Furballing in the Ju 88

[Widewing]

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, and unable to get back to sleep, logged on to the Main Arena.

Since it was nearly dark, I took up a Ju 88 and bombed an undefended airfield. When I arrived back at my base in the dark, I found a lone TBM stooging around. Well, what the heck, I took the 88, with its single forward-firing popgun and rolled in from above.

What resulted was a classic one on one, complete with rolling scissors. Finally, the remarkable turning ability of the 88, and its lower power loading, prevailed. That single 7.92mm proved enough. Death by a 1,000 cuts, so to speak. Dogfighting in bombers can be great fun if there are no fighters nearby.

If we ever get a Ju 88C, with its six 20mm and four 13mm guns, it will be a formidable ride for killing bombers. Or, even those unsuspecting fighters.

My regards,

Widewing

[Jester]

Once back when I used to fly in Warbirds they had a special event where we all "Furballed" flying the JU 52 transport. Was a real hoot, the most fun I ever had in a event.

The JU 52 had three 7.62 pop-guns plus you could drop paratroopers like mines. If another A/C hit them it would kill them. Was a real site all those JU's wheeling around and the skies full of chutes. Was alot of fun!

[Airscrew]

Dogfighting in bombers is a blast Widewing.   Reading yours reminded me of a fight I had a few weeks ago.

I don't remember which map but I had just finished a run with my B26 and was rtbing at about 15k when I saw a lancaster low on my 10oc.   I dove down and saw I was on his 6 but assumed he had no idea I was there.   I lined up for a rear quarter shot and opened up.  He opened up on me scoring some hits on one of my engines and wings and then the Lancaster went into a dive to evade and I had to pull out to avoid his guns and ripping off my wings as I was approaching 300mph from my dive.  

For the next 5 mins we went back and forth making slightly off angle HO approaches firing at each other during each pass like old Ironsides or a battle from Star Trek.  I would start shooting from my top turrent and fire at the HO and track and fire at him broadside, then jump to the tail turrent and fire as we extended from each other.  
Each pass we got lower and lower till we were down in the wavetops.  He got one of my engines and took out my top turrent and damaged some of my control surfaces but eventually I got him just wearing him down pass after pass with my .50's.  

There was a mini-furball going on nearby but nobody came and bothered us even after the lancaster went down and I rtb'd with a smoking engine, missing rudder, and almost no ammo.  

I don't remember who it was anymore but I gave him a salute on ch1 and wanted to know what he thought of the fight because I had a blast, but got no response.

[SpinDoc1]

Jumping on the bandwagon...

I was flying a B-17 one afternoon a month or so ago, and came upon a lancaster low in the mountaintops. I was close to an enemy base and he was considerably lower than I. I did a Split-S type manuever in the 17, chopped throttle, and rolled on his 6. He could only ping me while my frontal .50 cals ate him for lunch. After obliterating him I dumped my 12 500lb'ers on the grunt training facility nearby. Well, that wasn't enough for him apparently... Being that I was close to the enemy base I saw him take off and come at me again. So I got a little altitude and waited for his arrival. Once again I chopped throttle, but this time rolled up along side him. In accordance with the 'Old Ironsides' comment from above, we flew along side each other exchanging shots at d800-900+ What a blast that was. Me having far superior firepower, I used only the gun position I was at, not the automatic AH AI gunnery. I eventually flew him into a mountain and returned home. What a blast, I wish that would happen more often instead of being obliterated by spitfires... I think it is a much greater challenge to exchange bomber vs. bomber fire...

[GRUNHERZ]

I once had a wild looping and turning Ju88 dogfight with a pretty good P38 pilot, I won when he stalled out low to the ground.

Ju88 can be very manuverable when light on gas with no bombs.

[Doberman]

Donno if it's still happening at Cons since I haven't been in a while, but one of my fondest memories was the B-17 shootout I participated in.  

Buffs with only human gunners going 1v1.  Tons o' fun.

D

[SpinDoc1]

Does anyone think they will change the policy of only allowing one gunner to join a plane? That would be most interesting (I think Air Warrior had a multiple gunner option, people called them Death Star's?). While an incredible waste of people if you crash, it would be cool to communicate with a 'crew.'

[Viper17]

well in real life for every b17 that went down that was 10 guys.

[SpinDoc1]

rgr that. I understand how many people that would involve, I'm just suggesting a few not ten. Excellent point though!

[2Late4U]

Originally posted by DaLadyzMon
Does anyone think they will change the policy of only allowing one gunner to join a plane? That would be most interesting (I think Air Warrior had a multiple gunner option, people called them Death Star's?). While an incredible waste of people if you crash, it would be cool to communicate with a 'crew.'

THe real issue here is that a bomber is pretty easy pickings for one experienced pilot, and there is almost no reason two fighters shouldnt have a 95%+ kill ratio.  Both go in from different angles, the one that doesnt get shot at gets a free 10 seconds to nail the beast.

[-lynx-]

The most fun you could have in a bomber was a Trafalgar Battle recreation in old WB. I think it was organised by the Dweebs of Death squad.

To slow the whole thing down the was a headwind of 100kts and dozens of fully crewed buffs formed the line of battle and after converging opened up with all guns they could bring to bear on the enemy. I can't remember who won but that was such a blast that even now remembering it I can't help but smile .

[SpinDoc1]

2Late4U, I like your point of people being able to capitalize on the multiple angles, that's exactly one of the reasons you should be able to have at least 2 gunners in a buff. It would make a lot of sense from that standpoint, if not from the point that it would be more fun ( Lynx)

[glenmorangie]

Originally posted by -lynx-
The most fun you could have in a bomber was a Trafalgar Battle recreation in old WB. I think it was organised by the Dweebs of Death squad.

To slow the whole thing down the was a headwind of 100kts and dozens of fully crewed buffs formed the line of battle and after converging opened up with all guns they could bring to bear on the enemy. I can't remember who won but that was such a blast that even now remembering it I can't help but smile .

Of course, your historical precedent is that combat film of the Me-323 being shot down in the Med...by B-26 top turret gunners....

[GScholz]

Originally posted by Widewing
Since it was nearly dark, I took up a Ju 88 and bombed an undefended airfield.

Um ... exactly why did you bomb an undefended airfield?

[hogenbor]

Because attacking a defended field with a Ju-88 is pretty pointless? That having said, there is not much to gain attacking an undefended field, unless some friends were helping or he was REALLY bored.