Kursk 4 Frame 1 Pictorial

A map of the situation around airbase Owl, owned by the Luftwaffe, under attack by the Soviets, and the destination for Jasta 5's group of Bf 109's. Each black square in the grid is a sector, an area of land 12 miles by 12 miles. The white cross in the center is the location of Brooke. The orange boxes show enemy (Soviet Red Air Force) strength, and the yellow boxes show friendly (Luftwaffe) strength. Each big box is 10 aircraft, and each small box is one aircraft. The Luftwaffe is quite outnumbered around Owl.

Brooke is Group Leader of Jasta 5, a group of Bf 109G-2's. Here, he is radioing to Jasta 5 to head to airfield Owl and, once there, to attack Soviet aircraft at will.

A view behind Brooke as he gets to airbase Owl. He's at 22,000 ft. and doing 200 knots indicated airspeed.

Over Owl airbase. Bogies below are lots of Yak-9's and La-5FN's. At this point, the formation of aircraft near Brooke in the previous picture have dispersed into their own fights. The enemy aircraft in this are far enough away that they just appear in the picture as black dots. If you trace each enemy aircraft upward, it is represented by a red character if it is close enough for the pilot to identify.

Brooke tangles with a couple of high La-5FN's. The closest one is visible in the upper left quadrant of this picture (although difficult to see, as it is green like the background -- trace downward from the red "b" at the top of the picture). Brooke does a poor job of setting up the engagement and, after some time, ends up diving out. This is a bad situation since Yak-9's and La-5's can chase down Brooke's Bf 109, and once they get him turning, other Soviets in the area can easily overwhelm him in numbers.

Brooke twists and turns his Bf 109 as he dives, looking at least for some Il-2 ground-attack planes to attack before he gets swarmed by Yak-9's and La-5's.

Brooke didn't see any Il-2's, and now more Yak-9's and La-5's are chasing him. He jinks and rolls and runs for Owl city's anti-aircraft positions.

The anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) at Owl city opens up on the Soviet fighters pursuing Brooke, and they break off temporarily. Brooke uses the opportunity to go into a fast climb straight ahead to try for some separation and maneuvering altitude.

Unfortunately, there isn't much room. There are four enemy fighters to the left of Brooke --

And a bunch of bogies to the right of Brooke. He radios for help and asks if there are any Luftwaffe groups in the area. After he does so, he identifies one of the bogies to the right (trace downward from the red "z" at the top of the picture) as an Il-2m3 Sturmovik.

Brooke veers right, closes on the Il-2m3, and attacks it. Brooke has on war emergency power (WEP) for more speed.

Brooke firing as he closes on the Il-2, scoring many hits. The Il-2 is trailing debris.

Another view from the cockpit as Brooke pours the hits into the Il-2.

Brooke races past the Il-2, which is trailing debris. The Red Air Force fighters in the area are not happy that Brooke is attacking one of their bombers in their midst. Many Yak-9's and La-5's are now chasing Brooke, trying to run him down.

The Yak-9's and La-5's are fast enough to close. Brooke goes into a loop to evade and to get the added beneift of another attack run on the Il-2. The Il-2 is a very tough aircraft. Despite Brooke's attack run, it is still flying.

As Brooke goes over the top of his loop, an La-5FN zooms past. It is visible to the rear of Brooke in this picture. There are still more bogies in the area.

Brooke does another attack run on the Il-2, which is visible in the lower right of the picture. The Il-2 turned into Brooke's attack, and Brooke scores no hits on this attack run.

Brooke jinks and rolls to evade fire from the many enemy fighters on him. As he does so, he sees AAA bursts off to his right. The Il-2, in running away, has strayed close to a facility that obviously has AAA. Brooke decides to head for that place, to see if the AAA can help get enemy fighters off his tail.

Brooke rolling and jinking his way to the AAA, pursued by many Yak-9's and La-5's.

Brooke makes it to the fuel depot that has the AAA guns. As he gets over the facility, he goes into a hard break turn to avoid enemy gunfire that has been headed his way. Unfortunately, an instant after this picture was taken, one of the enemies puts the final burst of gunfire into Brooke's Bf 109, and it explodes.

Final Results

No kills, no assists, shot down. Not a very glorious mission for Brooke.

by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com

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