Mediterranean League: Saturday Oct 14th AAR's

[LLv34_Camouflage]

Hello Gentlemen!

Post your AAR's here!  

Axis squadron CO's, email me your reports with kills/assists/ground target details! ville.pitkanen@hut.fi

Thanks for the great fights!!

Axis CO - Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[Citabria]

82nd fighter group had the understrength 39th F.S. folded into it and departed a4 with 11 p38J-25LO lightnings on a routine Combat Air Patrol CAP mission along the northern coast of Africa with orders not to cross the .9 meridian and enemy territory.


we had a very long patrol that was longer than it needed to be (my fault) as I lead my p38s further east than my designated 82nd F.G. patrol area of a2-a4 in attempt to cover the additional area required of the 39th F.S.

we heard reports from a p47 patrol sighting 205s at 35k 1 sector south of a1 but they disengaged and headed north by the time we climbed to 34k from 30k and made contact with the jugs. this was northwest of a7.
during this patrol I realized the folly of having such a large area to cover from such high altitude and sent 2 p38s (MarkAT and Akswulfe) to scout around field a4 while we patrolled east.  I asked for 1 p38 to drop to 25k from our altitude of 34k and TS volunteered and duely dropped alt and kept a watch for any possible low alt ju88s

markat and akswulfe soon ran into a large number of 109s above 30k and I ordered my 2 scouts to not engage but to drag them to our 9 p38s rushing to help. we caught up with MarkAT and akswulfe sandwiched by 2 groups of 109s all heading perpendicular (south) to our oncoming 9 p38s and co alt with us.

a whirling furball ensued     (it was a ton of fun!)

my flight did a good job during the begining of the fight to maintain flight cohesion but we got spread out during the long battle and lost MarkAT, cars, eddiek and akswulfe. bug322 was attempting to clear akswulfes single engined and damaged p38 when he was also hit and forced to bail out.

Ice smoked 2 109s for 2 probable kills (watch the chat buffer next time ice     )
bug322 destroyed 2 109g2s before being forced to bail over a4 for 2 confirmed kills
I was able to destroy 1 bf109g2 in a stall climb and damage 2 more with heavy bursts of fire but the second two were not disabled in any way by my fire. TS became the subject of numerous bounces the entire fight but he did find 1 ju88 and attempted to attack it. due to his altitude disadvantage versus the 109s he was not succesful. as the fight twisted all over the sky it pulled TS down to sea level the quickest and he became entangled with 2 109s b&zing him. I dove from 15k to assist and destroyed 1 of the 109s as it attempted to hammerhead on top of TS. I entered into a head on with the remaining 109 by accident as I mistakenly thought I had a tail aspect shot and was hit by a single 20mm which did not damage any systems on my p38. the 109 did not enjoy the loss of its numerical superiority and atempted to flee the area followed by TS and myself. I had a significant energy advantage over ts and the 109 and came screaming down onto the 109s low 6. at about 400 yards the 109 broke upwards and entered some sort of desperate stall climb so i held down the trigger till his wing fell off for a third kill (TS got 2 assists     ). as TS and I flipped down from precarious nose up positions another 109 came zooming in to save the remains of his wingman. but we dove in time and he wasnt presented a shot. I called for the flight to reform over a4 as we were severely spread out. TS and I also turned away from the lone 109 who skiddishly attempted to lure us north then gave up chase and left the area. our remaining p38s met up back at a4 and low on fuel I signalled all 82nd F.G. pilots to rtb. as we were landing to refuel a2 was captured by a lone c47.     it turns out there was only 1 ju88 ever in our patrol area and it de-acked the field and vacated the area while the goon snuck in.

overall stats:
11 p38J's sortied on CAP
6 109s killed by 82nd F.G lightnings ( 4 p38s that were downed and left the arena did not give me their scores  or I missed them as the furball was still swirling)
6 p38s landed safely
5 p38s shot down
1 pilot walked back to base     (Bug322)
4 p38 pilots MIA (unknown if they bailed or were killed. if you were one of them please tell us your status     )


overall this was the closest thing to a warbirds S3 I have experienced in Aces High and I was very impressed with the immersion of having no radar/sector bars and d3.0 icons.

excellent job zigrat, CM's, CO's and players. we had no wierdness from rook p51s in our area and had an excellent scenario even though our patrol leading up to the big furball was uneventfull.

[This message has been edited by Citabria (edited 10-15-2000).]

