Shahdoh's Axis & Allies WWII Campaign #1 - Week 2

Axis

&

Allies

DCS World Style!

Week 2 Status Report

The Action intensifies!!!

Axis struck first with a dual pronged attack, apparently in an attempt to split the enemy forces. A majority of their bombers were sent to the allied industrial center. The axis fighters did a good job at keeping the allies from interfering with the bombers, but the flak was thick. Only a few bombers made it through and yet significant damage was still inflicted. The 2nd wave was directed toward the allied airfield. After last week’s devastating attack, looks like they were trying to keep the allies pinned down. The flak again did a good job protecting the field, but a couple bombers still made it through and did some damage to aircraft still on the ground.

The allies struck back with a high altitude, dusk raid. Half of their bombers towards the axis airfield and the other half to the industrial center. Apparently the bombers suffered early losses due to a formation accident and two of the allied fighters had to return to base for unknown reasons. Still they pushed on using one of their fighters in a feint attack that at least momentarily diverted some of the axis defenses. The axis fighters quickly recognized the diversion and soon found the bombers incoming from the north via the high contrails. The allies tried to defend the bombers, but the axis fighters were relentless and successful in shooting down a couple and diverting several others. A handful still got through and were able to do some light damage to both the airfield and industrial center.

It is evident the axis have a bit more experience in their craft. The allies will need good teamwork and some solid strategies for them to overcome their current situation. What was remarkable from the allies was their ability to repair so many aircraft after their airfield was hit as bad as it was. I am sure the Commander bought all those maintenance folks a beer for a job well done. Just wondering if they can keep up the effort, it looks like they won’t get much rest.

Stayed tuned for media coverage.........

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n-bjKnWoNERtpADwhGrw9JY0y9vVSCEnB8MqJWA9L8Y/edit#gid=0

Was awesome.

I was resting in my hammock down by the creek (I'm a fighter pilot... that's what I do all day...) when I heard the sirens. I finished my beer and ambled on over to the mess tent for lunch. Apparently the cooks had already taken cover as there was nothing to eat at all. I thought "I suppose I should head for my lovely 109... the crew will be expecting me.".

Luckily the crew had the aircraft started by the time I got there so it made up for the time I spent with what could have been my last beer. See... I was just thinking ahead. I climbed in and pushed the throttles forward. Then I jumped on all the toe brakes because one of my "fellow" 190 pilots was already taxiing and nearly broadsided me as I tried to pull out... Sheesh... those guys should watch where they're going. I suppose the commander HAD told them to get off the ground first and ASAP but whatever. I then remembered to run my pre-flight list so I clicked on my o2, Set my tail wheel to locked, turned on my auto governor and pulled the safety off my guns. Maybe I should do that later, but... What if I forget? Always thinking ahead...

I picked the throttle back up and pulled onto the taxi way and hooked a left. The wind was veritably howling so I almost ground looped it. You'd think I would have remembered how much wind there was right before the canopy closed. Oh well. I finished my taxi and took the runway just after the two 190's.

I was a little nervous. It had been Windy all week (Laura was fun too... but Windy this week) so I had plenty of practice in a crosswind. I moved the throttles up and started working the toe brakes and the rudder to keep myself in one piece. I'm happy to report it worked but it was close. The air frame doesn't take kindly to a good deal of cross wind coming from about 45 degrees on the plane. The right wing jumped up into the air and luckily dragged the left one with it. By the time I got myself straightened out the wind had blown me about 150M off the left of the runway. No matter now... I'll deal with that again if I get back.

Onwards and Upwards.

My orders are to climb to conning altitude and report that altitude. Should be around 8Km. While climbing I couldn't help but think about Windy and Laura... I hope they don't end up in the same shelter... Anyhoo...

I made it to 8600m and reported conning altitude, then dropped back down to about 8K even. I queued up the radio and asked the CO what he'd like me to take care of.

He's a young CO... After our last one was shot down in a series of unfortunate events that may or may not have involved enemy bullets the rest of us decided that Frost would make a great CO. AND... It may afford us one more opportunity at figuring out just who offed the last one. It was just after that new regiment of "secret" soldiers arrived at the air base. Maybe they're related, maybe not... but if our young CO doesn't do well I think we'll soon found out. So far he's doing well though.

The CO made it clear that I was to patrol the air space north of our air base so I moved in that direction. Our two 190 pilots were playing scout with a goal to get the enemy 51's slowed down a little and then the rest of us 109 pilots would jump on them. Of course... That's only if we can't get to some of those big juicy bombers first.

It was a boring patrol. Who would bring bombers in from the North... I mean really. Who would do that?

Anyhow... About 15 minutes into my patrol the 190 pilots made contact with an enemy. Just one? Hmm. I smell a rat.

Our young CO made the quick decision to re-position forces in a more direct front between our one contact and our airbase but still biased a bit to the north. I made haste getting to my new patrol area.

I didn't make it.

About half way there it really hit the fan. The 190 pilots made contact with the rest of the enemy flight group. We were just a bit under conning Alt and the enemy bombers were a good ways above us. I started climbing again. Good thing this K4 is so good at it. I easily made the altitude before our group closed with theirs. I pulled in behind our CO in the final moments of the merge and gave him some cover. We approached the enemy bomber formation at about 45 degrees off their direction of travel and started rolling in. I stayed about 500m under the CO as he was conning and I wanted to see if any of the Allied pilots would take the bait.

I was in luck.

A Mustang rolled in from the top, conning the whole way. I called the situation out to the officer and then I stayed low and waited. The Mustang rolled right in on the CO's tail just as he was getting into the trails left by the high altitude bomber group. I gave that report and started closing on the Mustang. The CO played the cards just right moving in and out of the trails confounding the shots of the Mustang pilot all the way to the bomber he had targeted. My wingman opened up on the right most bomber and then broke left to drop out of the formation. those bombers have some MEAN gunners. We knew from last week's attack that it was absolute folly to stay too close to the bombers for too long. The Mustang followed. The lead broke left hard and dove to gain a little speed but then leveled. An excellent awareness of the relative strengths of each plane. I put rounds into the same bomber just before breaking left myself in an effort to take out the Mustang. The Mustang realized that the 109 wasn't going to stick with the dive and pulled to the right to maintain cover on the bombers. I made one more sweep across the bomber formation and put rounds into two more before dropping out of the formation in pursuit of the American pilot.

Just as I was about clear of the bomber gunner's range I took a flak round. Maybe some machine gun fire also. I lost half of my left wing and became a spectacular fireball. I looked out over my left wing towards the ground... Patted my little girl on the dash and said good bye.

But then...

I thought wait I'm not dead yet...

I decided to ride her down.

At some point I had an epiphany.

I extended the flaps half way in an effort to get SOME lift out of the half of a left wing I had. It WORKED! With pretty much full right stick I was able to get the aircraft leveled off. I was already pretty close to our home base so I decided to see if I could make it.

I didn't.

But I got close. I set her down about 5 miles from base and gently enough that the air craft should be salvageable for the most part.

Damn it was windy on the walk home.

Looks like I might survive until next week. We'll see how the Windy Laura thing goes though... Maybe I won't.

All I can say is, "Damned Jerrys....."