Author Topic: Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th  (Read 484 times)

Offline LLv34_Camouflage

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2189
      • http://www.virtualpilots.fi/LLv34
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« on: October 07, 2000, 05:02:00 PM »
Hello Gentlemen!

Since most of the allied pilots seem to be in the AH convention, Zigrat decided to postpone the first frame to next tuesday. Nevertheless, over 60 pilots showed up for the best mediterranean league event so far in AH history!

More of the scenario setup at http://www.iit.edu/~buonmic/med.htm

The setup was this:  The allies hold Malta and mainland Afrika.  The axis hold Italy and most of the mediterranean islands, excluding Mallorca (A37), which is neutral.  Both sides attack and try to capture fields and kill strategic targets.


The event was a "one lifer", with only gooning and gunning allowed after you lost your first plane.  

The start of the event was a bit chaotic, to say the least, since we didn't have a capable CM to set up the arena correctly. Fortunately Yeager and Udie came to the rescue, and after an hours wait we got things rolling. <S> guys!    

Unfortunately after Udie left, we didn't have a CM anymore who could have closed the fields after takeoff. I believe there were quite many reups even though it wasnt allowed.  I'm sure we'll have things planned more carefully next time!    

I had to do some tough decisions and assign dedicated Axis pilots to join the Allies, since the sides were very unbalanced at first.  But we cleared that thing and things started to look good, just as the Axis launched their Ju88 attack on Malta.

The allies took off from Tunis in force and headed to Sicily, A16.  A few flights of spits tried to defend Malta, but they were all shot down by my squadron of six G-2's.     The spits managed to inflict heavy casualties to the Ju88s, though, also tolling our G-2's by one plane.  Nevertheless the remaining Ju88's succeeded in their mission to de-ack the field.

The G-2's established cap over Malta and started waiting for the goonie.  At this time we received a message that all bombers were shot down at A16 by the italian 205s.    

But our plans changed drastically, because we noticed that the enemy was closing Malta fast from the north.  The allied bomber escorts were coming to help Malta!  Our five G-2's headed east, trying to extend and escape them.  No such luck, since high P38's closed in fast.  A furious fight ensued, with the G-2's trying to RTB north with more enemies coming to the scene all the time.  

Every time one G-2 managed to extend away from the fight, he had to turn back to clear a six.  This continued until all were on the deck, BnZ'd by P38s, Spit9s and Tiffies.  Soon all but one G-2 had ditched or bailed.  Janjan had managed to extend and dragged a P38 all the way to the airbase.  Needless to say, he was chewed up by ack.    

I had the finnish pilots on RW, and here's how they did:

109 G-2 flight:

Camo: 3 kills, bailed safely South of Sicily, shot down by dudule
Jarsci: 2 kills, bailed safely South of Sicily
2Cool: 1 kill, bailed and captured at Malta
Mist: 2 assists, Ditched South of Sicily
Janjan: 2 kills, RTB
Kaitsu: ??, Bailed??


Ju88's:

Staga: 1 assist, bombed A15 ack, RTB
Mosca: ??, Shot down before reaching Malta
Duke: ??, Shot down after bombing Malta


Our G-2's did very well until we were pinned down by the large enemy group coming from the North.  The rest of the axis had gotten into trouble and couldn't stop them from hunting us down.  Better luck next time.    

A big thanks to all pilots who participated, this was a good drill before next tuesday!  I'm sure both sides can adjust their strategy and tactics based on what we learned today!

Please, write your reports and comments here!    

<S!>


Camo

------------------
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."



[This message has been edited by LLv34_Camouflage (edited 10-07-2000).]
CO, Lentolaivue 34
Brewster's in AH!
"How about the power to kill a Yak from 200 yards away - with mind bullets!"

Offline Sunchaser

  • Copper Member
  • **
  • Posts: 179
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2000, 06:07:00 PM »
First I apologize to the B17 pilots for not arranging dedicated escorts.

We had some but I did not coordinate with them and they were not close enough when the Macchis struck.

We had seven B17s tasked with bombing A18 on the Southern coast of Sicily and 2 made it over the target, Svalan and Gium.

The only confirmed damage to the target was 1 fighter hanger destroyed when Gium, although wounded, turned for a second pass on the target.

The only B17 to withdraw from the target area was Gium, Svalan had to bail out due to damage.

Gium expired from his wounds but did manage to inflict damage and escape the target area first.

I am also missing the names of 2 B17 pilots who flew, if you read this please advise.

Again my fault, I messed up the takeoff and Wilfrid assumed lead and led effectively until he was shot down nearing the target.

A critique:

Bombers were very ably led after I crashed and relinquished it.

Escorts were ineffective, again my fault for lack of coordination with them.

We need the ack shut down at the HQ complex NE of A8 unless it is assumed that the Axis still control it and it is Knight.

Commendations:
Wilfrid for taking Lead and getting us to the target.

Gium for steadfastly maintaining his bomb run while severely wounded and turning for another pass, decreasing his chance of surviving the mission.

Lucky for us this was a practice.

To the Italian interceptors- Great intercept!



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

Offline StSanta

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2496
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2000, 09:49:00 PM »
Uhm, I'm reporting for a group of three Spits who took off from A15 and headed straight for the large eemy formation. Once near A18, we encountered a flight of c205s and 109's.

