PWCG P-38 Lightning Strikes Co-op Campaign

[delta7]

I won't make tomorrow as I have family commitments, good luck all

 

[Squawk]

Squawks in for tomorrow.  

[Painless]

Reporting for duty skipper.

[Reggie]

Reporting for duty.

[rox]

Sadly won't make it today.

[BluBear]

I'll be there/here.

[Crash]

I will be there

[Pooka]

I'll be ready today.  "Painless"  Not being a smart azz, and I don't think I'm wrong.  An officer called skipper in the US Navy is a Colonel, in the Marine Corps he/she is a Captain.

US Army could be different, I'm not sure.  So Major Fen would not be called a skipper  I could be wrong, I've only been wrong once before when I thought I was wrong.

[Painless]

That one is beyond my pay grade Pook 😳, over to you Tom ! ..........

[Squawk]

from Wikipedia for what its worth.

 

Reflecting its nautical heritage, the term "captain" is used as a military title by more junior officers who command a commissioned vessel of the Navy, Coast Guard, or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship of patrol boat size or greater. Officers below O-6 who command aviation squadrons (typically O-5 commanders) usually use the less formal title "skipper".

 

0-5 being Lt. Colonel and below.

[Pooka]

That would cover Major Fen, I'm wrong for the second time.

[FoolTrottel]

Partial debrief for 402nd:

Lost Red3 (Jabo) immediately after t/o when he raised the gears, structural failure of the P38, looked like main spar failed. He was wounded, hope he will be okay.

Encountered 6 FW190-A8 over friendly territory, close to the front.

We downed them all. Unfortunately, lost White3 (Perf) due to blackout.

I collided with one of the 190's, and I lost left hand engine, returned home and landed there.

White1 took lead of the group, and continue to the mission objective(s). White1 will report on that bit, I assume.

[Squawk]

Corporal Snafu and Technical Sergeant Fubar seem to have tamed the Gremlins in 'Maybe, Baby?!' as the aircraft performed flawlessly.

 

White Flight formed high astern of Red flight enroute to target, but slowly overtook.   

Crossing the line, bandits were spotted swinging into our rear section and Red flight engaged.   White continued on to target. 

I followed Capt. Cloister on his run on target. White 2 had a go and then I was cleared for a bomb strike myself, destroying the remaining locomotive.   

 

We searched the town for more targets, but finding none, before heading off to hunt targets of opportunity.   

Catching up with Red flight we found more targets near the front line and managed to destroy some Howitzers and AA.  Unfortunately we lost White 2 in the process. 

With ordinance depleted, White flight followed Red flight and headed for home.   

The 402nd arrived over the airfield at the same time as the 485 and the pattern was pleasantly full of returning lightnings.

[Perfesser]

Footage of at least 2 stupid mistakes strung together to result in the end of a pilot. Overconfidence and target fixation.

This is also the first time I had experienced the new blackout model and didn't learn from the first one. Then I insisted on staying behind the bad guy and shooting when I knew I was pushing too hard.

New recruit Karl Spartan reporting.

 

https://youtu.be/2Stq6kb3qOI

[fruitbat]

2 hours ago, Perfesser said:

Footage of at least 2 stupid mistakes strung together to result in the end of a pilot. Overconfidence and target fixation.

This is also the first time I had experienced the new blackout model and didn't learn from the first one. Then I insisted on staying behind the bad guy and shooting when I knew I was pushing too hard.

New recruit Karl Spartan reporting.

 

https://youtu.be/2Stq6kb3qOI

I was very very close to the same thing happening to me yesterday too.

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 22/11/44

402nd FS - Interception Patrol, Köln

485th FS - Attack Rail Targets in or around Mönchengladbach

410th BG - Bomb Infantry Positions near Julich

 

Debrief:

370th FG

402nd: Capt FT has covered the major events of the first half of today's mission in his debrief above. Lt. Fenton Rea, continues.

White 1, Lt. Fenton Rea, regrouped what remained of the squadron (4 aircraft) and continued to their assigned patrol. After several orbits no airborne enemy activity was detected but aircraft were spotted on the ground at Köln-Ostheim airfield and Rea set up an attack out of the sun, from the East. Splitting the two sections on a North South basis, the AAA was quickly silenced and the sections set about attacking single-engined e/a (ID'd as Fw 190A types) across the field. As fuel and ammo ran low, Rea reformed the flight South of Cologne and then set course for home.

The 402nd are claiming 6 e/a destroyed in the air and 14 ground targets destroyed total, consisting of 10 parked aircraft and 4 AAA guns. These ground claims are being corroborated.*

 

485th:

Finding slim pickings at their target, the 485th nonetheless managed to wipeout what little was there before moving on to a wider hunt in the surrounding area, successfully so as they were able to net an impressive 23  ground kills, a combination of artillery and AAA guns falling to their guns and bombs. Not only that but they found some e/a to vent their frustration on with 2 kills going to 2nd Lt. Stellar Artois in his first action.

 

 

 

410th BG

It is with profound sadness that we have to announce the passing of Major Sid Viscous. He and 2nd Lt. Crosby were on their mission when they and their escort of Spitfires were attacked and overwhelmed by a significant number of enemy aircraft just after they attacked their target.