[Tuomio]

Not much to report. I was camos wingman, but we got separated by 1 p38 who was harrassing me from 2.5k higher. Little later i got 2 p38:s on my 6 and that forced me to leave combat zone. Unfortunately the guys on my six were Citabria and hes friend so they escorted me to my death quite rapidly. Overall i had feeling, that we were quite unorganized.
 

Citabria that was me who did that desperate stall climb. =) There were not much else to do (well at least with my skills). <S>

[This message has been edited by Tuomio (edited 10-14-2000).]

[Hangtime]

319BG Sortied well into the frame.. we had some problems getting buffs enabled.  

The flight to Licata was eneventful.. however Licata itself was hevily defended; and 3 b26's were lost. They gave good acoount of themselevs; and took 3 109's with 'em. The c47 RTB's safely; electing to not get sliced to ribbions in the cloud of defenders.

319th reports Licata's A/A defenses severly damaged or disabled comletly; 3 enemy A/C destroyed in the air 3 B26's lost to enemy action.

Hang

[Sunchaser]

346th Bombardment Squadron Mission report:

Eight B17Gs left Tripoli 15 minutes late due to procurement problems, UPS truck crashed and our planes were late arriving.

We took off from several different runways and flew to Mareth where the Squadron, missing Natt who discoed, formed in good order and set course for Bone, on the North coast of Africa.

Natt rendezvued near Bone and a loose formation of 8 B17s containing 3 gunners headed north to the target from there.

Wilfrid was lead due to yet another foulup by the Squadron CO. {I finally found the map Wilfrid, it was under some beer bottles on the deck, sorry.} and when he also discoed I assumed lead and he joined me as gunner.

As we approached the target area there was discussion regarding the time frame allowed and based on that discussion I ordered an abort of the mission.

Pilots were instructed to bomb dolphins with no regrets and get into Bizerte at best possible speed.

One plane, appearantly with malfunctioning radio equipment flew into the target area and was shot down by fighters, its crew bailed into captivity.

On the approach to Bizerte one B17 was shot down by friendly fire and crew was lost.

(Please disable that HQ complex CMs, North Africa is supposed to be in Allied control.)

Six of the original eight B17s landed with no loss to the enemy.

That constitutes 25% of our bomber force on an aborted mission, we need practice.

As an aside to any 346th personnel reading this, aborting after flying for 2 hours really bites, I know that.

I wonder how many missions were aborted during WWII after longer flights?

Please remember that this is not the main arena and fly accordingly in the future.

SCGreyBeard, get that radio fixed!

Well flown under the circumstances 346th!

RW is proving unreliable, anyone know a better comms program?

Suggestions:
Extend time frame if bombers are to fly the entire mission home base to home base or make targets closer.

Enable planes quicker or something.

Slow the damned buffer down!
(Just kidding there but it is a squeak keeping track of everything and my XO does most of it.)

It was not a stellar performance but we fight again.

See you Tuesday.

Sunchaser



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When did they put this thing in here and WTF is it for?

[rzch]

1/KG77 AAR

After much confusion and chaos and commanders trying to alter plans at the last second we finaly launched from Belvedere in our trusted JU-88s.

There seems to have been some confusion as to just who our escort was supposed to be. I launched my flight understanding that g6s would be the escort and then 10 or 15 minutes into the flight found out that the 205s were now tasked to escort us.

This turned out ok as the 205 flight leader was able to contact me and we arranged a rondevue(sp?) north of the Malta area.

As we proceeded we picked up one or two more Axis fighter groups. Entering into contested airspace we had friendly fighters all around us.

My pilots and I went heads down to perform our first bomb pass. The bombs fell on tgt, but as soon as we brought our heads back up we were under fire by numerous spitfires and typhoons.

It was like our own fighters had simply evaporated at the worst possible moment.
Most of my men did not even have a chance to man thier defensive weapons.

The flight was wiped out to the man.

1/KG77 sortied 7 Aircraft today.

6 Ju88's Sortied
1 RTBed due to mechanical failure
5 Lost to Enemy Air

1 C47 Sortied
1 lost to pilot error.

(recommending pilot commendation as he was vailiantly trying to resue downed pilots near Malta)

End Report.

r2ch

CO 1/KG77 (pending board of inquiry)

[This message has been edited by rzch (edited 10-14-2000).]

[Sunchaser]

I have been informed that only 5 B17s landed, a fact that escaped my razor sharp perception even though the 6th plane pilot was my gunner on landing.

