A Dog Fight to Remember

I was patrolling the front in my trusty old Eindecker, when I see below me, about 200 meters, three french Neuports in chevron formation. They don't see me, maybe I'm partly obscured by the clouds, I don't know, but I take the initiative, roll inverted, cut the power and dive on them.

When I can clearly see the roundels on the top wings, I open up on the middle plane, and he disappears in a fireball, and that's when all hell breaks loose. both his wing-men break off and circle around. I return power to the engine and turn hard right (as hard as I can as the eindecker has no ailerons, using wing warping for roll), I finally circle enough that I get one of the Frenchies in my sights and fire a short burst when I hear his comrade's gun firing behind me, I break hard left, letting my machine's torque pull the nose up, and then over into a short turning dive, and I manage to get on his tail, and fire a good burst into him at near point blank, and he goes down.

Before I even have time to catch my breath, I hear the "ratatatat" of the last Frenchman's gun, and then he's gone, I circle around, too slowly to get on his tail, until finally he foolishly straitens out, and I line up to fire, he then rolls inverted and dives at the trenches. I cut power, and follow him down, but he's already far outside my accurate range, a good 350 meters below me, over no-man's land. I keep him in sight, and as soon as I feel my angle of attack is shallow enough, I engage the engine, and race towards him. When I get close enough, I fire a short bust at him, then another, and he starts weaving. This allows me to get very close, and just as I have him in my sights, he rolls inverted again and dives.

Now he's nearly at ground level, but I cut power and follow him down, I will not be so easy to shake. I again engage power when my dive is shallow enough for it to be safe, and we start a turning dog fight in earnest. My plane cannot turn within his, but I manage to give him such a poor target that he cannot hit me. Finally, he makes a mistake and I manage to get on his tail, and fire a good burst, then another. He cannot dive to safety as we are both less than 100 meters above no-man's land, He turns, but I lead him, fire another burst and he goes down.