
    THE MISSIONS

    This is a collection of historical missions to be flown within the Red Baron Mission Builder program. The narrative explains the mission, the date it was flown, and what other details that are known about it. They are in a series of three missions per ace, all arranged in chronological order. 

    YOUR ROLE
 
   In all these missions, you are flying AGAINST the named ace. The details as to the bases being flown from, the airplanes they used and fought against (i.e. what you will be flying) are accurate. Geographic details in RBMB are limited, but by using the airbase locations it is possible to put the air battle close to where it actually occured. 

     BACKGROUND

    Many air battles deserve to expanded upon, which is the joy of the mission builder program. It allows you to construct historical missions using those  perspectives NOT ordinarily thought of. For instance, what was Richthofen's last mission like, from the perspective of Wilford May, the pilot he was chasing when he was shot down? What happened on Albert Ball's last mission? What was it like to have your base raided by Eduard von Schleich's unit? Published details DO exist for these scenarios, but Dynamix did not include them in their "historical missions" option. 
   
   LIMITATIONS
 
   While I have tried to build up actual missions for the aces named in Red Baron, it is just not possible to do it for all them. The individual missions of those that wrote autobiographies is simple enough, but what of the rest? What details remain regarding the missions of Carl Degelow, or Donald MacLaren, or Werner Voss? What little detail we have usually centers around their most famous (and usually last) mission only, if that much. So the informed imagination must fill in the blanks. We know where they fought, who they fought, when they fought, and what they fought with, so we can just build from there. 
    Rather than have a differing number of missions, differing from ace to ace as historical data allows, I have chosen to go with a fixed set of three per ace. They are all in chronological order, and are accurate insofar as details are available. Where there is insufficient data about the ace's actual missions (or least those worthy of inclusion here), I have created one instead, using what facts are at hand. The text explains which missions are factual, and I have supplied the actual date it occured where possible.

    OMISSIONS

    I have omitted all those historical missions already covered in "Fly a Historical Mission" part of Red Baron, for obvious reasons of needless duplication. Also, I have omitted those famous missions already built and circulated online by other RBMB fans. Voss's last mission, Bishops' solo raid on a German airfield, Barker's last dogfight, etc., are well known, and usually well done. 
    Omitted careers. The career of Erich Loewenhardt was so intertwinned with those of the Richthofens, i.e. serving at the same bases at the same time so often, that his inclusion in the "Lothar" and "Manfred" missions is sufficient. Also, I have been unable to dig up sufficient mission details of Carl Degelow, Rudolf Berthold, and George Barker (at least those on the Western front) to include them here. If anyone has details of those missions, I would welcome their inclusion.
  
  Lastly, there are the historical missions that in fact make for boring RBMB missions. A large number of the kills confirmed to the great aces were in fact against recon planes, which the player cannot fly in RBMB. Also, many of them scored many kills while out on solo patrol, a one-on-one affair. While it IS possible to recreate a historical mission against a solo ace, that scenario is already available to the player in the "Dogfight a Famous Ace" option in Red Baron. The opposite is more enjoyable, and far more challenging - the tussle of several dozen planes per side, swirling in a sea of tracer bullets and near collisions. That was a normal circumstance, and those are the missions I have sought to re-create. 

    HOW TO PLAY

    All these missions are playable using the time compress feature (the "C" command). There are no arcane directions to follow, and the programmed dogfight is directly in front of the player. The vast majority are flown at dawn or dusk, (or from the home field) so getting back to base is no problem. Just follow the flare. If a patrol starts off flying in a certain direction, then stay with that heading, even if you need to knock down a recon patrol or two in the meantime. For those daytime missions that start at take off, the player is following a leader, and need only hit the "C" command to be directed to the dogfight. You may have to get back on your own though, so watch your headings and landmarks.

    The difficulty level default is 97%, simply because the most accurate level, historically, is 100%. The sole compromise I have made to this is the collision factor, which I feel is far too sensitive in RB, and is thus turned off. The player can use whatever level of difficulty he choses, but such is the reasoning for the default. 

    Because of the varying memory capacities of us RB fans, I have tried to keep the strain on memory to a minimum. On a 4 meg system, few of the missions exceed 50% on the memory meter. The inclusion of more planes would make for more accuracy, but none of us likes software that outstrips our hardware. If you have the memory to "flesh out" the opposition (or your wingmen) by all means do so. 
 
    I have tried, where RBMB allows for it, to focus on those actual missions wherein the aces' plane is distinguished from the rest, via markings and colors. Unfortunately, it is not possible to "hex-up" the color of an opponents' plane to match reality. Thus, there will be missions where the ace is flying a generically-painted plane, where in fact he had his own distict markings. I HAVE taken the liberty of putting some color in the player's plane where history allows for it (i.e. when flying for the French or Germans, who were liberal about that than the RFC).
      
   Lastly, in virtually every mission you are in command. That way you can control your wingmen, and in those few where you are flying behind a leader it will be mentioned in the narrative. 

   If anyone has details about an ace or a mission not covered here, and wants to fill in that detail, by all means doctor it up and let all of us know. Until Red Baron II is released (if ever) we are on our own and can use the support. 
   Also, because of conflicting historical data regarding some of these missions, there will be some who feel the reconstructed mission is inaccurate. All I can say is that each mission IS based on at least one published account of the event.  

     Bibliography:

    "Heroes of the Sky"  Arch Whitehouse
    "Decisive Battles of the 1st World War"  Arch Whitehouse  
    "Aces of the 1914-1918 War"  Bruce Robertson
    "Ace of the Iron Cross"   Ernst Udet
    "Fighting the Flying Circus"  Eddie Rickenbaker
    "The Great Air War"  Aaron Norman
    "King of the Air Fighters"  Ira Jones
    "Fighter Pilots of WWI"  Robert Jackson
    "Flying Fury"  James McCudden
    "Winged Warfare"  William Bishop
    "Canvas Falcons"  Stephen Longstreet
    "Aces High"  Alan Clark
    "Ace of Aces"  Rene Fonck
    "High Flew the Falcons"  Herbert Mason
    "Into the Blue" Norman MacMillan 