Posted By: Heretic
IL-2 '46. Schmitting Messers. Day in, day out. - 07/29/12 05:04 PM
Well, let's give this AAR thingy a try...
The ingame date is 06/24/41. The invasion has begun and propaganda sells it as a preemptive strike to slap the Bolsheviks on the wrist. They might take the baltic states and take on Finland, but they won't subdue the Reich. Not now, not ever. At least that's what's blaring from the Göbbelsschnauzen (small, cheap radios) all across the fatherland.
II./JG-3 somehow ended up in the Lemberg sector of the front...with sparkling new Bf-109F-4s. Uparmored and upgunned compared to the F-2 and so new that the paint wasn't even dry on delivery. They can take on the Schpitfaias over the Channel, they surely can take on whatever the Red Airforce throws at it.
So far, the war has been quite uneventful. Panzers do what they do best on both sides (cluster up and get picked off by stationary guns), planes come and go and somewhere in between a squadron of Hungarians in Cr.42 adds a bit of "What the heck are they saying?" to the radio chatter.
All in all, the only thing blitzing into the Ukraine so far is our sleek Friedrichs. But I guess the Wehrmacht will take up momentum once they are through the soviet frontline...
In the previous four missions, I had nothing much to do except watching number three's back, since that's what a Katschmarek is supposed to do. This is about to change this time though.
The objective: Take out a column of russian trucks delivering supplies to the front line.
Why they didn't assign heavier, more effective assets like Stukas or 110s for this, is a mystery to me though.
Task is task, however and the MG 151 might be up to shooting a few holes into a truck on a good day.
Take off was uneventful. Start engine, set flaps, creep forward one or two metres, lock tailwheel. Apply power, wait for the rudder to get a grip on the surrounding airstream, keep the plane centred on the runway. Tail comes up, roll on, gently pull back on the stick and...airborne. Whoopee!
Retract gear, retract flaps and play catch up to the leader.
Ah, early morning. Perfect for wreaking some havoc and check whether the guys of "die andere Feldpostadresse" (the other field post code, i.e. the Soviets) are more tired than we are.
I just love the Bf-109s cockpit. No square inch of wasted space and göringfrei. There's no way that fat idiot would fit in there...
We were idly flying along towards the target zone. The Staffelführer calls out "Fünf Minuten zum Ziel!" (five minutes to target)...and then suddenly "Achtung, Jäger auf neun Uhr!".
Great, just great...expending ammo on fighters when you'd actually need it to support the guys on the ground never tingles my efficiency bone. But okay, it's just LaGG-3s. This won't take much.
Schwarm one dips low and splits up to go after LaGG one and three, while I go after LaGG number two, who stays out of the fight, presumably to sneak up from behind. Schwarm two joins in and after having four or more 109s on its tail, LaGG one goes down. The other one is a bit of a better flier though and holds off the Sauerkraut parade behind him for quite some time.
Meanwhile, I line up to get a shot at number two. One hundred fifty metres...one hundred metres...fire. The MG17s rip away, the MG151 joins in. Weapon convergence is perfect and the bullets rip into the aft fuselage - and tear it off.
"Abschuss, Abschuss!" My first kill of the campaign and my leader joins in with a congratulatory message.
The joy isn't about to last though.
"Achtung, Jäger! Zwei Uhr, hoch!" (fighters two O'clock high). Dang, LaGG flight number two joined the scene. And they've got a height advantage. Uh, oh...
The DB-601 screams as I slam the throttles forward and close the radiators to squeeze out every bit of performance. Sorry, Daimler. I hope your engine can resist a bit of heat.
I unsuccessfully try to catch up. You can't cover a kilometer of height difference without jets in a reasonable amount of time. I drop the nose a bit and wait for the LaGGs to come down. After all, there's four to six 109s down there trying to shoot down one of their comrades...an opportunity they simply HAVE to catch.
And indeed, the flight dips down and I follow suit.
The airframe starts moaning as I approach the 500 km/h mark (cool 4.11 feature), but I'm still unsure as to which target to pick. Meanwhile, some of my Staffelkameraden finally realize that they're about to get jumped and leave the fate of the still fighting LaGG from flight number one to the others.
With the element of surprise lost, the Soviets scatter. LaGG number six breaks off, LaGG number seven take on the 109s and LaGG number five decides to regain some height. Alrighty, number five it is for me.
He still has a speed advantage and I try to get inside his turns to catch up, but it's tough. Suddenly, someone yells "Nummer vier, Achtung, Hintermann!" over the radio. Crap, that's LaGG seven! Sneaky [censored]. I immediately break off my attack and start some evasive turns. Tracers zip by my plane. "Trying to make me nervous, huh? Not today. My breakfast, coffee and cigarette were splendid. I'm a drugged up fighting machine with nerves of Kruppstahl. You just *can't* kill me!"
I gain ground. LaGG number five is busy with another one or two 109s and two Kameraden have decided that it would be nice to help me out. To no effect though, but it shakes the soviet pilot up enough to make mistakes. In the meantime, the LaGG from the first flight finally goes down. I mentally applaud while I close in on my Beute (prey).
