JG11

[captain1ma]

JG11--thanks for keeping the road clear for us! we couldn't have done it without you! <S>

[Nefarious]

412th was kind of worried going in, sitreps had JG11 engaged heavily in the ship grids, but no visual on the boats. Meanwhile the 412th was slowly meandering towards target with only 4 of our own 109s for escort.

Stampf called for us to make another turn to avoid defenders and slowly the reports turned favorable. JG11 had shot down all enemy allowing the He111s to attack the ships with very little in the way of opposition, too bad we couldn't sink more.

Never heard where VF17 was at, judging from logs they were operating near JG11. Thankfully we weren't met with opposition while we were light on the escort, It could have been a disaster.

[captain1ma]

guess it worked out well for both of our squads! just one big happy family!

[Stampf]

Thanks J and Nef.

It was certainly a team effort.  Frankly I was worried right from the time I received orders.  Seeing mostly unescorted bombers tasked with flying on the flank, and parallel to the battle front - made me think a real slaughter could easily happen to Red Flight.  Our own tussle was in doubt for a bit with multiple wings of RAF fighters vigorously engaging our flight.

I was one of the first losses for our side.  I spotted an unengaged Spit below me and dove my 110c in for the kill.  After a few failed guns passes 'Damnphyno' made me look like a fool and reversed me and blew my wing off only moments before assistance arrived.  The plus side to this was it allowed me to work RED Flight command comms without distraction and we managed to make it all work out.

VF -17 was indeed right there with us in the thick of it.  All 4 units in RED performed very well.  A fun mission.

<S>

[Frodo]

Wanted to salute the RAF guys it was a great fight. They didn't shy away at all and was one of the best brawls in a while.     

[Nefarious]

Had the 412th and JG54 flown directly to target we would have surely flown right into the bulk of the enemy defenders that were at the ships.

The delaying action allowed us to remain out of harms way and Stampfs call to turn the He 111s obviously averted disaster as well. I believe we eventually turned towards the fleet with about 15 minutes left before T+60 we hit the fleet with 4 minutes till T+60.

All of the 412th He 111 pilots survived, we only lost a few drones to enemy fire.

[pops57]

Did not work out that way for 54th. We got ahead of the 111s instead of behind as planned. The allies caught us between the 11th and the 4 109s 6 to 8 k back with the 111s and chewed us up. We sank 5 boats but took 80% losses,  two survivors. Thank god they only had BBs or we would never had even made the boats. Nearest escorts were the 6k back 109s with the 111s until we were almost over the boats. The allies played it well. It was a white knuckle run. Those of us that made it to the boats made them pay. Looking for revenge next week.