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21 June 2005 - Mission Debrief
"A clear
cut case of eminent domain…backed
up with rockets, bombs, and cannon
shells"
Mission 1:
Capture Raid from A69 to A68
Mission 2:
Capture Raid from A68 to A52
Pilots in Attendance:
Fuzeman
Joker66
Luft
Seal
RTS
Skeksis
The evening started out on a quiet
note, both RTS and myself were
warming up for the main event when
Fuze came on line. RTS had upped
from one of the carriers and I had
just left A133 in a Spit IX more
to practice but when I saw Fuze
heading out to 144 I closed up to
see what support I could give. As
we were closing with 144 Fuze
spotted a formation of B24s and we
both tried to intercept them
before they could attack the
carrier. It was a short exchange
on my part and I left the area
with an oil leak after shooting up
one of the 24s leaving Fuze to
engage. He was more successful
and downed the group. About this
time the carrier RTS had left was
sent to Davy Jones’ Locker but
that gave RTS a crack at a couple
of Lancasters which he promptly
splashed. With Fuze as escort I
made the 35 or so miles back to
base by using the engine only when
necessary such as while on final
at which point the Spit was down
to around 10 pounds of oil
pressure. On the way we spotted a
lone Tiffie about 5k above us and
Fuze pulled away to better engage
but the Tiffie did not come down
to join us so we closed ranks and
continued on our way.
Luft, and Seal had come online
during this warm up action and
were up in the air when I got down
so Fuze decided to wait a few
minutes before we started the
mission. This was fine as it let
me make a quick run to the cookie
jar.
;-) While I was AFK Fuze
was looking over the map to see
what would make for a good mission
which was decided would be a NOE
run from A69 to A68 on the West
runway in 110’s as heavy as we
could make them. While on the
runway I misunderstood Fuze and
thought he said “Roll” so I left
way a head of everyone else but
that worked out in a way as I was
able to scout out the obstructions
on the way (part of the island we
took off from). As we were on our
way Luft (I think) noticed a
channel in the island ahead of us
that could be used to our
advantage by letting us get closer
to the target city without having
to go over 500 alt for that much
longer. We all cut through this
channel and then started our
attacks.
At first we were pretty well
unopposed but the enemy figured
out what we were up to quickly and
started to come up in an attempt
to stop us. At one point we had a
109, an LA, a P51, and a C2 in the
air but in the time it took them
to come over from the field at A68
we had already destroyed most of
the city and while some of the
Specialists acted as a screen we
got the rest of the city down.
The flip side though is that
between them the C2 pilot and the
51 pilot put most of us down.
Some of us came back out in the
110s again while RTS and then
myself came out in C47s to try to
take the town. For a while the
battle became sort of a see-saw
affair as our guys were fighting
to distract and put down the enemy
pilots while they were trying to
stop us from getting through with
our goons. I seem to recall being
shot down by Wadke (the 51 driver)
while flying a goon which as okay
as that meant he was distracted by
my back up goon while the real
goon attack was getting close
enough to drop.
Once I was down, I waited about a
minute then came back up with the
goons again just in case and while
coming back over RTS got into
position and made a good drop but
the enemy picked off some of the
troops so we did not get the
capture and we were wondering if
we had lost the surprised we
needed but we were also going to
make one more try. As I was
flying back Seal, Luft, and Joker
were trying to keep the enemy
occupied and before I arrived
Joker had dragged the C2 up to the
North but the penny must have
dropped as he headed back to 68.
I could see the con dot but for
some reason he never closed the
distance, perhaps he was low on
fuel and ammo. Since the C2
wasn’t being a problem I cut
through the channel and climbed to
drop altitude just as Luft spotted
one building left up. As he
started his attack I opened the
door and pushed the troops out
since it looked like the building
left might be the indestructible
one. Either Luft (or was it
Seal…) nailed the building or it
didn’t matter as my troops plus
the troops RTS delivered took the
town although an enemy 51 had
gotten off the field and made a
halfhearted attack which I was
able to evade after which he was
jumped by about three of the
Specialists. Since I had done my
job I wasn’t too concerned about
being shot down though and headed
in to land.
With A68 in our control and with
everything having gone well, Fuze
suggested that we do the same
thing with A52. 52 was nice and
close so we shouldn’t have to
worry about DTs and we were also
starting to get help from other
Knights but the enemy was better
prepared this time. Actually they
took the first shot in the form of
a lone Tiffie that vulched Fuze
and another pilot as they tried to
take off in C47s. The Tiffie was
unable to cause any additional
problems although the opinion is
that he was trying to get back to
the field to take out the barracks
but that did not happen thanks to
RTS, Luft, Seal who kept him at
bay until he took his smoking
plane and went home.
Even with the extra pilots we were
not able to take 52 but that is
not to say we did not try and we
did inflict some damage to the
town. If I recall this correctly
we did get within 7 buildings of
leveling the town which would have
been great as Fuze has been on
station in a goon for about 15
minutes when we got to that
point. Well, it seems like it was
15 minutes but the I have this
tendency to recall combat actions
taking a lot longer than they
probably really do.
;-) The only thing I
have to report about this action
was that I was getting pretty
annoyed by the guy in the C2 so I
gave one a try. I really cannot
comment about it as an offensive
weapon as someone in a 190 spotted
me as I was heading in but I will
say that it did very well as a
defensive platform during this
encounter. I was unable to get a
firing solution on the 190 but I
was able to keep him from doing
the same to me long enough for the
cavalry to arrive and having
gotten out of that with only
cosmetic damage I was going to
land and come up in something I am
more familiar with but the enemy
in the C2 found and splashed Fuze
so I ended up logging for the
evening around 22:50 having had a
great evening.
As usual I report the kills I am
aware of.
The Kill Board:
Fuzeman - 2 Assists, 7 Buildings,
2 Field Objects, 2 Kills
Joker66 - 17 Buildings, 2 Kills
Luft - 32 Buildings
Plus - 18 Buildings, 1 Field
Object, 1 Kill
RTS - 10 Buildings, 5 Kills
Skeksis - 13 Buildings, 1 Kill, 1
Capture
This is going to sound like a
broken record; one again we had a
great night. While the base
capture was great the main reason
this was fun was how we all worked
together to complete our
objective. I have the most fun in
AH when flying with The
Specialists, Salute!
Skeksis
Mission
Films: Film Vault 21 June 2005
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Photo Album
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