During the initial bounce, I shot one unwaryy c205 out of the sky. In the chaos that followed, another two went down after being hit by my Hispanos. A fourth c205 followed me as I ran, badly outnumbered, and I managed with the assistance of Sox to shoot him down. Over friendly field was a huge group of 109's and JU 88's. Shot donw a 109 before Camo got my engine. Tried to land, bounced twice, started rolling and exploded for no good reason at all.

Not sure about how the other Spits did, but it was fun. Outnumbered because our main strike force was somewhere else, but great fun nevertheless   .

------------------
StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
 

[This message has been edited by StSanta (edited 10-07-2000).]

Offline gatt

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2441
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2000, 03:16:00 AM »
4^ Stormo Caccia "F.Baracca" after action report.

   
Quote
Took off from A19 heading S and then W. First task was to sweep Malta but soon we have been diverted to CAP A16-A18 area. As soon as we reached A18 we spotted 2-4 Spitfire sweeping the area at about 26K.
I ordered my pilots to extend and hurry up to A16 but Spitfire attacked. We lost one pilot soon (Xela) and at least one another who chased the Spitfires diving down (Dinger). Then we went fast to protect A16 area. We got there at about 25K, spotted the B-17s below us and escort far away. After re-group, we dived on the B-17s from 3-5 o'clock high and made some passages before allied fighters jumped on us.
 
Ariete: 3 B-17 kills TOP SCORER
Grifo: 1 B-17 kill
Vespa: 1 B-17 kill
GATT: 1 B-17 kill
.

Lost about 5 pilots out of 8.

I have to say <S> to my pilots, they have been very cool attacking Flying Fortresses through all those tracers    

------------------
GATT
4°Stormo Caccia "F.Baracca"


[This message has been edited by gatt (edited 10-08-2000).]
"And one of the finest aircraft I ever flew was the Macchi C.205. Oh, beautiful. And here you had the perfect combination of italian styling and german engineering .... it really was a delight to fly ... and we did tests on it and were most impressed." - Captain Eric Brown

Offline LLv34_Camouflage

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2189
      • http://www.virtualpilots.fi/LLv34
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2000, 05:07:00 AM »
Great reports guys, thanks!  We need LOTS more of them if you intend to get any points from the upcoming frames.  No reports, no points.  

Keep checking Zigrat's Med League page at http://www.iit.edu/~buonmic/med.htm  
The rules, rosters and points are all there.  Keep advertizing!  

Here's some things I noticed during the last nights frame:

-Difficulties at the start of the frame. Acknowledged and next time will be smooth as silk.  
-Icon range D3k.  Excellent.  
-Radar was on, not good.  Needs to be disabled for the real thing.
-Fields need to be closed after takeoff.
-Rebuild times were too short.
-Arena field setup was not perfect, also HQ's were of the wrong countries.
-Both sides had good plans, very nice. You could almost smell the organizing behind the fighting.  


Then to the most important issue:

PILOT MENTALITY!  

Pilots chasing a lone con through the map and then dying in ack.  No such thing will be tolarated in the league! CO's should brief their pilots well and keep them in a tight leash!

0f course, you can do the MA stuff here, but that will lead into the quick victory of the enemy.  Each squad has EIGHT airframes for the entire 8-mission league, so use them sparingly!!  You will only get a maximum of 2-3 replacement airframes for each frame, so there simply is no room for tactical errors and loss of planes.  Even a succesful mission will inflict losses, thats why u get those replacements.  But if you start gung-hoing, you will run out of planes after the second mission!

Think three times before engaging!  Is your mission accomplished?  Why aren't you home already?  Is engaging really worth it?  2 times out of 3 it is worth disengaging and going home.  Live to fight another day!

This isn't the Main Arena, this is the Mediterranean League!!

Thanks for your attention, rant mode off now.  

Hope to see you all in the league, looking forward to some GREAT fights!  

Camo


[This message has been edited by LLv34_Camouflage (edited 10-08-2000).]
CO, Lentolaivue 34
Brewster's in AH!
"How about the power to kill a Yak from 200 yards away - with mind bullets!"

Offline Dinger

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1705
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2000, 01:30:00 PM »
Yeah, Santa, badly outnumbered, but nobody else was coming down after you  
I knew I was committing suicide by breaking form and chasing a spit onto the deck.  I guess I was a little frustrated after an hour of waiting, flying into position only to be ordered to auger and take off on some other mission (fly to malta) that, once we got airborne and enroute, changed back to the original cap area 80 miles away.  I just wanted to kill, or bag it as quickly as possible.  As it stands, I made a bad call, and the event turned out much better than I thought it would.

Tuesday's frame will be interesting, especially since all the Americans will be back from the Con, but the Europeans will be in bed.  See you guys there.

Offline Zigrat

  • Nickel Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 792
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2000, 03:29:00 PM »
tuesday will again be a practice, a few bugs to work out yet, saturday will be the first official event (this time i promise!)

Offline gatt

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2441
Mediterranean League Mission, Saturday Oct 7th
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2000, 01:53:00 AM »
StSanta,
next time I'll see you designing a mission, giving us order to auger and take off for a wrong target (Malta), and I'll find you in a Spitfire ... then I'll personally kill you with my personal long-barrelled Smith & Wesson K-38 Masterpiece  

[This message has been edited by gatt (edited 10-09-2000).]
"And one of the finest aircraft I ever flew was the Macchi C.205. Oh, beautiful. And here you had the perfect combination of italian styling and german engineering .... it really was a delight to fly ... and we did tests on it and were most impressed." - Captain Eric Brown