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A Thursday night in Otter Creek
Thursday night in Otter Creek
Thursday I went down to Dave’s for another Battle of Britain fight. Dave flipped a coin and I got to fly for Herman Göring. I had a pair of Stukas trying to bomb a target half way across the British map. They were escorted by a pair of ME109s.
The RAF put up a Hurricane and a pair of Spitfires.
Closing in on the first pass a 109 bursts into flames! Ouch. Now I can’t Immelmann to face the Spitfire that I guessed would do the same to me.
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As we pass close by each other I can see the RAF pilot pulling on his stick to flip on to my tail.
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Sure enough, my tail takes some lead.
The Stukas also trade shots at a bad exchange rate to the planes to their rears.
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Before you know it the fire reaches my fuel tank and BOOM!.
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German morale took a nose dive when a Stuka goes down with the second put on fire! Not looking good for the bad guy.
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The RAF sharks close in for the kill.
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The second Stuka goes down. The RAF expect lonely Fritz to scurry home since he was outnumbered 3:1. Fritz has other ideas as he is in a good position behind them. First the Hurricane lights up. Then a Spitfire can’t throw the 109 off it’s tail and is downed. 2:1.
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Fritz flew into range of some ground fire (taking a result of smoke) and lets Spitfire #2 fly past. A well-timed Immelmann places the Spit in Fritz’ gun sights.
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Fritz sends the Spit down in a fiery spiral. 1:1
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The burning Hurricane is now closing in. Fritz cannot avoid him so goes in for a desperate head on attack. Both remaining planes are badly damaged. Both are expecting to go down.
The planes open up at close range and only one flies home.
(Sorry, no photo of the finale)
Filling out the briefing report on the engagement, Fritz sadly reports the loss of three German planes and their crews. The target of the mission was not even damaged by the Stukas.
A minor highlight is his downing of three RAF planes.
It was a crazy battle to say the least. With my 109 on fire on the first shot and blowing up 2 moves later Dave and I thought this one was over. Dave graciously offered that I bring in a reinforcing 109 but I said no, I’d take my lumps. Then next turn a Stuka goes down with the second put on fire. Next turn the last Stuka is downed. Then I thought I’d claim a moral victory if I could escape off my board edge with my last plane.
Looking at the positions of all the planes I didn’t like the idea of 3 RAF planes on my tail chasing me home. I decided to do something unexpected and it paid off. Luck turned to shine on my last 109.
So we ended with a loss for the bad guys for not even damaging the mission target but at least we added to the RAF attrition.
Dave and I are looking into starting a campaign so there may be a few more Battle of Britain AARs coming.
