March 14, 1999
by Brooke, GL, I/JG3
I/JG3 lost 6 of its 8 FW's. It shot down 13 B-17's and 1 P-47.
I/JG3 consisted of me, Soggy, Yoj, Coach, Saber, Vono, Whip, and Zippy. We took off from Stadt and patrolled W all the way past the coast, then E, then W again before the huge strike started to show up.
We flew out over the water, then turned back E, parallelling the course of the strike, waiting until it got over land before hitting it. I had I/JG3 fly N for a bit, then S, to give us some delay before hitting the bombers. We were at 40k altitude -- turning takes a while and you want to be doing it without a rush -- so I wanted us to be overflying the bombers nice and straight from the N.
We flew S at 40k over the formation, scouting for high escort. There wasn't any, so I dipped down to about 33k, and started to pick up the bogies that had to be the bombers. Now that I knew what the escort position was, I had I/JG3 follow me as I overflew the bombers, looking for stragglers, and got out some solid radio reports on position and altitude (25k).
Then I told I/JG3 to follow me and went in on the formation with a side-slashing attack on one of the tailmost B-17's. I didn't get any hits, but I could see most of I/JG3 following me in. There were at least 10-12 B-17's in tight formation.
After my missed pass, I pulled up, reversed, and came back over the formation. I saw a P-47 under me chasing a German fighter, so I split s'ed on him, to clear my countryman's tail. But it was a fast diving fight. I chased for a while, then saw some other friendlies in the area and broke off, as the chase was taking me the wrong way.
I then had to do a long, many-minute tail chase to catch back up to the bombers.
I moved to a position abreast of them and commenced another side-slashing attack. But this one didn't feel quite right, so I broke it off in a feint, seeing if any gunners would start firing at me so that I might be able to tell which of them was gunned.
I went back abreast, got a little more lead, and did another slashing attack into the side of the formation. As I went in, I found a pocket of space with a bomber in it, somewhat isolated from the others, so I went in on that one from the tail, figuring I'd get in a good bunch of hits and dive out if I took fire. I opened up on the B-17, got some solid hits right into its tail all the way in and saw it start to smoke. I did take a couple of pings on the way in, though, so as I took my second ping, I split s'ed out and dove for the nearest airfield for replaning.
I landed and came back up at Par. By that time, the B-17 hoard was close to Berlin (Ver). I had to climb back up to 25k, which took a while, but did it and caught up to the bombers. I saw a lagging B-17 being attack by some others of I/JG3, so I set up a fast side attack on it.
This one I did well. I got a good long burst into it from a high side angle. It seemed like it might have had 2 gunners, though, and I took a hit in the process.
I rolled and jinked as I blew past, then climbed. Once I was out ahead, I did a diving turn to my right to do a headon pass on the B-17 I had been fighting. I missed the headon, but as I passed the B-17, there were others attacking it. One of them put the finishing touches into it and I got the kill. I did take a hit in the process of my headon pass. Maybe it was a lucky headon shot or more likely the gunner hit me as I went by.
At any rate, I now had 2-3 hits on my plane, and it was time to dive out for a fresh one. I landed at Ver and came back up more W to hit them as they returned from bombing.
I came up with Yoj. It took me a while to climb -- I climbed on an intercept course with the bombers. When I caught up to them, I still wasn't high enough, so I turned to climb out in front of them and off to the side, letting them come abreast of me. Once they were abreast, I again tried to pick out stragglers or the injured (it really did seem like wolves attacking a herd). I did some feints to see if I could find any that didn't seem to be gunned.
I eventually found one that seemed a bit isolated and went in on it from the tail. I poured some shots into him, and started to take some fire. I split s'ed out after my pass, this time, smoking and leaking fuel. As I dove out, Zippy polished him off, giving me the kill.
I dove for a base and landed. I came back up in a FW, but by this time, some enemy fighters were showing up, and Chick ordered all FW's to stay safe. So, I went back, landed and came up in a 109F.
I climbed NW into the path of the bombers, but it was getting difficult getting reports on their positions. There weren't many Germans around by now, and a lot of them had their hands full with Spits and P-47's that were rendezvousing with the surviving bombers.
I saw one fight against a Spit, and went in a direction to help, but the one or two guys on the Spit polished it off while I was still a ways out. I continued NW, looking for escorts and bombers. I saw some bogies show up as I got to about 35-38k or so, and turned into them to avoid being chased down from the rear.
They turned out to be 4 P-47's. I turned into the leader who did a headon shot as he came in. I turned into the following group knowing that at 38k, they couldn't turn well enough to get on my tail right away.
I blew through, but I had just gotten up to that altitude, so I wasn't all that fast. A couple of the P-47's were able to turn around and follow me -- the had probably executed decent lead turns. One of them started to close to within about 1300 yards. Shit. I didn't want to get chased down by 4 P-47's at 38k.
I started a medium diving turn to clear my tail and check out what was following me. Only 2 of the P-47's, so that at least was a plus. My stall warning was coming on with just gradual pulls on the stick. I didn't want these P-47's just doing passes on my sluggish 109, so I dove harder and turned harder as they came in, to pick up some maneuvering speed. I rolled and reversed and jinked as they followed. I figured that my 109 had better roll as we picked up speed.
Now that I had a head of steam and had generated a good amount of separation from the other P-47's, I went into a hard climbing turn. The P-47's followed me, and as our speed dropped, I kept it in a climbing spiral as best I could manage. The P-47's couldn't match my climb in the turn, which was what I was aiming for. I did several more revolutions as I gained altitude on them, with them in pursuit, behind and below.
One tried to break off and come back for a shot, but he just didn't have the energy to get sights on me. Once I was a few k higher, I positioned my plane over one of the P-47's and dove in on his tail.
I dove in and got a good burst into him, seeing debris fly off. I locked on, and he started to roll and thrash. Looking back, I could see that the other P-47 wasn't in the fight. I stayed on him and got some more hits, but damn those things were hard to hit as they rolled and jinked.
Now the other P-47 was trying to close on my tail. I looped on him and came in on his tail. I latched onto him, and the P-47 I had been fighting ran into another German fighter (Cybro) who showed up and finished him off. Then Cybro joined me on the P-47 I was now on. He put some hits into him, and I polished him off. Cybro got the two kill messages, but it was after end log by the time the fight was finished.
Boxes of gunned B-17's are very, very tough. Even side slashing attacks and attacks from below didn't get me out without taking hits. I resorted to tail-on shots on lone bombers, diving out as took hits and replaning. A better appraoch probably would have been to make more use of headons.
The headon doesn't work well for me if I'm diving on the bomber from the front. I think a level approach or even a headon approach from slightly below would work OK, though.
By the way, I did take hits even in one of my headon passes, probably as I passed the bomber.
It's just a tough thing to put them down. We have to chew on them for a while and replane a lot. I noticed in the host's AAR report that some B-17's went down to the guns of a German fighter assisted by 8 of his fellow fliers. 8! They are tough, those B-17's.
And congratulations to whichever group it was that lost only 4 FW's and put down 20 (yes, 20) enemy planes!
-- Brooke, GL, I/JG3