Wings of War Over Europe

November 2018 saw us recognize the end of the so-called "War to End All Wars."  World War I ended 100 years ago, and as we do every November, we memorialized this with a Wings of Glory slugfest.  Held at our new haunt, the aptly named Tea & Victory, we took over the largest table and transported ourselves back to late October/early November 2018.

​Leading the Allies in the initial onslaught was none other than the intrepid aviator, Snoopy (no, seriously...Steve Kastensmidt provided a model of Snoopy on a doghouse which flew very similar to a Sopwith Camel).  The Jasta of fighters on the German side was a mixed-bag of hastily thrown together pilots striving to protect a bomber on a critical mission.  At one point, we had 13 players each controlling a single aircraft jinking about the skies striving to down their opponents.  About mid-way thru, we had a mock demonstration of the Navy's Blue Angels when six aircraft where in such close proximity that it took both umpires a few minutes to sort out the maneuvers, all somehow accomplished without a collision!  By the end of the evening, around 2200, four aircraft on each side had been shot out of the sky, but with the fighters tangling with one another the bomber made it thru to it's target unscathed. 
 
During the game, we paused to remember the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who sacrificed themselves for their nations.  A toast was proposed, glasses were raised, comments made...but in the end, the fighting resumed.