewd opponent. I will admit I got annoyed every now and then because it seemed like he would go out of his way to target me whenever possible…but at the same time, I took that as a compliment in that he felt I was a legitimate threat to be eliminated. I still smile remembering one mission where he and I were wingmen and his Billy Bishop pilot was getting mauled and I helped him get away. I am glad I didn’t mind playing in games with him as much as others because I would have denied myself the chance to get to know a unique soul with a heart for others that he worked hard to let out through the harsh personality.
My last contact with Ken was in Milwaukee at the MiniCon in 2026. I delivered to him a custom counter I made that was in the scheme of the Indy Squadron players because I felt he deserved one being an honorary member due to his many visits to our game days. And then he did the most touching thing I ever saw from him – he gifted me the bell he used every time he rolled for a pilot hit because I pranked him several years by hiding it on him. That bell is going to stay in my FitS kit now and I’ll ring it once every game day and at MiniCon’s going forward to remember Ken – a curmudgeon, a lover of history and good stories, a worthy opponent, and a valued wingman.
Ken, I’m sorry we lived so far apart, I would have loved the opportunity to get to know you better. Godspeed my friend.
Game Reports, May 23, 2026
Game 1 — September 1918
A ten-mile-an-hour breeze pushed in from the left under scattered cloud as four regulars took to the air in a straight two-against-two. Flying Camels for the Entente were Lt. James Sladen (Rick) and Bob's pilot, Benton Neville; taking the German side were Uffz. Ludwig Vogel in a Fokker D.VII (Ethan, 180hp) and a Halberstadt two-seater flown by LTN Mortiz Wotzel and LTN Leonard Alken (Stephen, 14/2 & 16/1).
Neville opened strongly, putting eighteen hit factors into Vogel's Fokker across two turns — by his own account, enough that he felt he'd earned the kill outright. Sladen thought otherwise: with both of his guns jammed for the engagement, he still came away holding the winning draw on the cut for credit. Vogel went down under the German lines with his aircraft wrecked, but the dice were kind on the landing roll, and he walked away to fly again. "Rick is mean," was Bob's verdict on losing the cut.
Records after this mission:
Lt. James Sladen (Rick, 31/4) — Sopwith Camel 150hp — survived, both guns jammed
Benton Neville (Bob, rank not given, 6 msn) — Sopwith Camel 150hp — survived, unhit
Uffz. Ludwig Vogel (Ethan, 4/0) — Fokker D.VII 180hp — shot down by Sladen, aircraft wrecked, pilot survived the landing
Halberstadt Ltn. Mortiz Wotzel and Ltn. Leonard Alken (Stephen, 14/2 & 16/1) – survived unhit
Game 2 — September 1918
Sgt. Andre Nouveau (Rick) and Cpl. Vladimir Kaskaskia (Stephen) took their French SPAD XIIIs up against a German pair: Vzfw. Friedrich Knorr (Ethan) in a high-compression Albatros D.Va and Wolf Panzer (Bob) in a standard Albatros D.Va (180hp).
Nouveau drew first blood — or should have. He put a solid hit on Knorr, but the critical-hit roll came up clean, sparing the German pilot a serious wound and, by Lacy's own admission, costing his pilot what should have been an easy kill. Knorr didn't press his luck afterward: Nouveau caught him by surprise in the first turn of the return engagement, hit him for eight points and put a critical into his left wing, and Knorr chose discretion, breaking off for home while still flyable.
Panzer fared better in the exchange of fire, taking only a crit after letting Lacy shoot from as close as 500 feet, and returned to the aerodrome for mission credit with his Albatros still airworthy.
Records after this mission:
Sgt. Andre Nouveau (Rick, 8/0) — SPAD XIII — survived, unhit
Vzfw. Friedrich Knorr (Ethan, 8/1) — Albatros D.Va (high compression) — survived, left wing critical, broke off early
Wolf Panzer (Bob, rank not given) — Albatros D.Va 180hp — survived, one crit taken, mission credit
Cpl. Vladimir Kaskaskia (Stephen, 15/7) – survived unhit
Game 3 — September 1918
Ethan's Jerry Boggsworth, flying a Sopwith Camel (130hp), found himself the target of a determined two-man attack late in the afternoon session. The identities of the two attacking pilots — both flown, by player, as "Bob" and "Rick" — were not stated on the surviving recording, and no separate debrief for their side of the fight has been located.
