Dweebs of Death

A hard frame for us.

We rolled at T+5 from F1 with 5 Mossie IV's (tone, zath, rhno, stoopd, flyboy) for Regensburg targets. We climbed out and flew in at alt. After passing F13 and getting some way further, we were hopped by 109s and lost zath and stoopd. We were at 28.5K or so at the time and the Mossie did not really want to climb much more.

Tone jettisoned ord and RTBed... flyboy tried a little harder but eventually RTBed. rhno flew on to target area, but as 157th reported the target destroyed, he was killed suddenly at 32K while turning to RTB.

60% losses without a bomb being dropped. :(

Tone and flyboy rolled F4 in P38J's to try to recept RTBing buffs. flyboy discoed without damage and tone got to see some bombers.

5 pilots, 7 sorties, 3 losses.

0 bombs dropped, 0 shots fired, an unreported number of knickers sotted.

Rhno will certainly post some thoughts on the action. We were unsure whether we were actually welcome to roll P51 escorts as rube invited us to do, and perhaps this would have helped us...but in my naivete going without escort was actually seeming ok to my weak noggin. We were just not high enough...or low enough?

-tone-

not high enough, in more ways than one :)

for some reason was really upset by this frame.

Should have noticed that orders were a bit silly to start. As flyboy pointed out, tgt was too small to send more than one squad against...even with 50% attrition, either squad could have killed target. No need to send us both. Mad at myself for not picking up on this and speaking up earlier.

Second, with Mossies, alt and speed are life. We should NEVER cross the coast below 30K. Even if other squad was going to beat us to tgt. Again, should have spoken up. In retrospect, would have been better to climb to alt over england, then accel as we headed for the coast. If 157th missed/died, we could have cleaned up. If they hit tgt, we could all have rtb'ed and done egress cap for the bombers in P-38's.

Third, watch speed in turns. Was killed by an FW after I aborted and tried to RTb. Very suprised, after the fact, to see an FW up at 32K. Didn't see him before I started my turn, so not sure where he came from {note to hotsht, you owe me one pair of undies :) }. Main point is that I did a hard turn and bleed off too much energy, rolled out of turn at about 165 IAS, and next thing I know, tracers flying by my canopy. Should have done a series of small check turns and never let my speed get below 190 IAS. 30 mph IAS at that alt = almost 70 mph TAS, which is why the FW caught me.

All in all, not very good start for the S3.
Hopefully, next frame will be a bit better

-Rhno-

We had to scrap our sweep mission owning to insufficient numbers.
We flew 5 mossie fighterbombers to destroy Kiel subpens.

There was a take-off mishap when stoopd lost an engine to a misplaced ale can in the nacelle and augured (or killed himself in an ordnance jettison?) in his heavy mossie. Lazarus-like, the godz permitted him to come back to life. We made the long transit flight at 200 feet or below and turned to target in 2 packages -- 2 ack-strafers and 3 bombers.

-tone- and flyboy went in to take out 2 40mm acks near facility. Tone hit the south one, but north one did not go down. -tone- and flyboy then made mistake of directly overflying huge ack facilities south of target (our briefing clearly stated it was there, so we were sure to fly squarely over each :)) flyboy was immediately lost to an 88mm hit, and -tone- was able to rejoin attack thanks to intervention from Sister Cleo, (squad psychic friend).

-rhno- -hero- and stoopd came in to bomb and immediately took out the north ack and the subpens. The warehouses were bombed methodically, but there was dismay as to how many passes were required. The subs were strafed down, requiring aws many as 3 passes to sink, but tone was hit at incredible range by an 88 on his run, and died. -rhno-, stoopd, and -hero- fought off the creeping sense of doom that might have crippled a lesser squad (if you can name one, I'd sure appreciate it) and were well onto their RTB at the time this posthumous AAR was penned.

All in all, a costly mission but a seeming success.

-tone-

Lacking the numbers for a sweep, 5 DoD (-tone-, flyboy, -rhno-, stoopd and -hero-) set out for for the naval yards at Kiel at T+10 in very heavy Mossies--a decision that would later prove wise.

The low alt journey to the IP was thankfully uneventful, and as we turned south, -tone- and flyboy broke off to take out the acks at the target site. Tone hit the northern-most ack and flyboy missed on his first pass on the southern ack. Unfortunately, -tone- and flyboy flew over an 88mm flak tower installation and flyboy exploded from a single shell. Tone dove in on the northern most sub and was hit in the face with an unusually accurate barrage of ack, splashing into the bay. The ack was damn frightening...

-rhno- dropped two bombs on his first pass on the northern warehouse but they fell long; his subsequent drop took it out of commission in addition to the subpen. -hero- dropped on the southern most warehouse and missed--on three separate passes--before dropping a 500lber on the target dead center on the fourth pass. Every pass was filled with tension, since the ack was particularly brutal and pretty accurate; I was sure I was going to get hit in mid-turn by 40mm rounds from the eastern emplacements--serious heart pounding and nervousness here. -rhno-, stoopd and -hero- strafed the subs to the bottom of the bay and broke north to escape the ack and to get low and off radar.

The return flight was as uneventful as our previous journey, but as we were mocking the performers at the Winter Olympics over F8, the three of us began to have beacon issues. We all went red at the same time. We all had damage, but the S3 Godz will likely adjust for this disco, since others began dumping at the same time.