by Brooke, GL, VVS10
VVS10 consisted of me (Brooke as GL), HB555 (as FL), SkechCAF, Rompa, Hawco, Monday, and Boozer.
Our initial mission was to launch from v54 and capture a56. We spawned NE from 54, drove straight to the a56 map room/town (about a mile north of 56) and quickly took it. Rompa, Skech, Hawco, Monday, and Boozer were in T-34's, and they took everything down. HB and I were in M3's, and HB did the capture.
With our main ground objective completed, the original plan was for us to get into Bostons and keep various enemy bases closed. However, the Finns were putting up a strong defense at 57 and 58, and command ordered VVS10 to head over there in support.
We launched from a56, again with HB and me in M3's and everyone else in T-34's. As we neared the 57 area, we could see a lot of enemy fighter activity. The T-34's rolled forward. I'm not sure what HB did, but I hid in trees for a while, waiting for a bit of a gap in the enemy air cover before I made it into 57. It did clear out a little, and I moved in.
At 57, bridges were reported down. I asked if they needed LVTA2's (for troops) or LVTA4's (for assault). They wanted 4's. I recommended to VVS10 that, if they weren't already in T-34's, to get in LVTA4's and assault 58. I launched in a 4 and was strafed by a 109 before I made it off the base. I shot at him as he strafed me, but I don't think I hit him. The enemy fighter cover was back. This was usual of the situation over 57 and 58. The Finns would have air cover, then we would move some fighters in, have a fight, gain control of the air, then vice versa, and so on. Back and forth it would go in the skies over 57 and 58. Fortunately for us, ack was up at 57. It was at least a little deterrent to the enemy.
I crossed the river instead of the first bridge, as the first crossing is fast, and then I didn't have to worry about the bridge blowing up when I was on it. I drove to the second bridge area. It was down, so I went to the second river crossing and made my way across. I felt like a sitting duck as I was crossing, but I did make it to the other bank without getting shot.
However, once on shore, I was immediately strafed by a FW 190. It hit me. I just concentrated on getting up to full speed and racing for the nearest treeline, which was about 200-300 yards away. About 100 yards later, I got strafed by a second 190 attacker. I shot at him, but I don't know if I hit. There were columns of dust exploded into the air around me from the FW's fire, and I couldn't see well. Several seconds later, another FW attacked me and then (I was surprised to still be alive and moving), I was into the treeline.
About that time, the bridge came up. I did a damage check of my LVT at that time and found that my machinegun was out, my turret was out, and my main gun wouldn't fire. Well, I wasn't going to be useful attacking, but I could maybe draw fire. I decided I'd drive back to 57 and maybe draw some fire away from working LVT's trying to get to 58.
I turned back around and drove out of the treeline, back toward the river. As I drove back, the bridge was back down again, so it is possible that no one made it across. As I made the bank, KKEN was just trying to get ashore, and he was getting attacked by a 190. I splashed into the water and drove for the 57 shore. I drove to 57. No enemy attacked me on the way.
At 57, I got a fresh LVTA4 and went back to the island and the river in front of 58. There were still a lot of enemy FW's up. I drove into a treeline near Boozer who was watching the river and opposite shore. It seemed like 58 was going to be very, very tough. The Finns were doing a good job of keeping the bridge down and keeping enough Panzers and FW's over there to kill what got across during the brief instants when the bridge was up. I called up command and asked them if they wanted VVS10 in Bostons to go flatten 58. They told me to do so if I could spare anyone. I told them I could spare everyone, as we were all currently bottled up at the river bank. They told me to put a couple people in Bostons, so I picked the two folks most recently killed in ground action and who were thus making their way back from 54: Skech and Monday. I asked them to get into their Bostons and flatten 58.
After that discussion, the FW's seemed thinned out a bit again (one of the lulls in the storm). I asked Boozer if it looked clear. He said it did, and I started for the water crossing. About that time, the bridge came back up. I slammed on the brakes, turned left, and headed for the bridge. There was enemy Panzer fire coming from across the river toward us as we approached the bridge. It came close, but I don't think any of the first batch got hit.
HB555 (in an M3), and Rompa (in a T-34) made it across the bridge before me, and Boozer (in a T-34) was right behind me. I was in an LVTA4. A FW tried to strafe me as I exited the bridge, but he missed. I raced across the bridge and went right, to come at 58 from the east side. Mag1c in an LVTA2 was the only one left over there from previous waves of attacks. I went into trees, got a position of some cover to my left, and looked out. I could see the AA guns firing, but I couldn't see the guns themselves from where I was. I didn't want to move up closer as I couldn't take a lot of hits in an LVTA4, and also someone (Boozer?) had announced that there was a Panzer around somewhere. I could see some reinforced tents, though, so I started taking them down.
After a while of taking down tents, I could see Rompa move up. He or others must have gotten the guns, as they weren't firing on Rompa. Also, I figured whoever spotted the Panzer would fight it, and I'd be clear enough. I moved up. I continued to destroy fortified tents. Someone (Boozer, I think) announced that the Panzer was dead. After I destroyed the tents close to me, I moved around toward the map room and continued to destroy tents. Both VH's were down at this point.
At this point, Boozer, Rompa, and I were around the map-room hill, destroying tents as quickly as we could. This is where several things happened in quick succession.
First, one VH came up. Second, HB, knowing that we were taking down the remaining tents, came racing forward and parked his M3 in the VH. Third, an enemy Panzer spawned right next to HB in the VH.
