I/JG26
by Brooke
Got an assist on the RAF CO in his Spitfire, ditched in channel, bled to death in channel, up as Ju87, destroyed 7 buildings at P105-city in three sorties.
I/JG26 consisted of Vols as flight leader, Odd (in his Kongo account) as 2nd in command, Airmess, Schaden, Pikehan, Dace, and Brooke in Bf 109E-4's. Our base was A45.
The plan was for us and I/KG2 to launch at T+20, but I/KG2 took off right away. After some discussion and trying to reach I/KG2, we ended up taking off, too. We grabbed some altitude, and then headed off to find I/KG2. Odd and I were given the task of close escort, and the rest of the guys continued up to 20k or more.
Unfortunately, I/KG2 was out ahead of us by some distance. Odd and I hooked up with a tail element of I/KG2 nearing the coast of England, and as I approached, I saw that it was under attack by a single Spitfire. I radioed it in and dove in. The Spit got his second Stuka just before I got on him. Then I was on him close. We maneuvered around a bit, and I was taking shots, but my gunnery sucked. He ran for the coast after mixing it up a short while, and I stayed on him. We ran into bogies at the coast that turned out to be friendly, so I stayed on him. I unfortunately followed him all the way to the coastal cities and started taking a lot of antiaircraft fire. I was saddled up, though, ranging from 100 to 600 yards off his tail as we went through various maneuvers and decided I'd push it -- you know . . . "just a little bit more." I was firing away, cursing my bad marksmanship and starting to get shot all to hell by the AA. We were mixing it up on the deck right over an English city. Crap. After a bunch of AA hits on me, I decided to break hard and make a run for it, which I did. I jinked, but took more AA hits as I ran out of the area and finally a pilot wound on my way out. I was leaking coolant, had other damage, and a pilot wound. I headed toward A46, the nearest base. About half a sector from it, I lost power and glided along as far as possible and then ditched about a quarter sector from A46. I called for pickup, but eventually died before anyone could get to me.
Damn it. I truly sucked on that one. My gunnery sucked and my judgement sucked. On reviewing the film, I even see that I got hits on Vlkyrie1 when I was going after the Spit (although it was after the tail of the Stuka had already been shot off, so I wasn't doing any extra harm, I guess). I couldn't hit the damned spit well at all, but I did manage to hit Vlkyrie1. Crap! And I didn't even get a chance to live and learn because I am now fish food in the English channel. So, when next you have fish and chips, think of my possible contribution.
After being reincarnated as Brooke Jr. and was given a Ju87 to fly. I took off from A45 with Odd and Airmess, also in Ju87's, and Vols, Pikehan, and Dace in 109's. I'm not sure what happened to Schaden at this point -- he might still have been fighting in his 109. I/KG2 was taking off in Ju88's at the time, too, so it might have been that all of them when in Ju87's were shot down on the first sortie, either by enemy planes or the deadly ack.
We followed the Ju88's for a bit, but our Ju87's were not as fast and fell behind. The 109's stayed on to escort us, and we got the vehicle hangar at P105 as primary target with the buildings at P105-city as the secondary.
The way in had bogies, but they turned out to be friendlies each time, to the way was clear, and the Stukas went in on P105. We saw that the vehicle hangar was still up, so Odd went in on it while Airmess and I stayed up to see the result. Odd put a bomb on it or near it, but it stayed up, so Airmess went in next. He unloaded on it, and it went down, which I verified. So I went on to P105-city. The AAA was intense. I gently jinked around to avoid AAA bursts and circled around west of the city, put on my dive flaps, cut throttle, and rolled over into a vertical dive, looking for targets as I dove down. I started my dive at about 11k and saw buildings resolve themselves soon. As I dove in, I took AA hits. I picked out a couple buildings, dropped my two 250 pounders, toggled to the 1000 pounder, and dropped that, too.
