Only had three Damned show up last night, Stega Rodan and I. Man, the rest of you guys missed a good one.
We drew escort in FW190A-5's along with some guys from the 325th. The 68th Lancers had F-8's and were the attack group. We took off from A51 on the Baltic map, target was all the hangars at A54. We climbed out heading NE until we were north of V68 then turned E roughly straight in to 54 continuing to climb. The Jabos went level at 20K, we topped out at about 25K. Plan was for them to pass 54 and dive bomb heading back on an RTB course for A47. Didn't look good for us as we started the frame outnumbered by about 20 or so.
At about 13, 8, 4/5 we started to encounter some NME. A group of La-5's came in from the North. On IDing them we see they're lower by a good bit and let them head for the Jabos as they're not a direct threat. Turning back there's another group of La's, these are a bit higher than the first but still lower. Same deal there. They're chasing our Jabos but they have to climb to catch them. And the La5 just isn't suited to that at 20K+. One picks on the tail end charlie of the Jabos but he's in a climbing attack--nice target. I loop in behind him and squeeze off a burst. Got a slight hit as he broke low to avoid it. Stega's dragging a guy and I head over to smack him around but he split s'd. Now a group of Yaks joins the chase. They have some height on us and are a bigger threat to the mission. Or would be if they'd gotten there a minute or so sooner. By now we're almost to where we're gonna turn back to bomb. The 68th guys dive out to hit the field. We pretty much stayed high. I got separated from Stega and Rodan as I turned the other way at the target. I had a pair of Yaks and an La following me for a while. They couldn't close with me. Eventually they bugged back toward A54 but by then it was too late. The 68th had hit the field pretty hard for the loss of maybe two guys. 68 Falcon bought it for sure--he was lead.
The 68th called for support at 13,8,3. As the Jabo's ran out on the deck they had what looked like the whole red air force chasing them LOL. The Damned got reformed and found the good guys running out just under us. We roll in for a pass. I pick on the closest guy, and La-5, and put in a good burst that smokes his engine and he breaks off for home. Can't press it--there's just too many of em. The other guys take a pass and something wierd happens--the reds all turned and left. We scared em off? . All remaining RTB to A47. Stega had an unfortunate landing gear collapse on his rollout. Rodan nearly got tangled up in the buildings on the re-arm pad but got out of it OK.
We re-arm and take off to hit 54 again. With all the fighters that were there the first run we were sure we'd be running into a buzzsaw on out second run. This time we grabbed SW to kill some time. As we're climbing A47 begins to flash--they're looking for us. Now P48 is flashing. Good! They're looking in the wrong direction. We grabbed to about the same alts as before. As we gave the ammo factory in 12,8,7 what we thought was a wide enough berth it started flashing. Dangit they're gonna know where we went now! 68KO is in the lead now and has us turn back North. We pick up some guys from the MAW and a couple of AK's. Now we have escort aplenty. I check the roster and now we're up 32 to 19. Apparantly our guys completely mauled a red attack somewhere else on the map--I think at A33.
As we get to about V50 we make a turn to the east. We're in excellent position with the MAW and us high and ahead of the Jabo 68th. Course now is same as the first run--straight in from the West to A54. P48 begins flashing as we pass it. The AK guys head over to investigate. A single LA-5 is there low. He bugged and they lost him. We continue. Again at about the same point we did on our first run we have some NME coming in from the north. This time they can only manage a pair of La's and they're way lower. We ID'd them and let them go again. This pair didn't press their luck as they apparantly boogied from the area. We never saw em again. Never saw another NME A/C again for that matter. Think they were down to about 9 players by then.
The 68th hit A54 unopposed and completely trashed the place. I don't think there were two sticks left standing. Everyone RTB'd back to A47 and a job well done. Most excellent job of coordination by everyone. As Hannibal Smith used to say--I just love it when a plan comes together.
Drano