My helping hands, say Kameraden though decide that wolfpacking LaGG seven is more fun, so I'm left all alone. Perfect.
At one hundred ten meters, the LaGG starts another defensive turn...right through my crosshair. I pull the trigger.
7.7 mm and 20mm rounds slam into the fuselage...no bits coming off, no smoke, no trailing liquids. Damn.
He descends rapidly, I follow up. My Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger (speed indicator) starts its journey from the comfy 300 km/h mark to the 500 km/h mark. This is getting dangerous for the airframe...fast. What's the LaGG doing...?
The scremaing of the airframe gets too loud to ignore, so I pull up. No point in risking my plane.
The LaGG is still falling. And falling. Until the ground puts an abrupt halt to it. "Nummer vier, klasse getroffen. Treffer, das hat gesessen!" ("splendid hit, quite a punch" or so).
Kill number two. Must've been a 20mm bullet to the cockpit. Ouch.
Where are my Kameraden? Oh, tracers! Yep, that's them. Aaaaand smoke and fire. That would be the LaGG six or so. Twenty seconds later, the demise of LaGG five or whatever one there was left is made public as well. Sweet. Six kills, no losses.
Staffel lead then calls it a day. Must've fogotten that we were actually out for some truck hunting. And I've been extra conservative with my ammo. Meh.
Alrighty, back into formation and boredom, so time for some Shift+F2-ing around.
Oh, some Bf-110s going about their business near Lemberg. That'll be interesting.
Oh no, they're on a Dnejpr bridge attack mission...that can't be good.
Lead rolls in, releases...and misses. Told you!
Then it's number two's turn, with predictable results.
Number three, though...
This time, I was applauding for real. The AI really *did* get an update in 4.11.
All is well, nothing significant happens. Except plane Dora of the 110 formation getting a direct flak hit on the way home followed by spontaneous disintegration. Ow. Ow, ow, ow!
Browsing through the Zerstörerformation, I spot plane Gustav limping home on one engine. Visual inspection shows no damage, so I suppose this is the new "engine reliability" feature at work. Neat-o!
And because of all the boredom going on, the last impression of any significance is a cluster of 109s in the pattern. Too bad formation landings aren't implemented (yet), as that would really speed up landings.
Well, so much for a normal day in the interactive Ostfront fishtank that IL-2 is.
It might be worth staying tuned for more (yes, this is a threat) from the '41 Tour de USSR.
I'd even cut down the blabber a bit and post more pics (possible promise).
And, to clear up another mystery (the first one being why there isn't a screenshot of kill number two): No, I'm not PUI (posting under the influence).
The ingame date is 06/24/41. The invasion has begun and propaganda sells it as a preemptive strike to slap the Bolsheviks on the wrist. They might take the baltic states and take on Finland, but they won't subdue the Reich. Not now, not ever. At least that's what's blaring from the Göbbelsschnauzen (small, cheap radios) all across the fatherland.
II./JG-3 somehow ended up in the Lemberg sector of the front...with sparkling new Bf-109F-4s. Uparmored and upgunned compared to the F-2 and so new that the paint wasn't even dry on delivery. They can take on the Schpitfaias over the Channel, they surely can take on whatever the Red Airforce throws at it.
So far, the war has been quite uneventful. Panzers do what they do best on both sides (cluster up and get picked off by stationary guns), planes come and go and somewhere in between a squadron of Hungarians in Cr.42 adds a bit of "What the heck are they saying?" to the radio chatter.
All in all, the only thing blitzing into the Ukraine so far is our sleek Friedrichs. But I guess the Wehrmacht will take up momentum once they are through the soviet frontline...
In the previous four missions, I had nothing much to do except watching number three's back, since that's what a Katschmarek is supposed to do. This is about to change this time though.
The objective: Take out a column of russian trucks delivering supplies to the front line.
Why they didn't assign heavier, more effective assets like Stukas or 110s for this, is a mystery to me though.
Task is task, however and the MG 151 might be up to shooting a few holes into a truck on a good day.
Take off was uneventful. Start engine, set flaps, creep forward one or two metres, lock tailwheel. Apply power, wait for the rudder to get a grip on the surrounding airstream, keep the plane centred on the runway. Tail comes up, roll on, gently pull back on the stick and...airborne. Whoopee!
Retract gear, retract flaps and play catch up to the leader.
Ah, early morning. Perfect for wreaking some havoc and check whether the guys of "die andere Feldpostadresse" (the other field post code, i.e. the Soviets) are more tired than we are.
I just love the Bf-109s cockpit. No square inch of wasted space and göringfrei. There's no way that fat idiot would fit in there...
We were idly flying along towards the target zone. The Staffelführer calls out "Fünf Minuten zum Ziel!" (five minutes to target)...and then suddenly "Achtung, Jäger auf neun Uhr!".
Great, just great...expending ammo on fighters when you'd actually need it to support the guys on the ground never tingles my efficiency bone. But okay, it's just LaGG-3s. This won't take much.
