by Brooke, GL, I/JG3
I/JG3 shot down 6 B-17's, 6 P-47's, and 4 P-38's at the loss of 4 of 8 FW 190A-8's.
MVP to Chek for an incredible day. He shot down 2 B-17's, 3 P-47's, and 3 P-38's AND returned to base. Ye gods!
I/JG3 consisted of me, Whip (FL), BigH, Gorsk, Vono, Chek, Red5, and Zoomi. We took off from Everaux in FW 190A-8's.
We milled around a bit, getting up to 37-38k (which is sort of hard in an A8), when reports of the B-17's started coming in. We vectored over toward them and got confirmation of little or no escort, altitude and heading.
We caught up to the stream from behind, and I called for an attack on the trailing bomber. I/JG3 shot him down in the first pass. I took a hit on my pass on him. Then we started chewing on other trailing B-17's. I went in on one and got the kill on him, but got shot up pretty bad in the process. It looked like it had at couple of gunners.
I landed my smoking plane and commenced my 10 minute wait. Other I/JG3 pilots were down, too, after getting shot up, but most had gotten a B-17 or a couple of assists.
We regrouped at Lil, with those pilots still in the air holding over Lil as the rest of us came up.
We climbed back up to about 36k amid much complaining about allied tactics. Me, I don't mind a bit. That's how scenarios are sometimes -- it's not always just take off and get into the action like the arena. I've been in scenarios where I've flown for 2 hours and never fired a shot nor seen an enemy. It happens sometimes.
Anyway, the call came in to attack enemy fighters, as it was suspected that they would strafe Antwerp. We came in on high P-47's and P-38's, but we had more altitude. We picked several off. I killed a P-47 in this fight.
Then, as happens in dogfights, things started to get disorganized in a hurry. Also, some higher enemy fighters kept coming into the fray from the N. At one point, three of us were climbing after an engagement and 3 very high P-38's came in on us. I called for a run to the S, which the 3 of us did, but the P-38's started to chase us down.
I think the 38's got the other two guys with me. I circled back as I saw them closing in on the nearest guy to me (who was 2000-3000 yards back), but I think I was too late. I went into them from the front, then high yo yo'ed and made another frontal pass as best I could, but I didn't stick around against 3 P-38's. I dove out. Then a P-47 came in on me and started to get close. I thought I was going to buy it.
However, in such cases, I dive as much as I have to to keep the P-38's back and start rolling and jinking like hell to keep the P-47's from hitting me. The P-38's fell back and eventually broke off. I think maybe some friendlies dove into the chase from the side -- don't remember. I eventually fought off or ran away from the P-47, too.
I climbed back toward Antwerp and entered the fighting there. I made a pass or two on B-25's and P-38's down low, but no hits that I could tell. The B-25's were doing break turns, so it was tough. I didn't want to get into a turn fight on the deck in my A8. In fact, I stayed very fast and kept a look out for high enemy fighters coming into the action.
At one point, I got chased away again by some higher enemies and escaped again, and came back again (after climbing). The B-25's were all gone by the time I got chased off -- all shot down, I think.
I went back into the action with a few of the other guys from I/JG3. As we climbed N, we spotted a couple of P-38's down low, so I called for B&Z attacks on them. Zoomi got one, and the other died shortly thereafter.
Then I found a P-47 diving away from a few pursuers. I had a decent position to cut him off and proceeded to do so. But he was diving and very fast. I slowly closed on him and started firing at about 800 yards, hoping to get some hits even though max range is 600 -- I was afraid he'd pull away. We were right on the deck, but I was slowly closing (had WEP on, heh!). As I got to 600 yards, he started to jink, and I started to put some hits on him. I might have been out of some cannon, though, as he didn't go down.
Also at that point, another P-47 off to my right saw the situation and turned onto my tail to help out. He had lots of speed and was closing on my tail, but I continued to put hits into the P-47 I was chasing. Then he went into a hard climbing right turn. I followed for 180 degrees of it, then dove back to get back to some help as I was almost out of ammo and didn't want to get pinned down by the two P-47's to have P-38's come in. I had hoped the other guys would have followed along -- we would have bagged both P-47's, but I guess we had left them behind.
The P-47 I had hit was smoking and kept running after I broke off, but his savior stayed on me, and I had to roll and jink as he closed on my tail. I ran back to some support, at which point he broke off. Then end log was called.
Wow. It was quite a day of fighting. I'd like to recommend Chek for an MVP with killing 2 B-17's, 3 P-47's, and 3 P-38's AND living to tell about it. Man -- that is some awesome flying. I thought I was doing OK with my 1 B-17 and 1 P-47 and living through the enemy meat-grinder action, but I am a sorry-ass slacker, I see. :)
-- Brooke -10-, GL, I/JG3