Brooke in his Bf 109G-2 at about 40,000 ft. over Antwerp. He is a member of
I/JG400, assigned initially to scouting bomber formations. There is a plume
of black smoke at the airfield at Antwerp. The enemy bombers have already hit
it. Brooke doesn't see any bogies in the area.
Brooke continues to fly west out over the English Channel, looking for enemy
bombers coming in, but they are heading back to England.
Brooke is assigned to the Me 163 base at Rhein-Main. He is going to try for
the enemy bomber strike group that is near Verdun. The Me 163 range is very
small, so it is often a guessing game on whether or not the bombers will get
close enough to be intercepted. The USAF forces are white boxes and the Luftwaffe
forces are the red boxes.
Brooke takes off in his Me 163 (modelled as a Mig 15) from the airfield at Rhein-Main.
The enemy forces have pressed east, which is good for Brooke (who is represented
by the white "+" in the middle of the map).
Brooke sees lots of bogies to his left, at about 25,000 ft. altitude. From the
arrangement, he can tell that it is a bomber stream, probably with some escort.
Brooke has intercepted the bogies and sees that a large number of them are P-51D
Mustangs. Brooke can see a bomber here and there, but not a large collection
in close formation yet.
As Brooke presses forward through the escort (P-51's and some P-47D Thunderbolts),
he sees more B-17G Flying Fortresses and heads in to attack at high speed.
As he closes, going through the USAF escorts, many more bombers appear in a
tight formation. This formation is what Brooke was looking for. A P-51 positions
to try for Brooke, but he is going too fast for the enemy to intercept. The
best chance the enemy has here is a close bomber formation and gunners with
good aim.
A view from the cockpit as Brooke puts hits on a B-17. One of its engines is
already out. A P-51 is in the upper left, but Brooke is doing 375 knots indicated,
and the P-51 will have a hard time getting lined up on Brooke.
A picture as Brooke flashes past underneath the B-17. The B-17's gunners are
able to put some hits into Brooke as he goes past, but the Me 163 holds together.
Brooke heads forward, firing at the next B-17 in line.
Brooke takes several more hits as he goes through the B-17 formation. As he
flashes out the front of the formation, the Me 163's engine quits and starts
trailing smoke. Brooke pulls up hard to throw off the aim of the gunners still
shooting at him. Red tracers from the bombers' gunfire is visible in the picture
all over behind Brooke.
Brooke had a lot of speed at the moment of engine failure. He decides to use
it to pull up and around for one last attack run. He is firing on the leftmost
bomber in the middle formation -- the one right in front of him.
Brooke puts cannon hits into his B-17 target and then dives out, trailing smoke.
His Me 163 is now a high-speed glider. He took another hit in this last attack
run, but the Me 163's handling still seems fine.
Brooke is in trouble. As he dives out, his airspeed isn't 400 knots anymore.
Also, the cloud of USAF escort fighters can see the smoke. Some of them head
Brooke's way, like sharks smelling blood. Brooke steepens his dive to get out
of there faster.
Two P-51's give chase. Fortunately for Brooke, there are some Luftwaffe fighters
in the area, such as <Lugs (in the previous picture) and VonO* (a member
of Brooke's former group, I/JG3).
<Lugs calls on the radio, "Brook withya guy". He has indeed seen
Brooke's smoking, gliding Me 163 trying to get away and is coming in to help
keep enemy fighters off Brooke's tail. Brooke tells <Lugs that he is heading
to Rhein-Main to land. Thank you, Lugs!
One P-51 chases down Brooke's gliding Me 163. Here, Brooke banks right and pulls
hard in a diving turn to evade an attack run by the P-51. <Lugs is attacking
the P-51 to keep it off Brooke.
<Lugs does it! He keeps the P-51 off Brooke long enough so that he can dead-stick
land back at Rhein-Main. Brooke lands safely thanks to <Lugs.
Having survived and made it back to base, Brooke is called to Bonn for another
Me 163 flight. From the information on the map, the USAF bomber stream seems
to be 12 miles west of Dusseldorf.
As Brooke heads west in his Me 163, it is clear that the bombers are done dropping
bombs and are returning west. Brooke won't have enough fuel for many attack
runs if he is to get back to base. He levels off at 25,000 ft. and goes to reduced
throttle, but he can't do the climb-then-glide technique to extend range as
he has to catch the bombers still.
Brooke spots a group of bogies that, from the look, must be bombers. He goes
to full throttle and turns toward them. They turn out to be a group of B-17G
Flying Fortresses.
Brooke flashes past one of the B-17's after his attack run on it. The B-17 is
trailing debris from Brooke's hits with cannon fire. There is a P-47D Thunderbolt
and some other USAF escort in the area, but they won't be able to catch Brooke
here.
A view from the cockpit as Brooke pulls a lot of g's to get sights on and put
cannon fire on another B-17 during his attack run. The B-17 is damaged and starting
to trail smoke.
Brooke races out the front of the formation and goes into a zoom climb. The
lead bomber is trailing smoke and debris from Brooke's cannon fire. The bombers'
gunners are still firing at Brooke and landed some hits on him during his attack
run, but not enough to seriously damage his Me 163.
Brooke loops around for a second attack run. He is landing cannon hits on the
B-17 in front of him.
Brooke flashes past underneath the B-17. Its outside left engine is out, and
it is trailing smoke.
A view as Brooke flies past another of the B-17's in his attack run. It is trailing
debris from Brooke's gunfire, is smoking, and its inside right engine is out.
Gunners during this attack run put another burst into Brooke's Me 163, but it
holds together.
After his second pass and while he still has fuel, Brooke exits the formation
and heads back toward base. There are USAF escorts trailing the bomber formation,
and Brooke takes the opportunity to do a headon firing run on one of them (a
P-51), but misses.
A couple of P-51's chase Brooke as he flies away from the bomber formation.
Brooke soon runs out of fuel and starts to lose airspeed. One P-51 (the higher
one) is gaining. Brooke goes into a dive to try to get distance, but that P-51
stays in pursuit.
Brooke calls for help on the radio. It looks grim, but then he comes across
Luftwaffe fighter -max- and goes into a hard diving turn near -max- to allow
him to get on the P-51.
It works. -max- saves Brooke. However, Brooke no longer has the altitude to
make it back to base, so he turns back toward the P-51 to see if he can do one
gunnery pass on it while it fights -max-. The P-51 has already turned back west
and is running for it. That is actually wise of him. His job it to protect bombers,
not get dragged into low-altitude dogfights far away from the bombers. Brooke
lands his Me 163 in a field. Thanks, -max- for saving Brooke!
Brooke flew a Bf 109G-2 for scouting then two Me 163's, got 0 kills, 0 assists, landed the Bf 109 and one of the Me 163's, and ditched the second Me 163. He did at least do a fair amount of damage to B-17's in the process. Thanks to <Lugs and -max- for saving Brooke's life.
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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