Foxtrot Flight Black

[Stampf]

To: Commander in Charge – Pacific Fleet Operations
From: Commanding Officer – Foxtrot Flight Black

In regards to actions taking place Friday, the 25th day of April.

   Operating from Task Force 77, Foxtrot Flight Black launched at 22:04 hours.  First off the deck were the (25) F4U-1D Corsairs of the 322nd “Flying Mongrels”, followed by (10) F6F-5 Hellcats of the 353rd FG and an additional (14) F6F-5 Hellcats of JG11 “Sonderstaffel”.

All 49 aircraft successfully launched and the flight headed Northeast according to orders.  Maintaining good order and contact, the flight climbed to our first course change without incident.  Now flying Due North, the 322nd took up sweeping position, North and West of the Attacking wings.

Initial enemy contact calls began to trickle in and the Flight went level at target specified altitudes.  Due East of Target A87 now, we made our heading 270 and turned nose on toward the enemy coast.

Grim enemy contact, position and altitude reports began coming in from the 322nd now.  “Enemy Interceptors in numbers, over target at co or higher Altitudes!"  I acknowledged reception of the situation report, and looked around quickly at the other 23 heavy attack planes.  About 5 miles out I could see the swirling mass of black dots just waiting for us, amidst the initial air to air combat transmissions now coming over vox in a regular, steady stream. 

Flying straight into a waiting enemy ambush, I looked over at the Hellcat off my right wing, piloted by the CO of the 353rd FG.  My mind made up, determined to find some success this day, I deviated from flight plan and path, calling an emergency combat course change, back to 360, due north.  All planes complied, and as we banked hard to the right, I gave a final glance in the direction of the 25 brave Corsairs pilots, now on their own, over enemy territory.

I lead the Attack element north until we over passed the target base by some 8 miles before bringing the wings around and heading in from the back door.  As we approached A87, I could see immediately that the gamble had worked, as the 322nd had by this time dragged the defenders low and out of effective intercept position.

Attacking in section order, the 353rd and JG11 delivered an unmolested first run on the assigned targets.  Heavy fighting ensued at once, but we held good order and delivered another co-coordinated strike with secondary ordinance, before being forced to engage the angry swarm of defending Japanese fighters.

After several minutes of intense combat, and after being satisfied with the mission results the remaining elements of Foxtrot Flight Black, turned away south and headed home.  Surviving able elements then rearmed and undertook a second, enemy harassment sortie.

Mission Summary:

A/C Launched * (49)
A/C Losses * (31)
KIA * (12)
Crashed *(9)
MIA presumed Captured * ( 8 )
Ditched at Sea (accounted for) * (2)

Claims:
 
(37) Confirmed kills with (43) Assisted kills
(13) Enemy targets destroyed


My Regards this day, Saturday, the 26th of April.

Respectfully,

Stampf, Hauptmann
Gruppenkommandeur
JG11 “Sonderstaffel”

[wklink]

Nice AAR.

Gotta look at the logs, see what took my wing off; ack or eny fighter.

Good job thinking on the fly and getting iron on target.

[TheBug]

Nice AAR, was an excellent strike lead. <S> Stampf, JG11.   And also <S> 332nd for the top cover!

[Big Rat]

Glad you guys made it in ,  We had a great furball going on as I'm sure you cold see we ended up engaging 3 different flights Ki-61's/84's and then the A6M5's on the deck.  It's always great to hear that we were able to do what was planned in engaging as much of the fighter cover as possible and dragging them out of position.  I was leading B flight of the Mongrels which was the first to engage, this was my first flight lead and it looks like it turned out well , although B flight lead always seems to go down , zero got me while trying to clear a squadies tail.<S>

Cheers
BigRat

 

[daddog]

Excellent call Stampf.

We had two flights of F4U's in the works. A-flight was the higher of the two, but smaller. B-flight, lead by BigRat was the majority of my squad and the one that did much of the grunt work. B-flight went in about 3 to 4 minutes ahead of us. They gave as good as they got. B-flight engaged 20+ or so enemy and downed about 15 enemy aircraft. A-Flight shot down about 10 or so. Baumer in A-Flight shot down 5 enemy aircraft!

I don't recall your breaking north, but I remember looking around and seeing clear skies north of our target (we dispatched a couple Ki-61's) and headed in. By the time we got their B flight was fully engaged and we helped out. A few minutes later the skies were clear and we headed home.

[Stampf]

This was a tough Operation for the Allies.  First two frames we had fighter duty.  This was the third frame we were paried up with the 353rd FG, (Our traditional, and daily foemen in the AvA).  We were bloodied up good first two frames.  I really wanted to get some results this time around.  When I saw the make up and individual assignments of the Black flight, I grew hopeful for success.

I had no intentions of deviating from plan or path when I left the carrier.  And right up until the 322nd's first flight was engaging enemy defenders, we stuck to it. 

I know I don't talk much on vox, but believe me, I was very carefully sizing up the target area, based on the communications coming back from the 322nd.  TheBug had his boys tucked right into the 11th's formation the whole ride out, so it was very easy to devote all of my attention and energy to getting a clear assesment of the situation over the target area, without constantly checking positions of friendly units.

When it became clear through reports and then visual as well, that the defense was in strength, I made the call.  It was a simple range vox statement along the lines of "No way we're getting ambushed Bug. All planes Break right, 360"..  I believed the 322nd was capable of doing their job, and was only looking for the chance to do ours.  Their was no debate or hesitation among the crews, and both squadrons wheeled right in formation.

The whole manuever took less than 6 minutes, and, this time...it worked.

In a nutshell, all I did was gamble the discipline levels of the 322nd, 353rd, and 11th, against that of the defenders.  There was no high cover in place when we arrived, but still plenty of Japanesse fighters (JG11 shot down (9), after dropping ords). But they were all engaged with elements of the 322nd, at lower altitudes and south of target.  Our bomb release heading was 180.  It really was an anotomy of a perfect strike, just had to go round about, and allow the enemy time to make his mistakes, in order to make it work, and still it was a tough fight.

It was a great pleasure and ton of fun flying this mission with both the 322nd, and 353rd.

A hard, but good days work by all.

EDIT:  ( Oh...no surprise concearning Erich.  He did after all, cut his teeth with the Sonderstaffel.  WTG Baumer).

[forHIM]

I'm just thankful I didn't loose the game.  I was with 332nd B-flight and lost my joystick up  botton and my hat's forward.  In game mapping showed them working just fine, but in-game they didn't work.  Then after I dropped my drop tank, I lost guns.  At that point I just played like I was a heavy Corsair and drug two groups with me to the field and did a beautiful simulated dive bomb on the field.  Look back and I see a squad of N1Ks and A6m5s.  I just kept diving till I hit feet wet.  Climbed and tried getting my stick back.  Was AFK for about 2 minutes calibrating in windows and in AH.  Get back in time to see 2 or 3 ki-61s making their moves towards me.  Again dove away and then climbed.

I then turned back to A-flight's location and started turning the magnetic 6 on.  Drew a few for DD and others to kill and eventually made it home.  Firing with the keyboard and using the numpad for views was definitely a return to days long ago (6+ years).

It was fun.  The joystick problems were probably the only reason I landed this one.  Normally I would have been in with the rest of B flight.

all.
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