I/JG26
by Brooke
Went into A9/A23 area and mixed it up some, escorting Ju88's, then headed home low on fuel. Half way over channel, mysteriously blew up and was killed without any enemy around. Went up as Ju87, killed by single direct ack hit near P105-city. Went up as gunner for Flossy. Got a kill and an assist.
I/JG26 consisted of Vols as flight leader, Dace, TBolt, and Brooke in Bf 109E-4's. Our base was A46.
We took off at T+20 to escort I/KG2 in their Ju87's on the way to V117/A15/A16. We were part of a strike package that included us, I/KG2, I/EG210 (in 109's with bombs, I believe), I/JG51, and I/JG3. After takeoff, we took up position above and ahead of I/KG2, and the others flew screen for I/EG210.
Near the target area, we ran into one high Hurricane, about 27k or more, while we were at about 22-25k. The rest of the area seemed clear except for lots of AAA in the area, as usual. We danced around a bit with the Hurri, but he wasn't being too aggressive, and we danced around to throw off the AAA that was bursting all around us a lot of the time.
Then there was a report of some Hurri's lower, but there were plenty of escorts around. Dace and I were assigned as a team, and we stayed up high. I think Vols and TBolt stayed up high, too, after a quick pass lower and seeing that the situation was very well in hand.
The Stuka's hit their targets and started back to base. We headed out of the area S or SW and pondered if we'd have enough fuel to make it to the A9/A23 area where the biggest action was. We thought about it a bit, then reduced throttle and RPM to stretch our fuel, and headed toward A9/A23.
We ran into one very high Hurri, which didn't attack us, and soon after saw many high bogies at our 11 o'clock or so. Those turned out to be about 8 high Hurri's, again 3-5k above us. As we continued on course, we overflew another group of bogies that turned into 6 Spits below us by about 3-5k. Vols typed in a radio report, and as he did so, it became clear the Hurris and Spits weren't all that interested in engaging us and were probably flying on their way toward bomber concentrations. This was in 11,11,1. We continued on toward the A9/A23 area and very soon started to see formations of bombers ahead of us -- lots and lots of bombers spread over a large area. There were a goodly number of escorts already in the area, mixing it up with small numbers of Spits and Hurris that were attacking bombers here and there, mostly individually.
I called it out, and Dace and I stayed together. Where I saw the RAF fighters already being engaged, I stayed out. That seemed mostly to be the case. Dace and I flew NW along with the bombers, heading toward the front of the bomber stream, looking for bombers being attacked that didn't already have escort. We ran across a lot of enemies, but there were so many bombers and so many escorts in the area that things seemed pretty well in hand. As we got closer to the front of the bomber stream, there were fewer and fewer escorts. Finally, I dove in after some that were making runs on bombers and they didn't already have too many 109's on them. I did a few passes here and there -- my presence seeming to be enough to get RAF fighters to break off bombers rather than stick on their tails. At one point, I did a headon gunnery pass on a Hurricane, and him on me, but I don't think either of us hit.
Soon, I was low enough on fuel that I needed to head back. In this case, by the time we got to where we were going, we really didn't have that much fuel to continue to fight. Dace and I broke off and headed back toward France, adjusting our throttle and manifold pressure for max range.
We had to dance around in AAA here and there. I took some shrapnel at one point, but no systems damaged. We crossed over to the channel, with Dace about 5000 yards ahead of me, and everything looked fine. I checked behind me occasionally, but only Dace and I were around. Then, about half sector from A46, there was a burst of noise as if I were taking damage, oil splash on the windscreen, blood on the windscreen, and death, all pretty much in the same instant -- maybe within the span of about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. I had checked around me previously, so I didn't think this was due to an enemy, but to check I reviewed my film. Nope. No one around except Dace far ahead of me. So, it was a mysterious death -- maybe that shrapnel I took from the AAA sat there smoldering and managed to ignite fuel fumes and cause an explosion, eh?
I took off from A46 in a Ju87 and was able to hook up with I/JG3 (with Jasta and BigJones in Stukas and the rest in 109's), and Dace in escort in his 109. Our target was P105-city. Well, I had lots of experience with that one, so I was happy. On the way, lots of our group suffered disconnects -- first Odad, then others, then Jasta. Finally, it was only me and BigJones. We climbed to 12k, and flew NW between P105 and V84, like I had done many times before. We started taking AAA, and I maneuvered around to present a difficult target. Then the AAA fire stopped and came back onto a steady NW course. Maybe 30 seconds later, AAA started back up (maybe I was just coming in range of P105-city). Well, I say "started back up," but from my perspective what happened was BOOM!, and I was dead. So, I had flown out of one AAA area into another, and the first shell out of that next AAA area scored a direct hit on me killing me instantly. Damn. I was out.
I came back up in a PT boat, drove around a little, but there wasn't anyone calling for PT pickup anywhere near me. I exited and respawned in a couple more PT boats, jockeying for what I thought might be the best starting location. But there wasn't much happening on the water. So, I called in to see if command would like a C-47 heading over the English coast to pick up downed flyers on English soil. Camo said "yes," and I headed off. About half way there, there were calls for all available effort to hit P107 and P107-city, calls for gunners, and time was running out. I figured I'd not make it to the English coast in enough time to do much anyway, so I ditched the C-47 and joined Flossy of I/KG54 as her gunner.
As we headed into the A124/A20 area, there were RAF fighters around. One Hurri attacked us, and I went to work on him from the back of Flossy's trusty Ju88. I scored some hits on him here and there as he continued to attack us, and a LW fighter dove in and blew him up as he continued to attack us. I'm not sure if I or the LW fighter got the kill. Also, during that fight, I'm not sure if it was the same Hurri that continued to attack us or if there was one and then another one that attacked us.
Flossy headed over P107 and bombed the vehicle hangar there, destroying it. Good work, Flossy! She headed over P107-city, flew past it, then did a 180, came back and dropped bombs on P107-city. I couldn't tell what damage the bombs did at the city. There were other enemy fighters around, but none of them had the altitude to get at Flossy, and we headed SE back toward France.
At this point, time was very tight. Command called for all returning bombers to ditch or bail near any PT boat. I called to find one, and we ended up bailing in 8,8,5 or so. It was mighty close. I don't know if we made it aboard the PT boat before end of frame or not.
In the end, the logs awarded me 1 kill and 1 assist. I'll have to wait for the more detailed logs to see what specifically those were for.
For me, it was the frame of instant death, alas. But it sure was fun still, and very fun to gun for Flossy.
-- Brooke