A flight of seven heavily ladened Fw190A-8 fighters roared in on un unsuspecting VVS airfield just behind the front. The intrepid group, led by Oblt. Dogftr, swooped down and demolished sever key structurs, as well as destroying a number of anti-aircraft vehicles defending the base. Unfortunately, Oblt. Dogftr, as well as Oblt. 2Cool were both lost on the raid. Both officers were seasoned veterans of this Tour of Duty, and will be sorely missed. They died leading from the front, diving in first to draw enemy fire away from their wingmen. Both have been recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross, posthumously.
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Special thanks to the OPFOR guys: Gronk, Gunney, Yellojkt, and the other one (can't remember this last call sign). This was mission #7 of this TOD, and both Dogftr and 2Cool had been regular particpants. Both had been shot down on previous missions, managing to escape and evade and return to duty. Dogftr was asked to accept command of this mission, which past experience has shown to be rather unhealthy...he agreed without hesitation.
While it's only a virtual war, and these two pilots aren't really dead, I nonetheless feel a certain amount of depression at their virtual demise. They have been staunch supporters of this TOD, and as they and others have met their untimely ends in the course of events, I can't help but understand just a little of what it was like in WWII for the pilots. It must have been particularly depressing to watch day in and day out, month after grueling month, the old familiar faces dissappearing one by one. American ace Bud Anderson wrote in his book, "To Fly and to Fight," that the veterans created emotional armor around themselves, to isolate them from getting too close to their fellow aviators. Even then, loss of an "old hand" could pierce that armor, laying raw the soul to the ravages of dispair. Anderson felt just that dispare when his good friend Chuck Yeager disappeared on a mission over the continent. Though Yeager managed to escape back to England, Anderson never quite shook off the implied threat to his own mortality.
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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)
