PWCG P-38 Lightning Strikes Co-op Campaign

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 16/11/44

402nd FS - Attack armour near Oss

485th FS - Attack armour near Oss

410th BG - Bomb Vehicle and Rail targets near Doetinchem

 

Debrief:

370th FG

Capt FT has covered the major events in today's missions please see his debrief above.

The 402nd claimed 22 ground targets destroyed, the 485th 9.

Tomorrow is looking grim weather wise, however the Met boys assure me that the 19th is a sure fire go. [Event to be flown Sunday 10th January 2021]

 

 

 

 

410th BG

Please refer to Maj. Viscous' debriefing.

 

[DD_Fenrir]

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

None

 

Personnel:

None

 

Rosters:

[DD_Fenrir]

410th BG

Awards and Promotions:

None

 

Personnel:

None

 

Roster:

[DD_Fenrir]

Scoreboards:

[Squawk]

Squawks in for tomorrow.

 

[Painless]

Reporting for duty skipper.... 🤞🏻

[Reggie]

I will be there this evening lads, looking forward to it. 😃

[Crash]

David Crosby is in

 

[rox]

I'm in

 

[rox]

[Painless]

Good show 485th ! A good haul of ground targets and a special treat, some air to air victories !  Unfortunately we lost Squawk to tech issues early in the mission on the way to target.

Artie caught a packet of AAA up the chuff whilst attacking artillery and was shot down. His replacement should be with us soon in the shape of 2nd Lt Stella Artois, brother to the now famous Pilsner brewer, Brouwerij Artois from Leuven, Belgium. We hear that he can be anywhere between 4.8 and 5.2 % effective in the bar ?

Glad to be of assistance to the 410th when they needed help with some aggressive EA on their way home. Well done chaps.

[Squawk]

2.Lt. Alistair Starling encountered a recurring technical gremlin that required an immediate return to base. 

Claim:  1 Jeep: damaged/ probable.  "Last seen: smoking, and headed for the hangars at a high rate of speed."

(Signed out of motorpool by one "Aircraft Technician Fifth grade, Corporal Snafu", coincidentally, also assigned to the aircraft of one "2.Lt. Alistair Starling")

 

Following entry in the aircraft's Gripe Sheet: "Aircraft and systems intermittent, then suddenly unresponsive. Rapid onset. Symptom's include choppy but functional radio receiver, aircraft surging and difficulty maintaining formation." 

Aircraft Technician Corporal Snafu enlisted the help of Technical Sergeant Fubar to address the issue.

Aircraft returned to service with the following: "Aircraft function tested serviceable, unable to reproduce issue on ground."

Aircraft unofficially christened : Maybe Baby!?

 

2.Lt. Starling might make 'Major' one day simply due to longevity.  If he doesn't get transferred out for 'Morale issues' arising from too many aborted combat sorties.

[FoolTrottel]

402nd

After patrolling over Nettesheim area up to 14K ft, and nothing to be seen... headed NE, dropped bombs on train station at Zülpich.

Unfortunately, Red 2 got damaged and had to bale (he did make it over friendly territory)

White flight found some enemy a/c, chased them down North, and shot them down. (262's)

On the way home Red 4 noticed engine issues, and had to switch #2 off.

All remaining 6 a/c landed at home base.

No pilots lost, some ground kills, some a/c kills.

Good show!

[Friar]

@Squawk You forgot to add Report from Pilot: left engine making a humming noise, Engineer: left engine taught the words

[Jabo]

So after some googling, I've found what I believe to be the original emblems for the squadrons involved. Something for the skinners here perhaps?

402nd;

485th

410th

[DD_Fenrir]

Hi Nick.

Good work. The 402nd emblem is an early one from their days training on the P-47 in the USA (hence the 4 bladed prop); the 370th FG as a whole did their entire training on the Jug. Sufficed to say they got one hell of a surprise when they finally settled at Andover in the UK and found out they were getting P-38s!

In light of this conversion, the squadron emblem was redesigned to better reflect the squadrons association with the P-38. 

I have only one image of the amended 402nd badge - it was, as were all the 370th FG insignia, unofficial (not approved by USAAF high command) - and comes from a photo of a hand-painted patch on a period jacket:

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 19/11/44

402nd FS - High Air Patrol of Frontlines, Nettersheim Sector

485th FS - Low Air Patrol of Frontlines, Nettersheim Sector

410th BG - Reconnaisance of Frontlines, Nettersheim Sector

 

Debrief:

370th FG

402nd: Capt Efftee has covered the major events in today's missions; please see his debrief above.

The 402nd claimed 4 air victories and 10 ground targets destroyed.

485th: Maj. Payne-less has covered the major events in today's missions; please see his debrief above.

The 485th claimed 4 air victories and 8 ground targets destroyed.

 

We have a low pressure system moving thorough over the next couple of days so looks like we'll be grounded until the 22nd at least. [Event to be flown Tuesday 19th January 2021]

 

410th BG

Please refer to Maj. Viscous' debriefing.

 

[DD_Fenrir]

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

402nd:

1st Lieutenant Fenton Rea is awarded the Silver Star

 

2nd Lieutenant Patrick Last is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

 

485th:

Captain Alan Cloister is awarded the Purple Heart

 

Personnel:

2nd Lieutenant Stellar Artois is posted to the 485th Fighter Squadron.

