Last evening, in the CT, I had one of the most enjoyable fights I’ve ever had flying AH.
I had taken up an A-20G to drop a vehicle base that had been the source of a series of GV attacks on one of our forward airfields. Climbing out to 12k, I flew a sector deep into enemy territory unmolested, as most of the Luftwobbles were involved in a big furball in the adjoining southern sector. With 4k in bombs, I made several dive bombing runs, killing the VH, barracks and fuel. It was then that I noticed several dots coming from a nearby enemy field. With that, I pushed the nose down, accelerating to 350 mph, heading for home.
Running along at 500 feet, the dots followed, one of them rapidly gaining in size. Finally. At 3k the icon indicated the plane to be a Bf 109, probably a 109G-10. I continued on my way watching the 109 close the range. As he worked his way in, he descended below the sight line of the dorsal turret. When he was 900 yards out, I reversed in a blackout turn. At that point the 109 pilot made his first mistake, he also elected to reverse. However, he was carrying a lot of smash, and the resulting turn was large in diameter. Seeing this, I continued my left turn, and headed straight for him for a high angle deflection shot. Clearly startled at the rapid change in circumstance, the 109 driver hesitated and I raked the fighter with a snapshot. Although the 109 displayed no obvious damage, I figured that his confidence had been riddled thru and thru.
Pulling into a climbing right turn, the 109 attempts to get some vertical separation. I pull up into a half-loop, getting another snapshot, which results in a minor ping in the rudder area. However, things just got much more complicated.
I spot a 190 (turned out to be a Dora) and another 109 maneuvering for position, less than 3k distant. Fortunately, like the first 109, these guys had far too much E to follow my gyrations, and simply blew by. Both climbed steeply, figuring to try another pass. I ignored them and continued after the damaged 109. For some inexplicable reason the 109 turned hard left, and it was just a matter of pulling enough lead… off came a wing.
Meanwhile, the other two were coming down again, and like the last pass, they carried too much speed to do anything but whiz on by. I made a slight S turn and hosed the Dora as he raced away. Pieces fluttered down. Looking up I spot yet another 109 rolling in. However, a pair of friendly Spitfires arrive and race to cut him off. Chanzz comes up on vox, “Widewing, could ya use a little help with these guys?”
“You take the high one, I’m on the low ones.”
Clearly damaged, the Dora is reluctant to re-engage, but the 109 driver reverses, looking for trouble. By now, I’m down to less than 150 rounds of ammo, having shot out most of it on the vehicle base earlier. Heading straight at me, the 109 looks like he’s going for an HO. But he bears off slightly to my left. Taking the opportunity, I pinch on the merge and hose him as we pass. Immediately, the 109 begins trailing smoke. With less than 20 rounds remaining, I take a snapshot at the 109 being chased by Chanzz, but I see no hits. With empty magazines, I announce that I am disengaging as more friendly and hostile aircraft arrive at this growing furball.
On the return flight, the two fighters I damaged were finished off, but I received only assists. Remarkably, my Havoc was never hit. Equally remarkable was the fact that the enemy pilots made so many mistakes, that I was able to inflict considerable damage to them. The timely arrival of Chanzz and Stream14 probably saved me from a 4 on 1 ganging. Nonetheless, dogfighting in a big monster like the Havoc was tremendous fun, at least for me.
I know of several pilots, on both sides of that fight, who will no longer view the A-20G as an easy target. Indeed, don’t kick the fat dog ‘cause he still has teeth. Shane introduced me to the maneuvering ability of the A-20G just after it came out, when he popped my Lavochkin in a similar fashion to this fight. Like the SBD, TBM and even the Ju 88, under the correct circumstances, an aggressively flown A-20 can be a real danger to anyone taking it lightly and getting caught off guard. Turnfighting with Spitfires, Zekes and N1K2s is another matter. However, on the deck, the A-20G can out-run those fighters, and shoot at them while doing so.
My regards,
Widewing
