Finnish some serious flaws, no Tacview & Invisible planes, so debriefing can
have some major problems.
Witch
On 8 Apr 2021, at 6:24 pm, Joe Stronach (Redacted sender "jstronach" for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I didn't film it, so tbh I'm not clear on the sequence of events once we
started to egress.
I know Bo was hit, by either the 109 or 190 you mention Bart and went down.
Pod and I chased them about for a bit but they were too fast for us and we
couldn't get in guns range. We (I thought) successfully disengaged and formed
up on the deck, running South East.
Sighting low cons ahead, I figured we were coming up on the enemy airfield to
the south east of the target. Very concious of fuel state, I turned south but
made an error by not immediately reforming line abreast, content to run in
echelon for a short time.
At which point the bandit who had been following us all along opened up and
damaged Pod. Two more bad guys showed up and we were never able to shift from
a defensive posture. Ultimately we both went down, which was annoying. We
were very deep inside enemy territory with marginal fuel and few options.
La5FNs would undoubtedly have given us a better chance of survival, but I'll
never complain about flying the Spit IX.
Can I just say I hate strafing flak in this game? Had Cina not been shot
down, I think we would probably have made it.
Roke
Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/ghei36>
From: 56raf_firebirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<56raf_firebirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Bart
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 8, 2021 12:30:12 PM
To: 56raf_firebirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <56raf_firebirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [56raf_firebirds] Last night 07/04
It was good to fly with you guys last night :).
After our later start and climb out to catch up, which we finally did.
We chose to position ourselves to the north of the target you were hitting as
that was where the nearest enemy threat was most likely to appear from. By
the positioning of the enemy airfields, which turned out to be a good
assumption;).
Having lost Cina to ack suppression(not always sure that’s a good idea, but
that’s a whole different discussion LOL). Bo had know caught you up, so there
were still 3 close support fighters, which I guess from comms Roke was now
leading.
After Phoenix stopped playing musical chairs;), the bomb attack was quite
successful, good work :). I do cringe at time over target, as that benefits
the enemy, but I do understand why.
Now we all start our homeward run on 135 degrees, bombers climbed to cloud
altitude, close escort to the rear slightly north of the bombers and we were
at 22k feet to the rear north of the bigger formation.
Witch spotted contrail to our north, to which we called out that was 320
degrees from the main formation and that we would engage.
Lucky us(!) four contrails now, not to worry in that plane set the old MkIX
is in its element at this altitude:). A couple of 109s (G6) and two 190’s
(A3). They come piecemeal we get a 109 to dive away and Witch gets good hits
on another(he bails), the two A3’s lose cohesion and we decided to break
contact. Knowing our job is done keeping the enemy off the main formation
long enough for it to get away from the target area. Also fuel is a factor,
the two A3’s still try to follow so we stay on a east track way to the north
of the main formation, the A3’s gave up the chase.
We then heard the close escort is in a bit of bother, we tried to see if we
can see the engagement to help assist, but alas not, and we lose all the
close escort:(.
Now not having tacview which is stupid for a server, I looked at the film
track this morning and while I had the close escort and bombers in film track
view range. I saw the close escort in vic formation and had positioned
themselves correctly to the rear north of the bombers as that was the
direction we were engaged at. The Vic formation looked good and I lost sight
in the track as you were just above cloud turning towards the bombers in a
slight direction change.
Now at that point(end of my film range) you had a G4 1.2km below cloud
following the fighters, he was behind the rear left fighter(can not see who
that was) of the formation. There was also an A8 600m to the 4 o’clock of the
G4, these were both closing on the fighter formation for the minute I had
them on film. So these guys were extra to the guys we were fighting.
Now you will have to take up the story from there, as all I can go on was the
comms, from which I understand the enemy that attacked was not spotted?
What did you take from the sortie fighters and bombers?
How did the second sortie go?
Colin
