Brooke, GL of I/JG3, in his FW 190A-8 at 35,000 ft near Abbeville. I/JG3 finds US bombers heading south over the river. Brooke sends a radio message with numbers, altitudes (estimated at 25k), heading, and location.
Brooke, GL of I/JG3, in his FW 190A-8 at 35,000 ft near Abbeville. I/JG3 finds
US bombers heading south over the river. Brooke sends a radio message with numbers,
altitudes (estimated at 25k), heading, and location.
Brooke radios "Going in on trailing bomber", and dives to attack.
I/JG3 dives in.
Brooke dives vertically on the trailing B-17G Flying Fortress and opens fire.
It flies through a stream of Brooke's shells.
Suave and Yoj just did a pass on the same bomber, and it explodes. The explosion
is just visible to the rear of Brooke's FW 190. Brooke gets an assist.
Brooke and I/JG3 reassemble and head toward Amiens, the bombers' target. Amiens
is below Brooke. Plumes of smoke are visible rising from the city and the industrial
center. Bogies ahead of Brooke include bombers.
Brooke picks out a bomber, separated from the group, over Amiens and parallels
its course at about 25,000 ft. altitude. Brooke is waiting for a Luftwaffe fighter
or two to get into position so that the bomber's gunners have a harder job.
Brooke makes his first attack run on the B-17G, turning in from the bomber's
right rear to give the gunners a more difficult tracking shot.
Another view of Brooke's attack run. He has opened fire and is scoring hits.
The B-17's gunners are firing back.
Brooke races under the B-17. Debris is visible streaming back from the bomber.
Brooke takes hits from the B-17's gunners as he passes by.
Brooke goes up and around for a second attack run on the B-17, landing strikes
all over the bomber and seeing debris trail away. This time, he comes in turning
from the left side of the bomber. The gunners are still landing hits on Brooke,
though -- they are good. Zoomi is about to put shots into the bomber as well.
Several things happen in quick succession. The B-17's gunners land another strong
burst into Brooke's FW 190. Brooke's engine hemorrhages oil, and his FW 190
sprouts a trail of thick black smoke. As Brooke flashes past the B-17, rolling
left and pulling hard into a split s to avoid more gunfire, the B-17 explodes,
giving Brooke the kill. Brooke dives for the closest airfield.
Brooke lands his stricken FW 190 at Amiens airfield. Fortunately, it is open
for landing and clear of enemy fighters.
Brooke and other pilots of I/JG3 relaunch in their FW 190A-8's and assemble
over Lille.
I/JG3 gets the order to find and attack enemy fighters. Here, I/JG3 finds bogies
over Ostend. A couple of the bogies resolve themselves into enemy P-47D Thunderbolts.
I/JG3 finds more enemy fighters near Ostend and mixes it up. Below, Chek and
-Whip are making passes into the lower group while some others, such as Brooke,
keep a high cover.
As Brooke keeps high cover, a flight of three P-47D's arc across his flightpath.
Brooke pursues. Brooke is picking which P-47 to attack, the lead plane (leftmost,
#1), the middle (#2), or the trailing plane (rightmost, #3).
Brooke, Gorsk, BigH, and mrsix go after the trio of P-47's. mrsix went up the
formation, causing P-47 #3 (bottom right of picture) to break off and cease
to be a threat for now, and is here saddling up on P-47 #2. BigH and Gorsk are
doing diving turns into the action, in good position to attack #2. Brooke therefore
goes for P-47 #1. The fight is at 25,000-30,000 ft. near Ostend.
Brooke saddles up on P-47 #1 and opens fire. The P-47 maneuvers to evade.
Brooke stays saddled up and gets a good tracking shot on P-47 #1. He holds down
the trigger and rakes the P-47 with cannon fire. The P-47 explodes shortly after
this picture was taken, giving Brooke the kill. After this fight, the area over
Ostend appears clear, and I/JG3 scouts around looking for enemies.
Brooke, BigH, and Gorsk are jumped by two P-38J Lightnings and one P-47D, diving
in from very high altitude. I/JG3 was scouting around for enemies -- this is
how they found some. This isn't a good position for FW 190's. At this altitude,
a P-38 can easily outturn a FW 190, and a P-47 can easily chase one down. However,
a FW 190 can out dive a P-38, and it can handily outroll P-38's and P-47's at
speed, making it hard for those aircraft to keep guns on target. Brooke radios
the group, "Dive south!" The plan it to dive however steeply is needed
to keep the P-38's at bay and to roll and jink to keep the P-47 from being able
to land shots.
Brooke rolling, jinking, and diving. BigH stays with Brooke for a bit, then
veers off to the left of this picture. The enemies all follow BigH.
Once Brooke's tail is clear, he goes into a zoom climb, exchanging speed for
altitude, then turns back toward the enemies to see if he can help BigH or Gorsk.
Unfortunately, before Brooke gets there, BigH is shot down. Gorsk reports on
the radio that he is clear. Brooke does not see BigH's death or Gorsk's message,
though. He is too absorbed in flying his plane and concentrating on the enemies.
Brooke does a headon pass through the trio of enemy planes, then does a high
yo yo up, around, and back through again. This is his second pass through the
enemy formation. On his first pass, he wasn't going for any shots -- just disruption
of the formation and keeping from getting hit. On this second pass, he is just
avoiding the P-47, and one of the P-38's is too low to be a threat.
After passing the P-47, Brooke pulls up, puts the higher P-38 in his sights,
and starts firing.
The P-38 is diving to Brooke's right, so Brooke rolls right and pulls g's to
keep the P-38 in his sights. Brooke holds the trigger down.
Brooke and the P-38 flash past each other. Brooke didn't land any hits on the
P-38 and vice versa in their head-on joust. Now Brooke judges it is time to
get the hell out of there. He figures that, if Gorsk or BigH were around before,
they are clear by now. He continues his roll and pulls into a steep dive.
Brooke pursued by two P-38J's and now two P-47D's (another dove into the fight
during Brooke's two headon passes through the group). Brooke dives and jinks,
rolling rapidly this way and that. Brooke heads east, deeper into German-held
territory. The P-38's are not able to stay with Brooke's FW 190 in the extended
dive, and the speed of the dive is so fast that the P-38's can hardly roll.
They break off. One of the P-47's stays on longer, but he, too, cannot hit Brooke's
rolling aircraft and breaks off after a while.
After escaping, Brooke climbs to Antwerp. The industrial sector has been bombed
(smoke plumes are visible), and there are still many bogies about.
There was a fair amount of action after this picture -- fights with enemy fighters and B-25's, rejoining and battling along side I/JG3 pilots who were still alive -- but I have no film footage of it, alas.
Brooke ended part 2, frame 2 with 2 kills (1 B-17 and 1 P-47) and at least one assist (B-17). He landed safely after both missions.
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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