Target For Today AARs

[ROC]

Ladies and Gentlemen, lets post the Target For Today AARs here. This was such a great event, I'd hate to loose these after the forums close.

[artik]

Ok, I'll be the first one... 

Also I don't fly attack missions frequently and rarely fly Mosquito I registered with 613 squadron to try something different. I read once again the great Bozon's guide to the wooden wonder, did some preliminary training at MA and found it as a difficult plane.

A day before the scenario had began I read the orders and discovered that we are going to do one of the most interesting missions I usually enjoy much - sneak in and kill the radars. I thought we are going to fly NOE, tried it several times at MA and found that my surviveability rate due to AAA was quite low and my hitting ability from high altitude were even lower...

First Sortie

In any case I stepped in, I was assigned as a wingman to Pembquit (who later received several awards and commendations). Once the fields were open we took off and I followed pembquit to the target. I was glad that we took the medium altitude path rather than NOE attack. We got to the first radar (south west of Calais) and saw that it was in flames, we moved south to the next one. Pembquit entered the dive and destroyed the radar with laser guided weapon precision I stayed at altitude to cover, than we moved to the next radar this time I would bomb and pembquit cover, it was destroyed as well so I turned east to Dieppe area. I thought about all the time we were exposed to the LW CGI and was expecting to see 109 and 190 any time which made me little bit more nervous where every small dirt on my screen was considered as a con (lesson - always clear your windshield... hmmmm monitor before the flight)

Nevertheless I soon had visual contact with the radar tower and no bogies were around. I got into medium dive and dropped my 4x500lb bombs exiting at low altitude minimizing exposure to AAA fire. Unfortunately the radar was still standing so I turned and settled to a strafing pass with 4x20mm canons. I opened a fire and saw the radar goes into flames. My Mosquito got at least several AAA hits but no system was damaged.

Reviewing the recording I saw that my first pair of bombs overshoot by some 1/2 of the tower height probably softening the target the second pair of bombs felt way further. The strafing finished the radar for good.

Now I was ordered to head back to England for refueling and Pembquit left as cover to another squadron member to destroy yet another radar. On my way home I heart the 613 lost one Mosquito and that XO was flying his damaged bird back to England on one engine.

Second Sortie

I landed refueled and was ordered to switch radio channel (and must admit at that point I lost all understanding of what is going on and where should I go, I personally think having overload at radio channel gives too much noise and it is very hard to understand who and to whom is talking, when we were on 613's private channel it was quite clear communication)

I took off still not understanding where to go and I saw Pembquit landing so I asked to stay with him as his wingman and was granted the permission. I circled a little while pembquit was refueling and followed him to Antwerp area. We had flown most of the time over the sea and than turned into the target. I had seen that pembquit was using little bit unusual tactics in dive bombing doing a loop over the target to loose the speed and diving almost vertically. I discussed it with him and decided to give it a try. The first radar was destroyed by pembquit in one pass. So we continued to the south. When he was covering me. I spotted a lonely 410 higher but he wasn't performing anything aggressive so I asked pembquit to watch him while I was preparing to bomb the radar. I did a small loop over the field and indeed I found myself at 8K at about 150mph over the field chopped the throttle and entered vertical dive. The radar tower looked strange from 90 degree dive I settled in. I suddenly hear pembquit warning me that there is 109 after me. I was already committed to the dive and decided that I would be very hard target for 109 so I continued with my dive concentrating on the target, speed & altitude.  At 3K I released all 4 bombs and left at near blackout. I had seen 109G6 passing nearby and than disappearing from my view after I pooled from he dive I turned to the north in a shallow climb to the clouds.

I looked back and saw the radar was standing still  Reviewing the recording I had found that I hit the target I aimed almost perfectly, the problem the target wasn't the radar  I managed to misidentify probably the most visible target on any airfield  On the good side the 109 indeed didn't manage to exit the dive and crashed trying to kill me.

Third Sortie

We flown as fast as we could towards the sea and went back to England for yet another refueling. Pembquit got yet another target assignment and we took off. We penetrated to he enemy territory somewhere between Calais and Dieppe. Then we heart a distress call from a fellow mosquito. Pembquit ordered to drop the bombs I had seen 110 and 410 chasing a single mosquito that was calling desperately for help. I saw Pembquit entered the dive I had inverted and entered split-S.... I started it at 8K at 410mph the 110 was about 2K... It was a big mistake. At around 520mph I heard my Mosquito screaming with anger and I lost my elevators and rudder.

I had seen 410 going into flames lighten up by Pembquit. My 110 was 400 yards in front of me and my mosquito was uncontrollable but at least already climbing. At 7.5K it flipped back and entered the dive once again. I abandoned it as 3K and had seen it falling to the sea when I was stripped to my chute... My inexperience in Mosquito had shown itself very-well.