 

Rosters:

 

 

 

410th BG

Awards and Promotions:

2nd Lieutenant Dave Haggis is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

 

Personnel:

No changes. 

 

Roster:

[DD_Fenrir]

370th FG Scoreboard, as of the morning of 17th November 1944:

 

410th BG Scoreboard as of the morning of 17th November 1944:

 

[Reggie]

Thank you kindly for the scoreboard - am I allowed to point out a minor query I have as I a little confused?

The post mission scores blackboard posted on 15th December show that was my 10th mission, and I had 3 confirmed kills.

The actual scoreboard posted on 15th December shows 9 missions and 3 kills. 

The latest scoreboard shows the same, this should be my 11th Mission and 4 confirmed kills. I am not sure if it is PWG or what but things don't seem to be correctly updating on my pilot, unless I am missing something 😲

Also - for those doubters at post ops briefing last week - I told you my kill was a long nose 190 - none of you believed me, probably 'cos I am foreign - don't worry, I am used to it 😁

[Friar]

Reggie, I think this may be to do with the fact that Fen missed one of your kills on the de brief. He tried to update the system manually and that led to it being broken. To fix it he had delete his manual changes. So you may be 1 kill down in the system but you know you did it, we know you did it, its your shout at the bar.....

[DD_Fenrir]

1. Mission Count: If you attend spawn, but disconnect, PWCG logs this as a mission credit to you, even if you left prior to takeoff. This will appear on the 'Roster' screenshot. However, when I manually edit the speadsheet I use to create the scoreboard I only credit the mission against you if you took off and engaged the enemy as I feel this is a more realistic reflection of how operational sorties were logged.

IIRC there was one mission where you either could not start or disconnected prior to takeoff  - PWCG has logged this a mission, I however have not.

2. Victory Count: where I'd muffed up the AAR process and forgot to log yours and FTs kills and thought I'd managed to correct and reward to you by being clever - turned out I wasn't as clever as I had thought. The edits didn't reconcile somewhere and prevented PWCG from continuing the career, and over the xmas break we had 2 missions that would not progress to the next day. I eventually traced it to the edits I had made to try and award your kill. Thus for the sake of the campaign I have had to redact that kill in PWCG. However, what this means is that your Scoreboard Victory Count should now always be +1 on your Roster Victory Count. Which I see it is not. This is my mistake and can only attribute to doing these rather late at night or several days after the event and forgetting to account for the unusual circumstance of your current tally, so my apologies, I will update the Scoreboard forthwith.

[Painless]

I have to take some of the blame for the long nose/ short nose FW ID issue Reggie. I remember getting hit head on by an FW which I convinced myself was an Anton not a Dora. I also thought it was the EA you kindly shot down shortly afterwards (excellent). Perhaps it was not the same EA or perhaps I miss IDed it myself as it was a brief but beautiful head on. As for the “ foreigner” thing you are right, we are very suspicious of those non British types, especially the Canadians ! 🤣🤣🤣😂

[Reggie]

4 hours ago, Painless said:

I have to take some of the blame for the long nose/ short nose FW ID issue Reggie. I remember getting hit head on by an FW which I convinced myself was an Anton not a Dora. I also thought it was the EA you kindly shot down shortly afterwards (excellent). Perhaps it was not the same EA or perhaps I miss IDed it myself as it was a brief but beautiful head on. As for the “ foreigner” thing you are right, we are very suspicious of those non British types, especially the Canadians ! 🤣🤣🤣😂

Right, in that case, tomorrow I shall try to put on my best posh pommie accent and see if I can gain your trust while being undercover as a bona fide Englishman.🤔

Actually, considering I am the first on my Dad's side of the family to be born outside a 5 mile radius of Skipton in North Yorkshire in 800 years, I feel pretty English 😁

[Reggie]

5 hours ago, DD_Fenrir said:

1. Mission Count: If you attend spawn, but disconnect, PWCG logs this as a mission credit to you, even if you left prior to takeoff. This will appear on the 'Roster' screenshot. However, when I manually edit the speadsheet I use to create the scoreboard I only credit the mission against you if you took off and engaged the enemy as I feel this is a more realistic reflection of how operational sorties were logged.

IIRC there was one mission where you either could not start or disconnected prior to takeoff  - PWCG has logged this a mission, I however have not.

2. Victory Count: where I'd muffed up the AAR process and forgot to log yours and FTs kills and thought I'd managed to correct and reward to you by being clever - turned out I wasn't as clever as I had thought. The edits didn't reconcile somewhere and prevented PWCG from continuing the career, and over the xmas break we had 2 missions that would not progress to the next day. I eventually traced it to the edits I had made to try and award your kill. Thus for the sake of the campaign I have had to redact that kill in PWCG. However, what this means is that your Scoreboard Victory Count should now always be +1 on your Roster Victory Count. Which I see it is not. This is my mistake and can only attribute to doing these rather late at night or several days after the event and forgetting to account for the unusual circumstance of your current tally, so my apologies, I will update the Scoreboard forthwith.

@DD_Fenrir- no need to apologise at all old chap, I fully understand now, thank you. I appreciate the work and time you put on to getting this done for us all, I know only too well how much time that takes. 👍 We all love you for it ❤️