By Boggsworth's account the mission started well before it fell apart quickly: a bank called to the right instead of the left put him out of position, Rick broke his tail, and Bob then ran up eight hits of twelve possible into the left wing. Judging the airplane's chances no longer worth pressing, Boggsworth chose to withdraw rather than fight it out, and made it home with the Camel still flyable.
Archival note: without a second-side debrief, the attacking pilots' aircraft, ranks, and post-mission records for this engagement cannot be confirmed.
Records after this mission:
Jerry Boggsworth (Ethan, rank not given, 9 msn / 1 kl) — Sopwith Camel 130hp — survived, forced out, left wing damaged but flyable
Game 1 — September 1918
A ten-mile-an-hour breeze pushed in from the left under scattered cloud as four regulars took to the air in a straight two-against-two. Flying Camels for the Entente were Lt. James Sladen (Rick) and Bob's pilot, Benton Neville; taking the German side were Uffz. Ludwig Vogel in a Fokker D.VII (Ethan, 180hp) and a Halberstadt two-seater flown by LTN Mortiz Wotzel and LTN Leonard Alken (Stephen, 14/2 & 16/1).
Neville opened strongly, putting eighteen hit factors into Vogel's Fokker across two turns — by his own account, enough that he felt he'd earned the kill outright. Sladen thought otherwise: with both of his guns jammed for the engagement, he still came away holding the winning draw on the cut for credit. Vogel went down under the German lines with his aircraft wrecked, but the dice were kind on the landing roll, and he walked away to fly again. "Rick is mean," was Bob's verdict on losing the cut.
Records after this mission:
Lt. James Sladen (Rick, 31/4) — Sopwith Camel 150hp — survived, both guns jammed
Benton Neville (Bob, rank not given, 6 msn) — Sopwith Camel 150hp — survived, unhit
Uffz. Ludwig Vogel (Ethan, 4/0) — Fokker D.VII 180hp — shot down by Sladen, aircraft wrecked, pilot survived the landing
Halberstadt Ltn. Mortiz Wotzel and Ltn. Leonard Alken (Stephen, 14/2 & 16/1) – survived unhit
Game 2 — September 1918
Sgt. Andre Nouveau (Rick) and Cpl. Vladimir Kaskaskia (Stephen) took their French SPAD XIIIs up against a German pair: Vzfw. Friedrich Knorr (Ethan) in a high-compression Albatros D.Va and Wolf Panzer (Bob) in a standard Albatros D.Va (180hp).
Nouveau drew first blood — or should have. He put a solid hit on Knorr, but the critical-hit roll came up clean, sparing the German pilot a serious wound and, by Lacy's own admission, costing his pilot what should have been an easy kill. Knorr didn't press his luck afterward: Nouveau caught him by surprise in the first turn of the return engagement, hit him for eight points and put a critical into his left wing, and Knorr chose discretion, breaking off for home while still flyable.
Panzer fared better in the exchange of fire, taking only a crit after letting Lacy shoot from as close as 500 feet, and returned to the aerodrome for mission credit with his Albatros still airworthy.
Records after this mission:
Sgt. Andre Nouveau (Rick, 8/0) — SPAD XIII — survived, unhit
Vzfw. Friedrich Knorr (Ethan, 8/1) — Albatros D.Va (high compression) — survived, left wing critical, broke off early
Wolf Panzer (Bob, rank not given) — Albatros D.Va 180hp — survived, one crit taken, mission credit
Cpl. Vladimir Kaskaskia (Stephen, 15/7) – survived unhit
Game 3 — September 1918
Ethan's Jerry Boggsworth, flying a Sopwith Camel (130hp), found himself the target of a determined two-man attack late in the afternoon session. The identities of the two attacking pilots — both flown, by player, as "Bob" and "Rick" — were not stated on the surviving recording, and no separate debrief for their side of the fight has been located.