Overall

At this point I left the game because I was too tired (had very busy Saturday - you know, real life) but I enjoyed every minute of flying this magnificent bird. I ended with destroying a radar (at least putting the last shell into it) and "maneuver-killing" one 109. Also it wasn't good record at all, but it was far more than what I expected from myself.

[BFOOT1]

Journal Log for Major BFOOT1

12/31/1943

This morning was a rough wake up at 0430 hours for breakfast and briefing. After a night of heavy drinking with the fellas, waking up with a hangover, two feet of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures isn’t exactly the wake up I prefer. Anyways breakfast began at 0445 hours with powdered eggs, gravy, three strips of bacon and some strong black coffee. The boys were laughing this morning cracking jokes trying to ease nerves and make our new pilot feel at ease before the storm that we would face later.

Our briefing  at 0515 hours discussed our first mission of the day was to fly to an airfield outside of Deinze, Belgium (A92), drop a 500lb bomb in the vicinity of the area and then head back home to refuel and cover the bombers. Our group of P-47’s made up of the 56th and 355th FG was to be escorted by Spit Mk IX’s of 401 Squadron RCAF, 411 Squadron, RAF453 Squadron RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and 602 Squadron RAF. We were to act as a divisionary force to draw up the Luftwaffe into thinking we were the bombers. Lt. Col. Redtail7 briefed the group and at 0535 we were performing our pre-flight checks in our P-47 D-11’s. It was dreadfully cold in the cockpits as we were doing our pre-flight checks, and I couldn’t wait to crank up Sweet Evelyn and maybe get some heat flowing through the cold airframe. We lifted from West Malling (A37) at 0600 hours and began our flight to Belgium. As we lifted off it was amazing to see the sun peeking over and touching the soft white snow, which glistened and sparkled as we climbed through 5,000 feet. Paladin3 I formed up on Redtail7 with AKGreyga and AKCrispy as pair, AKRaider and AKWoody flying as a pair. We climbed to 25,000 feet and cruised over the English Channel, which is a cold dark blue world that sits below us, which is already filled with enough dead airmen from the previous years. We pass over into Belgium just a few miles southwest of Ostende.

The Spitfires above us at 30,000 feet report  a few enemy contacts as we approach the airfield. I hear Dantoo an Australian pilot with the RAAF say, “Here comes the US Air Force, keep em clean.” We approach A92 from the southeast and Red gives us the order to roll in. I began my roll from 25,000 by chopping the throttle and cutting the engine. I quickly pass through 20,000 feet as my speedometer begins to pass through 350, 400 (18,000 feet) and 450 (17,000 feet). The airframe starts to shake and pieces of paint begin to peel off the aircraft. I pass through 15,000 and feel the plane begin to compress. I kick rudder hard right and pull on the stick for all she’s worth. I slowly pull out of the climb around 12,000 feet. I glance at my speedometer to see that I just came out of a 550 mile an hour dive. I release my bomb and restart the engine for the short trip home. We encountered some light resistance with 109’s and 190’s but the Spitfire squadrons handled them very well. We lost one pilot, a new second lieutenant who ripped his wings off in his dive, our first casualty. We flew across Dunkirk to Hastings (A68) where we refueled to escort the bombers from egress at A92. The bombers were roughly halfway to target by the time we were airborne. The 355th FG regrouped and immediately vectored to Deinze. We had an easy flight over there at 30,000 feet and intercepted the bombers over A92 as they began dropping their payloads. A92 was leveled I believe as I saw smoke and flames cover the airfield.

The bombers began their turn back to England, when Red spots 109’s to the 5’o clock low of the bomber formation, at about 16,000 feet. I dive in; Red and I break off on a lone BF-110. We close in. Red opens fire, I pull lead and open fire. The poor bastard was caught in the crossfire. Red took off his wing and I caught him in the cockpit as he spiraled down. I spot a pair of 110’s to the 6’o clock low of the bomber formation. I dive on the tail end Charlie and he begins to slowly pull up. His tail gunner sends a string of fire which arches too high, as I’m too far out of range. His next burst goes to the left of plane which misses by a few hundred feet. His third burst manages to hit my right wing, which put five bullets in my wing. His last burst managed to put one round through the windscreen which missed my head by three inches and caused one hell of a bang off the headrest. I’ve got him lined up at 250 yards. I fire one burst for maybe two seconds which rips off his left wing.

AKCrispy destroyed an FW-190, AKGreyga shared a kill with Pollux and destroyed an FW-190, AKRaider shared a kill with Vlkyrie1, I shared a kill with Red on the BF-110 he destroyed and had my kill confirmed, Paladin3 destroyed a BF-110 and Redtail7 destroyed a BF-110 for a total of  6.5 victories on our first encounter with the enemy.
We flew home and rearmed at A68, where we take a quick break before performing a fighter sweep.

