by Brooke, GL, I/JG3
March 8, 1999
We took off with 8 FW's. Final tally is that 5 died, and 3 made it back alive. We shot down 3 B-17's, 1 Spit, and 1 P-47.
I/JG3 was given FW 190A-4's this mission. We took off from Dunkirk and milled around waiting for the allies to show up. I/JG3 consisted of me, Soggy, Yoj, rdnk1, DFox, Saber, Vono, and Coach. We had some dump problems, but got it mostly straightened out by the time German saw that there was a massive strike several sectors N of Breast.
I had I/JG3 hurry to Breast. About 5 sectors out, I got dumped, and came back up at Caen, climbing hard for Breast. After about 10-15 minutes, I could see some of I/JG3 catching up to me as I climbed, ID'ing Yoj and Coach. But they were about 10k higher than me.
I/JG3 was about 1 sector away from Breast when it first got hit. We came in as the first wave of bombers were turning around ready to go home and as the second wave was coming in. I lost track of the rest of I/JG3 as I went in, because they were so much higher, but I figured we'd all be somewhere over Breast.
Upon reaching Breast, I started to scan for fighter cover -- looking for cover up high. I came in at about 30k, and didn't want to get bounced by high fighters. I looked carefully, and spotted some up high, but not as high as I was or not in a position to hit me.
I waggled my wings looking down. Saw formations that (due to their clustering) had to be bombers. I dropped down about 5k, enough for ID, and did a wide circle above them. Yep.
It was a group of B-25's, B-17's, and fighters mixed in. I singled out a B-17 (wanted one of the choice jobbies!), and jockeyed around above it, trying to figure out which exactly it was in the swarm. I came around to a position that looked good for an attack -- a very high angle, while the B-17 looked to be a bit away from the murderously gunned B-25's and all the fighter cover, and dove in.
I made a high-speed, steeply diving pass on the B-17, but missed my lineup a bit and don't think I got any hits on the B-17. There were B-25's and escorting fighters all over the place, and I was careful to clear myself by zooming back up and making sure I wasn't near any fighters.
I jockeyed around some more and came back in on B-17's. I made some passes on several, not blowing my passes this time, and got some very solid firing into a couple of them. I blew one up, but didn't get the kill -- just an assist.
In one of the passes, a Spit came in from higher altitude, so I dove out to the SE. He gave chase, holding about 1600 yards back. I rolled and stayed in a shallow dive. Then I came up to some higher dots off to my left. They turned out to be more enemy fighters, so I turned purely south and kept running. After about a sector, the Spit peeled off, and I reversed and climbed back toward Breast.
Once reaching Breast again, I saw another wave of B-25's coming in with a B-17 or two mixed in. I did a front-on attack into the formation of B-25's -- seeing the tracer fire light up as I and others came in -- then zoomed up and resumed my relentless persuit of B-17's. I fired into one or two separate ones and then singled one out to attack over and over. By this time, most of the enemy fighters over Breast were gone, leaving only the occasional enemy fighter, not in a position to attack me.
I did several passes on the B-17 -- from the rear, as I found that it wasn't gunned. A couple of other German fighters had joined me in the attack. I finally got it with a long tail burst as it was out over water. It was just in time, as I saw high enemy fighters coming in from the N. I reversed and went back to Breast for more action, but it was mostly done by then.
There was the occasional Spit here and there, and I toyed with one a little, but I wanted to keep my nice FW safe, so I didn't press it.
E of Breast, I came on some more enemy fighters down low. I didn't attack until I saw one that had some German fighters attacking it. It was a P-47. Well, he was getting gang banged, so there wasn't much risk to my plane in that one. I circled around until I thought I'd have a good shot, then dove in for a run on his tail hoping that I had timed it right. I did. I got a nice burst into its tail and it blew up. It was DD, CO of the allies. :) I didn't get the kill, but it was fun putting the nail in DD's P-47 coffin.
I didn't see much of I/JG3 in the fight over Breast. I saw a couple of the guys after the action had died down and we were milling around over Breast, though.
-- Brooke, GL, I/JG3