By Boggsworth's account the mission started well before it fell apart quickly: a bank called to the right instead of the left put him out of position, Rick broke his tail, and Bob then ran up eight hits of twelve possible into the left wing. Judging the airplane's chances no longer worth pressing, Boggsworth chose to withdraw rather than fight it out, and made it home with the Camel still flyable.
Archival note: without a second-side debrief, the attacking pilots' aircraft, ranks, and post-mission records for this engagement cannot be confirmed.
Records after this mission:
Jerry Boggsworth (Ethan, rank not given, 9 msn / 1 kl) — Sopwith Camel 130hp — survived, forced out, left wing damaged but flyable
Game 4 was Red Baron Fight, see lead story above
Game 5 (three-player) — September 1918
With several of the day's regulars having called it a night, the three pilots remaining on the field turned to balloon-busting: Vzfw. Denton Sprock (Bob), flying his third mission of the day, and Lt. Franz von Hayden (Rick) in a Fokker D.VII (160hp) went up together against an Entente observation balloon defended by Lt. Willis Mardonne (Stephen) in a French Hanriot HD-1.
Sprock took four hits from ground-based anti-aircraft fire en route but suffered no real damage, and had one clean shot at the balloon on his own after von Hayden missed the first attempt — a shot that, by his account, would have settled the matter outright. It went for nothing, and the balloon came down instead on the following turn once von Hayden got his own guns onto it. The credit went to von Hayden on the cut, extending what Bob, only half joking, called a personal streak: "for the twenty-seventh time in my lifetime, I have lost the cut to Rick Lacy."
Mardonne put up the balloon's only defense, hitting von Hayden's Fokker twice in a row from 500 feet, but neither shot found anything vital, and he returned to his own lines unhurt, his aircraft undamaged, no criticals recorded either way.
Records after this mission:
Vzfw. Denton Sprock (Bob) — aircraft not stated this recording — survived, four AA hits, no damage; third mission of the day
Lt. Franz von Hayden (Rick, 12/7) — Fokker D.VII 160hp — survived, credited with the balloon kill
Lt. Willis Mardone (Stephen, 1/0) — Hanriot HD-1 — survived, aircraft undamaged, no criticals
Game 6 — Italian Front, September 1918
The evening's closing mission shifted fronts entirely, to the mountains of the Italian theater. Sgt. Melchior Giovanni (Stephen) and Ten. Gaston Moretti (Rick), both flying Italian SPAD XIIIs, ran into trouble from Austro-Hungarian ground fire and a lone Offag Albatros 253 flown by Astro Dent (Bob).
Giovanni took the worst of it: a head-on shot from an anti-aircraft machine gun struck his center wing and nicked his right arm for a no-effect wound, and by the time he'd had enough he was carrying three hits to the engine and five to the right wing, with no criticals. He judged the odds and turned for home, finally clearing the area safely.
Moretti had much the same experience — forced to split the AA while under fire himself — and by his own account it was that maneuver, drawing attention away from Giovanni, that helped his fellow pilot get clear: "I helped save Stephen's pilot," as he put it. He came home to six missions and one kill on the books.
Dent's ground fire team did the real work of the mission, chasing Giovanni off and occupying Moretti long enough for Dent himself to press the pursuit unmolested. He was credited with a kill for forcing Giovanni down, bringing his own tally to two missions and one kill, while Giovanni's long career moved on to twenty-six missions and fourteen kills.
Records after this mission:
Sgt. Melchior Giovanni (Stephen, 26/14) — SPAD XIII (Italian) — survived, no-effect wound, forced down and away safely
Ten. Gaston Moretti (Rick, 6/1) — SPAD XIII (Italian) — survived, forced to land and take off under fire
Astro Dent (Bob, 2/1) — OFAG 253 — survived, unhit, credited with a forced-down kill
Book Review
Imperial German Army Motorised Troops 1914–18, Vols. 1 & 2
Jacek Zabielski (Helion & Company, 2025), illustrated by David Bocquelet
Dawn Patrol players spend their time above the trenches, but this two-volume set is about the vehicles and crews on the ground below. Zabielski covers the German Army's motor transport and its early armored and anti-aircraft units.
