Sounds like one heck of a fun sortie! I always love the Long sorties, but I never really plan one unless I join a mission.
Last night I upped a P-47D-25 with 75% fuel and 1 DT from a field that had multiple targets just appear on radar. I climbed the opposite direct from the enemy planes until I reached 8K. Then I turned back to them (who were by now over the field with the classic large fight over a base, many friendlies among the enemies) and climbed up to 11K to level off. I dropped my DT and started from the highest con and worked my way down. Unluckily for me the attackers were not too experienced when it came to teamwork, let alone capping a field, and I only got 1 kill and 1 assist before most of them were dead.
I decided to climb up over the base again while most of the friendlies went to pay back the attackers for the damage they did to our base. While most of the friendlies were just getting to the attackers field (1 1/5 sectors away) someone spotted a CV off our coast, and sure enough we had 2-3 uppers: 2 of which were zekes and 1 was a F4U. I was at 8K by now, 2 friendlies were attacking some gvs near the base, many more were across the pond attacking another base, and we only had 2 guys going for the 3 planes that upped from the CV. I decided to join the fight at the CV.
Once again these were not very experienced pilots (possibly new to the game) and all 3 were dead before I got to them, but they kept upping. I got a few more kills and assists before someone sank the CV. I checked the map and most of the friendlies attacking the base over seas either died or RTB'd during the CV engagement because there were very few friendly dots in the area, but I did notice a small dar bar in our sector. I thought it would most likely be a high fighter coming over to get a few kills so I climbed up to 9K. About 7K into my climb I spotted the con on the horizon, a set of B-24's at 6K! I turned to engage knowing my 8 .50cals could easily chew through those bombers.
I closed within 800 and opened fire as he dropped his bombs, and got the lead bomber. I pulled up and looked back to see a friendly closing in to help finish the bombers. I knew he'd go for the lead bomber, and not wanting to steal the kill or me just getting an assist off them and wasting ammo, I attacked the trail bomber. We finished off the bombers with me getting 2 kills off them and 1 assist. I was now low on ammo and fuel and it looks like the fight at the base was over for now, so I dove down and landed. I think I had 6 kills and 3-4 assists and the sortie must have lasted atleast close to an hour! It certainly was one of my best sorties all month, and one of the most fun!
It really is satisfying when you up from a field with a fully loaded plane and return back to the field with low fuel, almost no ammo left, and bullet holes all over your plane.
