The Nightmares took off in LA5s to escort the Il2s to target. Along the way we met a few enemy and detached a few guys to deal with them and allow us separation to get the attack flights to target.
As we neared the target, many 190D9s appeared. They were coming out of the woodwork! We all ended up in a swirling mass on the deck directly over the target. SOme of the Mares were able to follow orders and withdraw to the east after the Ils dropped. Me, SMUZ, Syz, Tophat and a couple others were unable to escape. We had to fight our way east. Dutchman was screaming "WHere are you guys?!" But we couldnt respond with much info other than "Still at target..many FWS!"
Somehow we shot up enough enemy that we were able to escape. On the way out me and SMUZ were tangling with a couple fws bent on ending our night. Almost clear...SMUZ hit a tree. For about 3 minutes I was alone with 2 FWs. I had hit one of them pretty good, he was smoking but still full of fight.
Just when I thought the end was near, Syz and Tophat roared in to save my bacon. Tophat killed one but I saw him go down as well. Syz and myself, now dangerously low on fuel set less than minimum man/rpm settings and crawled home. We met Vimy in an Il2 otw and somehow we all got home to re-arm. Syz had 2 minutes of fuel left.
Syz and I re-upped and met up with the rest of the survivng Mares over the troops training center. Suddenly many FWD9s appeared. We lost Iceberg, but not before he spotted this force and gave location to us. We killed all but 1 who I believed escaped. We then rtb to base. I wish I had filmed it. It was a great time!