Frame Four - Saturday 12th June 1999 AAR Mission 4 (Fogy)
Launched with 343rd from B42 with Rass on wing in P-51s. Sweep began down column 5, with Bull/Front in column 6. Patrolled rows 1-4, nothing eventful until T+55 when encountered 2 jets headed east in 5,5. Fell in behind them and trailed them thru column 6, then reversed for patrol area. About the time the buffs were just starting south, spotted 3 FW coming north, passed head on and revved behind them.
Called Bull over since he was a row further north, and he engaged. Two of them stayed to play, the other split to the west. I chose to let that one go and stay high in support of Bull's section in case the splitter revved and rejoined or other LW showed up.
Fight spiraled down, Front killing one with assist from Bull and the other diving low. Called off the fight and we all headed for buffs, with the low FW between Bull and me. He started to climb, so I made a pass and Bull revved to keep him down. He was under 23K and headed back east, so called for the 4 of us to head for buffs again, climbing at about 29K.
Vis'd the BG just in time to see a single FW rolling in from their high six (prolly the one who had split out at beginning of the last fight). Dove in wep but couldn't catch, nor could Epik who was only escort still in area.
FW killed Mikiri and Mags in one pass, I closed him on the rev and erased him. 56th fighters were now aboard, thank God, and for the remainder of the journey to target area the fighters and buff gunners killed or drove away 2 more FW and 3 109s. Remaining 4 buffs dropped, 3 hit target. We divvied ourselves up among them and trip home was uneventful.
Well done to all!
Fogy<XO>+5+
AAR Mission 4 (Bigs from the 62nd FS)
Hey, ya know the Jugster ain't all that bad after all. <BG>
Let's see . . . the Bigster took off, followed Bitter around fer a bit, and gently reminded him _twice_ not to go near c49 'cause it aint ordinary Uberack--it's a reincarnation of Odin set to pluck you from the sky for raining death on his minions. Unfortunately, like a prophet of old, my warnings went unheeded, so the next thing I got to see was a bunch of pretty lights sparkling around Bitter's ship like fireflies. Very pleasing asthetically, but these fireflies are from the Denovian Period before the dinosaurs so they're about ten feet long and have nasty, pointy teeth. I'm just messin' with ya, Bit; I only saw two flakballs go off & it _is_ hard to tell how far you are from the fields all the way up there 'round 40k. Blame the thin air. <G>
Well, after that, things got dull. A buncha pesky 109's buzzed around us for a bit, so I swatted one of them--1111 shot down. Krup pays the price for messing with the USAAF. I wanted to chase some more down, but Bitter gently but firmly commanded me to "heel," so I dutifully followed him over towards the target area. Things seemed to be nice and quiet there, so I figured I'd be able to put the Jugster on autopilot and catch a quick forty winks. Woe and alas, right about that time a squadron of inconsiderate Luftwaffle Focke-Wulfs decided to come barging in, revving their BMW radials all over the place, capping their twenty mike-mike off, and generally making a hellacious racket. They were Goofus to our Gallant--our Pratt & Whitney Double Wasps nicely purred along and our octets of Browning Fifties gently popped in protestation of the intrusion. Naturally, I couldn't sleep with all that racket. Poor Bigs needs his beauty rest (yeah, I hear ya, Bigs needs LOTS of beauty rest--not that it will help. Har, har. <G>) Perhaps the Luftwaffles thought they would catch the Bigster at a disadvantage--bleary eyed and groggy, rubbing the sleep outta my eyes. Unfortunately for them, I get grumpy when I miss my nap time. But I handled it in a mature, reasonable fashion--I lashed out and turned my frustrations against them. One of those annoying 190s didn't get out of my way fast enough--BOOM! 3068 shot down--Mad Max was minimized. But I hadn't had enough--those Luftwaffles were gonna PAY for keeping me away from my blanky and teddy! My bleary baby blues darted about the sky . . . oh, ho! What's this? A Focke-Wulf drifting through the ether? I gently (but firmly) prodded the nose of my powerful but cantankerous steed towards it . . . takatakatakaBOOM! 1850 shoot down--THE QUICKSTER gets his annual reminder to check his six! <BG>
Needless to say, I was feeling kinda worn out after that, so I just spent the rest of the frame playing full metal jacket dodge ball with a particularly persistant 109 around the target area. I think he may have pinged me once, I can't remember for sure and I dont feel like running my film that long (I'm still sleepy from hanging out at Al's Diamond Cabaret [as featured on the Howard Stern show] last night). I just take the pain & soldier on . <g> We got tired of the stalemate after a while & wandered off in different directions. I ran across Flames & we decided to team up in case any of the big, bad Wulfs got any silly ideas--like staying alive. Wouldn't you know, right about then a Wulf had the bad luck to wander by below us. Flames and I pounced like a couple of school yard bullies looking to tie an M-80 in an alleycat's mouth. Yeah, Herr Luftwaffle, we'll show you a thing or two! . . . COUGH! SPUTTER!
. . . I picked a REALLY BAD TIME to run outta gas. <G>
Luckily, Flames was there to keep the Wulf at bay, so I could just let my Jug gently glide away like the dainty & graceful sailplane that she is . . . NOT! I started shuffling through may maps like Jim Bakker at tax time. Let's see, I'm at 10k in sector 6,6; that means I gotta go about . . . five sectors . . . not gonna happen . . . what's that dot where I dribbled my beer on my map? An aircraft carrier! No problem, I'll just glide this lil' ol' Jug three sectors over & set her down on that flattop!
Right about then, I realized that I couldn't remember the last time, if ever, that I had landed ANYTHING on an aircraft carrier in FR.
So I did the only thing I could.
I prayed.
