--Posting from -rhno-, 12 November 2001

We rolled from F1 at T+0 in hvy 110C's on a Spec Ops mission to hit rear area allied truck convoy at 8373

Launched with 8 Dweebs in 2 flights, making this our largest showing to date for the Dweebs.

Tone                                               Rhno
Adweeb (aka unfg)                           hero
stoopd                                            bujdod
mgyver                                            skeltor

Picked up a hdg of S and ingressed at 50 meters, no contacts enroute to target. Split the flights for a 2 axis (pardon the pun :) ) attack. I took a AAA hit to #2 engine oil just after bomb release, so started an early egress and shut down #2, but based on radio comms, all trucks were destroyed and no other dweebs took damage.

Rest of flight rejoined and rtb'ed, slowly passing me enroute. During RTB We sighted an allied merchant shipping convoy in the vicinity of 8.6.3 and gave a posit call on 103. Approaching 881, BujDoD sighted a single con (some confusion over ID..he thought it may have been me at first), ID'ed it as an F4F and shot it down...good work Buja! Sadly, in the midst of his victory maneuver his wingtip brushed the water and the next thing he knew he was in his raft.

Rest of flight continued rtb. As I was on short final, with flaps deployed and gear coming down, my screen froze up for a few seconds and the next thing I saw was a face full of dirt - - Boom! :( All others landed safely, and skeltor showed his eagerness to debrief by ejecting himself on the ground just as his plane came to a stop :)

Logged at that point, but believe Hero and stoopd went up for a second sortie as CAP for F1, per the plan.

Overall results

8 sorties flown
Spec Ops Mission Successful
1 kill (F4F) by BujDod
2.5 operational losses (bujdod, rhno and skeltor for the 0.5 :) )

Thanks to Vadr for the planning and to the janitors for their hard work <S>

Rhno

--Posting from bujdod, 12 November 2001

Mission: drop relief packages to Pakmanistan convoy in Libya.
http://www.dweebsofdeath.com/waragainstterror/

   **********************************************************
   starring 7 DoD  -- collect 'em all!
   plus a guest Skeltor ... and a surprise cameo from flyboy
   **********************************************************

Act 1: Good to Go
In the predawn darkness, ground teams loaded yellow food packets for a humanitarian convoy to be supplied by the DoD.

DoD in at low alt from F1 to convoy;
   plan survived contact with the runway with all 8 winging southward
   all stayed under 50 meters
   stayed at 75% throttle to conserve gas although
   additional fumes provided by telling of jokes and near jokes

As Libyan coast approached, forces split to left and right hooks:
tone's group (tone, mcgyvr, adweeb, stoopd) to east
rhno's group (rhno, hero, skeltor, bujdod) to west
As feet went dry, rhno's wing scattered to 3k
   rhno & hero W and N of bujdod, skeltor aft


Act 2: Oh, what a relief it is!
rhno/hero spotted the trucks idling and turned to 090; bujdod turned in echelon, overflying the target latitude.

rhno zoomed in first to bring urgently-needed food packets, but found that his groggy ground crew had loaded the yellow cluster bombs -- 500kg ones!  Mission for the greater good turned out to be one
for the crater good.

The trucks were none-too pleased about the turn of events, especially their axle-heaving, 180-degree rollover turns, so they rapidly signalled to our air units with flares to warn Rhno and to mark the correct drop zone.  rhno with #2(?) engine pinged; he exited heading 000 cutting one engine, so that he might speak harshly with his ground chief.

Spotting the signals, when bujdod was too far inland he hit them on bearing 000, perpendicular to road while tone's wing bore in from the east.

Unfortunately, all planes had the same configuration, leaving no vehicles to haul supplies.  This insight was
confirmed with multiple passes and 20mm morse code, so the remaining seven craft headed home.


Act 3: Homeward Bound
All 7 egress in long line; circled to join up while rhno feathered northward and played rudder games.  All stayed on low throttle to conserve gas for the long flight

On trip home, tone's wing stayed to east, rhno's wing formed on him but he tended to drift west.
Final formation looked more like:

   rhno/skeltor     bujdod/hero                tone's wing


tone spotted merchant fleet at 8.2/8.3 they went further E since many of the delivery vehicles were in a prickly mood.  Must be a union thing.

At grid 8.8 spotted 5 contacts headed spotted at 3k alt (est.) between Bujdod/hero and tone's wing.  No DoD engaged since low on gas and it was likely another gold relief mission; called out on gold channel
to identify them but no one spoke up ... who could they be?

Bujdod spotted a straggler to the contacts;  went to full throttle & WEP and into an immelmann.  Closer inspection confirmed it as purp martlet; closed to D1.8 and sent a packet burst broadcast, IP over lead.
Resumed on N on 50% throttle as tone warned on fuel on low throttle.

rhno called out possible cons on his 6
tone went to 300 to close up.
spotted bujdod low but out of icon range
asked for a turn to confirm.  A sloppy turn at low alt and low throttle slipped/stalled him to the drink.

Report of contacts on rhno's 6 turned to be false.

Remaining craft began landing safely and extracting promises from loading crew to read labels more carefully.  Skeltor rolled up the hill and taxied back down to the runway, however he stood on the <Return>
key in stepping out of his plane.

Rhno nursed back to field when a keyboard lockup spiraled him downward at the perimeter of the field.


Act 4: Roll those Credits!
1 F4F downed
2.5 operational losses
supplies dropped

bujdod

--Posting from -rhno-, 3 December 2001

Overall, an effective night, but a costly one for the Dweebs.

We were assigned an Ops mission, to sink at least 4 of the 5 ships in the allied merchant convoy operating in the eastern half of the Med (aka F28).

