A few days ago in another thread banana reminded me of the Fortress Germany Senario a few years back in WB.
Here is an after action report I filed after one of the frames, it brings back some fun memories
Udie
(edit) for those of you that don't know, banana's handle then was Bax1.....
Fortress Germany
Udie's Tale, Dec 1996
Flight 5: Mission 2:
Flight 5 rolled south out of F10 and climbed to 7K to the first waypoint. We then turned southeast towards F20 and climbed to 12K. We approached F20 from the south west at 12K. Wing #2 (Zapa, Bax1) dove down to bomb the buildings while Wing #1 (Udie, Mcld) circled at 10K for cover.
Zappa dropped his bomb first, hitting the radio tower and hut. I swear I could see body parts flying from the explosions it caused. Bax1 missed his first drop on the control tower by about 50 yards, but he did a hi yo-yo and came around again. This time his bomb landed directly on the target.
At this point I gave the all clear for Wing #1 to drop on the AA. I started my dive at 10K, rolled over, killed the throttle and headed down at about an 80 degree angle of attack (WAY TOO STEEP). Needless to say, my first egg over shot the AA. I did a hi yo-yo came about and nailed it on the second pass. Mcld came down on his run just perfect. He nailed the first AA on his first pass and got the other on his second pass. At this time Zappa came back down and killed the remaining AA implacement. All of this was done with none of the 5th Flight taking any damage.
We then climbed out to the northwest to 35K and formed on JJ. We followed the flight until we hit that pack of 190's. Then all hell broke loose. I dove on a 190 that had pulled out D5 right in front of me. I pinged him up just a bit before he pulled away from me. This is when I heard Zappa yell, "I'm hit!!". He had taken damage to his engine and lost his flaps. I told him to return to base, which he did.
The rest of Flight 5 formed on me. We came across another group of FW's and chased them down. To my suprise, when I pitched down, all I could see was Otto shooting away as we flew right through the bomber formation. It was at this point when I saw snail's radio message, "Stay away from the buffs".
Now low on gas, I gave the return to base order (over channel 100, DOH!!) We were at 25k and running on about 5% fuel, far away from F10. I cut my engine and coasted to F10 where we landed safely.
Zapa, who had already returned to base, had taken off with Snyper. So the rest of Flight 5 rolled with me (75% fuel and 2 eggs). Just as we got across the river there at Antwerp, I saw Mell leaking fuel badly. He also had a ME109 D10 on his six. I gave the order to dump stores and engage. The ME109 saw us and turned northeast heading towards F4. He was too far from me to catch, but Mcld chased that sucker right into the ground. Way to go, Mcld!
We formed up and headed east to F4: we could hear the carnage in our radios. We were at 12K and all reports were of low Luftwaffe forces, so we leveled out to gain speed. Once we got over F4, everything looked clear until I looked down and saw a ME109 behind HT, about D30 from me. So I dove down. The ME109 just flew right past HT as did I and Bax1. By this time, I'm about D12 from the ME109. When I see Zappa chasing another smoking ME109 straight to me. The ME109 I was chasing started to get shape on Zappa just as Zappa nailed the 109 he was after. But by this time, it was too late. He was D4, level, and in my sights. I opened up, as did Bax1 who was on my right wing. He blew up rather quickly; the kill going to me and the assist to Bax1.
Flight 5 then formed and headed back to F4 where we landed together as a flight ;-)
Flight #5: Mission #2: Totals
*********************************
Udie: 1 AA killed, 1 ME109 killed
Zapa: 1 AA killed, 1 Radio Tower killed, 1 Radio Hut killed, 1 ME109 killed
Mcld: 2 AA killed, 1 ME109 killed
Bax1: 1 Control Tower killed, 1 ME109 assist
Udie
9th Air Force
Flight #5
Wing Leader
The 9th Air Force lost 14 of its 22 p38's. My flight was the only flight to have all pilots alive at the end of the day. ;-)
Udie, 900th Bloody Jaguars
[This message has been edited by Udie (edited 07-12-2000).]