Volume 1: Origins, Organization, and Mechanical Innovation in the Great War follows the rise of the Kraftfahrtruppen and the way the Army used trucks, motorcycles, staff cars and road locomotives in an industrial war. It begins with steam road locomotives bought from the British firm Fowler, then moves on to staff cars and lorries. The book also covers early state subsidies, the first motor transport battalions and the requisitioning of civilian vehicles at mobilization. It is a supply-and-support story, and a good reminder of how much of the German Army still moved by horse.
Volume 2: Armored Units, Assault Tanks, and the Weapons of Modern Warfare covers the combat arms, and it is the more useful volume for our hobby. It traces self-propelled anti-aircraft batteries from experimental truck-mounted guns to the tracked Flakpanzer conversions, and follows the armored car platoons from improvised 1914 vehicles to the purpose-built Daimler, Ehrhardt and Büssing cars. Its centerpiece is the assault tank detachments, which ran both the German A7V and a range of captured Allied tanks. Some of the numbers are striking. The Germans pressed 100–150 captured Allied armored cars into service but built only 17 of their own, and A7V production came to just 20. The volume closes with appendices of vehicle specifications and a 1914–18 timeline of German mechanized projects.
Strengths and limits. Each volume runs about 130 pages in softcover, 8.3 x 11.7 inches, with 204 (Vol. 1) and 182 (Vol. 2) black-and-white photographs and nine color profiles apiece. These are photo-driven reference books, and reviewers single out the captions, which give weapons, names, ranks and units rather than a few vague words. Some period photos are blurred and worn, which is to be expected.
For the Dawn Patrol crowd: Vol. 2 gives good raw material for ground-support and strafing scenarios, such as truck-mounted AA on a road, an armoured car column, or a 1918 tank detachment in the background. Vol. 1 helps with staff transport and supply columns near an airfield. As a set, the two books are a solid, well-illustrated picture of a branch of the Imperial Army that gets little attention.
Imperial German Army Motorised Troops 1914–18, Vols. 1 & 2
Jacek Zabielski (Helion & Company, 2025), illustrated by David Bocquelet
Dawn Patrol players spend their time above the trenches, but this two-volume set is about the vehicles and crews on the ground below. Zabielski covers the German Army's motor transport and its early armored and anti-aircraft units.
Volume 1: Origins, Organization, and Mechanical Innovation in the Great War follows the rise of the Kraftfahrtruppen and the way the Army used trucks, motorcycles, staff cars and road locomotives in an industrial war. It begins with steam road locomotives bought from the British firm Fowler, then moves on to staff cars and lorries. The book also covers early state subsidies, the first motor transport battalions and the requisitioning of civilian vehicles at mobilization. It is a supply-and-support story, and a good reminder of how much of the German Army still moved by horse.
Volume 2: Armored Units, Assault Tanks, and the Weapons of Modern Warfare covers the combat arms, and it is the more useful volume for our hobby. It traces self-propelled anti-aircraft batteries from experimental truck-mounted guns to the tracked Flakpanzer conversions, and follows the armored car platoons from improvised 1914 vehicles to the purpose-built Daimler, Ehrhardt and Büssing cars. Its centerpiece is the assault tank detachments, which ran both the German A7V and a range of captured Allied tanks. Some of the numbers are striking. The Germans pressed 100–150 captured Allied armored cars into service but built only 17 of their own, and A7V production came to just 20. The volume closes with appendices of vehicle specifications and a 1914–18 timeline of German mechanized projects.
Strengths and limits. Each volume runs about 130 pages in softcover, 8.3 x 11.7 inches, with 204 (Vol. 1) and 182 (Vol. 2) black-and-white photographs and nine color profiles apiece. These are photo-driven reference books, and reviewers single out the captions, which give weapons, names, ranks and units rather than a few vague words. Some period photos are blurred and worn, which is to be expected.
For the Dawn Patrol crowd: Vol. 2 gives good raw material for ground-support and strafing scenarios, such as truck-mounted AA on a road, an armoured car column, or a 1918 tank detachment in the background. Vol. 1 helps with staff transport and supply columns near an airfield. As a set, the two books are a solid, well-illustrated picture of a branch of the Imperial Army that gets little attention.
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