Schwarm one dips low and splits up to go after LaGG one and three, while I go after LaGG number two, who stays out of the fight, presumably to sneak up from behind. Schwarm two joins in and after having four or more 109s on its tail, LaGG one goes down. The other one is a bit of a better flier though and holds off the Sauerkraut parade behind him for quite some time.
Meanwhile, I line up to get a shot at number two. One hundred fifty metres...one hundred metres...fire. The MG17s rip away, the MG151 joins in. Weapon convergence is perfect and the bullets rip into the aft fuselage - and tear it off.
"Abschuss, Abschuss!" My first kill of the campaign and my leader joins in with a congratulatory message.
The joy isn't about to last though.
"Achtung, Jäger! Zwei Uhr, hoch!" (fighters two O'clock high). Dang, LaGG flight number two joined the scene. And they've got a height advantage. Uh, oh...
The DB-601 screams as I slam the throttles forward and close the radiators to squeeze out every bit of performance. Sorry, Daimler. I hope your engine can resist a bit of heat.
I unsuccessfully try to catch up. You can't cover a kilometer of height difference without jets in a reasonable amount of time. I drop the nose a bit and wait for the LaGGs to come down. After all, there's four to six 109s down there trying to shoot down one of their comrades...an opportunity they simply HAVE to catch.
And indeed, the flight dips down and I follow suit.
The airframe starts moaning as I approach the 500 km/h mark (cool 4.11 feature), but I'm still unsure as to which target to pick. Meanwhile, some of my Staffelkameraden finally realize that they're about to get jumped and leave the fate of the still fighting LaGG from flight number one to the others.
With the element of surprise lost, the Soviets scatter. LaGG number six breaks off, LaGG number seven take on the 109s and LaGG number five decides to regain some height. Alrighty, number five it is for me.
He still has a speed advantage and I try to get inside his turns to catch up, but it's tough. Suddenly, someone yells "Nummer vier, Achtung, Hintermann!" over the radio. Crap, that's LaGG seven! Sneaky [censored]. I immediately break off my attack and start some evasive turns. Tracers zip by my plane. "Trying to make me nervous, huh? Not today. My breakfast, coffee and cigarette were splendid. I'm a drugged up fighting machine with nerves of Kruppstahl. You just *can't* kill me!"
I gain ground. LaGG number five is busy with another one or two 109s and two Kameraden have decided that it would be nice to help me out. To no effect though, but it shakes the soviet pilot up enough to make mistakes. In the meantime, the LaGG from the first flight finally goes down. I mentally applaud while I close in on my Beute (prey).
My helping hands, say Kameraden though decide that wolfpacking LaGG seven is more fun, so I'm left all alone. Perfect.
At one hundred ten meters, the LaGG starts another defensive turn...right through my crosshair. I pull the trigger.
7.7 mm and 20mm rounds slam into the fuselage...no bits coming off, no smoke, no trailing liquids. Damn.
He descends rapidly, I follow up. My Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger (speed indicator) starts its journey from the comfy 300 km/h mark to the 500 km/h mark. This is getting dangerous for the airframe...fast. What's the LaGG doing...?
The scremaing of the airframe gets too loud to ignore, so I pull up. No point in risking my plane.
The LaGG is still falling. And falling. Until the ground puts an abrupt halt to it. "Nummer vier, klasse getroffen. Treffer, das hat gesessen!" ("splendid hit, quite a punch" or so).
Kill number two. Must've been a 20mm bullet to the cockpit. Ouch.
Where are my Kameraden? Oh, tracers! Yep, that's them. Aaaaand smoke and fire. That would be the LaGG six or so. Twenty seconds later, the demise of LaGG five or whatever one there was left is made public as well. Sweet. Six kills, no losses.
Staffel lead then calls it a day. Must've fogotten that we were actually out for some truck hunting. And I've been extra conservative with my ammo. Meh.
Alrighty, back into formation and boredom, so time for some Shift+F2-ing around.
Oh, some Bf-110s going about their business near Lemberg. That'll be interesting.
Oh no, they're on a Dnejpr bridge attack mission...that can't be good.
Lead rolls in, releases...and misses. Told you!
Then it's number two's turn, with predictable results.
Number three, though...
This time, I was applauding for real. The AI really *did* get an update in 4.11.
All is well, nothing significant happens. Except plane Dora of the 110 formation getting a direct flak hit on the way home followed by spontaneous disintegration. Ow. Ow, ow, ow!
Browsing through the Zerstörerformation, I spot plane Gustav limping home on one engine. Visual inspection shows no damage, so I suppose this is the new "engine reliability" feature at work. Neat-o!
And because of all the boredom going on, the last impression of any significance is a cluster of 109s in the pattern. Too bad formation landings aren't implemented (yet), as that would really speed up landings.
Well, so much for a normal day in the interactive Ostfront fishtank that IL-2 is.
It might be worth staying tuned for more (yes, this is a threat) from the '41 Tour de USSR.
I'd even cut down the blabber a bit and post more pics (possible promise).
And, to clear up another mystery (the first one being why there isn't a screenshot of kill number two): No, I'm not PUI (posting under the influence).