We rolled from F1 in hvy 110C's with 7 pilots:

-tone - CO and element lead
skltor
stoopd
-zath-
-rhno- - element lead
mgyver
bujdod

On takeoff, -tone- and bujdod had Mx problems and ground aborted. Rhno took the rest of the flight out while they quickly ran to the spares and were shortly airborne.

After a bit of a search, the convoy was spotted near 761 and the first element attacked while tone and bujdod held back in reserve. Stoopd and Mgyver had hits which sank 2 of the 5 ships, but -zath- was killed by AAA and skltor took heavy damage from AAA and developed a massive fuel leak. Tone and bujdod rolled in and had some near misses, but no ship kills. At this point all Dweebs were racing back to F1 to re-arm and reattack prior to the T+120 time limit. On rtb skltor ran out of fuel and ditched, and was picked up by our E-boats. Bujdod ran into heavy weather and disappeared (disco with NO damage).

Since time was short, we decided to go with our feared (by both our enemies and ourselves) "Stream of Dweebs" formation.

Bujdod lead the way, having flown through his strange weather formation, with Rhno, stoopd and Mgyver following him. Tone was the last to land, and being short on time he decided to go fishing, Swordfishing that is, and headed out after reports of a FAA strike group that was RTB.

The "Stream of Dweebs" sighted one allied convoy near 659, but that didn't seem to be our intended target, so we continued on and finally located the remnants of the convoy near 552. Rhno had a near miss, stoopd sank one ship, but lost an engine to AAA and bujdod was also killed by AAA on his first pass. Mgyver missed on his first attack, but with 2 ships still afloat and 1 bomb remaining, he bravely turned back for a re-attack. On his second pass he dropped his 500kg amidships, sinking one of the two remaining MS, giving us a total of 4 of 5, but sadly was also lost to AAA.

Since the T+120 time was closing in, Rhno and Stoopd headed for F10, only to be told it was closed, so we diverted again to F9. Rhno landed with 5 min to spare, but stoopd, with heavy damage and one engine out, could not make the time limit, so he attempted to ditch, and sadly was killed in the attempt.

Overall results:

7 pilots present
12 sorties flown
1 pilot ditched at sea and recovered
4 pilots lost to AAA
2 pilots safely landed
4 of 5 ships in convoy sunk
Ops Mission successful!!

-rhno-

--Posting from stoopd, 6 December 2001

So there I was, a wounded bird, limping back to F9 last Sunday S3 feeling good about having served with my Dweebren in yet another successful (albeit bloody) action. Having lost the port engine to ack from the transport convoy - apparently they did not appreciate the package I'd delivered them - I knew I had some work ahead of me.

A 110 is no joy to fly with one engine, this I knew. I corrected course many times, and, finding myself dangerously close to enemy radar dipped below 300ft to avoid detection. I also cut power to the damaged engine to avoid the dreaded "come'n get me" black smoke trail.

After limping along at just near stall speed sometimes bare inches above the briny sea I was sweating bullets. Could it be that I would not make it home? I had a hell of a time getting ANY alt, let alone speed to reach F9 before the clock ran out.

8 minutes into this hair raising flight - and 1 minute to cutoff - It suddenly dawned on me. I had cut power to dive below radar, THEN selected and turned off engine 1. My mistake which was to cost my life and that of my stalwart gunner was to never reselect engine 2. So, try as I might to push the throttle up (read: "damn, thisa here thang ain't doin nuthin when I's pushes it in a upwerd deerection") I was actually flying with one engine at about 25% power.

In trying to recifty the situation I couldn't find the right keyboard button, looked away from the screen, flopped over, and died a salty death.

I respectfully submit myself for a commendation for my Dweeb Move Extraordinaire.

stoopd

--Posting from -rhno-, 9 December 2001

Rough night for the Dweebs

Mission was to attack Royal Navy CV operating in the Eastern Med with SM79 (aka JU88) torpedo bombers...High Command wanted at least 2 torpedo hits to slow her down, more to sink her if able.

Rolled from F1 with 6 Dweebs and headed S to start our search. About 20 Min after takeoff we received a scouting report from U-134 via wireless, showing CV in vicinity of 7.6.3 and hdg E. Shortly thereafter we flew into some heavy weather (aka disco's) and one Dweeb was lost (skltor) and another (bujdod) had to RTB and roll again in a new plane.

After a brief search, we located the CV near the 862 location and started our attack. No enemy fighters were present, but AAA was very heavy. 4 Dweebs dropped and managed to survive the AAA. One torpedo hit (by Mgyver) was confirmed and 2 others were close aboard misses off the bow and stern. Bujdod then went in for his attack. Spotting FAA F4F's he pressed his attack home, with 2 near misses, and was killed by one of the pursuing F4F's (swit) on egress.

Tones flight of 4 landed, rearmed quickly and raced south at low alt over the med for a reattack. The CV was spotted around 8:40 in the southern portion of the 9.6 grid. As tone was leading us around for a better approach, the fleets AAA started to fire and 2-4 cons scrambled off the deck to meet us. With such a hot reception waiting, we turned in for an immediate attack, even though the setup was not that great. With ACK going off all around us, and gunners engaging the F4F's as they rolled in, we all managed to get at least 1 torpedo in the water, but all were lost to FAA fighters before we could get very far

As stoopd was bailing he thought he saw a column of water caused by one of our torpedos hitting, but he couldnt be sure which ship, if any, it hit.

Summary for now
6 Dweebs flew mission
1 lost to weather (disco) - skltor
5 lost to enemy fighers - tone, rhno, mgyver, stoopd, bujdod
1 torpedo hit on CV - mgyver
1 possible hit on CV

Mission results - TBD for now.

Was fun, even though we took a beating. Salute to SJW for leading us again, and salute to Swit and his Squad - nice job of capping the CV

Rhno