This CO stuff is givin' me a headache.



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When did they put this thing in here and WTF is it for?

[-ammo-]

Upped P-47 from A7. Mission was fighter CAP. We climbed Northward on 360 until spotting high cons 12 OCK at which pointy I follow Ripsnorts advice and drop my DT's. We reverse for altitude and get to a comfortable 30K+.   heading is now 360 and we encounter Contacts Over A1. Ripsnort, MRpluto, and RA engage contacts ( Macchi 205's) . Frenchy and ammo stay high at 27 K watching the battle unfold. Frenchy at this point picks a  205 to pounce and I keep his 6 covered. Just my good luck! An eager 205 driver starts pursuit on Frenchy from a distance. Apparently the guy never saw me as I swoop on him and let my 8 50cals shred his stabilizer. In the meantime Ripsnort has destroyed a 205 with his wingman MRpluto witnessing it. Because of fuel concerns we RTB on  Frenchy's command to A7.  We all do a hot rearm and up again to cover The B-17's ingress into the target. We climbout and proceed achieving an altitude of 35K on a heading of 360. Over A1 we encounter 10 contacts, 2 of which were BF109's and the rest were Macchi 205's. Being outnumbered 2 to 1 we still choose to engage  the enemy and as a team we achieved one more kill of a 109. Credit for the Kill goes to  Frenchy/ammo. We all then RTB'd at 6 because of time constraints, all 5 p-47's. Good day for the 345 Th FG.

[gatt]

We took off with eight C.205s from A1 and capped the 7,9 - 7,10 - 8,9 - 9,9 squares. We spotted several times very high P47s at 30K+ who did some B&Z on us. My section (4 205s) did not score and <EDIT> had one casualty (Grifo) during those skirmishes. XELA's led another section of 4 205's. We then covered (too late, I'm sorry) CAMO group retreating from SW and at the very end we shot down the only one buff we have seen, a B-17G.
 

 

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GATT
4° Stormo Caccia - Knights

[This message has been edited by gatt (edited 10-15-2000).]

[xela]

I had more the feeling the P47 didnt want to engage, after all they were just P47s against our 205s   Was a long, eventless CAP of Sardegna with the only trouble being the absence of DTs on our 205s.

[OleNick]

 I was one of 3 B26 pilots on the raid to Licata. When we reached our target, we ran into 205s and 190s. Pepino and NHFoxtro were jumped immediately, I however managed to make several passes over the target and take out all of the ack. My gunner(Dingy), managed to shoot down a 190. While trying to RTB,several more 190s came from behind and saved me the trip back to base.
  After reviewing the film,I feel I owe an apology to Hangtime. Once he knew that Licata was heavily defended, he scrubbed the mission. At the time, I was so engaged with fighters and dropping ordinance I must have had tunnel vision or something. Wheather or not the enemy fighters would have persued and shot me down anyway does not matter,the abort order had been given.
 I see now that these scenarios require a different mindset/SA than the main arena.

OleNick

P.S. Was fun as hell tho!!

 
   
 

[LLv34_Camouflage]

So the story begins to unfold.    

All in all, the Axis managed well and kept their defence lines intact, even though with heavy losses.  In the west, we also managed to capture A2 from the allies with a Ju88+C47 sneak attack!  WTG Mosca and Naso!    

The eastern front didn't succeed in its Malta capture, all the Ju88's were shot down despite the large escort numbers.  All enemy bombers were shot down or chased away, so the defence was succesful!  


What happened in the West:

As the usual pre-launch chaos started to ease, my JG27 took off in our 8 109 G-2's from Corsica, A32.  We headed south and split into 2 schwarms.  I took mine south of 1, as janjan took his to escort the ju88's from A33.  It turned out that the "ju88s" were one ju88 and one C47.    

As we passed A1, we noticed a few flights of P47s who were unwilling to engage.  I knew the P38's were also somewhere, so we pressed south to intercept.  Gatt kept his 205s close to A1 and kept an eye on the p47's.  We came to A4 at 32k and established cap.  The skies were clear so I took my wingie and we swept W to see if V47 was empty. It was.  

Suddenly my 2nd rotte leader Jarsci, capping A4, calls hi P38s inbound from East.  We hurry there, just as janjan's schwarm arrived at the scene.  I didn't have time to form a clear picture of the situation, since we were quickly overwhelmed by the P38s.  I told our ju88+c47 to head W asap so they wouldn't get trapped under the 38s.  They managed to slip away, even though one p38 tried to catch the ju88.  I managed to chase him off.

