PWCG P-38 Lightning Strikes Co-op Campaign

[Crash]

me too

[BluBear]

Sure, why not!

[DD_Fenrir]

Scoreboards (as of the morning of the 17th December 1944):

370th FG:

 

410th BG:

 

 

Pilot Rosters:

370th FG:

402nd FS

 

485th FS:

 

410th BG:

[Reggie]

I will be online tonight for ops chaps in my new persona (and maybe my new skin) but as I have a 5am start tomorrow morning, I am hoping it won't be a super late night 😲

[Jabo]

I'm in

[Squawk]

in for today

[fruitbat]

Like Reggie i have to be up at 5am tomorrow, unlike Reggie, I'm having an early night,  so will be absent!!!!

[APHill]

I won't be able to make it today. Its a flower buying afternoon with the wife.

[Reggie]

Chaps, I hope you got my tally for last night. I claim 1 x German Spy disguised as a member of our Ground Crew. Stupid bugger walked across the taxiway as I was taxying past straight into my engine, resulting in engine damage. 🤬

I know this, because I have just pulled his wallet out of my engine intake - his name is apparently Hans Von Pratt 😁

To be honest, I had no idea the "human" models had any kind of collision/damage model and didn't even try to avoid him, thinking I would just pass through him. There was no big explosion, or jarring halt or anything of the sort, it looked like I did just pass through him, and then about 5 seconds later, I had warnings of engine damage on the side that hit him. Very frustrating as I was looking forward to last night 😰

Hope you all did well - but none of you got the notorious Nazi spy, Hans Von Pratt - only me - I am the spy catcher 😂

[Painless]

Bloody miffed that you killed him with your prop instead of the preferred HB pencil up the nose Reggie. I had to inflict my “wingman less” self on the 402nd for the rest of the mission. Not sure I did a very good job of improving inter squadron relations but I made it clear that it was all your fault mate 👍🏻
See you on the next one.

[Crash]

After messing up my run in, I went low level to attack some flak. they didnt like it and fired a lot of shells at me. I got a message that said "David Crosby...I am on fire, bailing out" I wasnt and I didnt. Flew back with a lot of holes in my plane

[Squawk]

Flying as Red4 in 485th.  

Uneventful flight to target, spotted the 410th in the distance as we entered the battle zone, Capt Rea spotted the targets and Red 3/4 went in with guns blazing to silence them.

Attacked 2 groups of targets holding in the woods like scared little rabbits hiding from the eagles.  Red 3/4 went in and had good drops on the first group, but poor results on the second.

 

Once all ordanance was expended we ventured to the south to drop the proverbial chamber pot on the local geman airbase.

Again Red 3/4 dove in, eager to trade some lead with the Jerries, while Red 1/2 played bait.  (Red 1 played the part particularly well and caught an 88 for his troubles)

Both Red 3/4 hammered our targets however.   Upon watching Red 3 pull up and away while I stayed in the dirt, I mused that the silly bugger is going to get plastered.  Coincedentally an almighty wallop introduced itself to my aircraft.

I immediately called hit and turned for home and started assesing the damage:

#2 engine hit, fuel leaks, and the wobblies.   Reducing throttle and adjusting rudder trim I climbed to 4,500 and took stock.   Both engines seemed to still be operable and she was still flying.  I elected to return to base.

Overflying the field Flaps were extended to combat and the roll nearly took her over.  Retracted flaps and decided on flaps up landing.  Gear came down with no trouble.

two decending orbits later I was lined up on final and touched down with an extra 20mph for luck.   

Everything held and all that was left was to have a beer and count the holes.

(140 by my count, and missing a flap) 

 

[BluBear]

402nd FS Combat Report - 17/12 - Attack armour near Duren

Both the 402 and 485 had the same target today, so it made sense to fly as a group. Unfortunately it didn't get off to a great start, the 402 had an aircraft go U/S due to control linkage failure before take-off reducing them to a trio and as documented by Lt Nailed, the 485 also lost an aircraft on the taxiway due to peculiar enemy clandestine activity.

After forming up over Florennes, Capt Rea who was leading the group seconded one of his lot to fly as our Red 4 in order to balance the squads. With an initial grimace, we accepted Capt Payne into our formation as he nestled up snugly to Lt Vanderweit's wing and proceeded to chew our ears off for the entire ingress to target, with tall tales and blue jokes aplenty. 