Whilst both pilots successfully crash landed their aircraft, reports indicate that Major Viscous's machine landed just the wrong side of the front-lines and it appears that he and several of his crew were shot attempting to reach the safety of friendly territory. There is some small measure of recompense in 2nd Lt. Crosby and his crew however managing clear the front prior to setting their aircraft and all are safe. 2nd Lt. Crosby's rear gunner also managed to down one of the Hun fighters in reply.

 

 

Tomorrow is looking good weather wise, according to the Met boys, so go easy on the celebrations/commiserations tonight boys; you'll need clear heads for the morning. [Event to be flown Sunday 24th January 2021]

 

 

[DD_Fenrir]

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

None.

Personnel:

2nd Lieutenant Karl Spartan is posted to the 402nd Fighter Squadron.

A new pilot has been posted to the 485th Fighter Squadron - we await confirmation of his identity.

 

Rosters:

 

 

410th BG

Awards and Promotions:

2nd Lieutenant David Crosby has been awarded the Bronze Star.

 

Personnel:

A new pilot has been posted to the 410th Bomb Group - we await confirmation of his identity.

Roster:

 

[Sid]

😐 Shot...? Is that what the game said or is it a bit of poetic licence...? Not that it matters but I landed safely in a field however I saw the crew's chutes collapsing as they dropped into trees.

[Jabo]

Seems Bert might have had a lucky escape there on Tuesday evening after experiencing a structural failure of the left wing seconds after take-off which resulted in the aircraft rolling inverted before hitting the ground very hard still upside-down and spreading itself over a wide area. Worth noting that I accidentally clipped a building with the wingtip while taxiing but decided to proceed with the take-off as there was no visible damage - this was obviously a major error of judgement with nearly fatal quinsequonces. If anyone else suffers a similar mishap, I would recommend scrubbing that sortie! Good job we had no bombs on board, as there was no time to jettison them once the accident started.

After consulting a bottle of scotch the MO has cleared me to fly on Sunday...

[DD_Fenrir]

1 hour ago, Sid said:

😐 Shot...? Is that what the game said or is it a bit of poetic licence...? Not that it matters but I landed safely in a field however I saw the crew's chutes collapsing as they dropped into trees.

 

Hi Sid, 

Poetic license on my part to try and explain why PWCG had deemed you KIA; I was as surprised as you to be honest. I suspect that perhaps there's a dice roll when coming down behind enemy lines as to whether you're captured, manage to evade back to friendly lines or are killed, and in this case you got unlucky.

Given you were so close to friendly territory it seemed the best excuse to your demise was the shot whilst evading story...

[DD_Fenrir]

1 hour ago, Jabo said:

After consulting a bottle of scotch the MO has cleared me to fly on Sunday...

Impressive medical work considering the initial prognosis required 69 days recovery...!

[BluBear]

1 hour ago, Jabo said:

Seems Bert might have had a lucky escape there on Tuesday evening after experiencing a structural failure of the left wing seconds after take-off which resulted in the aircraft rolling inverted before hitting the ground very hard still upside-down and spreading itself over a wide area. Worth noting that I accidentally clipped a building with the wingtip while taxiing but decided to proceed with the take-off as there was no visible damage - this was obviously a major error of judgement with nearly fatal quinsequonces. If anyone else suffers a similar mishap, I would recommend scrubbing that sortie! Good job we had no bombs on board, as there was no time to jettison them once the accident started.

After consulting a bottle of scotch the MO has cleared me to fly on Sunday...

Having watched the track back, it is indeed a spectacular crash sir! You are one lucky sausage Berty.

It also illustrates the extent and complexity of the damage modelling in GBS, quite fascinating really. I'll try and do a little vid of it at some point.

[DD_Fenrir]

Announcement:

For reasons best known to itself, PWCG has awarded us NONE of the aircraft that the 402nd strafed on the airfield East of Cologne this past mission. The AAA guns, yes, the static planes, no, despite these being logged as valid targets in previous missions.

I was credited with 5 in the in game score table - as witnessed by Painless - and I know BluBear got 2, Fruitbat 2 and Wingflyr 1. We have a .trk file to prove this, currently in the hands of BluBear should anyone wish to see it.

Whilst they will not appear within the PWCG Squadron Logs I will be accounting for them in the tally board.

I'm announcing this to all for fair play reasoning and transparency but I'll be damned if I'm letting PWCG get away with this one cos it was a bloody good strafe and we deserve the credit for it, especially as considering past missions of a similar vein, all static a/c were logged as valid targets and we were not to know that our efforts were going unrecorded by PWCG.

I will be chasing Pat Wilson on why this happened, but there is already ongoing work on a Beta version of PWCG that specifically covers the logging of certain ground target types that currently are not logged and this might fix this issue.

 

[Pooka]

Fen,  Please replace my deceased pilot with 2nd Lt. Harrison Hailey.  Thank you sir.

[Painless]

De brief for 485th was pretty much covered by Squawk above. Dam shame we lost Pooka to enemy ground action but he will rise again from from the ashes and shrubs and trees again !

I can gladly confirm the 8 kills registered to you in the game Tom, (3 air, 5 parked aircraft). I always check your score as it is invariably annoying!  Despite you being younger, better educated, better looking, taller and more skilled, I force myself to remember that there is a war on when it comes to being “British” about things 😜

Good show 485th !