Dweebs of Death

This was a disaster. We made small errors and these occurred in a broader context of haphazard allied operation, reducing our participation to being just a score bonus for the enemy. We did not get a good turnout and rolled 3 Spit9's from F25 and were told to report to TF-17's CAP of F3 to bolster it.

Unfortunately, TF-17 did not report to the arena until some time after we rolled, and did not roll for an estimated 6-8 minutes more. Less attention paid to mustering folks who could not find the arena would have made a tremendous difference in our fortunes
tonight.

GCI did not warn us of the sweep we then flew into: 4 190s we sighted at 28K near F3. We engaged (and had alt on) them, but D6 shooting took pieces off cman and then more 190s arrived. A lucky shot crippled tone and then rhno was shot down. cman was still
flying his rudderless plane when tone logged. Though our fight never went below 20K and we worked the radio for support, the only friendly plane we spotted the entire time was a lost B24 on the tarmac at F25.

-tone-

Unfg, Rhno and Cman rolled F25 in a three-ship of Spit IX's at 1930 CDT. Our mission was to act as a BARCAP decoy over F9 for the TF17 strike on F7. All three of us were up on RW and we proceeded to a cruise altitude of 27k.

Upon arrival on station just SE of F9 we spotted 6-9 bogeys to out 10 o'clock slightly high. Using tried-and-true Dweeb techniques, we turned into the bogeys, unloaded our aircraft and blew through their formation at about 400 knots. I loosed about four rounds on a 190 that came too close.

We turned onto v 120 and attempted to drag them SE. But they were a disciplined lot and returned to their station. We re-gathered in the vicinity of Naples. Unfg had gotten a bit low and we were waiting for him to catch up before grabbing more alt and going back to play tag some more.

Then Rhno reported system problems. We headed back in the direction of F25. Rhno, with permission from the Godz discoed. By the time he got back in Unfg and Cman were over F25. Rhno was experiencing a bad connect. We told him to blow it off for the evening.

Unfg and Cman then proceeded to 30k and back to F9, this time running up the far W side turning and approaching the field from the N, hoping to find our tormentors (probably the same gang as last week) getting ready to land and refuel. We spotted a gaggle of dots over the airfield. Already lined up on our intended axis of retreat, we put the noses down and got ready for firing passes only to find the field CAPped by TF17.

Cman and Unfg proceeded home and landed without incident.

After Cman and I landed he logged for the night. Not wanting to leave it at that I asked the godz for orders and was teamed with TF17 as part of Section 1, winging with idri & tldrgr with Chow leading. We took off & flew to the F7 area. Finding nothing we turned S,SE toward the F27 area. There we were bounced by about 5 109's. We were in company with some other Allied fliers but still took some losses. I took a passing shot
at one 109 but landed no hits. I took some pings but no damage. We were fairly low on fuel by that time and the CinC ordered all to RTB as time was running out. those of us that were left RTB'd to F25 and landed w/o further incident. I must say I was very impressed by TF17's professionalism and skill. Their radio discipline and leadership was superb. If we don't have enough numbers I suggest we join up with them. Real good group.

Unforgiven

We flew really well -- and had 7 pilots (tone rhno cman mgyver unfg stoopd and hero)!

We bombed some bridges deep in enemy territory (used 85% of our gas doing this), and destroyed every portion of both of them. We flew the long route out and landed all 7 planes on the carrier without even one accidental loss.

We came out looking like heroes (of course).

We heavily damaged our target, but perhaps the rules indicate it was not destroyed. Sorry!

We had 4 Dweebs (tone, bujdod, rhno, mgyver) and took heavy F6Fs to destroy a bridge near F7. We had to do some dar-assisted jinking to avoid interception on the way in, and attacked the bridge albeit not from an optimum approach. We dropped the 2 center
spans of the 4 span bridge and orbited near F7 while TF-17 worked it over. As we were trying to determine whether they needed us to come strafe as well, 109s started appearing.

Mgyver got a maneuver kill at this point, likely a 109 in compression. As we formed up our foursome at 8K, a 109 threatened bujdod and rhno and mgyver went after him.

Although I called them off after 15-20 seconds of pursuit, they were already too committed and 4 more 109s appeared, shooting them both down.

bujdod and I RTB'ed and avoided further contact.

We were advised to roll again with the single remaining TF-17 pilot (jedi), to completely destroy the bridge. 7 GB40 pilots flew escort, but we never saw them after departure. As we tried to avoid a growing confrontation near the heel of Italy, we were directed to jettison our bombs and go attack the enemy there. This was ill-advised, as this was all fighter sweeps at higher altitude.

bujdod was out of formation due to a messy diaper (preliminary reports assure us it was not his, but that of a new recruit, callsign: "jenfer"), and a 109 blasted him to pieces. jedi and tone then played cat and mouse with around 8 109s who may have been fighting GB40 low, but we never saw GB40. jedi went offensive once and then we bugged out.. I never fired. At this point, we realized that RTB was the only way to stem further losses.

Final result for DoD was a bridge half-destroyed (mgyver seems to be the only guy who hit it), and mgyver got an M-kill. 3 Dweebs were lost to 109s. Posthumorous (misspelling intended) commendations are awarded to mgyver for a wonderful effort. But the bottom line is that we failed to complete the mission and suffered heavy losses against stiff, but perhaps not overwhelming resistance. A better adherence to a simple, quick plan might have allowed us to RTB with fewer losses and sortie again to complete the work.

