Had a great fight last night in the CT. I took up a P-40E from Malta and started climbing towards a dot on radar just off the southern tip of Sicily. I encountered enemy flak shortly after going feet wet, the first burst sending shrapnel pinging off my craft. It seems there was an enemy destroyer flotilla running circles around our own CV fleet just north of Malta. I put the nose down a bit and headed southeast until I deemed it safe to again begin my climb. At about 10,000 feet I leveled out, hoping to gain some speed for the merge. No sign of the bandit, but radar said he was getting close and should be right off the nose. I side skidded to the left…no joy. I then side-skidded right and instantly spotted the enemy, co-alt or a bit above.
I put the nose down a bit to edge my sped up to around 285 mph, angling to keep him slightly to the left of my nose. As we reached icon range, I new I’d have my hands full: it was a Bf109. Unless he was hanging on the prop from his climb, I was going to loose the E-battle. Damn! We passed each other in a blur and I looked back to see him go nose-high…no shortage of E there. I did a slice-back toward a cloudbank, knowing it was about my only other choice besides diving for the deck and running for home. As we passed again going opposite directions, the enemy was still higher and faster.
He came tearing around to follow me, but just as he lined up on my long six, my Warhawk was swallowed up by the clouds. Roll…pull back…no time to check the instruments; just time to pray that I came out where I expected. Popping out of the clouds, I searched frantically for Jerry. Galldurnit, where’d he go? Ah, there he is. He had indeed lost me, but had played it smart and extended out in a climbing turn to keep his E advantage.
We closed again, made a couple nose to nose passes to try to gain the initiative, but again the Messerschmitt’s better performance in the vertical allowed him to gain on me. Again I ducked into the clouds in the hopes of reversing the situation, again I lost him, but again only for a few seconds. We went into a spiral dive, each trying to squeeze out a few more degrees-per-second of turn. We quickly found ourselves on the deck in a Luftberry.
Now the tables were beginning to turn! The slightly better turn rate of the P-40E (the 109 was toting gun pods, and the extra drag was hurting him) enabled me to begin closing him. We roared around in a circle, flaps out and engines in full boost. After three or four revolutions, it became clear to my opponent that he wasn’t going to win a flat turn contest. He pulled his nose up a bit, shallowed his turn, and climbed away. This guy was no slouch! He’d broke the Luftberry with just enough room to keep me from getting a gun solution, using the 109’s superior acceleration and climb to pull away. He got enough range to reverse, then came back at me. His only mistake was being too eager. He reversed too soon, and didn’t have the speed or altitude to truly push the fight back into the vertical. We sliced back on each other two more times.
That’s when I spotted my doom approaching. A second Bf109 was screaming in on the deck. I was neatly caught. I turned away from this new threat, and managed to completely escape his gun pass by a rudder-assisted barrel role. A quick burst from my guns punctured nothing but the ether, but it rattled the guy enough to keep the enemy pilots out of synch for a few more turns, but in the end there was nothing I could do. The first 109 finally saddled up on my six and began tearing great chunks out of my aircraft. A final burst from the 20-mm canon pods and my left wing folded up against the fuselage. At a mere 150 feet above the uncaring sea, my wait for death was mercifully short.
“Kill of Sabre awarded to HFMudd.”
Nice job, Harcourt. Big to you for a well-fought battle. This is what the CT is all about!
Sabre
