PWCG P-38 Lightning Strikes Co-op Campaign

[wingflyr]

@ Painless       

 

[BluBear]

402nd Mission report - Patrol Florennes - Christmas Day '44

Bugger all to report from us, an eeriliy quiet day; perhaps Jerry were all huddled in their tents getting fat on duck, goose or rabbit with apple and sausage stuffing?
Sure was sad to see our old home desserted and smoking. After patrolling Florennes for a while we headed towards the 485 target area to see if anything could be hoovered up, having set off with a pair of 500s just in case. However, a brief encounter with what turned out to be friendlies spooked us enough to pickle the eggs before we could use them. Not that there was anything to hit in any case.
We knocked it off and headed home, with the only further excitment caused by Red 4 (gizm0) nearly running out of fuel. Jabo (Red 3) escorted him to nearby Bierset for a precautionary landing. I've ordered his groundcrew to relearn how to count to 100.

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 25/12/44

402nd FS - Fighter Sweep, Florennes sector

485th FS - Attack Bridge, Givet

193 Squadron - Attack Rail Facilities, Monchengladbach

 

Debrief:

USAAF 9th Tactical Air Force

370th FG

402nd FS:

Nothing to log.

 

485th FS:

 

 

 

RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force

No. 146 Wing

193 Squadron:

 

 

 

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

None.

 

Personnel:

No changes.

 

[Painless]

Deported for rooting skipper.

[BluBear]

Consider me available 

[Crash]

IN

[Bob]

Ermmm yep I’m in, what happening, little confused but that’s normal, oooh butterflies, chase butterflies

[Reggie]

I am in if everything works. I tested yesterday and Oculus was not working at all, with an error saying "An error occurred and the headset cannot track your movement." So I can't guarantee I can fly. Again I have made no changes at all since it all worked for last ops 😠😡😡

I am aiming to get on at 8 so I have a fair bit of time to try and get stuff working. I will update you on Teamspeak later as to progress. 

[Gizm0]

I won't be flying tonight, too much alcohol last night so it's going to be an early night for me. Good luck all.

[DD_Fenrir]

Map of Ophoven and the dispersal areas:

 

 

[FoolTrottel]

My game turned into a sideshow shortly after we engaged with enemy fighters.

FPS were fine but all the rest was so sluggish - including controlling the aircraft. Weird to see the controls in cockpit responded fast, but the a/c did not respond to it as normal.

Decided to fly home. Then found out I was hardly moving on the map, so decided to LEAVE SERVER.

Oh well ... strange!

 

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 26/12/44

402nd FS - Fighter Sweep, Schiedam sector

485th FS - Recon Frontline, Dordrecht-Tiel

193 Squadron - Infantry Support, Rotterdam

 

Debrief:

USAAF 9th Tactical Air Force

370th FG

402nd FS:

 

 

485th FS:

 

 

RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force

No. 146 Wing

193 Squadron:

 

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

None.

 

Personnel:

No changes.

 

 

 

No. 146 Wing

Awards and Promotions:

193 Squadron:

None.

 

Personnel:

No changes.

[BluBear]

Weird, definitely a D9 and a Ju88 for me. Don't recall seeing any short nose Focke's in our fight. 

[Sid]

A good tally....well done all

Odd that WO Sotton got a Ju88....he wasn't with us 😕

[wingflyr]

1 hour ago, BluBear said:

Weird, definitely a D9 and a Ju88 for me. Don't recall seeing any short nose Focke's in our fight. 

Your right Blubear did not see any A8s in that mix, definitely weird.

[Jabo]

There were some A series 190's IIRC, the one that attacked me was I think. There were definitely some fighters that got away as there were more than 6 when we engaged.

[Painless]

First of all congrats to 402nd for a magnificent show against the flying hun. That was difficult for me….just a moment….OK….. Ahem… 😉

Also well done the Tiffies by the looks of things !

485th were tasked with an armed reconnaissance along the front lines South East of Rotterdam, hence 2x1000Ib eggs were carried. Only had a three ship flight due to some bad guacamole being served in the canteen yesterday, (nasty business).

