Flying a B-17 at about 20k I watched from the ball turret as an La-5 crept up on me from my low six. At about 800 yds, as he was flying straight and level I fired off a burst, taking of the end of his left wing. He wobbled, moved out of range to my left, regained control, and PULLED BACK IN BEHIND ME FOR ANOTHER ATTACK. A second carefully aimed burst took off his right wingtip. Now it was easier for him to fly, so he just kept coming, looking like some sort of cruise missile.
Do you remember the knight in Monty Python's "Search for the Holy Grail" who loses one arm, then another, then one leg, then the other, but never gives up fighting? I'm thinking I must be fighting him. So I give him another burst and he catches fire. He bailed.
MRPLUTO, Captain, VMF-323, ~Death Rattlers~
P.S. Anyone interested in most exciting base captures?
One evening I had three wild missions in a row that all succeeded (two in C-47s, one in an M-3).
It was the Baltic Terrain, and we Knights, under Ripsnort's leadership, were taking back our bases in the south.
I first flew a C-47 into A60. The fuel tanks were all in flames; the entire field was thick with black smoke. I circled around to approach the map room for a pinpoint landing from the northwest because there were GVs at the south end of the field. As I come in on final over the north end of the runway, I can see a P-51 and N1K spawning just 50 feet below me. I touched down and came to a stop just yards from the map room as planes took-off and exploded on the runway behind me.
We next captured A61 under similar conditions of blazing fuel tanks and smashed hangers. I came racing up in an M-3. There were a few enemy fighters overhead, but we had many more so they weren't a problem. As I raced past the perimiter of the base at 45 mph I glanced at a destroyed hanger 50 yards to my right. Suddenly I realized that hidden in the wreckage was an enemy M-16!
I just kept going, but he had seen me too, and tracers flew wildly over my head! Our pilots must have been right on him, because he stopped firing after just seconds.
Back in a C-47 at A62 it was another landing through smoke and flames with tracer fire coming from the far side of the field. Another pinpoint landing at the map room and we had captured our third field in less than 45 minutes.
These three missions were the most exciting and successful I ever flew in an on-line sim, and I never fired a shot!