Somewhere over the virtual front lines, twenty thousand feet up, I was minding my own business, which for the record mostly involves not getting shot, when trouble appeared at my twelve o’clock. Two Rooks, a C205 and a P-38G, were slightly lower and closing fast.
Naturally, I did the sensible thing, ignored common sense entirely and attacked.
I engaged the nearest fighter and took a high aspect shot at close range on the C205. It was textbook stuff, but in a display of marksmanship so precise it should be studied at the Fighter Weapons School because I managed to miss an easy shot with every single round. Miraculous.
The P-38G, meanwhile, extended out to about 3.5k to set up a pick, which I thought was a bit unsporting. But this P-38G pilot was no slouch and he peppered my aircraft with hits several times during the engagement.
The C205 decided against a direct engagement and dove vertically down towards his support, a P-47M below. Before following him down I spotted yet another Rook, an F4U1, 4k out at my 12 o’clock, coming straight at me co-alt. Fine, I thought, let’s dance.
As the F4U1 kindly flew across my nose I took a snap shot that sawed off half a wing and his vertical stabilizer. He flew on but the pilot would have had very little control and if I could survive long enough, this would be a kill.
The C205 that had dived out, had retained his speed and zoomed back up for another bite of the apple. As the C205 got his nose around for a shot he could see I was going to get a shot as well and lost his nerve and opened his turn just enough for me to land solid hits on his wing and rear fuselage, with no apparent effect.
That’s when I glanced at my six and saw four Rooks in my rear view. The P-38G was barrelling in fast under 1000 yards out followed by the C205 and the P-47M with the mortally wounded F4U1 off in the distance. The P-38G was coming in fast so I pulled hard to evade. Despite that the P-38G managed to get some hits as he blew past hot and angry. Before I could unload the G and still reeling from the hits I saw a high Bf109G-6 joining the fight. Congratulations it was now a 5 v 1 engagement.
Then a Mosquito Mk VI joined the party, he was 2k out when I saw him and coming in fast. He wanted to get the pick before his five friends. I pulled hard into the vertical to evade the Mosquito and noticed a Fw190A-5 had also joined the fight. It was now a 7 v 1.
Yes. That’s seven Rooks, one Bishop!
At this point I noticed the Mosquito going low and assumed he was going to try and pull up under me for an easy pick with those deadly guns. But I was locked in with the Bf109G-6 and the P-38G who were both turning hard with me so as the Mosquito passed underneath I rolled out of my fight with the 38 and G6 and met the Mossy on its way up. Its low flight path had increased his speed and widened his turn so I had an easy shot on his full planform. All 6 guns spitting fire, sliced his wooden fuselage clean in half. The Mossy came apart just as the P-47M and Bf109G-6 passed me with guns blazing. Now I was turning hard with the P-47M, the P-38G, the Bf109G-6 and the C205.
The Fw190A-5 who must have seen me kill the F4U1 and the Mosquito in a 7 v 1 furball, decided he needed to even the fight up a bit and flew in hard for a guns pass but missed and extended again for another try. Meanwhile, the P-47M pulled hard into a very steep high yo-yo and as he was slow at the top I cut inside his turn and my 6 guns cut into his aircraft near the wing root and his entire starboard wing broke away at the exact same time that both the P-38G and Bf109G-6 began shooting at me. The kill on the one-winged P-47M took a long time to appear in the text buffer so he obviously rode it all the way into the ground. He may have been in shock, wondering what was happening. How can one Bish be whooping Rooks as easily as culling baby seals?
So far I had chalked up the F4U1, Mosquito and the P-47M. And was somehow still alive. But now the real fight began.
The Bf109G-6 and P-38G were pressing the attack hard, relentless, working the vertical to bleed my energy and make me predictable for their picker friends. The Fw190A-5 was circling above like a nervous vulture circling a lion. The C205 had already tasted my 20 mm rounds and may have been damaged as his flying was noticeably less aggressive, only making the occasional timid guns pass.
At this point I suffered a momentary lapse in situational awareness, so I decided to regain some speed by diving and taking the fight to the deck.
It paid off, as I dived away, all four of them followed and appeared in my rear view, they were all on my six, right where I wanted them. I was ready to go back to work!
As I reversed the P-38G, Bf109G-6, and Fw190A-5 all followed my turn, desperate for the kill while the damaged C205 extended again to come back for a guns pass once I was committed again to hard turns.
As I pulled around, the P-38G quickly came into my sights and as I squirted some hot lead at him and saw the hits, he broke off and extended. I couldn't follow to finish him, instead I tightened my turn and focused on the G6 who could see that I was gaining angles quickly and tried to reverse his turn but that just gave me an easier shot and kill number four.
It was a tense moment because both the P-38G and Fw190A-5 had used that moment of predictability to reverse and get shots, the P-38G had turned hard and misjudged his lead so his rounds passed my tail. The Fw190A-5 was now meeting me head on as I continued turning but at the last moment I pulled into the vertical to dodge his head on shot. Just as I dodged the 190, the C205 inexplicably broke off and ran, no idea why but I wasn’t complaining, I was fighting like my hair was on fire.
I quickly picked up the P-38G again with the Fw190A-5 close on my tail while the C205 did his own version of the Great Skedaddle. Then I saw why the C205 was running. Two friendly fighters were coming in fast and were about 4k out. A Yak9-U and a Bf109K-4. I thought they came to help, but more likely, they just wanted to steal my kills.
Then the Fw190A-5 also broke off. My six was clear and the two friendly fighters gave chase to the C205 and Fw190A-5 who both panicked.
I was tempted to offer the Rooks advice such as 'Fortune favours the bold' or 'No guts, no glory', or perhaps the wise words of Forrest Gump: ‘Timid is as timid does’ or ‘Run, Forrest, run.’ But judging by their performance, the Rooks seem to already be very familiar with those lines and were already walking the walk, albeit as fast as their little legs would carry them.
The Fw190A-5 that had been happy to pick throughout ran away on the deck but got shredded by the Bf109K-4. The C205 ran home with his tail between his legs and by my estimation carrying about 50 lbs of my ammunition embedded throughout his airframe.
The P-38G was damaged and unable to pull away. Desperate, he forced a scissors. I had enough speed to decline the scissors and barrel rolled over each of his reversals until I was able to line up the shot for my 5th kill.
The fight lasted for 8 minutes, started 7 v 1 and ended 3 v 3, and I landed 5 kills and put damage on the other two fighters. Only one cherry picking Rook flying a C205 made it out alive and he had to sacrifice his pride and learn the hard way that karma flies faster than any fighter.
Seven came for me, five went down, two ran, one died running and the last one may have since died of shame.
That’s a win in anyone’s book.
TopGunzo
You fly 'em, I'll fry 'em!
