9 GIAP rolled 10 airframes at the start.
3 upped resupply goons from A7 to A8. An A6M-5 group upped at A8 for cover and base defence and three N1K’s also upped at 8 and covered the goons.
The goons travelled low and fast to A8 with the N1K’s covering us directly whilst the Zeros climbed above A8. A Safe arrival saw the field resupped and we emplaned again in a6m-5’s and soon all groups were climbing to defend the home base.
When we (the lowest group) got to about 10K there was a report of low cons. We pounced on a couple of A20’s. My first run was too fast and I had to overshoot and roll out to get uncompressed. Strangely enough an A20 appeared below me in my 12 o’clock as I got control back. I immediately dived to attack it evan as I noticed a second A20 break and climb off to my left. Though split from my wingy, in the absence of any other enemy threats, I continued to attack the plane in front of me. Well I fired 3 lead bursts at d400 or less and never scored a ping. I kept turning with him for a moment, then decided to climb and come back for a better shot position. A hail of bullets went high over my machine and I thrust the nose down but 2 bangs and an elevator fell off. “Spits” somebody cried out! Doh!
I took to the chute and looked about. Fariz had disappeared (disco again) and Frank was alone except with a bunch of A20’s and spits all round him. Lucky Frank - all those targets, sigh
Strangely though the 10-1 odds seemed to be too great and he exploded just as he got onto some enemy’s six.
I set out to manfully walk back to base. On the way, I watched an interesting phenomenon. It appeared that as each group got to the bottom of the stack they were slaughtered by the one immediately above. Firstly the spits went down as our Niki’s and Zekes hit them. Then we lost our planes when a group of P47’s dropped down. Then another group of Zekes fell on the P47’s and shot them up. These Zekes were then pounced by P51’s and put to the sword. A8 became a used duralium salesman’s dream/nightmare.
As the fight drifted away from the field, one p47 sat above it and vulched any wounded planes returning to base. He seemed to be strafing innocent bystanders too! Sod!!
We lost another to CTD at this time. Suddenly we were down to one guy left who had the brains to retreat and refuel.
Heard on the radio that one of our squads caught the enemy on the ground/low at A10. Heh revenge, I thought, get that p47!
A lone A20 returned and shot up A8 whilst carefullly watched from above by a number of planes. The A20 eventually ran out of ammo and finally died of boredom or something. A lone p47 got chased all the way to A10. Near A10 a group of P51’s had just got airborne it seems and were heading south. This group although superior in numbers was attacked by our N1k survivors who quickly became non-survivors.
When all tallied up - maybe not our best performance.
Resupplied field A8.
Defended A8
Lost 8 airframes (and many pilots) Killed maybe 3ish baddies.
all
