Flight F consisted of me (Brooke), HB555, GaB, 715B, Taiaha, and BGgetmo. This frame, we were to take off from A119 on Malta and patrol east and southeast of Malta. I was also assigned to coordinate the fighters out of Malta. BGgetmo and I flew Hurricane IIC's with drop tanks, and the others flew Spitfire Mk. V's.
The RAF today had fewer pilots than we would have liked. Flight A had 5 of 8 pilots, Flight B had 8 of 8, Flight C had 3 of 8, Flight D had 3 of 8, Flight E had 4 of 8, and Flight F had 6 of 8. This meant some of the planned patrol areas would be too lightly covered, so I got permission from Jordi, the CO, to combine Flights E and C in the patrol area in column 11 and to have Flight A take the area formerly assigned to Flight E. Also, to cover incoming Spitfires, we initially had Flights A and D work to cover the incoming route, then go to their patrol areas.
Flight F took off and climbed east, up to 33k or so. The Flights E, C, and B pushed north toward Sicily and got in some combats. Flights A and D went to cover incoming Spits. Flight F moved up and covered NE of Malta as with Flight B north, it would otherwise have left a gap there. This left the SE, S, and SW of Malta uncovered, but it was the best coverage we could manage until more Spits showed up.
A while after Flight F was patrolling NE of Malta, it became clear that a sizeable number of enemies had pushed through the northern forces and were approaching Malta. I think they either got through while the northern forces were in fights or skirted the northern forces and then pressed to Malta. Flight F saw this and raced back to Malta to cover.
As we approached Malta, over the water about 5 miles north of the Malta shore, we intercepted a squadron of six very high 109's, 35k or higher. Getmo and I dropped our tanks, and Fight F engaged. The enemies turned out to be Bf 109F-4's. We were holding our own, mixing it up, then a fresh high-altitude squadron of C.202's showed up. We were still doing OK, but more and more enemies continued to show up. Once we were well outnumbered and I could see more bogies coming in, I started putting out radio messages that Malta was in trouble. I didn't see any other RAF flights around, and my fear was that this large a number of enemies was in the process of capping Malta and would give our incoming, low-fuel Spitfires lots of trouble. When I could spare some typing, I kept putting in quick messages that Malta was in trouble. I didn't have enough time to type much, though, like location or exact number of enemies. There were 15 109's (a goodly number of them 109F's) and 6 C.202's mixing it up with of our 4 Spits and 2 Hurris.
At this stage, we were in big trouble. Everywhere I looked was red. About 4 of the guys ended up down lower (maybe 10k or less) fighting a 109. Getmo and I were still up higher (about 20k). I was flying around not doing much other than getting repeatedly bounced from higher altitude by multiple enemies at a time. I probably should have dove out and run for it, but I didn't see any other RAF flights around, and I figured the longer we delayed these enemies here and the more altitude we caused them to blow, the better chances we'd have for other RAF Flights arriving. I didn't think many enemies would follow me if I dove out, so I stayed up around 15-20k to be more tempting. As it turns out Getmo was kicking some ass, but I was just working to keep mine from getting kicked and not doing anything offensively. After many bounces by multiple 109's and 202's at a time, one 109F, despite my being in the middle of a pretty good evasive move, finally got an accurate snapshot on me that put a 20 mm shell into my left wing. I heard it hit, and my plane started to roll out of control. I looked left and right to see if he had blown my wing off. Almost -- he got about half my left wing.
I continued my dive and tried to head for the main Malta airfield. The 109F that shot me didn't come around to chase me to the deck or into the ack of the airfield. I gingerly pulled out of my dive, not being able to pull many g's without my plane rolling uncontrollably to the left. I was able to level it out at a couple thousand feet by holding full left rudder and nearly full right aileron. Even then, the plane was continually skidding to the right. I had to keep up full power as, if my speed dropped, I wouldn't have enough aileron and rudder authority to keep level.
I cruised over the airfield doing a wide circle around the Malta area. I decided to fly around under the action for a bit to see if I could tempt any enemies to come down after me. At one point, two 109's did come down to make a run at me. At full power, I was still not going very fast. They closed rapidly on me. I pulled g's, my plane rolled rapidly, and they shot past. One of them did get hits into me, though, and blew one of my elevators off. I went back into my slow circuit around the Malta airfield. Once it looked like I was clear and that no other aircraft were coming for me, I bailed out. I wish I would have been able to land, but the plane wouldn't hold a straight heading.
After bailing out, I went to base and got a fresh Hurricane. I took off, and quickly thereafter, Ju 88's attacked the base I had taken off from. I tried to chase after one. A 109 made a run at me and caused me to do a circle to evade, then I went back after the Ju 88. I didn't know if the Hurricane or the Ju 88 had a higher level speed, but I kept after him almost all the way to Sicily before giving up.
I climbed back toward Malta and came across small skirmishes here and there and some enemies here and there. I avoided skirmishes where it looked like many RAF had it under control. I avoided enemies when it was just me and they had 2 or more fighters higher than I was. At one point I did have a good chance to cut of a 109E in one skirmish, so I went for him. I got one hit on him as he ran, but he was able to outrun my Hurricane. There were some other RAF around going for him at one point, but some other enemies showed up, and they went after the new enemies.
At that point, the call came in of Ju 88's near Malta, and I headed back to Malta. They were wiped out, though, before I got there. I went in for a landing to get more fuel when another call of Ju 88's over Malta came in. I aborted my landing and climbed toward the Ju 88's, but they were too high, and I knew I couldn't catch them. I chased one that dove after its bomb run just in case. I asked over the radio if a Ju 88 was faster than a Hurri and was told that it was. So, I gave up the chase and headed back. I landed, got my fuel, and came back up.
I was climbing north when I came across a 109E chasing an RAF fighter. I dove on the 109E and had enough energy to stay with him. So did Schatzi. The 109E continued to chase the plane he had been pursuing into the AA of the main Malta airfield. It shot him up, and I think Schatzi got some hits, too. I was closing on his tail for a kill when his wing blew off, and down he went.
After that, I rejoined with the rest of Flight F, and we went back on patrol. We cruised all along the northern portion of Malta and even flew all the way to Sicily field A4 and back, but it was uneventful.
Flight F in the end lost 3 of 4 Spitfires (5 deaths in total) and shot down
5 enemies. Full stats:
715B, 1 kill, 1 assist, 1 death
BGgetmo, 3 kills, 0 assists, 0 deaths
Brooke, 0 kills, 0 assists, 1 death
GaB, 0 kills, 1 assist, 0 deaths
HB555, 0 kills, 2 assists, 2 deaths
Taiaha, 1 kill, 2 assists, 1 death
I think Flight F did a good job of tying up a large force of 109's and 202's (over 20 planes in total) on the northern shore of Malta and getting a lot of them to blow their initial huge altitude. Special congratulations to our star performer BGgetmo for an outstanding job, and to GaB for saving Vladd's Spitfire. :)
-- Brooke
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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