Originally posted by J_A_B
I'm one of the people who don't give out 6 calls. I find most of them annoying, especially considering how 90% of the ones I recieve are when the enemy is 4-5K away on my 12. I do of course thank the people who send me the occasional good 6 call....but such are few and far between. I don't give them out because I can't be bothered to; I've got other things to worry about than watching somebody else's tail for him. Should a friendly not seem to notice an enemy I might call out 666 on the text buffer....or I might not.
Then there's the people who complain about not getting 6 calls and blame everybody for their getting shot down except themselves. Sorry, but if you get shot down it's your fault and nobody else's. If you get a useful 6 call you should treat it as a "lucky break", not EXPECT your countrymates to watch your tail.
J_A_B
Maybe it's me or just the teamwork ethic engrained in me while flying for USN. But, I spend more than half of my time chasing bad guys from the tail of my Rook teammates. Despite this, I still get plenty of opportunities. Moeover, I don't go running around chasing them once I get them to break off. I stick with my guy until he breaks off himself. If everyone looked out for each other, the opposition would get a lot less kills and you'd meet your missions goals faster.
Try this sometime:
Pick out one member of your side and stick with him like glue, making sure no one can latch onto his six. Don't even tell him your intent, just do it. Better yet, pick someone who looks like a rookie and cover his ass. I've seen some teamwork in the MA, but not much. I did spot two Jugs flying a textbook Thatch Weave, covering each other perfectly. However, that's the exception that proves the rule.
Just in case you haven't heard, air discipline reaps the same benefits in AH as it does in the real world. A well disciplined formation will tear the hell out of any disorganized gaggle of individual pilots all on a personal mission to run up their numbers.
I'd love to see an entire squadron of Jugs rip through a swarm of bad guys, zoom up, reform and do it again and again till the enemy is scattered all over hell and back.
A few thoughts on teamwork:
I'd love to see a properly organized attack mission structured as follows:
Shooters: F4U, 2,000 lbs bombs and /or rockets. Altitude-8-12k
Mid level cover: Spitfire Mk.IX. Altitude- 15-18k
Top Cover: P-47 and/or P-51. Altitude- 20-25k
The Corsairs hit the target, Spitfires protect them, Jugs cover the Spits. Commit the cover forces as required. Send in Spits first to break up any gaggles stooging about. While the Spitfires occupy the enemy fighters, send in the shooters. After target is hit, send top cover down to distract defending fighters, pure B&Z only. This should allow Spits to disengage. If goons are inbound, send in top cover shortly before goons arrive. Protect goons by positioning an unloaded B-17 directly astern of each Gooney. This makes getting to them VERY hazardous. In preparation for the Market Garden parachute drops in WWII, Gen. Doolittle suggested doing exactly this to protect the troop laden C-47s and gliders. He thought that building a mixed force would do two things:
1) Offer the protection of the Bomber's guns, while masking the C-47s at the same time.
2) These heavies would continue beyond the drop zones and hammer bridges, railroad yards, airfields and road nets in the rear, slowing an enemy response. That his idea was not adopted does not mean it wasn't one hell of a good concept. There just wasn't time to get it organized and the Brits were worried about how to control such a huge force.
I'm convinced that should someone try it, they will see that the best escort for the C-47 is the B-17 with its Death Rays set on "vaporize".
My regards,
Widewing
