by Brooke +12+ (normally GL I/JG3)
I was to fly a top secret plane that made its combat debut today: the Me163 rocket plane. But because of their extremely short range and time aloft, I was given another mission first, to go with our CO Artst to spot the enemy bombers.
Artst and I took off in Me109-G's and milled around, getting up to about 41-42k altitude. Once we started to see counters appear W of Amsterdam, we headed in that direction to ID bombers if they were there. I figured that with such a mission -- ID'ing enemy bombers in 2 Me109's alone -- would end up being a suicide mission, but that's war for you. My only regret was that I wouldn't be able to pilot that new Me163 if we died.
Artst and I intercepted the large enemy formation about a 0.5-1 sectors out to sea. We were at about 42k, and I kept my eye out for high enemy escort. I saw some bogies, but they all appeared to be lower than 40k. One of our other scouts -- Lugs? Buff1? I forget who -- called out spotting bombers first. About 30 seconds later, I spotted them off my left wing. I could also see some high escort at about 40k (which was uncomfotably close), but they didn't seem to be able to zoom up to get on me.
I called out a good report on the bombers -- about 12-24 or more B-17's -- and stayed over the top of them calling out position reports. I could see our fighter groups starting to converge. I could clearly see the B-17's from 42k altitude, thankfully.
Until past Amsterdam, I stayed over the stream calling positions. I know it has helped me in the past when vectoring in to have frequent and localized position reports. Then, once enough of our guys started to show up, I went down to fight some of the highest escort I could find.
I went down to get on a high P-51, but couldn't quite pull the lead for a good shot as I followed him through fast, hard turn, blacked out for a second and then pulled up. At that point, it didn't seem like any escort was higher than about 30-33k. I flew around a little more trying to pick out some escort, but I didn't see any that wasn't already well covered.
It looked like the bomber stream was now about a sector to the E of me after having tussled so briefly with that P-51. I now climbed E -- I wanted to get back up to about 35k to take care of any high escort over the bombers.
A couple of minutes later, the call came in for me to return to base in 5 minutes and report to Sachau for a sortie in the Me163. I flew S toward one of the nearest bases, seeing if there were any enemy fighters to dive on as I went. Nothing. I landed about 4 min, 30 sec after the call had come in.
I proceeded to Sachau to wait while the Me163 was made ready. Orders had been for Artst and me to be a new group: I/JG400. I had done some flight testing in the Me163 -- the troubling apsects were that it had only 3 minutes of fuel at 100% throttle, and it took most of that to get to 35k, leaving about one more minute for fighting. It had a combat range of about 2 sectors -- maybe a little longer depending on how long I would glide back to base for landing. Also, we were restricted to landing only at our takeoff base.
Artst took off first as the B-17's headed toward Sachau. I wished him luck and waited another few minutes for my plane to be ready. Then it was time.
I hopped in, got it out on the runway, lit the engine, and was off. I went into a 45 degree climb, pegging the climb meter past 4000 fpm climb, and held it there at about 200 knots. I climbed SW to intercept the B-17's, which had been reported at 25k altitude and no escorts. Having no escorts around was a bit of a relief, but I figured they'd have a hard time getting me anyway once I was done climbing. Getting up to 25k took uncomfortably long with only 3 minutes of fuel.
After a bit, I headed straight S to cut them off. I got up to about 25k in about 1-1.5 sectors of flight, right as I was pulling up to the bombers. I could see the stream of them off to my left, heading E in a fairly tight formation. I wanted a little distance to get up to speed, so I angled off to the SW a bit, got up to about 28k, then levelled out and headed E.
Artst and I had talked about how to use the Me163. Off angle shots were mostly out of the question. It was too fast. That left headon and tail on. Tail on was dangerous, of course, but I wanted to do it that way. I didn't think that head on would give me enough firing time to do much damage.
As I approached the formation from the rear, checking occasionally just to make sure no escort was around, I was doing about 300 knots IAS or more (and accelerating) at 28k altitude -- probably about 150 knots IAS faster than the bombers. I could see that the bombers were in two formations. One at about 25k and one below it at about 20k. It looked like the 25k formation was more densely packed, so I picked that as my target.
My plan was to go up the tail of the formation at high speed, firing the whole way through. Fortunately, the Me163 was not so constrained on ammo, so I didn't need to be careful about that. The ammo, even with the trigger held down the whole time, would last about as long as my remaining fuel, which was now just a sliver above zero on the gauge. And the Me163 has 2 20 or 30mm cannon with good rate of fire, so I figured it would be deadly, although perhaps not as deadly as a FW.
