by Brooke +16+, I/JG400
Got 4 B-17 kills in 2 Me163 missions. Landed safely.
I was assigned to I/JG400, and took off in an Me 109-G initially for scouting purposes. I took off from Eelde with Artst, who was in a FW 190D-9, I believe.
I took off and climbed up to about 41k when the first counters started to appear up north. I headed toward them. About a sector out from the intercept, when I was about 2 sectors N of Amsterdam, counters started to appear down south near Dunkirk. That counter force started to grow and grow, and so I asked for and got permission to head south. It looked like the N force was a group of fighters with bombers down south. I didn't have time to get to a base and land before they were over land -- so replaning wasn't an option.
South I headed. Then, several minutes later, a large number of counters started to show up way north. Well, at that point, it looked like they had a split force of bombers, with the middle force being fighters or perhaps an A-26 raid.
I was still closer to the northern group than the southern group, so I reversed direction again and headed north. As I overflew the very front of the middle group, I didn't see any bogies, so they were either much lower or I wasn't in range yet. However, at this point, it was clear that I wouldn't make it to the northern most group in time to scout it and then be able to make it back down and wait 10 minutes and still be in position to come back up to get them in an Me163. I was still about 4 sectors from that northern group, and they were about 7 sectors from Kiel. I was also 3 sectors from a field to land at.
I made a decision to head to a landing now in order to make sure I'd be available for an Me163 run on either bomber stream.
I dove E, looking behind me to make sure no enemy fighters would show up chasing me, but never saw any. I dove for Eelde, landed there, and commenced my 10 minute wait.
As I waited, I kept an eye on the strategic situation. B-17's were sighted in the meantime in the southern group, and some groups were going N for an intercept with the group headed for Kiel.
I had a bit of trouble deciding whether to come up from Kaltenkirchen or Achmer. Both had bomber streams rolling in on them. However, as my 10 minutes approached, it looked like there were more German counters per allied counter up north than down S, so I chose Achmer. I figured I could go hit them near Achmer, then come back up at Kaltenkirchen if I was still alive.
I went to Achmer and waited on the runway for the bomber stream to get to within about 2 sectors of the field. Then I strapped into an Me163 and got ready to go. This time, I remembered to turn on my gun camera before I even took off. I lit off the engine and headed off to the SSW. In flight, I got confirmation of the escort situation (none), the altitude of the bombers (18-25k), their location, and heading.
I kept my Me163 at about 150 knots in a steep climb. I vectored toward an intercept with the bombers. I levelled off at about 25k. I saw one bomber off to my right all alone, then picked up the main stream off to my left.
I flew around to the tail of the formation, dove down to their level, and made a high-speed run right up the tail of the formation.
It is hard to pick out one target in that mass. I tried to pick out the densest part, then line up on one the rear bombers. I openned up at about 1000 yards and held my fire on one of them. Then I was past him and trying to line up on another, then another, then another.
I flashed out the front of the stream and took one ping as I went into a steep climb. Looking back, I could see lots of debris and no smoke from my Me163. I was ok.
I looped up and overflew the formation back to its rear, inverted. Once I was up and level, I chopped my throttle to zero to conserve fuel and I flew inverted back to the rear of the formation. As I overflew the formation, I saw a P-51 or two in the mix. Once past the end, I looped back down and applied full throttle for another run up the tail of the formation, again firing at bomber after bomber.
One P-51 was trailing the formation, so I lined up on him first, but he did a break turn as I came screaming in, then I retargetted for the bombers.
My aiming wasn't as good as it could have been. I need to practice that.
At the front of the stream, I again pulled up hard. Looking back, I could see tracers and debris, but I didn't get hit. Again, I flew inverted to the back of the stream with my throttle at zero, then looped back down for another run.
This time, while I was still making my run up the bomber stream, my fuel gave out. It is quite unnerving to be in the middle of a run and hear that. I did a few of quick bursts at whatever seemed the closest B-17's, but I didn't want to get slow in the formation and wanted to have enough speed to get away from the P-51's that were still in the mix. After my quick bursts, I banked left and dove out to the north, keeping my speed to about 300 knots in a medium dive, looking back to see if the P-51 was following.
He didn't follow. Lucky for me -- he probably thought there'd be no way to catch me.
After I got more than 5000 yards from the P-51, I turned to the NW, straight for Achmer, and went into a 2500 fpm glide, which kept me at about 160 knots. It was a little ways to Achmer, and I didn't have a whole lot of altitude at this point, so I kept the slow glide. I kept looking around for pursuit showing up, but none did.
As I got closer to Achmer, I calmed my nerves. At the start of an Me163 ride, I get on the edge, as I know I have only 3 minutes' worth of fuel, and I have to make it count. But gliding back in for a landing, you have to calm way down -- easy does it. Closer in, I made my turn onto final approach, putting down gear and guiding it in and putting it down gently.
I then sat on the runway a bit to eat up some of my 10 minute wait for a next ride. During that time, I think I got 1 or 2 other kill messages. I had gotten one while still in flight. While I was waiting, I saw Chick come up in another Me163. I told him it was clear -- I had been watching for enemy planes nearby. Off he went.
Artst came on the radio and asked if I had made it down and if I was available for another Me163 ride. I was, so he ordered me to Sachau, which the bombers were quite near at the time.
I went to Sachau and got up onto the runway in an Me163. It looked like a formation of enemies was heading S toward Sachau while the bomber stream headed E just S of Sachau. I figured that the group coming south were fighters, but I could probably outrun them even if they had lots of altitude on me. The airfield was clear, so when my 10 minutes was up, I lit the engine and was off.
As I climbed S, I kept an eye out behind me to make sure I wasn't getting jumped by that group flying S over Sachau. I got to the bomber stream as it was completing its bomb drop and turning around. That was bad for me, as I have a harder time hitting them in turns. It was also clear that the formation of bogies that had headed S over Sachau was yet another group of B-17's. I made the decision to stay on the ones that had dropped, as that was what I was set up for at the time, and I doubted that I could put many down before they dropped anyway. In hindsight, I probably should have gone for the incoming group.
Anway, I flew past the group that had just dropped and let them get turned around mostly, then banked left and dove in on the tail of the formation.
I lined up on one B-17, but he was still turning a bit. I think I got some hits into him finally. Then I lined up on another. And another after that, and so on. I wasn't doing very well on this run. I had trouble seeing one that I had lined up because of the background. I got hits on a couple of bombers, and then looped up, flew inverted to the back, and looped back down for another run up the tail of the formation.
It was a little confusing as the stream had broken into two parts. I stayed on the portion that I had just attacked and made another run up the tail of the formation. Again, my gunnery was pretty bad.
That was unfortunate because, this time, I had plenty of fuel as the bombers had been only a sector away from my takeoff field. Yet, I had gone and blown a lot of ammo on bad marksmanship and firing too early (as I do when I don't have much fuel, as the fuel lasts longer than the ammo). I did get one kill, but I had blown many, many opportunities. On the good site, I didn't take any hits.
I had to break off while still in the juicy formation after running out of ammo. I was close to Sachau, too.
I looked around and saw no enemies around, so I headed for Sachau and a landing. I dove in on it at a steep angle, stomping the speed brakes the whole way. Closer in, I deployed gear and eased it in.
Again, I waited on the runway for my 10 minutes to expire. I got another kill as I waited there. As my 10 minutes came up, I could see that I wouldn't be able to get back into the action -- not enough time to climb up to 17k and get to the bombers. They were already nearing the coast.
I came up in an FP at Stadt briefly, then went in to collect reports form I/JG3.
-- Brooke +16+, I/JG400