Major BFOOT1
Operations Officer
358th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group
8th Air Force

I will add my other experiences tomorrow, hope you all enjoy. 

[shotgunneeley]

A film is worth a thousand AARs...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/abduglqrqtp1j/Target_for_Today

I played on my laptop in a location where I could get good CableLynx wired internet instead of home gaming rig where all I have is rural satellite exceed internet (worthless in a T-Storm).   Basically, I began my scenario duty with the I./JG-26 FW-190A5 group led by Fudgums in time to see all of phase 3:

Hour 9 - Death by P47 (crashed on final approach due to PW blackout), Hour 10 - Bailed out by Spitfire (vertical stabilizer shot off at D400 while performing Split S), Hour 11 - Landed Successfully, Hour 12 - Death by P38 (Instant death at D600 while performing a split S). The entire time I had 0 kills and 5 assists.

[fudgums]

I got bored the other day guys and put this together. I'm hoping to keep all AAR's and videos/screenshots here eventually. As well as an OOB, but that will take a little time.

http://targetfortoday2015.moonfruit.com/

Fud

[Muzzy]

I'll be honest with you, this scenario was a lot of fun but it feels like a blur to me. It's very difficult to recall specific incidents as most of the time I was organizing, leading, assigning targets, getting ready for the next strike and then launching again. I can tell you this, though...the Mosquito's versatility was a huge advantage. We flew just about every mission you could possibly imagine and it was incredible fun.

Our first order of business was to drop all the radars in northern France. Internet connection issues kept me grounded for the first couple of sorties, but my XO Badblood took command of 418 squadron while Oldskool commanded 613. The vast majority of the radars were down within the first two sorties thanks to excellent work by both squadrons. Of particular note was the efforts of Tunes, who flew four Mossies simultaneously and dropped a total of five radars for us.  Dropping the radars at least made it easier for our planes to cross the coast, although with dar bar functional the advantages were somewhat minimal.

The next item on our agenda was follow-on strikes against the three main airfield targets. The bombers did a great job of knocking down A92, leaving very little cleanup work for us. We hit 106 a couple of times but paid the price for it due to heavy fighter resistance at that location. Our squadrons did not do very well in aerial combat, largely because we were eventually engaged by cons with an altitude advantage. We launched further strikes against A117 and achieved more success in terms of damage. Overall our bombing campaign added to the total damage score for the day, and we also softened up several targets that were brought down by other aircraft.

We executed one strat raid on Antwerp that was also modestly successful. Our planes were escorted most of the way and benefited from the Luftwaffe chasing down an outbound heavy bomber strike while we made our attack. Our planes were able to drop successfully on the flak strat and most of our birds made it home in one piece.

The last operation we were tasked with was codenamed Torchwood.  The plan was to fly deep into enemy territory, land near enemy bases and then re-up just before a launch window opened and BARCAP the fields. We attempted this twice; once over Antwerp and another time over Paris. In both cases there were no large formations launching from the fields, although 613 squadron shot down one pilot multiple times. It's uncertain whether this operation had any effect, although we did prevent the enemy from using the fields closest to the primary objective for that frame.

Although we generally fared poorly in air to air combat, we did manage about 30 kills for the scenario in addition to a considerable amount of damage to the main targets. We also took out the radars and set up distraction raids that drew some fighters away from our main attack. In the end, our operations were reflective of how the Mosquito was used during the war, and showcased the versatility of the aircraft.

Late in the last frame we were asked to disband our Mossie squads and transfer to the 55th Fighter Group, flying P-38's. We flew two escort missions to Paris and two of our pilots participated in the final attack on A117, which polished off almost every building that was still standing at that base.  This was an unexpected twist, but the pilots of 418 and 613 did a solid job escorting the bombers and we managed to rack up a few more kills in the process.

In the end, I think we lived up to our promise that the Mosquito missions would be some of the most varied and challenging of the scenario. It was a lot of fun to fly and we accomplished every mission we were tasked with.  When I formed these squadrons I told our pilots that "you may die, but you will not be bored." For the most part we delivered on that statement.

[KCDitto]

"We hit 106 a couple of times but paid the price for it due to heavy fighter resistance at that location. Our squadrons did not do very well in aerial combat, largely because we were eventually engaged by cons with an altitude advantage."

Camo and the Finns were tasked with defending 106. The only complete Geschwader the Luftwaffe had on that day.

[Muzzy]

Here are a few shots of our Mossies in action:







This last one shows the devastation wrought at A106. You can see my bomb hitting the fuel dump while another Mossie is in the middle of a dive:

[JVboob]

   :cheesy:see some AARs from the bombers POV