#4 Join the NavyThese are 4 fights from the same sortie, where I go on a single-ship formation fighter sweep.
1st to come by is a co alt P38. I ditch the bay bombs that I carry just 'cos its a mossie and I can, then turn to engage. I am not sure what the P-38 was trying to do - I think he misjudged my speed after we crossed and thought I had much more E, then realized this is not the case but turned to re engage too soon. I dunno.
Getting closer to the enemy base I spot several cons a bit lower than me - it is nice to have the advantage for a change. The Spit8 looks determined to climb and engage me and spits are dangerous, so I prioritize him. He tries to escape in a dive and I follow, throwing 20 mm rounds all over the countryside. We get too low and too close to enemy acks and my navigator is screaming in the starboard seat, so I let the spit go and zoom up. He immediately pulls up after me. We zoom steep enough that the spit cannot go into hover-mode - when zooming with spits/yaks/zekes/ki84s and hellicopters in general, it is important to make it as close to vertical as possible and eliminate any component of lift. If you zoom at a shallower angle, they will be able to transition into a very low-speed climb, and keep the nose up while the mossie falls out of the sky. Spit8/16 and Yak3 can maintain near 4000 ft/min climb at 100 mph with the nose pointed 45 degrees above the horizon. Anyway, I catch the spit out of control and shoot him from 0 range just to be sure I hit.
Next, I find a 190D a bit higher and faster then me. No problem, it is just a Dora and I am in a Mossie, so a Dora needs every advantage it can get. You'll see that I am more worried about the planes that I shot down coming back again from the base for revenge, so I watch my 6 a lot. We cross and I stay under the Dora to hide my E, not going up after it. It works and he reverses too early. I get only scattered hits and the Dora starts to run away.
It is faster than me and there is no point in staying with him -
If you want your enemy to turn and fight you, give him room to do it!. Staying 800-1000 behind someone and calling him a runner is nonsense. He absolutely should not turn in such a situation. So, I point to the side and let our flight paths diverge. This also carries us away from the enemy base, which is good. Over 2K distance the Dora reverses to fight again - good man, that's the spirit! Another merge and the 190 is late in initiating the turn (because he was going for a front shot on the merge), plus Mossies turn way better than 190D, so I easily cut inside for a 90 deg deflection shot.
This emptied my cannons, so I turn for home (in the film I see I had 3 rounds, but at the time I was sure I had only the 303 staple guns). My paranoia turned to be justified as I spot a Spit8 trying to creep up under my tail at tree top level. He was closing fast, I am at low alt, out of cannons, and still too far from my base... My navigator was breathing into a paper bag in an attempt to recover from hyperventilation. I have to fight this spit.
We make a few crosses, but the spit goes high every time, playing it safe or baiting for a rope. After the 3rd time I see an opportunity to pick up speed while he is not pressuring me and attempt a dash towards my base. This sort of works, but in AH the Mossie VI cannot outrun a Spit8 on the deck (unless starting faster). No friendly planes means I have to fight him, so I point off from my base and take him to fight over the water and out of the base acks.
I pull him into flat scissors and hit the brakes as hard as I can down to 100 mph or so. He passes by, but it is a spit, so he can pull high up while I can barely keep the mossie in the air with flaps, WEP, and a lot of rudder work. Some more dangling on the edge of controlled flight and the spit takes my right aileron. Too bad, because I was half rolled to the right and just could not roll against the torque to sharpen the turn. I level the plane and skid it hard with the rudder. If I lose the WEP now I will fall out of the sky like a rock.
The spit gets thrown forward again and I take a useless shot at him with my 303s. I cannot follow a right handed turn and am about to splash - I can only try and keep the mossie from spinning into the waves by leveling a picking up a few precious mph's above stall speed. Lucky for me, the Spit was also too slow, too eager and splashed.... pewwww.
Looking at my navigator that lost all blood in his face and all urine in his bladder, I decided to take us on a cruise vacation. A CV happend to be passing nearby, so I head there. Since we do not have a hook, I opened the bay doors and the navigator reached out and grabbed one of the cables - perfect landing
Take that Eric Brown!
YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/ZHUWbZaPz0cAHF file attached below:
