by Brooke, GL, RAF Flight F
RAF Flight F consisted of me (Brooke), HB555, 715B, GaB, BGgetmo, BGPOW, and C4. We were assigned to carrier C112, with orders to get our Spitfire Mk. V's to Malta and then protect Malta.
We took off from the carrier, climbed east to 20k altitude, then turned SE toward Malta and continued to climb up to 35k. Orders originally said 30k, but we had seen plenty of Bf 109's and C.202's higher than that in previous frames and decided to get up to 35k. At 35k, we backed our RPM down to 2400 to conserve fuel on the way in. This way, on arriving at Malta, we'd have over half an hour of fighting time left.
On the way into Malta, reports came in of a large enemy raid heading to Malta from the NW. This took the enemy formations over cruiser group C7, and we could see from the radar reports from C7 that the size of the strike was formidable. Soon, reports came in of sighting Ju 88's near C7. This was great news, as that was about 25 miles still from airfields at Malta and would give plenty of time for intercept assuming the large enemy fighter force would not kill all RAF fighters before they could get there. At this time, Spits up from the carriers were still 1-2 sectors from Malta. Flight F was about 2 sectors out, as it was the last Spit flight to take off. On our way in, we could hear on the radio that it was a large and vigorous fight over Malta, with calls of "Malta in big trouble."
As we overflew C7, the area was clear. We continued toward the north shore of Malta. As we got closer, I called for where the Malta forces wanted us, as it appeared that the area over Malta had been cleared out during the lengthy and large fight. We were told that the fight was now north and northwest of Malta. We continued on course.
As we drew closer, we could see some bogies, then more and more. We vectored north toward the largest concentration. Eventually, there were dozens of bogies from about 30k on down. I asked Flight F to follow me and we stay up high and to overfly the huge number of bogies, looking to ID enemies up high then attack them. The reason for this is that, in previous frames, Flight F was often in the position of having very high 109's and 202's attack us while we were engaged. This time around, I wanted Flight F to take on those high enemies so that any other flights below wouldn't be in that position.
We saw lots of action below us, then we came across a roughly co-altitude bogie that ended up being a Bf 109. I had Flight F go after it, as it was in our vicinity and any pursuit lower would then take us into the region probably of identifying more enemies. At this point, I was a bit farther north of the rest of the group. As they went after the 109, he tried to run directly away from them, which brought him closer to me, and I went for him.
It was a Bf 109F-4, and I had enough altitude on him to close to within 200 yards, at which point I opened fire with everything I had. We were going over 400 mph true airspeed. I started scoring hits, and he rolled right then pulled lots of g's into a steeper dive. As he was doing this maneuver, I was scoring a lot of hits, and his plane was starting to shed parts. However, his high-g maneuver took him out of firing solution for me, and as I maneuvered around to get back on him, the best I could do was to close to 800 yards briefly, and then he outran me as I chased him toward Sicily. In film replay, it looked like that 109 took a lot of cannon rounds right on target. It lost an aileron and maybe something else nonessential, but didn't start smoking and didn't go down. Alas -- no kill for me.
The pursuit had taken me a lot lower and away from others in Flight F. I turned back south to rejoin them and overflew Ramzey's Flight E, which was down on the deck pursuing a C.202. It didn't look like they were catching it. I called to piterkO to ask if he needed me to make a run on it. It sounded like he wanted that, so I dove in. As I was closing, Ramzey called on the radio for Flight E to reverse and head back south. He had spotted a large number of 109's coming in above. I was *so* close, though, so I stayed in pursuit. Ramzey continued to call out the 109's and his recommendation to run south. As the Spit V has so little ammo (60 cannon rounds per gun), as my cannon convergence was set to 250 yards, and as I was rapidly closing, I decided to hold my fire until 200 yards. At 200 yards, right as I was about to pull the trigger, the C.202 pulled a very high-g barrel-roll/scissors move. I just broke off and reversed back south, knowing from Ramzey's warning that I couldn't afford to get in a protracted dogfight with the C.202. I should have started firing at 400 yards. Alas -- I lost another opportunity for a kill.
I did an Immelmann, headed south, and looked around. Now I was worried. Indeed, there were about a dozen bogies far above me, heading south. Fortunately, I was only 5k or so behind the rest of Flight E. Since I was so low at this time, I went into a climb as I headed south. The bogies stayed above us the whole time -- too high for us to ID, but probably also too high to want to come all the way down to us if they saw us at all. I saw some of Flight F here, too, heading south, so although we were under a cloud of high enemies, we did have a defensible number of RAF in the area.
