User:Theblimpbuster

The Blimp Buster is a moniker from CFS1 online gaming for _RAF_Blimp. The _RAF enjoyed stature as flyers of honor and put up a good clean fight. (Hello to Pikey and Yole and all _RAF!)

Blimpie, as they called him, has a back story that goes like this:

The Blimp Buster was a young American flyer in WWI enrolled in the French Lafayette Flying Corps, a group of American flyers parallel to the elite French Lafayette Escadrille, which also included American flyboys. Blimpie gained a reputation of fearlessness in attacking German observation balloons when returning from missions. In general, the effect of this harassment upset German intelligence by causing the balloon observer to parachute out of the basket prematurely to save their life thus stopping intelligence gathering. In reality, of Blimpie's five dozen balloon attacks, only thirteen balloons actually ignited. The Germans created their own myth about Blimpie and eventually observers assumed any flyer brave enough to attack an observation blimp was probably Blimpie. Their own stories undermined the moral of the German observer corps and in turn continued to inflate Blimpie's reputation.

In reality, Blimpie's officer, Major Jacque Stapp, demoted him upon his first successful balloon busting for causing damage to his airplane and taking unnecessary risks. Attacking balloons was very dangerous for they were guarded by AA fire from dozens of machine guns and occasionally an enemy fighter aircraft. About ten days later after the demotion Blimpie, returning from an important mission, spotted a dozen balloons and could not resist the urge to attack. He ripped apart two of the German observation balloons in succession during this major offensive and the action did not go unnoticed by the French. His commanding officer, Major Stapp, was given congratulations for his brave and effective work by the forward French Army General and asked to do more in the next offensive.

After that request, Major Stapp was forced to order Blimpie to bust balloons. Upon that order Blimpie painted a fork busting a red balloon on the side of his SPAD. After several more successful attacks, French intelligence learned the Germans had a myth of a Death SPAD with the fork attacking blimps. To further the myth the French intelligence had Blimp and his squadron dropping pamphlets behind German lines which read "Meiden Tod! In Ballons nicht beachten und Sie diese nicht erhalten Sie die Gabel!" or roughly translated it said "Eschew Death! Do not observe in balloons and you will not receive The Fork!" Everyone had a good laugh over that.

Blimpie returned home to the US heartland and was an isolationist until Germany's attack on Poland in 1939. Sensing trouble, Blimpie contacted some old flyboy comrads who put him in touch with the _RAF who had been scrambling to build a war capable air force since March of '36 when the Germans reoccupied the Rhineland. The British knew trouble was in the air. Blimpie bought a ticket on Cunard Lines and shipped out on a cold November day from New York City and arrived in Southampton England by Thanksgiving. By February he had proven his flying skills at the aerodrome and was permanently assigned to the _RAF. By May he was given an old Hawker Hurricane by which he furthered his reputation in CFS1 through honorable flying and a deadly aim. Hostilities began in July of 1940 with the Battle of Britain, so Blimpie remains in WWII today with the honorable _RAF shooting Nazi luft-scum out of the skies.

Blimpie's alter ego is a former aerospace engineer and retired business development consultant who vowed never to scrape ice off a windshield again. Never say never, he's been forced to do it again twice after visiting the heartland during the non-road construction months. Let that be a lesson to you.

~S~ _RAF_Blimp aka The Blimp Buster

if you figured this out you can say hi at theblimpbuster@comcast.net it is not viewed regularly so be patient for a reply