I was considering signing up as an Allied Spit or Martlet pilot. It sounds like that would have been boring and to perdweeb's comment I'd much rather have faced outnumbered odds as an Axis pilot. Despite the fact I was killed fighting five Ponies in my A8 in frame I of DGSII it was a memorable experience and one I'd sign up for over and over again.
Ok I was controlling the Sea carrier AC(SAC) for all frames of this event and here is how I saw it.
In Frame 1 The 109s where the first to reach cap over Malta. some elements of the 109s pushed west of malta into our SAC who where there to screen the spit Vs who were further to the south. The 109s stopped moving south and started to fight our F4Fs and Hurricanes. I ordered the squads to keep moving east and only fight if they were forced to. if that happen, dive away.
The 109s where pulled down to the deck in 1s to 3s. I head a few compressed and few more got shot down by the wildcats and hurricanes. But as it was the 109s who where in about = number the spit Vs and Seafires combined were stripped of numbers by the time both the SAC and Spit Vs arrived (as planned over Malta at the same time) We lost a few hurricanes and wildcats, but they where not part of the objective of that frame. The 109s did not need to follow our fighters to the ground.
In Frame 2, Surf Force was made up of 13, Sea-Hurricane mark 1s, 7 F4Fs and 12 Sea-fires. 1 Squadron of Sea-hurris where spilt up into scout units, totaling 7 scouts in groups of 2. These where set out at 15k to scout for both High alt and NOE missions. I as lead scout ran into the 4 110c who where flying towards our CV at 20k. I just happen to have the spit wing 1 keypad to the south and I called them into the attack as I made my run. the 110c dropped all their ords and then died as the spits jumped them. After the 110c died, all fighters resumed our patrol paths. The next group I ran into was the JU-88s at 19k who were escorted by 1-2 groups of 109s. I had 3 Hurricanes on the spot when we started the attack. we dived into the 88s and as we blew past almost all the 109s dived after us. we ended up on the deck fighting 3 vs about 10. The Seafires then where able to attack the Ju-88 without escorts. The 88s where finished off quick.
Really the allied forces over the CVs were quite weak for frame 2 & most of 3 (at the mid of frame 3 we moved a squad of Spit vs out to the CVs for extra cover), but the 109s failed to escort the JU-88 and 110c. They had both the speed and climb advantage on all our planes and over the Hurri and F4F there was little we could do but Dive away at High alt if the 109s keeped their E. But we found over and over again that the 109s were willing to follow fighters to the deck where the Seahurris and F4Fs could put up a good fight. Only the Seafires should have been a issue and even they could have been forced down and have been forced to climb back to the fight.
The allies biggest fear was an mass NOE torp run on our ships. we did not have the fighters to cover every direction and 13 out of the 32 fighters we had where only armed with BBs. But we could not keep our fighters closer to the boat as we needed to intercept the buffs before they reached the Ship if they were level bombing from 20k. You had 17 Ju88s in which only 5 needed to attack another target. if 3 JUs had flown in under 3 groups of fighters we would have been fooled by the Dar and moved the Seafires to intercept that threat. If then 9 Ju-88s had started flashing our boats we would have not had alot of time to counter that attack. sure we had a few full time gunners but the merchant fleet could only be covered with the 2 twin 40mms on the Destroyers. If you look at those guns they cannot be aimed towards the rear arc.
The few NOE attacks I saw arrived as some of our groups were rearming/launching, and only had a few planes in each. So with the JUs flying past the quad 40s and the few planes in the air near the CV they were able to take down the few buffs.
As part of the planning group, we thought frame 1 would be a wash as the first waves of 88s could not be stopped and the 109s would be waiting to target our Spits first, but we could get alot of kills with the numbers we had if we survived the first 109s Caps over our field. Frame 2 we expected to lose, as the fleets had so few planes. Frame 3 was going to be a tight win as we could move planes between the targets as the need arrived later in the frame. Frame 4 was ours as we knew the numbers would be in our favor again.
wow that was long and rambling but I think its understandable.
Oh BTW most allied pilots I talked to had quite alot of fun.
