PWCG P-38 Lightning Strikes Co-op Campaign

[Friar]

Just to confirm I will be unavailable for Sunday as on R&R

[Painless]

Rgr that Col, have fun mate !

[DD_Fenrir]

AP is also on his 'olidayze Mick so take note.

 

[DD_Fenrir]

Also another skin to download! I've made some revisions and additions to my personal P-38 skin that I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn't had the time to get done till now. Please find attached.

 

P38J25_402nd_Fen.dds

[Jabo]

Is it on chkskins Fen?

 

[DD_Fenrir]

Negative Nick.

[Painless]

Noted Tom. Reporting for duty. 

[Crash]

I will be there

[Reggie]

Been feeling pretty ill this weekend chaps, but have missed you all, so I am planning to be there 

[FoolTrottel]

402nd back home... nearly complete ...

[DD_Fenrir]

Well done gentlemen, especially considering the scope for these missions seemed limited at the briefing.

402nd were slated to run a patrol looking for air to air action in the vicinity of Malmedy-Aachen and the 485th a reconnaissance in the vicinity of Malmedy. The area has come under heavy air and ground attack during the last few days and much there destroyed, so we were not expecting much action on the ground. Furthermore, enemy fighter activity has been meagre of late, so we were expecting similar in the air...

However, the 402nd, despite having an ostensibly air-oriented mission chose to pack some 500lb bombs "just in case", knowing that these could be jettisoned should the Luftwaffe venture out; this act of foresight by Lt. Arjen Efftee stood them in good stead. After running their air patrol at Angels 15 and seeing no sign of enemy air activity, the squadron repeated the route at Angels 10 picking up a number of ground targets in and around Eupen - already under spirited attack by the 485th! Not wanting to clutter the area with P-38s Lt. Efftee elected to continue on and leave the 485th their spoils. However as they reached the outskirts of Aachen the 402nd received a call from the 485th Leader Maj Payne-Less to assist in suppressing or distracting some of the AAA. As the 402nd wheeled back to the Southwest a one in a million flak burst detonated under the wing of White Lead 2nd Lt. Casey Bakers aircraft, immediately blowing off the aileron (it almost taking out his wingman, who had dropped into trail for the turn) and destroying his ability to roll his aircraft. Worse was to come. A few second later the wing failed ~3 feet outboard of the right engine nacelle. In a stunning piece of airmanship, 2nd Lt. Baker not only managed to maintain control of his fatally crippled ship but even was able to coax it back over the front lines using just rudder and asymmetric power. Once there, he parachuted to safety. 

Meanwhile the rest of the squadron set to over Eupen, destroying trains and AAA for the second mission running, and after running out of targets moved up to Aachen where further elements of the German rail system came under attack, with several AAA guns also succumbing to the 402nds firepower.

With Red Leader calling for a withdrawal, White Two (2nd Lt. Fenton Rea) spotted further enemy ground units and AAA at the front lines near Plombières; he attacked, destroying a AAA gun and called the rest of the squadron in to it's position. They duly arrived and proceeded to eliminate every weapon in the vicinity. With this attack successful, Lt. Efftee called for an RV over Vervrier and thence a return to base. All in they counted for 19 ground targets destroyed. Good work 402nd!

Turns out the 485th didn't need much help with the AAA as they had their own personal Flak exterminator in the air to keep the Kraut gunners square heads down! Capt. David Prang set about in merciless fashion eventually accounting for 11 ground targets in the form of 7 AAA guns (!) and 4 Artillery pieces! On his own he accounted for half of his entire squadrons score for that mission, with Lt. Artiesbi getting a remarkable 6 and Maj. Payne-Less 5, for a total of 22 ground targets destroyed. Stellar work gents, Capt. Prang in particular.

However, yet again the cost came at an exorbitantly high price - Capt. Hawker Siddley, trusted and admired flight commander and doyen of the 485th was tragically killed when his aircraft struck the ground strafing near Eupen. His loss will be felt most keenly, not least by his faithful wingman 2nd Lt. Colin Fryer, who by chance had a 24 hour pass this day, and was not in his traditional spot covering his lead.

On that sombre note, we have a couple of days to take stock as Met reports some pretty lousy weather headed in. We're due for a break on the 27th October [to be flown on Tuesday September 29 2020], so take the opportunity to get some rest. 

Here's the stats:

 

 

 

[Reggie]

Great show chaps - you did extremely well. 

Apologies for my controls issues, although I didnt join the pre op dogfight, I had tested them earlier offline and they were fine. In the mission everything worked fine except the joystick - which you kind of need...I tried everything to get it all working again to no avail, once the game kicked me to desktop, as soon as I restarted it everything worked again fine.

Very odd 😞

[DD_Fenrir]

Feel for you Reggie, I'm sorry that we couldn't push a restart for you but we've had so many problems with restarting  missions in the past to cater to those who've had issues that we've had to be a little ruthless about it. In one example, we had nearly 50 minutes of continuous restarts, each restart suffering at least one participant with a drop-out or control issue. It got so late without being able to start a mission without someone having a problem that we had to knock-it off for the night and postpone till the next scheduled evening, which as you can imagine left everyone slightly pissed off.

Hope you (a) have better luck next time and (b) feel better soon old bean.

[Painless]

Excellent show 485th ! Not sure about you chaps but I thought it was an honour to be part of the support act for superstar Capt (DD) “Deadly Dave” Prang !  No prizes for guessing who will be buying the first round of drinks at the up coming “triple M“ (Mincing Mud Movers) ball.

Now the sad bit.... we lament the loss of Capt Hawker Siddley and will be having a collection for his family at the triple M, ~S~ Sir , nuff said .

We are expecting one 2nd Lt Sidney Gittins as a replacement who has a reputation for settling any disputes in the ring. Pretty sure that means he is a keen boxer so beware gentlemen !

Bad luck on the joystick malfunction Lt Reginald, it can happen as you get older sir. Looking for a good score from you next time !

[Friar]

How strange....I had a foreboding that without me by his side something would happen to my wing leader.

 

[Sid]

Morning chaps. Please download Kimo's 485 skin attached below. Ta

Also in the vault and Checkskins.

485 Kimo.dds

[Sid]

Morning. Please download a revised 485 skin for Pooka.

Also in the vault and checkskins.

485 Pooka.dds

[Friar]

Friar reporting back from R&R and ready for duty Sir.

[BluBear]

Hey all, please download my updated personal skin to replace the one I lost last mission 

402nd__E6_B_BluBear.dds

[FoolTrottel]

7 minutes ago, BluBear said:

Hey all, please download my updated personal skin to replace the one I lost last mission 

402nd__E6_B_BluBear.dds 16 MB · 0 downloads

And if you delete the one in your local folder, and then run ChkSkins, you will get the new one.

[Painless]

Reporting for duty Skipper ....

[Crash]

Your wingman is going to be there Major

[Reggie]

Guys I am very sorry, but I will not be flying tonight, although on Sunday I said I would, I have got progressively sicker over the last 2 days. It is not Covid thank goodness, but I am under instructions from "she who must be obeyed" to stay in bed as I am off work too at the moment. 

Wish I was with you, 😞 best of luck for the op 👍

[DD_Fenrir]

Bad luck Reggie, hope you feel better soon chum.

[delta7]

Apologies for my lack of forethought regarding white flight. Family shift and a last minute balls-up caught me out over the last two days and I tried to cover myself by trying something I thought was clever but wasn't.  I'm obviously not suited for this so Painless can nominate new white leader and I'm happy to fly any other nominated role