March 22, 1999
by Brooke, GL, I/JG3
I/JG3 lost 2 FW 190A-8's out of 8. We shot down 15 enemy aircraft: 9 B-17's, 4 P-38's, and 2 P-47's.
Overall for this scenario, I/JG3 shot down 54 enemy aircraft at the cost of 21 FW's for a K:D of 2.6. We shot down 25 B-17's, 16 B-25's, 4 Spits, 5 P-47's, and 4 P-38's.
I/JG3 consisted of me, Saber, Yoj, FTW, Soggy, Vono, Whip, and @col@. We took off in FW 190A-8's and proceeded to try to get up to 40k while waiting for enemies to show up.
The FW 190A-8 starting out with 100% fuel can't quite make it up to 40k. It can get to about 38k, though, which was good enough. We loitered around Rhe, halfway between Bonn and the northern targets.
At first, it looked like there were two strikes, with one of them heading to Dunkirk and one up north. I figured that the N strike was the big one, as did command staff, and I ordered I/JG3 N to the Jever area.
Upon us getting close, though, counters started to show up S, and it didn't look small. I had I/JG3 head S while the count tallies started to add up. Soon, it was clear that it was the major strike, headed into the Dunkirk area, probably eventually to hit Bonn.
I got some info about the proximity of the enemy planes and concluded that we probably didn't have time to dive in and replane before enemies crossed over land, necessitating a 10 minute wait for us. I figured that we could hit a strike a couple of sectors before Bonn even flying from way up N and that a 10 minute delay and climbing back up to alt would take longer than coming S, so that's what we did.
We caught up to the bomber stream about 3 sectors W of Bonn. Soggy spotted a B-17 icon warp past him, so we new we were getting close. :) We continued SSW and eventuall we spotted them. I/JG3 loitered around over the top of the bomber formation getting out many good position reports, scouting out the escort situation, and positioning itself.
After jockeying around a bit, I had I/JG3 follow me in on a side attack on the trailing bombers in the formation.
I dove in with reduced throttle at the start and targetted the trailing bomber. I think I missed that first passl. I was hoping the guys would polish him off after me. Not sure if anyone did or not.
I took a hit going past, but only one. I zoomed back up now on the left side of the formation and started to jocky around looking for stragglers or smoking bombers. I also put out a report that there were some P-47's in among the bombers, but not escort up high yet.
Man, there were bombers all over the place. It was hard to pick just one out. I took my time assessing the situation. I eventually found one that seemed sort of isolated and under attack and did a high-angle pass on it, blowing it up and getting the kill.
I zoomed back up to altitude and now (it has been a while now since we first overflew the bombers) some P-38's were showing up high. I put out a report on that, trying to find a position that wasn't covered by P-38's up high and making sure none of them had the jam to come up after me (I was at about 33k). I figured that this was going to take some clearing out.
I dove after one P-38, but he dove, too, and I broke off the pusuit 1500 yards back. I climbed back up and continued my search for isolated bombers.
There were a lot of P-38's around by now, at about 30k, and I was getting a bit edgy even though I was a couple k higher. So I picked one out that was closing in to cover the tail of a couple of bombers a little separated, dove in on his tail at a very high speed, and put a strong burst into his tail. He blew up and I got the kill. I don't think that he saw me closing.
I picked out another isolated B-17 and did an off angle pass from the side, raking him over well, but he didn't blow. After that pass, a P-38 managed to latch onto me, so I flew N level -- he was a little lower, so he couldn't catch me and broke off after a little bit.
As soon as he broke off and got some distance, I turned back toward the E to parallel the direction of the bombers. The bombers, though, were done with the target and started their turn left -- right into my flightpath. I started to close on them again as they headed for me from the 2 o'clock position.
Then got bounced again by another high P-38 even though I was at about 30k. Again, I ran N, diving this time. This time, the P-38 had alt on me, and I had to run 1-2 sectors out of the way before he broke off. Then I went W to parallel the course of the bombers, climb, and set up an intercept.
I labored back up above 30k, parallelling the course of the bombers when yet another P-38, guarding the flanks about half a sector out from the bomber stream, found my dot and decided to check it out. He had altitude on me, and I had to run N again. This time, I had to run for 2-3 sectors before he broke off. (Whew! That was close! He got closer than 1500 yards in parts of the pursuit.) Now I was really out of the action.
It took me until about 2 sectors W of the coast to climb back up to 33-35k (so that I wouldn't get bounced again) and to get close to the bombers -- a long tail chase. Then I found some 30k P-38's covering bombers down much lower. Another German fighter was harassing the P-38's, so I loitered around a bit and did a half-hearted pass on one, then figured that the P-38's were turning well enough so that I could go back after the bombers.
I lost that initial batch of bombers, though (on film, with the enhanced range, I could see that I overflew them and continued ahead of them to the W) -- even though I was dipping my wings and looking. I didn't want to go lower than 30k for now with all the P-38's around.
I continued on to the coast. At the coast I managed to locate the nice big formation of B-17's, but covered by a large swarm of enemy fighters (at least 15-20 that I saw) without many friendlies in the mix. Spits were the only planes high, though, and I knew that I could outrun Spits. Also, one was about 5k higher than me and starting to dive in my direction anyway, and if I turned tail it wouldn't be any better than just pressing on straight ahead.
So, I did one last run on the bomber stream, picking out the last in the formation and doing a pass from its right rear quarter.. I poured the shots into him good, I think, but he didn't blow up. I got shot up a bit as I made my pass.
This spit was now latched onto me and closing, and I nosed over, hit WEP and ran S. He stayed on my tail, but I wasn't too worried about outrunning him. He closed to about 1900 yards at the closest, but I had plenty of altitude, and veered to the SW to take him farther inland and dove harder. He broke off a litte, then came back at me, but eventually broke off for good.
Then it was about 1 minute to end log.
In the end, I got 2 B-17's (someone had polished off one I had raked over) and 1 P-38, and then got the story of the rest of the guys from I/JG3 whom I had lost track of since that first melee with the bombers. They did a great job.
-- Brooke, GL, I/JG3