Thunder & Lightning - July 29th

[Frodo]

A lot of fun from my end also.

I was with a group of 109's that hit B-17's, with P-38 escort. Damaged a 38, but the P-38's did a great job of protecting the buffs. Could not get close for another attack.


Frodo

[Husky01]

With the numbers at 39 Axis to 52 Allies at the start we did what we could to cover 3 targets. Was fun all Sry the plan was so lacking for axis I was kinda thrown into it per say.

[LancerVT]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
i was the one inbetween 35-37 (?) dar rings ... I caught up with ya from about 2 oc I think ..  I barely got a icon on the b-17's and this herd of pee-38's came a calling ...  I knew I had no chance in hell to get near the buffs , so I tryed to displace the escorts enough for one of our squads to come get ya .

From that point I ended up tangling with the one p-38 that stayed with me , and a spit 9 came over to help ... Well after a down n dirty dogfight ... I came out ahead    

later I managed to catch back up with the b-17's but they had already hit the factory ... there was still to many 38's and only 3 of us there . we tangled some with the escorts again ,,, but alias vee were out numbered badly and decided to  live to fight another day .  I landed with about 10 mins of fuel left .

I was the 38. Was fun . When you dove down I broke off and rejoined the group. Just wish I could have gotten the death blow in. That was pretty much the only action I saw, besides the 1st wave of attackers over France which didn't stay very long.

[thndregg]

<> Nefarious, <> Stoney, <> to all escorts and bombers, and <> to all the 190's after our 25,000 ft. B17 group inbound to target "B".

That mission was awesome!

[Gumbeau]

The 475FG was part of the P38/Spitfire Escort that went deep.

I've flown in many events here and in 'other games' and tonite was the best bomber formation I've seen maintained for two hours straight and the most disciplined escort as well.

SaVaGe led a great flight of escorts and Trukk did a superb job keeping the heavies together and keeping the escorts in the know.

I was greatly impressed and had a great time chasing Luftwaffe away from the bombers.

It would be great if this event were part of a series of European theater escort events covering different time periods in the war and all scored together.

Maybe 4-6 events over a 12 month period.

[Treize69]

You mean like the **cough** S3

Man, I have to see someone about that nagging cough.

[comet61]

It was a blast.

Fell behind the group (running on 2 engines and didn't know it) about half way there, but got 'er up to 22K. Ran into a few 109's but our "little friends" took care of that problem for me. Barely fired any rounds...no need. Then a minute before target I had  110 and 109's all over the place. One of the largest furballs I've seen on AH. Like blkmagc said: "pepper on the windshield"...they were everywhere. I had 2 109's on my 6 when some of our escorts handled them; meanwhile I overshot the target dealing with the 109's at the TG and changed course for thier AF.

Let see: I had to change course, watch my 6 and gun, set the bombsights, remember to open the bomb-bay doors, remember that my bullets could kill friendlies, my group was 10 miles away, re-calibrate again...oh and of course...a 10mph crosswind to boot. Meanwhile a huge air-to-air battle was ensuing 3K away from me. In the melee I was able to destroy their bomber hanger, 2 ammo dumps and barracks. So not bad really.

I thought the groups' leadership was great as was the escorts. The escorts really shined this mission. They did an awesome job and they saved my bacon at least 3 times. (Thanks Magoo and all the others). After landing, I didn't even get a scratch and I had almost all my ammo. That alone attest that our escorts did their job well.

Many thanks also goes to the "enemy". They weren't easy to deal with and I thought their defenses were pretty good as were their formations and attack plans. A "well done" is well deserved for those folks.

So in a nutshell...it was a blast. Can't wait for October.

[Roscoroo]

My poor little scout 110 ... after all the action . at least I survived and added 2 kills to my plane

 

[Trukk]

Lots of fun!

[blkmgc]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
i was the one inbetween 35-37 (?) dar rings ...

Ahh, that was Trukk's (78th Intruders) group in 17's. We were the 24's that came in south of there.

[Gumbeau]

Originally posted by Treize69
You mean like the **cough** S3

Man, I have to see someone about that nagging cough.

NO......

I absolutely hated S3. It was too much a sport. Points and sneaking around and rules and arguments.

I much prefer event like Thunder and Lightning but tied together into a string of events covering the entire war.

Very loosely scored but directly connected to each other.

My version of scoring would be modeled on the real world.

Here is how I would score this event (the portion I saw of it ....which was only one of the bomber raids)

" The bombers lead by trukk managed to reach the target with very light losses and drop all ordinance within the desired radius. The escort suffered moderate losses but was effective at keeping the Luftwaffe at bay. The Luftwaffe suffered light to moderate losses due to effective escort and effective bomber defensive fire. Allied high command believes the light losses justify continued daylight bombing. Both sides able to replace losses. No reduction in available forces for further missions"

And two months later we do another similar event later in the war..........

[blkmgc]

Some really great pics Here of the wave of 110's that we encountered, and a lone LW attack. Courtesy of Jimmyz.