Morning ReportI started off the day over my new favorite hangout spot, Tank Town. I flew sorties in a Hurricane IIC against a mixture of Spitfires, P-51s and Lalas with a couple of Jugs thrown in for good measure.
Overall it was a very slow morning for me with few exciting fights. Most of my time was spent chasing enemies or getting piled on by overwhelming numbers. I consoled myself with the fact that the few times I sunk my teeth into an enemy, they never escaped. Perhaps the enemy was learning to watch for my clunky little Hurricane?
Evening ReportMost of my squadron were flying out of Airbase 78, fighting off a Bishop sea attack. The Bishops had a carrier in the area and we spent several hours moving straight from the airfield to the fighting.
There were masses of F4s and F6s with a few Seafires and later a NIK. It was basicly a one-kill outing for most of the night. We were outnumbered and each time I found myself putting lead into a target I'd get hit myself by one or two chasing me.
Eventually we managed to kill the enemy carrier and began mopping up the remaining bogies still in the air. A P-40 went head on with me so I performed a weaving turn to break it and turned to get onto his tail. I was flying a Zeke at this point and that sort of manuver is suprisingly easy in such an agile airplane. I fired deflection shots at 350 and then <200 and his wing seperated. Twenty seconds later I scored the kill as he hit the ocean below.
Moments later I dove on an LA being persued by a group of friendlies but trying to outrun them. I began to lose control of the Zeke at high speeds so I used a little rudder to line up a shot and from >600 I opened fire. I pulled out of the persuit and was very suprised when the LA crashed. I must have hit his elevators or took off a wing.
My next outing I decided to try something different and took off in a Spitfire 8. I'd have more ammunition but less manuverability. Then again my climb rate and speed would be improved also.
My squadmates and I spotted a new enemy carrier and decided to attack it. About 3k from the carrier I ran into flak and suffered a pilot wound. This wasn't boding well and so I turned back towards home. I then reconsidered and decided to continue to escort my squadmates in.
Along the way an F-4 came through and I manuvered to engage it, but someone else shot it down. I then performed a steep dive on one of the destroyers escorting the carrier and strafed it from bow to stern. I killed 8 gun emplacements and suffered multiple hits. I banked around and made a run on the carrier. I don't think I hurt it much, but I did score a 3 second burst along the starboard side railing where I thought there might have been guns. I didn't kill any emplacements and soon my wing tore off as I took more return fire.
All in all a fun night. Not as productive in kills as Tank Town, but a great opportunity to hang out with my squad and Stang, who was also in the area.