And yea, the great and mighty Kerman heareth my prayers, and sendeth an angel to succor me. Or words to that effect.
Speet called time. <G>
And anyway, I wrestled that ten ton aluminum brick to a safe belly landing somewhere in the English Channel, and would you believe it? The damn thing floated!
Kinda makes up for smacking into the bonny blue during frame 3, don't you think?
So I learned a valuable lesson today. When more experienced pilots tell you to keep a Jug high, fast, AND NEVER, NEVER, NEVER TURN WITH THE ENEMY . . . they REALLY, REALLY mean it. <G>
AAR Mission 4 (front)
This frame started out much like the last one. We rolled from B:42 and climbed out East to altitude. The 343rs FS was composed of only four fighters this time. Fogy, Rass, Bull and myself flying the P-51D.
As we climbed out we listened to the 38th nearly standing down as their P-38s fell apart. This did us no good at all. They replaned in P-51Ds and aborted their sweeps in order to provide close escort on the bomber group.
We climbed to about 25k then crossed the sectors and began our sweep South. Down the column we went... all the way to just North of the target for today and back up. We saw no contacts apart from a lone and low Bf109 who was probably returning to base to refuel. As we turned 180 again we heard reports of contacts with Me262s and FW190s way to the East so Fogy led us towards them.
Two Me262s passed near Fogy and Rass soon after and sped back East. We turned and headed South again, then West and came upon three FW190s co-alt about 36k. They were heading North East and we slipped in behind them from the South.
Bull lead us into them, while Fogy and Rass stayed high behind us. As we reached the FW190s they all split up, or seemed to, and legged it in different directions. Bull stayed on course for the one heading North and I dipped down to bang up the one heading North East. I dove down on him and hit him three times as he broke right. When I came out of the turn a quick check to high six showed another FW190 close to me... close enough for me to dive a little and head out West. Bull was on this guy's six so I extended to drag him. When the FW190 reversed I swung back in to clear him. I came out of the turn high above them and looked down. There was Bull chasing the second FW190 while the third was chasing Bull. Just as I rolled left to dive in Bull killed the second FW190 and called "drag". I got the kill message on that one (a Hptm from 2/JG2). I swooped but the trailing FW190 broke left and down. Bull reversed and chased him down to the hard deck. I joined back up with Rass, and Fogy dove down to chase that FW190 down some more. We left off as he broke away.
The other FW190 had disappeared. We reformed and headed to join up with the bomb group. As we were inbound I believe that it was this third FW190 who had got in amongst the buffs and had killed two. This was very bad. We had only engaged the first two, he had managed to avoid us and get away.
We curved into the rear of the bomb group and stayed there for the rest of the flight. As we neared the target another lone FW190 came in behind us. I turned into him, and made a sliceback turn around onto him. I caught up with him at 950yds on his six and steadily closed the gap. As he went under 650yds I gave him a few bursts and got a ping. He stayed right on track after Lion in his B-17G. The range decreased... as I was about to give him a full blast a little micro-warp flipped everyone in the group up about 1000yds to my high 2. This was bad. He rolled out across me to the left as I attempted to swing up to the right to stay on him. As I rolled back to get a shot SkinnyBoy nailed him just in time. I thought a gunner had got him we were that close to Lion.
The second FW190 from the three we had first contacted came back in to the East of the bombers. He was too low to do much and Fogy chased him yet again... dead FW190. An Me262 was sighted was below the group. He disappeared and did not reappear.
Next the Bf109s arrived. The first one came in past me and I had to Split-S fast to avoid him. Four Allied fighters chased after him and got him as he made one pass into and out of the box. Bf109 number two showed up at high altitude, shadowed the bombers below him for a while then dove in. I lost sight of him as a third Bf109 had slipped in from the South West. He was the same Bf109 who myself and Bull had spotted probably returning to refuel earlier.
He came in on the bombers through me... and through me he had to go. I rolled up to the left and completed the roll right around and onto him as he blew past. I got right into his six and dove after him. I took a few long range shots and got two hits on him. This was enough to dissuade him from continuing his fast pursuit after the bombers. He broke to the right and down. The second Bf109 came back into view with Fogy hot on his heels. Fogy turned away and Bigs locked onto that Bf109 and pushed him right down West of the port near the target.
I radioed to Bull that we were behind him and called on Rass to pick up the third Bf109 before he had broke away. Rass made a turn after him but the BF109 avoided him and dove lower. I levelled and looked back to see the second Bf109 and Bigs disappear beyond dot range, and below us, to the North.
I kept watching the third Bf109 behind me as he continued his pursuit on the group. I began to climb a little and again radioed to Rass to watch him. As he reached me, but much lower, I pulled up a little, rolled to the left, checked him "up" through my canopy and executed a full throttle Split-S from 31k to 26k down onto him. I reached him in seconds as he stayed level. I closed the gap extremely fast and waited for the shot. He pulled straight up in front of me and I really had to reach upwards to get him... I just about made it and he exploded. The P-51 bucked and the nose dropped right at the last second too...
I zoomed back up to 30k and continued South into the bomber group, linking up with Bull, DuctTape, and VooDoo at the back. Bull joined me in a circle at the rear as I was worried about the two last bombers. I had spotted dots behind them and low to the East. We turned back on course as the dots disappeared. They were actually right below us and we overflew them but they were not in vis range online.
The trip home was uneventful apart from a last enemy aircraft who was killed before we at the rear even knew he was there. Once VooDoo headed back to the South West to check two reported dots but they were friends. The bombers were covered by fighters all the way home.
The frame ended with the home bases in sight. All the 343rd survived this frame, Fogy and Bull became aces. I followed Bull into the sea for an augur at the end... I try to stick with him at all times when he's my lead. :)
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