We heard the 402nd say they were entangled in a huge furry ball just North of Rotterdam when we were still some 30-40km south as we had been slightly delayed by a single FW190 which decided to annoy Tom, (really bad idea!). On arrival north of Rotterdam another call confirmed that we were no longer needed to help untangle the 402nd from the furry ball so we continued on with our assignment.
A high level recon run East confirmed where the lines were and more importantly where our potential targets were. Heading back west at angels 4-5 we set about any and all manor of ground target that we could find. With just the three of us it was easy to keep a keen eye on each other and call out any AAA threat in good time. Superb team work and great accuracy with both bomb and bullet, yielded an impressive total of 28 pieces of bosh machinery being rendered B.E.R (beyond economical repair).

Returned home without a single hole in our pride or in our aircraft.

Could not have asked for more, BLOODY GOOD SHOW !

[BluBear]

402nd Mission Report 26/12/44 - Fighter Sweep, Schiedam sector

Firstly, great work by all today, it appears both the Yanks and Limeys gave Jerry a bloody nose!

We flew a six-ship North West with a view to patrolling the frontline South of Rotterdam, carrying a pair of 500s just in case, as usual. Before we reached our first patrol point and still a good way back in friendly territory (approximately 14,000ft over Roosendaal), White 1 (Perf) spotted a gaggle of aircraft co-alt and another gaggle slightly higher, heading roughly South and closing fast. We climbed hard to intercept and gain advantage, pickled off our now redundant bombs in the process and got into fighting pairs. White flight engaged first, identifying a flight of approx. six Fw190 D9s and a similar number of Ju88s in a stacked formation that circled North. We prioritised the fighters with each of us either downing or damaging at least one fighter each in an exciting multi-level fur ball. Aside from a few scares caused by Jerry seemingly hell-bent on head-on attacks, all were dispatched without any significant damage to us.

Shortly afterwards, the Ju88s were spotted higher and to the North in a right-hand orbit, still stacked in a conveniently non-defensive formation. It was around this point that Red 2 (FT) reported total instrument failure and returned to base, I thank him for once again gluing to my wing during the melee and keeping me well covered. After a number of coordinated attacks, all bombers fell to earth and we proceeded to our original patrol waypoints. 

Aside from bumping into the 485th hammering Jerry ground targets in and around Gorinchem (well done boys), with nothing else happening we headed home for tea and medals.
Well done 402 - another sterling effort from all pilots with great teamwork, top gunnery rendering an impressive haul of downed aircraft and above all, no losses.

 

[Sid]

What ho chaps!

Well, I must say we had a spiffer with the Tiffies! 'Sidley's Sods' took off and made their way to the target area with some cover from those jolly good Spitfire types - they kept us company until they broke off to engage some thoroughly beastly Jerrie fighters that were escorting some even beastlier fighter bombers on a parallel heading to us. Safe from attack we carried on and found our target area a veritable feast of ground targets. Unconcerned about fighters we set to it. A few minutes in to gorging on the feast and having fun shooting off our wockets we noticed that the fighter bombers were giving our lads over the way a bit of unfriendly horses doofers so with rockets spent, we turned and engaged them. Three 110s went down looking like the mess Christmas pudding yesterday.....much too much brandy poured over it equalled lots of lovely flames. I think one or two of the enemy blighters managed to bail out of their fiery puddings as they crashed down....lovely show.

Low on ammunition, a few more runs were made on the ground targets. Then, time to leave the field and head home for Christmas leftovers....turkey and pickles....lovely. All aircraft returned to the airfield intact. Excellent.

Jolly Good Show 193 Sqn. And Christmas wishes to our Yank friends who, it seems, also had a wizard time!!  

[Painless]

Excellent accounts chaps, entertaining reading and a bit scary. Glad we are all on the same side because the thought of running into an enemy with that kind of spunk renders me all wibbly at the knees !

[Painless]

Reporting for booty…..

[BluBear]

Reporting in, so I am 

[T_O_A_D]

Unlikely for me my PT is scheduled for 2pm CST I put int a call to to go in early if someone cancels

[Crash]

I will be  there.

[Reggie]

I shall be there chaps - with my new secret weapon - providing it works 🤣