OK, the above was more of a CO AAR, and was a drunken late night post. Here's the AAR for the Shills
We took off from the Chateau feild at A-14... very cool. WTG guys. A14 was the only field we had along the coast, so the flight of Hurri's that came out of there were meant to be "Fighting Scouts" Our CO issued the following Orders.
Originally Shouted with Force and Brutality By an Abusive Allied CO
56th FG and Shills: Consider yourselves fighting scouts. I'd like these two sqauds to split into small elements of 2-4 planes. I'd prefere 2 plane elements (wingman wingleader) Assign elements to varying altitudes. for example, if the Shills bring 8 pilots, we would have 4 groups of two. Wewould assign them as follows
1 0-5k
2 5-10k
3 10-15k
4.15-20k
Your mission is to patrol the southern part of the country, just north of the coastline. Last frame Ju-88s came in under our Cap at A18 and elsewhere. A-18 was destroyed. In a perfect world, your elements will be able to string themselves out, but keep visual contact (eg, stay in incon range)with one another. But that's a long front to cover. 56th FG will patrol West, covering the Approaches to A16 and the Refinery, Shills will patrol East covering the approaches to London. If attacked, you can engage, but remember we're trying to find the bomber alts and targets. I don't expect many of these guys to survive. Sorry.
Considering we were on a sewercide mission, most of the Squad was in pretty good spirits. In fact at least two of the pilots had faild to receive the orders, and so were probably VERY surprised when they got jumped by a horde. The Urgent calls of some assinged to lower alts to "get more alt" were pretty funny. Anyhow, we spread out along the souther coast, and quicky lost sight of each other as we acted indepenty. In my case, my wingman, Devi (of the 33rd) and I Were assigned on the bottom 5-0k. I had hoped that the 109s would come in at max alt, around 20k, and that my 10k and 5k groups could slip under them. I forget who was assinged to 10k, but they became engaged with the 109s (I believe they fought a fighting retreat north). Devi and I however slipped under the 109's and began to work south, away from the Fight at A14.
It looked like my plan was working perfectly (well, I would have hoped that about 6 planes would get throught the 109s, but 2 might be enough. When I saw a HUGE formation at my 2 O'clock flying north. Suffering from Confirmation bias, I wrongly ID'ed them as Ju-88's (Hey, they were big two engine planes! what do you want?) As I was excitedly radioing the Position of what I thought was the first London raid, I was cornholed by a 110 that I NEVER saw. Devi missed him too. It was a brutal drubbing.
It wasn't much longer until all the other shills were down. We all died, and we didn't get many if any kills, but we did what we were supposed to do, and I'm proud of my guys for taking on a difficult mission that hinged on not fighting.
Just for Wotan, here are the additional orders I gave to My Squad:
Lol, I think that the best sticks in the game will have a hard time with the patrol mission. Many of the 2 plane elements will probably be jumped by 5-10
109s in the begining of the fight. My hope is that 4-5 groups will survive unoticed by the 109s and be able to catch the Ju-88s coming in.
Remember, if you are jumped by 109s, Take as much time as you can killing them. Never take a shot that will get you killed. Bring the fight to the deck slowely over time. The longer you keep them engaged, the better off we will be. I'm hoping that we can get most of the escort force to engage our two small squads, by spreading us out. With the Reduced Icon range, my hope is that 109s will see 2 cons, and figure there are 5-10 more nearby, then they will overcommit to fighting these two cons, who are not at all
interested in fighting. Just get them to waste fuel and time. We will be "bait" as it were. I don't expect us to die, but I don't have much hope for us to all live.
All in all it was my favorite TOD, but I don't know if it was because of who close and well fought it was, or if It was because I was the CO. Either way, this event will just continue to grow, and as it does, it will give a greater justification for all the early war plane additions.
agian to everyone involved.
-Sikboy
