Leaderboard

1st December 1944 - 402nd Mission debrief Upon ingress to the patrol area at angels 12, Red 3 spotted four bandits below us still within the frontline, N/W of Nettersheim. Red flight immediately dropped down to trail the E/A, now confirmed as 262s, with White flight providing top cover. Whilst the four 262s were duly dispatched by Red flight, White flight spotted and engaged a formation of six Ju 88s higher and to the North of Nettersheim. Red flight re-grouped with White flight who had already got plenty stuck in to jerry and assisted in bringing down all E/A. With the squadron reformed, we headed North to continue our patrol of the front-line, checking in with Snowdrop along the way. On the return leg heading 160', bogies were spotted to the East near the 410th target area of Zülpich, although upon closer inspection these turned out to be escort P-38s so we headed back to the Southern patrol point. Eagle-eyed Red 3 once again spotted a pair of low flying 262s N/E of Nettersheim that were duly taken care of by Red flight. With the squadron now brought down low, we looked for ground targets of opportunity to attack (Red 3 and 4 still had their bombs). After a number of successful attacks on Howitzers and AAA, with ammo running low, we headed 250' to recover at Florennes. Well flown gents, good teamwork all round and a decent tally of E/A destroyed, crucially to no losses on our side.

Officially. Unofficially, rumor has it that he might have wanted to shoot two AA guns in a row without a proper approach to the second gun, but rather just doing a quick 180 turn towards it right after shooting at the first gun, with three bombs on board, bleeding all of his speed and being unable to pull out of the dive, therefore shallowly smacking against the ground, bending both props, climbing back up too steeply with the remaining energy, getting super slow and falling out of the sky for a few hundred meters almost vertically into the ground. That moment when "damn I'm behind enemy lines" turns into "damn that's the least of my problems" in five seconds 😕

Well, my precious staying alive streak ended last mission, due to a dumb lazy mistake of course. So, say hello to our new recruit, [what ever rank] Lucas Rockwell! I'd prefer to keep the W skin.

Well done 485th, in the face of ridiculous amounts of AAA we managed to bag a very respectable haul of ground targets in Koln. Unfortunately we lost 1st Lt Luke Rox due to both engines being hit by AAA. His replacement will be with us forthwith. Sadly we also lost Funflak to high speed topsoil contamination. Congratulations to Capt Fenton Rea for a huge individual haul of 10+ AAA batteries, enough to keep any “intruder” running for some time. No enemy aircraft spotted which was just as well given the amount of lead in the air over the target. I would like to work on improving our coordination when attacking such a well defended target in an effort to avoid further losses chaps. A more thorough briefing and attack plan would help, coupled with better situational comms between pairs. This is something all of us need to work on, not least of all myself. A big thank you to our P51 escort for taking at least some of the AAA heat from us.

I am thinking a German advance from East to West towards Bastogne?

https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-ii-maps-military-situation-maps-from-1944-to-1945/articles-and-essays/the-battle-of-the-bulge/interactive-timeline/ I have stuck this up as it gives a good way of viewing the progress (or not!) of the campaign around the Ardennes

Checked the paint pots and they are ok to go.....

Been thinking about this and have done a little bit of googling / research and... Ok, "Battle of The Bulge" it is...! We will play it from the German side. But I am going to need some help / advice if we are to do this properly (or as properly as possible), or at least give the actual events a slight nod. @Parts, @Perfesser Would you two be willing to set up a call with me so we can discuss the scenario and what is achievable on the map with the units we have available? @Sid - You may need to dust off your skinning powder again if that is ok?

To start this thread, one from last night 06/03 as we start our attack on Nijmegen...