After-Action Report
4/18/2009
by Brooke, pilot, I/LG 1
This was a scenario that ran in the multiplayer on-line air-combat simulation Aces High.
I was a pilot in I/LG 1, a squadron of Ju 88A-4 bombers. Today, I/LG 1 and III/LG 1 were flying together. The groups consisted of whiskers (the Group Leader), Newman, me (Brooke), Krusty, Flossy, Khonees, badger8, 1BDSPADE, and FBGrave.
LG1 in its Ju 88A-4's take off from Sfax (a64) with 50% fuel and full bomb load (four 500 kg bombs external and twenty 50 kg bombs internal). From front to back are: whiskers (our GL), badger8, Krusty, Flossy, FBGrave, 1BDSPADE, me (Brooke), and Newman. Khonees was off to the right of the picture. t=0:00 Our first mission was to destroy the vehicle hangars at v104 (Kasserine area), then proceed to Youkes-les-Bains and bomb the a65 town.
A view out of my cockpit as our escort fighters meet up with us. From left to right up high: Hobo, Barkhorn, Choppn (sp?), RRaine (sp?), one I can't make out, Vlred (sp?), RMrider, and Stampf. From left to right below (the bombers): Flossy, Krusty, whiskers, and 1BDSPADE. t=0:21
A view as we approach v104 at about 8000 ft altitude. The area looks clear except for one P-39 down low. Newman, Khonees, and I are assigned to destroy the vehicle hangar across from the main pad, and I am lining up. Our ground forces are pushing to the base. In the air from left to right: whiskers, me, 1BDSPADE, and Khonees. On the ground, from left to right: Drano, dr7, Wedge, Baumer, 613ELD, (can't tell), Trax1, SKTurt, (can't tell), OOZ662, GGhost, (can't tell), dcat, 67yankee, BushLT, pony, WT666, LTARghst, QANTAS, and A8Moray. t=0:25.
Bombs away! In the picture from top to bottom: whiskers, 1BDSPADE, and me. There is a 7 mph crosswind for us, so we had to take the wind into account when lining up. I lined up about one building width left of my target and salvoed 4 500 kg bombs with a 0.20 second delay (to bracket my target). t=0:26
My bombs hitting. Khonees damaged the VH enough (the brown craters) that the VH blows up from my first bombs hitting. This picture is zoomed in, so you can see my other bombs (which are yet to hit) as little black specks among the vapor rings around the first explosions. t=0:26.
I pop out of my bombsight to find a P-40E making a headon pass at me. A view through my front gunsight as I line up, open fire, and score some hits on him. From left to right in picture: whiskers and Khonees. t=0:27.
The P-40, guns blazing and trailing shell casings, passes quite close to my formation! I see that the Amerikanisch is from Arizona.
After our formation passes, I look out my rear, bottom gunsight to get a view of the bomb damage. Two VH's are down, but the one on the main pad is still up. It is the one just left of the crosshairs of my sight. It has bomb craters all over the building next to it, so the VH is undoubtedly heavily damaged, but not yet down. t=0:27
I hear a warning on the radio of a P-40 approaching me from behind. I go to rear guns and, as he approaches, give him a facefull of lead. His wing comes off without too much firing on my part, so he must have been damaged already, perhaps by ToNYJoEY, who is in hot pursuit in his Bf 109. t=0:29
I ask for permission for me, Newman, and Khonees to circle back to put the final damage on the remaining VH. The three of us veer off to the northwest to position for another pass, but then there is a report of the VH having already been destroyed by fighterbombers. In fact, in the previous picture, one can see that the main-pad VH is burning. Newman, Khonees, and I turn back and get back into formation.
The fighters mostly stay in the v104 area to help with the capture -- and we did capture v104! Good work, guys! I think we bomber pilots got word of it as we flew west.