As we got closer to Malta, we could see other bogies heading north -- those would be our guys. Indeed, as the bogies met, a fight ensued, and some planes started to lose altitude in the fight. I could now see multiple 109's and multiple RAF forces engaging. They were still all way above me. I headed south with Ramzey and decided now was a good time to land, to rearm, and to refuel.
After taking off, I was able to rejoin most of the rest of Flight F -- all but C4 and BGPOW. We formed up, climbed NW from Malta to 35k, then started patrolling from the NW of Malta to the NE of Malta. By this time, things seemed clear. After a long time of patrolling at 35k and 2000 RPM to save fuel, we picked up flashing of a Malta airfield and set a course straight to central Malta. As we headed in, enemies started to show up on radar. We were vectoring to cut them off. Eventually, we started to pick up bogies at 35k and called them out on the radio.
It was a bit confusing sorting out the bogies as there were soon many, but eventually near the north shore of Malta, we identified 109's up high and engaged them. I flew conservatively, working to keep my altitude, as it seemed did the rest of Flight F. I would make passes on high 109's, not chasing them down low, as there were other 109's up high nearby. They didn't like Spitfires being up as high as they were (don't blame them) and would readily dive out or extend at high speed whenever I got close. I didn't get any firing opportunities, but I did drive some of them lower. At one point, I could see one diving for BGgetmo, warned him on the radio, and went for that 109. I closed to within 200 yards at very high speed and some off angle, and broke him off Getmo, but couldn't get a firing solution. We were going too fast for me to pull enough g's to get my guns on him. It was a 109F. After my pass, since he was off Getmo, I zoomed back up and continued my hunt for high 109's.
I found some here and there, and tried to engage them, but again, they would dive out or run, usually even if it was just me and two of them, as I was staying at about 33k or higher. A little later, I joined up with DFA to hunt. He got more than 5k ahead of me at one point, when I was seeing if I could rejoin Flight F again, and got jumped by two high 109's. I flew to help out. DFA was still OK when I got there, and when I showed up with some altitude on them, they ran off.
Now, I was fairly far north, so I continued north to scout near Sicily with some other RAF fighters in the area. After scouting the Sicily coast at 35k, Pooface called on range radio and said that he was in deep trouble. I started looking around. It took me a bit to find him. I started waggling my wings to look below me as I flew along the coast and then saw about 5-6 bogies down below. I started a fast descent to see if I could ID them. I kept diving and diving, looking around, and getting more and more nervous about going all the way down to the deck with perhaps lots of enemies about. Finally, I got ID and saw that it was Pooface and Nomde with 3-4 109's bouncing them. I asked them to head south if they could, and I'd try to break pursuit off their tails. Unfortunately, they were heavily engaged, having to turn and twist, not able to run south. I was going so fast from my decent that it took me a bit to as I scrubbed off speed and worked to get into position for a run. Before I did, Pooface radioed that he got hit and was done for. I asked Nomde if he was OK, but he said he was going down, too. So, rather than dive into what would then be a 1 on 3 -- and there were more bogies from the direction of Sicily -- I climbed south and radioed the situation with report of 109's, altitude, and location.
When some more RAF fighters showed up (Roscoroo and his guys among others), I turned back and followed them in for an attack. Some of the new RAF arrivals dove in on lower 109's while I and some others continued to press north, following other 109's. The 109's we were following ran to A22 airfield a little inland of Sicily. A22 didn't seem to be putting up any ack, and I could see fires there. Interesting -- I wondered what had attacked the field. Unfortunately, at this point, my fuel was critically low. As tempting as it was (3-4 109F's down low with 5-6 RAF and more arriving) to dive in for a fight near A22, I had to turn back without a fight.
About a sector from Malta, I reduced my prop RPM to minimum, turned off my engine, and glided. My fuel was so low that I wasn't sure I'd make it otherwise. Near the airfield, I turned my engine back on and landed. That was the end of the battle.
In the end, no one in Flight F got a kill. HB555 got an assist. BGgetmo (who got swarmed early) was shot down twice as was C4. BGPOW and GaB were shot down once. Brooke, HB555, and 715B survived in their Spit V's. After Flight F was at Malta, there weren't many axis attacks on the island, so less opportunity for Flight F to fight. But we did get in some scraps, and for me it was still quite fun.
Thanks, Flight F. It was very fun and a privilege for me to fly with you guys in Fire Over Malta!
-- Brooke, GL, RAF Flight F, Malta
by Brooke P. Anderson
e-mail: brooke@electraforge.com
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