I got to 25k and started my run right up the tail of the formation. I tried to pick out the densest part of the formation to fire and and fly through. I watched the range tick down: 3000 yards, 2000 yards, 1000 yards. I started to fire at 1000 yards and aimed for whatever appeared to be the closest bomber in front of me. I laid the shots into that first bomber in my sights, then the next in my sights, and so on. Things happened fast.
I could see the bombers shooting at me -- tracers all over. The bomber I had shot up blew up as I passed, giving me a kill, but I did take a hit on the way through. After I flashed out of the front of the formation, I stopped firing and started to roll and jink and climb. One hit so far. OK, I'd do it again.
I pulled up, looped back, overflew the formation back to the rear, then split s'ed back down to make another run up the rear. Again, I picked out the densest formation and flew up its tail at high speed, firing from 1000 yards until I was through it all. I got more solid hits on a bomber, but it didn't blow. Unfortunately, I couldn't see which were smoking and which were not far enough in advance to make a good choice beforehand. Again, the tracers lit up as I approached and as I went through the formation. I took another hit or two, rolled and jinked once out of the formation. I looked back to see my Me163 streaming smoke. Uh oh.
The handling at first seemed a little off. I went into a climbing turn and got a stall warning briefly, levelled out, and the roll seemed a little funny. I checked my map quickly (to see how far I was from Sachau in case I needed to run for it immediately), and when I looked back up, my Me163 was rolling wildly without any stick input. I thought, "Uh oh, that hit must have gotten a cable." I tried to correct with aileron, and the rolling stopped. I centered the stick, and the plane was steady. I waggled my wings left and right -- OK. Hmm. Well, it seemed fine now. I didn't think that I had spun it, but maybe this is what one was like -- more roll than spin.
I looked at my gauges. Well, I clearly wasn't leaking fuel, or the engine would have quit immediately. It was oil. Well, no big problem -- I'd be out of fuel before I was out of oil. My fuel gauge was on empty, and I had about 75% oil.
I turned back, to get to a more northerly heading, and saw one B-17 off away from others, down lower, in a gentle turn -- I decided to go in on him then call it a day. Yeah, my plane was shot up, but what the heck -- one more pass. I'd risk it. She'll hold together for one more. :)
I cleared my tail, then made a run on that B-17, which was down closer to 10k. I reduced throttle a bit to follow him a little in his turn, pouring on the shots. He didn't blow up, and I don't think I got hit, but at that point, my engine did quit -- out of fuel.
I still had airspeed and knew I was 1-2 sectors from my field, so I pulled up steeply to get some altutude for my glide back. This is where I was very, very glad that there wasn't escort around. Once I had cleared my tail, zoomed up, levelled out, pointed the nose north, now I could take the time to look at the map. Sachau was about 1.5-2 sectors NW of me, and I had about 17k altitude -- I'd be fine.
I headed off to the NW and pointed the nose at Sachau when I was close enough to see it. I held about 300 knots in the dive and, as I came close enough to make out the runway, deployed the speed brakes and kept them deployed until my speed had come down to about 160 knots. I then deployed gear, eased it in, and landed at about 130 knots, no flaps, right near the end of the runway. Perfect! It was a better landing than I usually manage in prop planes.
I came to a halt and waited for about 20 seconds, thinking, "Hmm. Maybe I should wait to see if I get any more kills from bombers I shot up." Nah. I got out and started my 10 minute wait for a 109.
When it was time for me to take off, the B-17's were headed NW away from Sachau, about 1-2 sectors from it. I took off from Jever and climbed E. As I neared the enemy formation heading NW, I still wasn't at 20-25k yet, so I veered off to the N. Then, as I got up to alt, I called to find out where the bombers were more precisely in the sector and got the call that they were all dead.
I levelled off and headed E again, picking up speed from about 150 knots. I came across a P-51 about 2k higher than I was, hauling ass to the WNW. I maneuvered into a headon but didn't bother firing. He passed me and kept going. I didn't bother to pursue.
After that, the call came in for all LW planes to return to base. I headed S. A bogie high to my 6 o'clock resolved itself as a Spit diving at me, so I went into a steep dive, running S. He was closing, but he broke off once he saw that I was determined to go all the way to the deck if needed, heading S all the while. I went back and landed at Emden.
So, one kill for me in my Me163. Quite a ride. I wish it had more fuel. :)
-- Brooke +12+, I/JG400