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Squad Night Report for
28-December-2004
Tail End Charlie
Fields of Departure:
156, 157, 192, and later 209
Target:
143
Pilots in Attendance:
Duel
Lees2
Luft (190)
RTS
Skeksis (P51D/C47/Seafire II)
SKu
I decided to sign in to the MA
early on Tuesday for a couple of
reasons. First, I wanted to get
used to flying again in the
on-line environment after being
grounded for a while plus I was
bringing new hardware to the
party, secondly I had already
received an e-mail from Fuze
letting me know that he was not
going to be flying so I decided to
see about working up a mission for
the evening. Deciding on a quick
check flight in a forgiving
airplane I took off in a Spit IX
intending on getting acclimated to
lag and all of that and as I did
RTS came on-line with pretty much
the same idea. Things did not go
quite as I planned as I noticed
one of our flak complexes
blinking.
Heading over and climbing I ran
across a lone formation of
Lancasters and by the time I got
into position Luft was on-line as
well. I suspect that we were all
had the same idea. :) Despite
some token resistance by the
bomber pilot I was able to bring
all of them down but had to land
due to a shortage of ammunition.
After that it was time to get down
to business.
The mission started out with the
plan to relieve a nearby field
that had been under attack and
swing north to take the fight to
the enemy. We all took off and
started to form up although I
turned the wrong way for my orbit
and wound up as 'Tail End Charlie'
while the other pilots pulled
together in to a good, tight
group. Since the flight was going
more northerly and it looked as if
the action had died down at the
friendly field, we headed north to
follow through with the second
part of the plan. I was laying on
the horsepower but never quite
caught up to the rest of the group
who started to suppress the enemy
airspace. Lees had brought some
ordinance along and was using it
on the field when I finally
arrived.
Two things seemed unusual about
this field, the first being that
had already taken some pounding
but no one was around; perhaps
someone was off recreating the
last hours of Flight 19, and
second that there was absolutely
no opposition. The flak at the
town was active when we got there
but there was no corresponding
fire from the field so something
had gone on before we arrived. We
must have stayed over the field
for a good 5 minutes before anyone
reacted and then it was one lone
109 that somehow made it up. I
decided to engage while the rest
of the squad stayed over the field
and started to work on the town as
well.
The 109 driver must have seen me
go overhead as he was coming up as
he turned South and started a
gentle climbing turn, just the
situation that I thought I could
take advantage of. As I lined up
he pulled a reversal and cut under
my wing so I turned hard to follow
instead of using the speed on the
51 to extend and come back. This
was one of those "Here's your sign
moments" and it wasn't long before
I was down. I re-upped at 156 in
a C47 thinking that with the light
opposition and other Knights
heading in we might be able to
take the field. While on the way
out Luft reported that he had
engaged the 109 and from the sound
of it he was up against a good
pilot. Regretfully I do not
remember how that fight turned out
but I think that Luft took him
down and got credit for the kill
while Lees got an assist.
In the time it took me to return a
pilot in a 190 had taken off while
the Knights were starting to
overwhelm the base. I am not sure
he took off from the target but he
was there regardless and decided
to keep my grunts for getting to
the field. Luft started over as
quickly as he could but the 190
pilot was able to shoot down the
grunts, although it took him three
passes due to some extreme evasive
maneuvers that had the grunts
puking all over the cabin. Before
I could take off again someone was
able to successfully get grunts in
and the base was taken.
After that we decided to press
forward to another objective
partly to keep the momentum going
but also to try to relieve the
pressure on carrier group 209. I
don't do a lot of carrier ops but
the suggestion was made to take
off from it rather than fly all
the way there so we moved on over
except for a couple of pilots that
had already taken off and started
operations from the carrier deck.
Everyone was successful in taking
off although I needed two tries as
I slid off the deck on the first
attempt. After that the scene was
pretty chaotic with us, other
Knights, and the enemy, milling
over the field. Many of the enemy
were vulched as they tried to take
off but for some reason they only
tried to take off when I couldn’t
get in position so I suspect they
were just doing it to annoy me.
;)
I lost track of a lot of what was
happening during this melee but
several things did stand out:
Lees shot down a Hurricane
Less later landed 3 victories in a
Seafire (before we lost the
carrier)
and RTS landed a 190 on the
carrier successfully.
When I left for the night we had
not taken the base but as far as I
can tell we all had a good time
mixing it up and giving it a good
try. Salute to everyone who flew
and again special mention to the
outstanding pilots of the
evening. If I have overlooked
anyone please let me know so this
report can be properly updated.
:)
Skeksis
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