"In what has been described by participants as some of the fiercest aircombat encountered thus far, the intrepid flyers of the TOD squadron suffered their first serious losses late yesterday. The TOD unit conducted an Offensive Counter-Air (OCA) mission last night at 21:30 EST, sweeping from F1 to F4 to F8 to F7, then returning to F1. The twelve Bf109G-6 fighters climbed to 22,000 feet, the proceeded to the first waypoint at F4, where they encountered what was descibed by one TOD pilot as a "swarm" of from 15 to 18 enemy fighters of various types.
During the insueing aerial melee, TOD warriors managed to down six enemy planes, despite being slightly outnumbered. Unfortunately, this victory was a pyrrhic one, as it resulted in four TOD pilots KIA, and two more that were forced to bail out.
One flight leader noted that overly aggressive tactics on the part of TOD pilots caused some to be drawn down into dogfights. When the action began, the TOD flights were significantly higher than most of their opponents. The enemy fighters were mostly at a lower altitude because they were engaged in suppressing the defenses/defenders at field F4.
High Command tried to put the action in a more favorable light by pointing out the two-to-one kill ratio of unit TOD; however, there's no denying that this unit cannot hope to sustain losses like this without a significant influx of new pilots. In other news..."
Tough night for us last night. One flight lost three out of four pilots in the bloodbath at F4. Two factors probably contributed to this. First, a hard-deck was not briefed by flight leaders. A hard-deck means the lowest altitude a fighter should decend to while pursuing an enemy. Second, there was probably less mutual support between the three flights. I probably should have designated an overall tactical leader of the three flights. Still, it would have been unfair to expect one flight to decend into the malstrom in support of another. In any event, the damage was done in a fight that lasted only a few minutes. In real life, the odds could shift literally in the blink of an eye, and that's what happened last night. The flight that took a less aggressive approach to the flight all returned to base, but between the five of them they garnered only an assit. It's a very fine line between aggressiveness and recklessness. Salute to the TOD participants of last night, and especially to our fallen comrades that are now out of the fight for good.
NOTE: There are still nine TOD missions to go, and plenty of time for anyone not already registered to do so and complete the requisit five missions for their ribbon. E-mail me if you're interested. Thanks.
Sabre (a.k.a. Rojo)
TOD Coordinator
[This message has been edited by Rojo (edited 01-28-2000).]
