I haven’t flown in an FSO for over a month do to lack of time from working on freelance projects and Hurricane Wilma knocking out my power. So I really looked forward to flying last night, especially since the Nightmares VMF-101 were tasked to fly B17Gs and P47D11s. When I read our assignment I think I had an ear splitting grin on my face since the P47D11 is probably one of my favorite planes to fly.
Even still I had a long day, I was up at 5am, and almost slept through the start of the frame. I am glad I didn’t because even though I was yawning and groggy for the first 30 minutes of flight after that when the Fw190A8s and Bf109G6s came screaming the adrenalin started to pump and I felt more awake than I have in weeks; Now to the meat of the matter, the actually after action report (AAR) for last night’s frame.
Our squad turnout was much stronger than expected; I guess others besides me like the P47D11, with 26 pilots turning up for the event. Fortunately we made arrangements to parse out pilots to other squads before the event, just in case. The MAW took two of our pilots (plumbit and HavocA20), a third (RamzeyII) went to Rogue Squadron, and the fourth (Plink) said he might have to leave part way through the frame so he opted to gun for a buff instead of flying a plane.
The net result was that we fielded 13 P47D11s and 6 formations of B17Gs, with one gunner along. The MAW, who was also tasked with escorting our bomber strike, fielded another 7 P47D11s. So we had a combined force of 20 P47D11s escorting 18 B17Gs (6 formations).
I put Filth in charge of our bomber flight, 50cals lead our first escort flight, Fdutchmn lead the second flight until he disconnected and then TopHat took over. FsCage and I lead our third flight of escorts. I usually put somebody else in charge of the flight I am in since I tended to get tied up with coordinating all the flights.
We took off from airfield A1, near London, and climbed out directly east toward the Channel. After some discussion we I decided to change our orders slightly and have our bombers climb just to 18,000 ft. while the Nightmares VMF-101 stacked above them at 23,000 ft. and the MAW above them at 26,000 ft. I chose these altitudes because our bombers were covering less ground than I expected and I was worried about hitting out target, airfield A63, before T+60.
Unfortunately partway into the frame ROC, who was flying a B17G formation, discoed and there was not way he was going to be able to catch up to our strike force. So he ended up also gunning for one of the other bomber groups. This left us with just 15 B17Gs (5 formations). Fdutchmn also disconnected but was able to come back, relaunch and catch up in his P47D11.
The first 30 minutes of the frame was to be honest boring. Out bombers kept an incredibly tight formation, I think all within 200 to 300 yards of each other, and our escorts flights spent their time sweep ahead and then circling back for the bombers making sure never to fully lose sight of them but for the most part it was just blue sky ahead of with no sign of the enemy.
That all changed at T+34 when two Fw190A8s came screaming in from the east. We thought they were scouts and I called for the MAW to intercept them while ordering the other escort flights to tighten up around the bombers. If the two Fw190A8s were indeed scouts then the Luftwaffe’s main force was not far away. At T+36 a horde of Fw190A8s and Bf109G6s came in from the east at altitude somewhere around 28,000 ft. The MAW tried to intercept them but the Luftwaffe planes pitch their noses down and dove past the MAW to hit our buffs on their firing past.
The next 10 minutes was probably some of the most intense air combat I have ever participated in Aces High. Luftwaffe planes looped and repeated dove on the B17Gs while P47D11s chased them this way and that. Tracers seemed to fire past my plane from every direction as I tried to make Fw190A8 break off its run on one of our bombers. Our squad and the local VOX channel was almost overwhelmed with people calling out enemy planes, trying to coordinate wingman to protect the buffs, and from the buffs themselves calling out incoming planes.
I, MrDick and another pilot locked onto one Fw190A8 and followed him through several maneuvers with both us lighting him up with .50 caliber rounds. He finally dove out of the fight with both of us on his tail. MrDick blacked out while I pour some more rounds into before realizing I had been sucked down to 12,000 ft. I broke off and scanned about for the bombers while calling to my squad mates to find the bombers and to rally back to them.