I was taking AA hits all the way down. After my 1000 pounder, I retracted dive flaps, went to full throttle and ran and jinked the hell out of there. I took more hits, but was able to make it clear. Once I was clear of AA, I checked and saw that I had been hit in my left aux. fuel tank, but nothing more serious. What a relief. I checked the message buffer and saw that I probably destroyed two buildings (or at least saw two "city building destroyed" messages).
Once clear of the city to the SW, I then turned back SE, didn't get jumped by British fighters, and headed back to A45 for repairs. I passed Airmess along the way, who ditched in the channel. I think he got picked up by a PT boat -- he must have been hit by ack on is run. I landed at A45 shortly behind Odd.
Since I had landed at my home base, I was able to get a fresh Ju87 for the next mission. We had lost some pilots, Schaden and Airmess by this point, and formed up as follows: me in a Ju87, and Vols, Odd, Pikehan, and Dace in 109's. So, I was well escorted! My target was P105-city.
We took off, and I headed toward A46 climbing to get some altitude before heading toward P105. Near A46, I noticed that the field was flashing that it was under attack. The I/JG26 109's went to check it out and saw a very high bogie, which might have been an enemy, or there might have been a British PT boat or c47 in the area. I headed W, and the rest of the lads joined up with me after seeing that A46 didn't seem to be in danger.
I headed W until near the coast, then headed NW toward P105. Odd stayed close escort, and the other guys stayed high. I came in at about 10-12k or so. I radioed for the fighters to break off once flak started up, as it was deadly. I went in to the SW of P105-city, then N, then hit it from the W or NW so that I could dive out to the S or SW.
The previous time was my first mission in a Ju87, and the first time I have every divebombed a city in Aces High. That first run, I wasn't sure what the city would look like or what buildings would be available. This time in, I had a much better idea.
Again, I had to dodge AAA on the way in. I rolled in and dove vertically. This time, I targeted my first 250 pounder on one cluster, my second 250 on another cluster, and my 1000 pounder on a third cluster. I took few hits on the way down and then on exit this time. I ran and jinked until out of ack range, then headed SW toward A45 again. The fighters stayed on to escort other bombers that were coming and going in the area. On this run, I got three "city building destroyed" messages.
I flew back to A45 to rearm and refuel for one more run. By the time I was down and re-equipped, there was 30 minutes left -- enough for a run t the coast and back with some room to spare. I asked on the radio about Stuka targets, and was told that there were aircraft hangars still up at A16 and P105-city and P106-city to hit, with A16 as primary target. I took off and headed NW toward England -- more direct as time was somewhat short.
About 10 miles out from the coast, a radio message came in that A16's fighter hangers had been hit and destroyed by other Stukas that were up. So I headed toward P105-city. About that time, Odd came on to say that he had gotten shot down and was coming back up in a Ju87. There was still just enough time probably for him to get to P105-city and back before end of frame.
This time in, I had no escort, but the way was clear. I think all the British fighters were having their hands full in the A7/A8 area and the CAP bubble. I made it into the area with only AAA and AA to worry about. I dropped a 250 on one cluster, a 250 on another, and my 1000 on a third again, and again got three "city building destroyed" messages.
Odd made it in about 10 minutes after me and commented that a lot of buildings were down. He dropped and got six "city building destroyed" messages, I think. Hmm. I must have been missing a lot!
I went back to land, and I think Odd was able to get out of the ack, dive to the deck and make it back shortly before the end of the frame. On our way back, we heard from Dace who got 4-6 kills or something insane like that. Yikes! He is a kingpin! He was even able to make it all the way back to A45 in a shot up 109, but lost his connection on final approach. Man, that sucks, but better then than earlier on.
Looking at the log, I see that I got an assist on the Spit that dragged me into AA. Odd got the kill on him, and it was none other than the CO of the RAF, 68KO. :) I also destroyed 7 buildings, earning me a coveted spot in top 10 bombers for the frame (. . . in 10th place and far behind #9, but we can keep that part of it in parentheses, right?). Now if only people could overlook the fact that I put a couple rounds into Vlkyrie1, I should be able to avoid the firing squad!
-- Brooke