We now approach our 2nd target: the town at Youkes-les-Bains (a65). We are approximately in line with the wind this time, flying on a NW heading. Both the airfield and the town are visible in this picture. The area looks mostly clear, with one P-39 down a bit lower than we are (as we approach at about 8000-8500 ft). I watch the P-39 to see if he will pull up for an attack on me, but he flies by underneath. I then calibrate and start to line up on target, switching to my internal 50 kg bombs, opening bay doors, setting salvo to 5 and delay to 0.10. That way, each press of my bomb switch results in a little string of bombs (each of 1650 lbs total ordnance), and I can drop on 4 different clusters. t=0:39
Yes, Youkes-les-Baines looked clear at first, but within moments a group of P-39's and P-40's come racing in from our left. I'm on the left side of our formation, so that is especially bad news for me. They are able to hit us just as we are nearing our drop point. Here, eight of them are visible, two turning in to follow me, and a couple have already attacked Flossy, exploding one of her Ju 88's. t=0:39
As a P-39D attacks me, I am so close to dropping that I stay in my bombsight and do not fire back. I'm hoping my bombers stay together for the several seconds I need. Unfortunately, this is a picture of the P-39 taking down the second of my three formation bombers. Here, I am two seconds from pressing my bomb-release button. The ack from the field and town are reaching up toward Khonees, who is ahead of me, and badger8 is father ahead still. They both have dropped. t=0:40
Bombs away from my surviving bomber! The attacking P-39D does a high yo yo to come back down for an attack. t=0:40
Immediately after dropping my 4th stick of bombs, I jump to my gunner position and give the P-39 a facefull of lead at close range. He has gotten my right engine, but I get my revenge as his P-39 breaks up under my fire. Also in the picture is the last of Flossy's bombers going down in flames and (upper left) one of Neman's bombers blowing up (the black puff) and his remaining bomber, I think, might have just lost its wing to a P-40 attack. Gorkle in a figher is giving chase to that P-40. There are three other P-40's giving chase to me (two 1000 yards back and one 1.5k back). t=0:41
My bomb hits on the first cluster take out a couple buildings.
My bomb hits on the second cluster take out another couple. My other two strings take out an ack but only damage other buildings.
The aftermath of LG1's bomb pass.
At this point, I think I'm dead, but many of our fighters are at this moment racing in from my right, and the three pursuing P-40's end up veering off of me either to go after other bombers or to go after our fighters. I am lucky. My engine quits moments later, and I look for any other bombers to fly toward for protection.
Krusty slows down so that I can join up with him. That is dangerous for him to do, since he can fly so much faster than I can with my engine out. Thank you, Krusty! Others in LG1 still had some bombs after their first pass and turned back to make a second pass. I'm not sure if any of them made it out alive.
Krusty and I land back at Sousse (a7). t=1:19
LG1 takes off from Sfax (a64) on its second mission: to go hit the Tripoli area. From front to back: Krusty, me, Flossy, 1BDSPADE, FBGrave, and Newman. whiskers and badger8, not pictured, are in front of us. t=1:21
A view out my gunner position as our fighter escorts join up. Above, Dantoo and his FW 190A-5's are joining up; and the C.202's of Easyscor, snibbo, and SD67 are there to our 6 o'clock high. In bombers behind me are 1BDSPADE, Newman, and Flossy. t=1:28
It's not that long until Spitfires arrive one at a time -- we are still climbing to altitude. The escorts kill the first Spitfire in. This Spitfire IX is one of the succeeding ones in, the first of them to draw blood, as it sets 1BDSPADE's bomber on fire. In picture from left to right: Krusty, whiskers, me, and 1BDSPADE. t=1:34
Six more Spitfires show up . I put some hits on this one as he makes a pass. 1BDSPADE is above and behind me. t=1:40
A Spitfire IX blows up one of Krusty's bombers. From left to right: me, Krusty, and whiskers. t=1:40
I put some hits on one of the other Spitfires. This one is a Mk V.
Soon, it feels like there are Spitfires all over the place. When they make runs on me, as the range of fire for Ju 88 guns is not that great, I am turning left or right to throw off their aim. Here, two of them are in firing range on me. From left to right: me, xTHECATx, Newman, 1BDSPADE, Gorkle, Dantoo, SD67, Easyscor, 4XTCH, Picko, and SirNuke3. t=1:41
A view from my rear, lower gun position as I put some hits on a Spitfire that looks like he's going after either Dantoo or 1BDSPADE. From left to right: 1BDSPADE, SirNuke3, 4XTCH, Dantoo, Newman, xTHECATx, and Gorkle. Note that we still have escorts among us, even after the prolonged attack by Spitfires.
