AAR: Operation Prying Eyes.

Situation:

"It is 6:45 AM, Overcast, September 1st, 1943. We believe the General Steinhoff and his staff have occupied our ally Stalin's dacha on the shores of Lake Ritsa. We need a recon photo of the area returned to HQ staff at Sukhumi. Destroy any convoys observed to leave the village to make a run for the train station in Byzb'.

We also believe two Yakushev resupply ships are in harbour at Sochi and require recon confirmations of this target as well.ALL photos must be returned to HQ staff at Sukhumi."

Pilots: d0o0m, Merlin , Whiplash, Redjail, Hattrick

AAR:

6:45 AM: We climbed into the cockpits of our rides ealry in the morning - the sky was unsurprisingly overcast for a fall day. Our group decided that we were going to lift Sukhumi and head straight for the shores of Lake Ritsa to try and capture the photo as soon as possible and RTB.

Merlin rode in "Jersey Devil" and d0o0m saddled "Nara Does" as P-51D escorts for the TF-51 recon plane. Whiplash piloted the recon in "Little MAC".

As we lifted, we enjoyed the ambient early morning light. We were a bit nervous trying to anticipate what lay ahead as we were expecting both flak and FW190 opposition. How many, where and the skill of their pilots was unknown. What we did know was that we wanted to climb to a comfortable altitude to have some energy to not only engage bandits but keep our ability to cross the mountain ranges high.

Merlin and d0o0m decided to fly a loose box escort for Little MAC with d0o0m 7:00 low and Merlin 5:00 high to watch the recon 6. At about 7:15 AM, Little MAC alerted his escorts to bandits in range and both Merlin and d0o0m turned to engage. This proved to be the first of our folley... both Merlin and d0o0m quickly found themselves overwhelmed by at least 6 FW 190 fighters as Whiplash in Little MAC tried to sneak away to the recon site. Merlin quickly had his governor shot out and drew some forces southwest as d0o0m pulled some fighters Northeast to draw them away from Little MAC and his objective. As the recon plane entered the Ritsa district, the flak opened up and was observed to light up the sky from 4 nm away where d0o0m continued to fight 4 FW190.

Carefully holding Little MAC's wings level, Whiplash quickly confirmed that his photograph was successful and he began his egress. Unfortunately, a FW190 had discovered his location and had brought his wingman over to make life difficult. Cries for assistance began to mount as Little MAC tried to use his lightweight maneuverability to hold off the 190s as he egressed toward home. d0o0m desperately tried to work his way west to assist but lost his governor to his pursuers and crashed. By this time Merlin had scrambled from Sukhumi with Redjail and was inbound to assist.

Little MAC too had its governor shot out and now had the extra complication added to his task of avoiding the 190s... his tenacity bought him but little time and we all received radio notification that Little MAC went down with his photographic plates before help could arrive.

Our team decided to re-form at Sukhumi and make a second run for the valuable photograph. As our wheels lifted from Sukhumi, Merlin noted some conspicuous flak bursts North of the airfield... it seemed we had some vengeful FW190s turning the tables on our base just as we lifted. Little MAC was quickly targeted by the bandits and the fighter escort was once again trying to clear his tail. This time, Redjail successfully destroyed the 190 just as two more appeared from the north. As the fight drew westward over the water, d0o0m called a warning that he was closing on Merlin's airspace... within moments his announcement was answered with a sickening "thud" as the belly of "Nara does" slammed into "Jersey Devil" once again sending both d0o0m and Merlin down.

Quickly lifting once more, both d0o0m and Merlin latched onto the remaining 190... Just as Merlin closed in for a kill shot, a burst of flak landed squarely on our prey disintegrating the 190 in explosive glory right over Sukhumi. Smoke trails cascaded around Merlin as he flew through the debris with no less than a few "OOOHs and AAAHs"...With that we formed and headed out once again for Ritsa.

10nm from Ritsa another lone FW190 tried to engage but was quickly eliminated by d0o0m while Merlin and Whiplash continued to head in for their photo. this time, wings level, Whiplash once again confirmed a successful shot. The decision was then made to try and take some photos of ships in sochi harbour before RTB. Whiplash and Merlin left Ritsa for the coast while d0o0m and Hattrick dove into the Ritsa valley to take out the Generals convoy which was known to be making a run for Byzb. Their target was spotted, but unfortunately d0o0m and Hattrick both lost governors on their attack and only managed to attrit the onvoy 50% before crashing.

Meanwhile Whiplash erroneously entered Sochi Airfield airspace in his search for his recon target. This caused a FW190 flight of 4 fighters to scramble for intercept. The flak was heavy as Whiplash flew feet wet to try and flank for the northern Sochi harbor. Merlin decided to attach the taxiing 190s and was able to get one smoking before he was taken out by AAA groundfire.

Ships in sight, Whiplash held wings level and secured his second photo ... he quickly climbed above the cloud coverage to try and get home before the 4x 190s could form and pursue.

While "Little MAC" comfortably began his long journey home to return his prized photos a german 88 at sochi airfield lofted a shell on a long ascent to 20,000 feet. The shell met Little MAC with a direct hit thus ending the evenings comedy of errors in a spectacular stroke of Sh*tty luck.

Dogs of War: too few kills and no photos home

AI enemy: a bucket full of governors but no direct a2a kills.

HUGE thanks to Speed, Grimes, Sithspawn and Stonehouse for the MIST and flak scripts used in the mission. tonight was simply ---- a blast.:thumbup:

awesome, and i missed it...:doh:

yeha - too many folks incorrectly assume you can't have a fun immersive evening in a WWII bird within Georgia map... too bad really - nights like that really make me love the player contributions to mission making and the prop fidelity of DCS...

Although the frequency of governor hits is really frustrating...

yeha - too many folks incorrectly assume you can't have a fun immersive evening in a WWII bird within Georgia map... too bad really - nights like that really make me love the player contributions to mission making and the prop fidelity of DCS...

 

Although the frequency of governor hits is really frustrating...

i might have found the answer on this....but its too early to tell

yeha - too many folks incorrectly assume you can't have a fun immersive evening in a WWII bird within Georgia map... too bad really - nights like that really make me love the player contributions to mission making and the prop fidelity of DCS...

 

Although the frequency of governor hits is really frustrating...

Pop, pop, kick on the lawn mower engine noise till silence.

That was a damn good time, definitely one for the book! Thanks for writing this up, I'll see if I can post a few screenshots later to go with.

Man, the first AAR and I had about the most disappointing sortie performance possible. We are all en-route to the target chit-chatting like we are on vacation and then BOOM we get bounced by a gang of robo-luftwaffe. So Balto calls "Bandits 6 o clock!" DoOom engages in short order and me in my ultimate wisdom forget I'm carrying drop tanks. As I flounder about trying to get eyes on the enemy the first hits disintegrate my prop gov and then... well it's time to find a flat place to land. :doh:

They will not catch me napping again! It just goes to show you that you need to be combat ready in a split second. It really was a hell of a great time, guys and I'm looking forward to those regular missions.

EDIT: By the way, dooom, that was a great write-up. You sure set the bar high for every mission from here forward! :D