Here are what I think went wrong:

1. I failed to line up our attack with the bridge. We did twice as good (twice) with bombs half the size last frame.

2. I am inclined to believe that TF-17 remained at F7 too long. They suffered many losses and we never really saw the fight. It may have been right over the field. Perhaps 1-2 bomb runs each and a single strafing run was the limit... perhaps my vague warning
that the DoD was arriving with 109s in pursuit was not taken seriously (my report was not precise... we knew we had trailers and did not know their number or intent).

3. I should have been more strict about calling off mgyver and rhno ... they had made the 109 duck and that should ever be the Dweeb goal in air-to-air encounters: "Blunt their attack, and endeavor to boogie".

4. While we continue to drill our pilots on the practice of E-retention, we need to inaugurate a regimen of training our recruits in P-retention.

5. We need to work more with GB40 and TF-17 to increase the inter-squad coordination.

6. While we got some truly invaluable radar vectors on the first flight, the command to have our F6F's jettison their ordnance and join a fight against an offensive sweep should have been queried. We had a vital role to achieve, were just 3 planes, were 10K or more beneath the more numerous offensively-tasked enemy planes, and engaged in NSLRM (Nursery Sanitary Linen Replenishment Maneuvers). In several senses, we were up to our elbows in it, and should have tried to obtain a release from this directive.

-tone-

Salute

Had a wonderful time, even if I did bail and was captured by the enemy. I attribute my bridge hits to the fact that I was skirting the top of the girders at the time of release.

> 3. I should have been more strict about calling off mgyver and rhno >... they had made the 109 duck and that should ever be the
> Dweeb goal in air-to-air encounters: "Blunt their attack, and endeavor >to boogie".

Both Rhno and I broke off immediatly upon tone's orders, but were both being closely followed by 109's. When I pulled up, I saw the 109 on rhno's 6 in front of me and I could not do less than try and clear his six. After letting fly a few bursts, I began a high speed egress from the scene. But being closely shadowed by at least one 109 had little
chance of escape.

My apologies to tone for not staying on his wing rather than going after rhno's killer.

Mgyver

Well it started out great...

We left F42 in very heavy F6F5s in two vics-- -rhno-, -hero- and -unfg-; and -cman-, joners (yes, it was really joners), and mgyver. After assembling we headed north at NOE altitude for F4, deep in enemy territory. The ingress was relatively uneventful, though the earth-scraping manuvers (expertly lead by -rhno-) through the mountain passes caused me considerable discomfort, but that prepared me for my mission later in the evening (more on that later). Needless to say, we avoided the dreaded B25 Lemmings of Ploesti Syndrome that had befallen us (and many others) under -cman-'s leadership a year ago ("I said, 'Pull up!'").

We popped up for altitude just before the field, -rhno- made target assignments and the attack began in earnest. At least for everyone but me; I was unceremoniously dumped to desktop, though RW kept on going just fine. I listened in on the carnage that ensued. Apparently the hangar went down in the attack (-unfg-?) and joners traded an aileron for two of the ack batteries. It could not be determined whether or not the fuel was taken out for certain. -cman-, -rhno- and joners egressed to the south as enemy planes approached, but unfortunately, -unfg- and mgyver were brought down by ack. The remaining Dweebs returned to the carrier without event.

Joners and -cman- logged--something about a combination of being 0230 hours and diapers or something--and -rhno- and I were tasked to join the NightStalkers in a raid on F10. -rhno- and I weren't sure we'd have enough gas to get there and back but we went forth with our orders like good Dweebs. We circled at the 3,6 cross, at which point the same angry Net Godz zapped -rhno- and he disappeared from view into the Bermuda Triangle franchise of the northern Mediterranean. So I circled...and circled...and circled some more waiting for the NightStalkers to show up in their P47s. I should have discoed with -rhno-...

After forming up, we went up the river that leads to F7 (which was windy and dangerous in a fun and scary way, but -rhno- had taken my lunch from me an hour earlier) and scraped our way north to the western edge of F10. We had been trailed for some time by high alt enemy planes, but none of the NS leaders seemed to care when I pointed this out. I thought I was in good hands.

We popped up and slammed F10--hard. In two passes the entire field was down, though I missed with both of my bombs. This is where things start to fall apart. A 109 screamed down from above and locked on to -cbra-, and I gave chase, putting enough rounds into the plane to get him to break off -cbra-. At this point, we'd lost one of the 8 NS P47s to 109s and they redirected their efforts toward the bridge spans just south of F10.

Upon arriving at F10, 109s showed up out of nowhere, but all didn't look lost; P47s were still making runs on the ack batteries on the shore and knocking down spans with great haste. Having no bombs, I basically tried to keep the 109s busy and clear NS planes. I was rocking; I cleared tenman, -cbra- (again) and two other NS, shredding the hell out of two 109s. Suddenly, a 109 was on me. No problem I figured; we still outnumbered the 109s by a large margin, tenman and stlai would clear me with me gently dragging...any minute now...anyone...anyone? Bueller?

I looked behind me after dragging for 30 seconds, only to find no NS but two 109s. Livid, I pulled a hard 180 and dove for the shore, taking out two more ack on the way to boot. I tried to pull the 109s into the bank with me, but they wouldn't bite. And there were suddenly no NS around at all. I pulled one more 180 turn, and ran south, fast and hard, and ridiculously aggressive with the terrain, to the point of suicide. Pleas on the radio went unanswered. WTF? I was sure I could get a 109 to clip a wing. I lost one aileron, then the other. Still I flew on. I had hope that I could make it, since the 109s weren't gaining. Was not to be, and a round took off my left wing. (remainder of this post edited to protect the guilty)

-hero-