The fight scattered over a large area and our wingie pairs got separated. Not good.  I tried to get us to regroup north, at the same time calling help from Gatt.  Too late, 5 of our G-2s were shot down - 3 kills to Citabria.  Grrr...     Jarsci and Staga succeeded in getting one kill each before biting the dust, though.  The few of us left manage to extend north, as the P38s regroup over A4. Kaitsu, Duke and Camo RTB to A1 for refueling.  I glide the last few miles with a nearly empty tank, and use the last drops to roll to the refuel pad.  

As I was on final, Mosca and Naso managed to capture A2 - WTG!!  Our plan worked perfectly, the G-2's managed to keep the P38's east while they sneaked west for the capture.    

We took off again and grabbed altitude just S of A1.  Gatt's 205's were at the scene too and noticed the P47's coming in again.  We moved in to help the 205s, but then a P47 got a lucky deflection shot in and hit my oil lines.  I dove in to A1 and made a succesful landing there.  Duke was caught only minutes later and was forced to bail.  Kaitsu landed safely at A1. Gatt also managed to shoot down a B17 near A1.

Meanwhile, Mosca and Naso had refueled at A2 and were otw to A38.  Unfortunately because it is a large field, Mosca hade to grab lots of alt to get clear of the 88mm acks.  With the time running out soon, they were in a hurry.  I rushed them too much and mosca was shot down, leaving one ack up.  Naso was shot down by it seconds later.  The second capture was sooooo close.    

All in all, our G-2's managed to protect the bomber "group" well.  They succeeded in their mission and left the allies in shame.      Unfortunately, 6 of the 8 109's were lost, with 4 pilots dead and 1 captured.

Results JG27 "Afrika":

2 fighter kills, 6 planes lost, 5 pilots lost.

Camo: no kills/assists, RTB.
Jarsci: 1 kill (P38), no assists. KIA.
2Cool: no kills/assists, bailed out, captured.
Tuomio: no kills/assists, KIA.
Janjan: no kills/assists, KIA.
Kaitsu: no kills/assists, RTB.
Staga: 1 kill (P38), no assists, KIA.
Duke: no kills/assists, bailed out safely.


Also, the east Ju88 group achieved great victories:

Results 4/Kampfgeschwader 1 "Hindenburg"

1 airfield capture, 20 airfield targets destroyed, 2 planes and pilots lost.

Mosca: 18 acks, 2 buildings destoyed. KIA.
Naso: Field Capture (A2), KIA.


Results 4º Stormo Caccia:

1 four-engined bomber kill, no losses.

Gatt: 1 B17 kill, no assists. RTB.

I will update the axis pilot score page tonight. Those pilots willing to get points toward the Knights Cross, post your results in this thread if you haven't emailed me already!

Axis med league website: http://www.hut.fi/u/vpitkane/LLv34/med/

Axis CO - Camo


[This message has been edited by LLv34_Camouflage (edited 10-15-2000).]

[NHFoxtro]

As one of the B26 pilots to Licata, I was the lead buff for the mission. I spotted the opposition as heavy one and reported it to the rest of the squad. I should have turned back to either scrub the mission or now thinking about it to get better alt. Like OleNick said "Tunnel Vission" so I pressed on got in my Bomber sight took 1 ack gun down was moving sights for second and third,dropped to soon on second because I was attacked. Cheked damage to plane <Left engine out> I proceed' West for about 2or3 mls,then turned to make second run and head back to base when I ckd 6 I had 2- 205's. I could not get a clear shot off because they wear using the smoke from the Engine as cover,and they downed me in a matter of seconds, so I bailed as the plane was going down. I don't know if I caused any damage to the 205's with my 6 gun, It all happened rather quickly.
I would like to apolagize to Hangtime, I didn't see the abort order because I was in Bomber sight and will pay more attention next time. Thank you for the experience, It was very realistic to me.  Fox    

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NHFoxtro
-XO- Night Hawks

[Hangtime]

No apology required! You guys did a great job! I'll load up RW for squad comms next run.  

Cya next time!

Hang

[wolf37]

hi all:

this will make a few of you want to kill me, but to bad.

why are there planes or squads at 30+ thousand feet. this is suppose to be historical right. well I do not beleive the planes in 1943 flew at 30+k. and yes I know my squad was up at 27K. but maybe some limits on alt should be set, well thats what I think.

wolf37