MrDick lost a total of 10,000 ft. before he recovered I have no idea if we the Fw190A8 survived or not since we both let him go instead of losing sight of the bombers.
The first Luftwaffe attacked was over for us but the escorting MAW and Nightmares VMF-101 P47D11s were scattered all over the place with only 4 remaining with the B17Gs, which had pushed ahead.
Our bombers were mauled. In those 10 minutes of furious action we lost 8 B17Gs. Several of our bombers reported they had exhausted or were almost bingo ammo in several of their gun positions. I specifically remember ROC saying that his tail gunner was out of ammo and that he had to bounce from the top ball, bottom ball, and left and ride side gunner positions in a frantic attempt to gain a lock on the incoming enemy planes to try to beat them off.
I am not sure how many P47D11s we lost in this first phase of our air battle. I do know, after looking at the CM logs that in those 10 minutes we got by four enemy squads, the Cactus Air Force, ~~FATE~~, Sick Puppies, and the 65th FS ~Fighting *****. All told about 28 enemy planes or roughly a third of the whole Luftwaffe air force had hit us head on.
For the next 5 minutes our P47D11s frantically scrambling to gain altitude and to catch up with our bombers while a few Fw190A8 and Bf109G6s skirting our edges. We were able finally to get 10 P47D11s to catch up to the B17s and form a defense screen around them.
The B17Gs were still flying and incredibly tight pattern but the damage they suffered really was something else. Filth still had his box of 3 bombers but his lead bomber had 2 smoke streams flowing off of it, Smuz had 2 bombers left with one training smoking, and Wezman and SIM both only had single bomber left each staining the sky behind them with a trail of leaking oil or gas.
We inched slowly toward A63 while listening to the bomber pilots on VOX trying to keep formation as engines died across several planes. SIM went down to 2 engines while Filth’s lead bomber finally had three engines quit on them and Wezman and Smuz both had their own engine problems. Finally Wezman fell out of formation as the other three groups of bombers pushed onward.
I checked the country status and saw that only 60 or so Luftwaffe were still airborne. I thought we were safe and the worst was over for us since there were four other B17Gs strike groups hitting France at the same time as us. I figured we had survived and broken through the defenders in our area and that the other 60 Luftwaffe planes would be off in other sectors trying to stop the other allied bombers.
I was wrong.
We lumbered into sight of A63 and our bombers started to line up and calibrated their bomb sites. We were about a minute, maybe two out before they could drop (somewhere around T+52) when people started yelling that Fw190A5s were coming in from the east and south east. The gunners on the bombers were firing all about as we scrambled to beat back the enemy planes. Then one after another we started hearing the gunners of each bomber call out they were out of ammo. We got hit in force again, this time by III/Jabostaffel =ES= enemy squadron which had fielded 12 planes for the frame. We had only 10P47D11s and 7 damaged B17s to face them with for the second phase of our ordeal.
I saw the engines of one of SMUZ’s bombers explode into flame but he pressed on leaving a thick black smoke stream, steaked with yellow and orange flames behind him. Finally his wing blew off, I am not sure from the engine exploding or from another pass by an enemy plane, and I watched as his bomber started that sickeningly unique spiral toward the ground that B17Gs missing a wing does.
I didn’t have time to watch more as I BFD called out he was in trouble. I looked around and spotted him 2000 ft. below, ignoring the radio chatter of Filth trying to keep the bomber force on target and the other P47D11s working together to cover the bombers. I and two others rolled over and dove down to his assistance. I lined up on the Fw190 and let lose a 1 second burst from my 8 .50 cals. The enemy plane’s wing and part of his tail disintegrated and I scored my first kill (it was cyou of the ~~FATE~~). Then BFD and I linked and we engaged another two enemy planes. Finally we ran one into the ground after shooting him up on the deck (smash32 of 65th FS ~Fighting *****~).