At one point, the escorts seem to have cleared most of the Spitfires out. Here, we have lost some bombers, with some non-critical damage to others, but our formation still has many bombers left and well formed. From left to right: Nutzoid, whiskers, Newman, Krusty (down to two bombers, and one of them has a fuel leak), me (with a couple of fuel leaks on one of my bombers), SunsFan, and SirNuke3. I think that 1BDSPADE and badger8 are still alive, but I'm not sure about Flossy. She joined me as my gunner after she was down -- thank you, Flossy!. t=1:44
Unfortunately, the above as the lull before the storm. Soon, many P-40's and more Spitfires showed up, and our with our escort getting used up against all those previous Spitfires, our situation was now dire.
I'm firing from my rear, bottom gun position at a P-40E that just shot the wing off one of Newman's bombers. Another of his bombers has lost its right engine. Hand, in his fighter, is also visible in the picture. t=1:44
A view behind me as I put hits into an attacking P-40E. This P-40 collided with my bomber and went down immediately after this picture. There is also a Spitfire V attacking me. At this stage, there are P-40's and Spitfires all over the place. We have a couple of escorts left (Hand, SunsFan, Vasco, for example), but it is a very tough situation. Also behind me is Krusty, still with two bombers left. But Newman is down by this time, as are some others. t=1:45
Things are desperate, and I feel like, if I remain where I am, I am going to get swarmed and shot down. Ahead looks clear, and the attacking Spitfires and P-40's are all behind me. I give it full throttle and dive out forward, trying to race out of this maelstrom. If enemies don't follow me, I can perhaps make it to the fuel factory, which is 1.5 sectors ahead. If they do follow me, they won't be in any position to attack other bombers. As I dive out, one Spitfire notices me and gives chase. From top to bottom: whiskers, Krusty, SirNuke3, and me. t=1:46
I maneuver hard, then jump to my guns and let the pursuing Spitfire V have it.
An external picture of the same situation. There is a second Spitfire in the mix.
The second Spitfire attacks, and I again maneuver hard and jump to guns. He puts hits into me, but I manage to blow his wing off. t=1:47
The first Spitfire shoots down one of my drones. I begin very aggressive maneuvers with my remaining two Ju 88's, turning hard one way, then turning hard back into my drone the other way, jumping to my guns, firing off some rounds, and so on. He disengages, and I take the opportunity to get back on heading toward the fuel factory. I dive to get speed. I actually think I have a chance to make it to target!
But about a minute later, three P-40's show up from the direction of Tripoli, heading to the other bombers. They see me first and dive down to attack.
I tangle with the P-40E's for a bit, but they eventually shoot down another of my Ju 88's. t=1:52
I pop into my 3rd and last Ju 88, somewhat disoriented, get into an undesired attitude, but recover before I crash. My previous Ju 88, missing a wing, is visible falling from the sky. The three P-40's are coming around to attack my last bomber.
After racing to the deck, I throw one off with a break turn. His rounds make spashes in the water where I used to be. I feel proud that I still have my bombs, just in case a miracle happens and I still make it to target.
No miracle happens, and after some additional desperate maneuving on my part, the P-40's relieve me of my wing, and I crash in the water. t=1:53
I hit my assigned VH at v104, destroyed 4 buildings and an ack at a65, shot down a P-39D and a P-40E, and got five assists. I died trying to get to the Tripoli area.
LG1, I hear, destroyed the vast majority of a65, and three bomber pilots made it there: Krusty (just barely -- with engines out, he did a bomb run), whiskers (not sure with how many bombers), and badger8 (I think with all three bombers) -- and badger8 even lived to exit the target area as well.
I had a lot of fun, and congratulations, folks, on a great frame!
-- Brooke, I/LG 1