Armour was spotted in the fields to the west of Duren transiting towards the cover of a wooded area, flak was light to medium. 402 were ordered to cover high whilst the 485th made their attack runs. Frustratingly, the sizeable escort cover we were offered managed to spend most of the time putting their big fat P-47s uncomfortably in our way; how there wasn't a collision Lord only knows.

We subsequently made our own attack runs, but our 1000lb'ers scarcely made a dent today. With the group out of bombs, Zenith leader called us to investigate targets of opportunity at Kelz airfield SE of Duren. Trailing the 485th by about 5-10km we observed AAA coming up at them, but despite swift warning calls it became evident Capt Rea had been hit by a hot shot barrage and had to bug out West badly knocked about with a buggered P-38. Get well soon Capt!

Understandably, we decided to steer clear of Kelz and quickly found targets of opportunity to the South, consisting of artillery and AAA guns. Sadly, on the first strafing run, 2nd Lt James Hendley (AKA Scrounger) flying as Red 2 was observed to lawn-dart quite spectacularly. Whether it was dive-brake failure, a stuck throttle or just misjudgement we'll never know. A regrettable loss to the squadron nonetheless. We'll miss his sublime oil can drum solos with a pilfered pair of ground crew's favourite wrenches.

The rest of the mission went comparatively smoothly, with Red 3 and 4 working as a highly effective fighting pair as I flew as spotter and decoy, picking off targets along the way. A respectable haul of enemy hardware destroyed and an effective display of teamwork. Well done gents!

That Capt Payne actually turned out to be alright in the end, all things considered.
 

[wingflyr]

2nd Lt Matt Mason reporting for duty Sir

[DD_Fenrir]

Mission Date 17/12/44

402nd FS - Attack Armour Column, Duren

485th FS - Attack Armour Column, Duren

410th BG - Rail Interdiction, Zulpich

 

 

Debrief:

370th FG

402nd FS:

 

 

485th FS: 

 

410th BG

 

370th FG

Awards and Promotions:

2nd Lieutenant Thomas Crown is awarded the Bronze Star.

 

2nd Lieutenant Jean Artage is awarded the Bronze Star.

 

 

Personnel:

2nd Lieutenant Matt Mason is posted to the 402nd FS.

 

410th BG

Awards and Promotions:

Major E. Shoo is awarded the Silver Star.

 

Personnel:

No changes.

[DD_Fenrir]

Scoreboards (as of the morning of the 18th December 1944):

370th FG:

 

410th BG:

 

 

Pilot Rosters:

370th FG:

402nd FS

 

485th FS:

 

410th BG:

[Painless]

Reporting for duty even though it’s our 29th wedding anniversary today ! Obviously married a good one 👍🏻🤗💕

 

[Reggie]

Reporting for duty chaps, and congratulations @Painless 👍

[BluBear]

I'll be there 

[Crash]

me too

[APHill]

Cant be there today.

[Funflak]

I have been grounded today and will not be reporting for duty😫. I forgot I have to attend a wedding today. Sorry mate

[wingflyr]

Reporting in Sir

[Crash]

David Crosby is no more. John Mayer wants to fly again.

[Sid]

It will be a shame to see Crash out of the A20 but it is something we have talked about at length.

Last night's mission for the 410th was costly and a bit frustrating. There were a couple of game issues that are no fault of anyone's...we encountered a time of stuttering, rubber banding and lag that lasted a good 5 mins whilst lining up for the bomb run that prevented a good line up as we were constantly adjusting to compensate. This added to our main level bombing problem which was that no rail target icons were visible until too late - we were bombing from 9000ft so not usually a problem. After overflying the railway station vehicle targets then came into view off the bomb run so the decision was made to attack these from a lower height. Unfortunately, having turned and dropped down the rapid fire flak opened up on us and proceeded to cause a lot of damage. We were both severely damaged and were unable to make it back, Crash was killed whilst looking for a landing spot and I crash landed in enemy territory.

Probably a time to rethink A20 ops as no low level mission would be successful with so few aircraft, one individual one flying on it's own ie. mine, would be too vulnerable. I would have to be medium level unless accompanied by flak distractors in order to go low, something that the mission planner can't allocate I believe.