<S> Allies

[ghostdancer]

Just wanted to thank all the allied squads for last night. You guys turned out great numbers (always very helpful when we armed with BB guns .. but enough BB guns can bring down an elephant or JU88s in this case) and you perform magnificently. The plan was bit awkward / rough and there are certain things I wish I could have done (like deploy 1 scout in a Boston from each squad instead relying on the picket plan I did) but you guys really pulled things together and fought well last night.



And please check in with the Supply Officer, I put in requisition for sheep for all squads. Figured you prefer that versus a case of scotch for each squad.

[ghostdancer]

Axis squads please don't interpret my to allies as trying to rub salt in. Truthfully I was very nervous about last night's frame for several reasons but the big one was if the Axis CiC decided to deploy the bulk of your forces in JU88s I held very little chance of stopping you.

As the rules stated 3 out of 4 planes needed to be flown. If you guys had flown say 10 C.202s and 10 bf109E4s and 69 JU88s (207) there would been very little our BB armed Hurricanes could have done to prevent you from bombing Malta and our DDs back into the stone age. If your numbers were better instead of what I quoted and say you had 15 C.202s and 25 BF109E4s and 69 JU88s (207) .. well that was my real nightmare scenario (pardon the pun).

I went into last night expecting to be crushed. Since at alt Hurricanes can't catch JU88s and their armament is inadequate for shooting down more than say 1 JU88 out of a box  (limited window of firing and weak rounds before the JU88s could simply walk away). So the thought of 200 JU88s sort of made me .. well made me go white.

So I built my plan around of having to keep everyone very close to Malta (within 1/2 sector) throw out pickets that track you (Bostons were used as pickets and scouts since they were the fastest we had .. although had to use some Hurris because couldn't deploy just one Boston per squad as a scout and didn't want to condemn two squads to flying Bostons just for pickets and scouts .. 327th volunteered so I used one squad as that) and then mob attack approach. Where Hurricane Is were vectored out and did what they could to hurt the JU88s and then the Hurricanes II right over Malta finished the job of killing wounded JU88s.

Spent a fair part of the night tracking you, making sure squads didn't get pulled out of position and then vectoring in attacks and establishing rally points.

So my was just to the Allied squads for working well last night and really working tightly as a team as I vectored them all over the map reacting to each inbound wave of JU88s.

I the Axis to .. you guys did a good job with the numbers you had.

[Viper61]

GD:

  Excellent job last night of manuvering your assets to the fight.  Some of the plans in which we fly during Squad Ops are just that.  the guy plans and then never takes command.

  I dont know about the rest of the sectors as I only saw my little piece of "heaven" (North of the island).  But I will say at H+20 when we got hit by the fighter sweep north of the island your commands to vector in support saved the 325th from getting are butt's handed to us.  It also stopped the intended fighter sweep 20 miles north of the targets.  In hind sight a I also think that a wave of JU 88's were behind them by 20 miles and when they got smashed the 88's turned and headed NW as we were reporting via our trailing scout.  They tried to skirt around to the west but could not due to the trailing scout.

  This was the first time the 325th employed a trailing scout in this case "Kuhn".  He followed them for 30 minutes reporting in alt, location and direction.  This was very effective and I suggest using this tactic again in such as scenario.

  I know planning and commanding if fun but is also very time comsuming at the same time.   sir you did a assume job

Viper 61

[daddog]

I did not take it that way GD. You did good like usual.

There were some serious problems with that frame, but are being dealt with in another thread. No need to drag it out here.

[TracerX]

USMC had a little secret weapon last night.  999000, an old squaddie was able to join us for the event.  Ju-88's are not his main ride, but holy cow, take a look at these results.
 
999000
22:03:25 Departed from Field #24 in a Ju 88A-4
22:59:08 Shot down a Boston III flown by Eagle.
23:00:11 Shot down a Boston III flown by Gooss.
23:14:34 Shot down a Boston III flown by KOOL.
23:15:16 Destroyed a vehicle hangar at base #119  
23:17:32 Joined by B52G as gunner/observer.
23:39:17 Arrived Safely at Field #4

That is 3 Boston kills with BB guns  
We had a blast despite the big number problem.   Allies.

[DmdJJ]

Originally posted by Viper61
I dont know about the rest of the sectors as I only saw my little piece of "heaven" (North of the island).  But I will say at H+20 when we got hit by the fighter sweep north of the island your commands to vector in support saved the 325th from getting are butt's handed to us.  

Viper, there was only 5 of us that met you north of Malta. I was shocked when I saw at least another 15 Hurri's come in high after we first engaged:O That put us at about a 5 to 1 disadvantage.
We bugged north, rearmed, and came back for seconds, only three strong.
Was a fun fight. I had to remove your left aileron from my wing after our collision

[Shifty]

I thought the CO did an outstanding job. He put 880 Sqdn right where we needed to be to make an effective intercept.  While we did not get a load of kills on the 88s. We did manage to hit them hard enough initially for others to come in and finish them.
GD

[KOOL]

Originally posted by ghostdancer
And please check in with the Supply Officer, I put in requisition for sheep for all squads. Figured you prefer that versus a case of scotch for each squad.

Thanks for the sheep GhostDancer!  Good job last frame!
Salute to the Axis too.

[KOOL]

Originally posted by TracerX
USMC had a little secret weapon last night.  999000, an old squaddie was able to join us for the event.  Ju-88's are not his main ride, but holy cow, take a look at these results.
 
999000
22:03:25 Departed from Field #24 in a Ju 88A-4
22:59:08 Shot down a Boston III flown by Eagle.
23:00:11 Shot down a Boston III flown by Gooss.
23:14:34 Shot down a Boston III flown by KOOL.
23:15:16 Destroyed a vehicle hangar at base #119  
23:17:32 Joined by B52G as gunner/observer.
23:39:17 Arrived Safely at Field #4

That is 3 Boston kills with BB guns  
We had a blast despite the big number problem.   Allies.

Yes 999000 in a buff is a huge secret weapon. Although I never took any damage from a Ju88 during my flight I was however pinged.  Note the time when I got shot down.  That was around 14 minutes after we made our attack on the Ju88's. I had already landed, hotpadded, and then went to the LW DD's to dive bomb them.  It was at that time that the DD's finished the job and 999000 got credit.  He was probably already flying home from Malta but he still deserved the kill.