Brooke in a Bf 109G-2, at 42,000 ft over the English Channel. Brooke is scouting
enemy formations along with the Luftwaffe Commanding Officer, Artst. Here, the
two of them come across many enemy bogies. The Bf 109G-2 is able to get to amazing
altitudes, and so the Luftwaffe is using them as scouts.
A map of what the situation looks like as Brooke and Artst scout. Each sector
(black square) is a 12 mile by 12 mile square. The white boxes show numbers
of enemy aircraft in the sector, but you don't know where in the sector the
enemies are, and you don't know what is in the sector (bombers or fighters or
both). From this map, it seems likely to Brooke that the bombers are in sector
13,20 or 14,20 or both, probably with lots of fighter escort ranging around
them. Brooke and Artst are working to find the bombers and report their locations.
Brooke finds the bombers in among the bogies, along with the occasional high
P-51D Mustang. The P-51 cannot get up to the same altitudes a Bf 109G-2 can.
The radio traffic about this time. Brooke's messages have slashes ("/")
or apostrophes ("'") in front of them. He calls out bogies: "dots
ahead". He identifies the bombers: "b17s in 14,19,1", "b17s
25k alt heading E from 14,19,1", "b17s 12-24 or so". He gives
a report on the high escort: "escort p51s high -- 40k or 35k". While
he is concentrating on counting bombers, gathering information, and typing his
radio messages, Brooke misses Artst's call: "break for home brook".
Instead, later, Brooke asks "artst, shadow b17s?". Artst replies later
that Brooke should not shadow the B-17's but attack them, but again Brooke misses
Artst's message in the general radio traffic and confusion of looking around
and reporting. This is all to show some of the confusion that happens in battle.
Brooke dives in for an attack on the enemy formation as it passes by Zwolle
(which is visible to the right of Brooke's Bf 109). Brooke missed Artst's radio
orders and instead stayed over the bombers for minutes, periodically reporting
detailed location to help vector in Luftwaffe fighters. Once a good number of
Luftwaffe fighters show up, Brooke dives in.
Brooke attacks one of the P-51D escorts. He figures his Bf 109 is best used
to clear out escorts so that the FW 190's can get in on the bombers.
A view from the cockpit as Brooke tries for the P-51. The P-51 is doing a hard
break turn to get out of Brooke's line of fire. Brooke is doing 275 knots indicated
at 25,000 ft. He briefly pulls a lot of g's (almost 8 g's) to get a quick snapshot
at the target, but doesn't manage to land the hits. He has only a brief time
at those g's before easing off or blacking out -- not much time to adjust his
aim.
After the brief tussle with the P-51's, Brooke heads back toward the bombers,
but before he gets there, Artst orders Brooke to land and to prepare for special
assignment in I/JG400. I/JG400 is in a secret squadron that is to fly the Me
163 Komet rocket plane. Brooke lands safely at Nordhorn and sees BigH (pilot
in I/JG3, Brooke's previous squadron) landing his damaged FW 190.
In mission 2, Brooke flew an Me 163 Komet. Unfortunately, no footage survives of that ride. He got 1 B-17 kill and 1 B-17 assist during that and returned safely to base.
Nothing in the Bf 109G-2, but 1 kill and 1 assist on B-17's in the Me 163, and landed both planes safely back at base.
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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