Dude!!!

The last AAR was really nice, thanks!

Great Work, as a noob to the SimHQ site i just spent my afternoon at work reading the whole thing.

Looking forward to the next one.

Sounds fair enough to me, mctav, making you work New year's Eve.

Yeah Flat, cant complain about getting double time to sit on my butt reading AAR's

Found this one late, but it is a very nice read. Thx!

Well..

Is Dart keep working on this AAR?

I have seen no movement on this topic and on his page...
I hope We well see another AAR from him..I love them

I've been TDY off and on for the last three weeks.....two more to write....

Good to hear you're still at em. Cant wait for the others.

The last week has been eventful, to say the least. So eager to press the British, the Luftwaffe has scraped out yet another Gottverdammed flat spot and declared it an airfield before properly equipping it.

I found Vunner putting up camoflauge netting for my aircraft and swearing at the Oberfeldwebel to get the maintenance tent up and get the petrol out of the 30 degree sun. My own tent will have to wait.

A quick turn around had us in the air to escort arriving JU-52's full of supplies; they were harrassed by Hurricanes that we easily ran off. I scored one kill that was barely worth mentioning.

Ganz scored two, though, and has become as insufferable as Hans.

We've all become resigned that Hans is either dead or captured; our Intelligence officer is naturally clueless as to his fate.

My tent was erected at midnight by Ganz, Reichter, and myself after we had installed their own. It was only a few hours of sleep, but it was nice to be on a cot instead of in the hammocks the maintence crews seem to enjoy.

It wasn't yet light when I was awakened and stumbled to the briefing tent.

The British were building up supplies for a counter attack, and the Italians were going to bomb it at dawn. We were to escort with just my flight, as we'd taking off in darkness and arriving at the target at the first hint of light; we'd be returning with the airfield most likely lit up to aid in landings. Vunner, ever resourceful, has cut barrels in half and placed five centimeters of fuel in the bottoms, as we have no electricity for the standard lights.

We sat in our cockpits at 0400, waiting for the Italians.

At 0500 I got out of my plane to relieve myself.

At 0600, the control tower began waiving a green flag frantically.

This is Italian for "pre dawn:"



We started our engines and rose up after them as they crossed the field.



We formed up in good order, with Ganz on my wing, making an S track over the bombers, varing our altitude from 2,000 to 2,500 meters to stay with them.



We were soon close to the objective, 20mm anti-aircraft fire coming up to meet us; I brought the flight wide of it, on the side where the British would most likely come from on patrol.



The bombers were "ducks in a row" as they began their run, the skies clear. Milk run!



No sooner did they release their bombs than we heard Italian cursing over the radio. We couldn't understand a word of it, but we knew from their tracers there were enemy fighters!

I ordered the attack and looked back towards the sun to ensure we weren't going to be jumped. The Tommies often set an attack high up to swoop down on escorts.



I cleared and cut left towards the bombers. Tracers flew all around, and I thought I spotted a biplane in the mix. Gladiators? They must have been out to sea, readying for a recon mission over the front lines and stumbled into our bombers.

Two modern fighters sliced across my front, right to left, and went high through the tracers. Too fast for identification, I quickly followed, climbing to get a firing resolution.

It was Riechter and Schmitt, who had overshot the Gladiator. I reversed and dove down.




It was a simple matter to line up on the biplane and hammer it with a quick burst of machinegun fire and cannon.









The Gladiator rolled hard left and dove, trying to escape. Schmitt cried out that he had shot the other down, whooping in delight.

I rolled left onto the wounded British plane, the fuel streaming from its tank bright against the rising sun.







I was 1000 meters above him and another 2000 away when he crumpled into the sand.

The skies were clear, and I ordered that the flight rejoin. Ganz muttered apologetically that he had gone north along the coast and would be late coming back. I must speak to him about the difference between being aggressive and being a loner before he finds himself alone against a full flight of British planes.

I glanced back to see the other two catching up at full throttle.



Approaching the airfield, I saw four aircraft coming from the direction of the airfield. Something about them struck me as odd, and I moved in to investigate.



Tommyhawks! They were enemy planes, fooling the airfield (who must have thought the flight of four was ourselves returning) and quickly reversing onto the bombers!



I cut hard to the left, diving, and then rolled right to see the roundels of the enemy. I ordered the attack and quickly gained the Englander's tail with a small roll to the left.

A few seconds and I'd have firing solution on the P-40.


Schmitt cried on the radio to check six, and I glanced back to be shocked - they had forgotten the bombers for the moment!



I continued my roll high, watching them turn to my right and then back left underneath me.



Half roll the other way, slight rudder, and an easy deflection shot carried from right wing through the fuselage and onto his left wing:






Most likely wounded, the pilot bailed out. I winced as he did so. We were far too low for his parachute to open.




I crossed under the bombers at full throttle, scanning frantically for remaining bandits.




There! A black silhoutte on the ground! I rolled and dove towards it.

It appeared to be turning towards me for a head on pass!




Nearly too late I pulled up from from my own shadow!

Stupidity! Damn this desert sun and meaningless terrain!



The two aircraft to my left were no shadows, though, being followed by flak bursts!



I cut over hard, rolling right as I crossed behind them, ready for a shot on the wingman.

The wingman rolled hard right and dove as I approached, vanishing from my sight.



I pressed the attack on the lead, heedless of the flak bursts - I would have to hope my luck held out and I wouldn't be shot down by our own gunners!



A quick burst of cannon at 100 meters range, minimal deflection....



...and he plowed into the sand off of the airfield, streaming fuel and oil.



An Italian fighter had engaged the last of the Englanders, and I moved in to watch him shoot the flak wounded P-40 down.



The skies were clear and the bombers were landing at our airfield, some damaged but none destroyed.

Ganz caught up as the fight was over, and we flew in protective circles until all the Italians were safe.



[notes]

1. While I'm back to flying the campaign, I've lost the .ntrk files for the escort missions. But they were as described, pretty mundane from the way I flew them.

2. I take these screenies in windowed mode. I discovered that if one has the FRAPS program slightly overlapping the simulation, it will goof up the screenies and show the underlying menu graphic. My apologies; but I'm not going to redo them.



3). This is long on pictures and short on text. I just felt really bad for not continuing the campaign and the AAR and wanted to punch something out for y'all.

4. .ntrk file is here but you should know two things: 1) it's "as flown," including a lot of looking at the floor as I look down at the keyboard for squad communications commands ( ), and 2) It's a whopping 20 MB.