At this point, someone shouted on the radio. It must have been Rompa, as the Panzer was behind me and Boozer. I immediately swivelled my turret left and looked in horror as I saw the VH up, a Panzer in the VH, and HB about 50 feet in front of the Panzer, accelerating away. For me, the Panzer was sort of obscured by a tent frame, but I just took the quickest shot I could. I didn't wait to line up well. I missed. I knew I couldn't kill the Panzer with my LVTA4 gun anyway - I was just hoping for distraction. The Panzer fired, but HB didn't explode. Did he miss? (Later I saw that he had shot Boozer and killed Boozer with a hit to the back of his T-34.) HB then did a hard left around a row of bushes that totally obscured him from the Panzer. HB was momentarily safe.
I gunned my engine to get my front hull pointed at the Panzer and to put part of the map-room between me and him for cover. This took only a few seconds. I jumped to my main gun and slammed my stick around to get my sight on the Panzer. I was getting ready to fire and - BOOM! The Panzer exploded. The VH exploded. Nothing was left there except a destroyed, burning VH. Ye gods! What happened? Skech and Monday called up on the radio to say that they had just destroyed the VH. Wow! It was a miracle of timing.
I had thought we were totally screwed. We had one T-34 in the immediate area, an enemy Panzer was up, the VH was up, and we were about to get flooded with more Panzers. Actually, another was already up - it was just obscured by the first. Good ol' Skech and Monday!
We polished off the rest of the fortified tents. Someone across the bridge released troops, which were running, but with HB right there, he just released his, and we took it right then.
Man, that was very, very close!
With 58 captured, and the rest of our objectives in hand, command ordered VVS10 into our Bostons for enemy-base suppression.
Skech and Monday were returning from 58, so the rest of us (HB, Rompa, Hawco, and I) took off in Bostons from a16 with Boozer in a P-40E as our lone escort. Our first targets were 59 for me and HB and 61 for Rompa and Hawco.
On the way to 59, I got jumped by a Bf 109. I put my Bostons into a dive. That would give some distance for HB and also cause the 109 to take longer to get me. He closed, though, and I went to my gunner position and went into a turn so that I could get my rear guns to bear. I put some hits on him, and he put some on me. I continued to turn back and forth so that I could shoot, and he continued to stay on me. I put enough hits on him to see parts fall away from his aircraft, but he did shoot down one of my drones. I lost track of the other in the confusion of the fight and the turning and thought that he had shot it down, too; so I went into evasive mode with hard turns. In actuality, I still had one drone, and it lost me in the hard turn and blew up. I also kept my speed up. The 109 fell back a bit, and then Boozer jumped him and shot him down, giving me an assist. Good work, Boozer! That 109 could have finished me off and perhaps many of the other VVS10 Bostons in the area, as 59, 60, and 61 are all near each other, and we were all in the same area.
After the 109 was gone, I was going to return to base, as one Boston didn't have enough bombs to take anything out. However, I could perhaps finish off damaged buildings, so I turned back around. It turned out that 59's VH was already down - might have been destroyed by VVS09 - so HB and I redirected to 60. HB took out a60's VH, so I redirected to 61. Rompa and Hawco had taken out one of the VH's at 61, but one remained.
I set my salvo to 4 and delay to 0.1 to get a tighter pattern (usual for me is delay 0.25). I lined up and dropped well. My bomb cluster landed centered on the remaining VH, but it didn't go down. Alas - probably only a few bombs short of closing 61. Well, at least 59 and 60 were down.
We returned to a16 and launched again. The time up, there was a pitched battle at 72. It was going back and forth. We got calls to hit 72, not to hit 72, to hit VH's at 72, to hit tents and not VH's at 72, and so on. This is not the fault of command - it is the nature of the battle there that was going back and forth. I kept a watch on the text buffer and checked on range mic before my drop. I got the abort call seconds from drop - but it was OK - I was expecting it.
72 was an area of a lot of enemy fighter activity, so we weren't looking forward to flying through it. After aborting at 72, while I was turning to get out of the area, I ran through an area with enemy fighters, but they were being engaged by our fighters, including Boozer, and none of them attacked me. Thanks again, Boozer!
I redirected to a59 after 72. It's VH was back up. I flew over there, and destroyed the VH there, closing that base. Command called for everyone to land about that time, and VVS10 headed back to base to get into vehicles.
As I was one of the last people to be transitioning into vehicles, I wanted to be careful about my positioning. I got it very clear where command wanted VVS10 and to make sure there were people saying on the radio that they were at 58, 55, and 69. Command stated clearly that they wanted me at 72, so I spawned from 54 and started making my way there. Unfortunately, 54's troops were down, so I couldn't get an M3. I had to travel in a T-34. As I got closer to 72, 55 came under attack, but I was already out of position for that. I continued on toward 72 but was just a little ways away when end frame was called.
After the frame, the axis said that they almost captured 55. If so, that would have been quite an amazing reversal for the Russians, to lose it all in the final minutes, sort of like how frame 3 went. I would have felt especially bad as VVS10 could have made it to 55 instead of 72.
This was a very exciting frame. The capture of 58 was amazing - I'll remember that one for a long time. VVS10, you guys did a great job. We captured 56, helped significantly with 58, damaged some bases, and kept down a couple (59 and 60). Also, our lone escort, Boozer, kept us safe in his single P-40E. :)
I salute my VVS10 comrades. It was great flying with you guys.
-- Brooke, GL, VVS10