My 2nd WW2 Game
“Who do we have in the Walmington on Sea area” hissed Controller Jimmy Smythe. “Why do you ask, there’s no alert from the Chain Home System” queried Patricia Donald. “Yes I know, but someone in the Observers Corps has reported a visual sighting and you know how unreliable the Walmington OC is.
OK let me check and she called down to the floor for confirmation.
“72 and 92 are the nearest squadrons but they’re full engaged around Hastings, Walmington is 30 miles west along the coast”.
“Just a minute aren’t there a couple of Hurricanes on a training flight down there.”
“OK - get them to go and have a look will you, we can’t just ignore the old chaps down there.”
It was a clear day and the two OAP’s manning the look out on Brown Cliff Point had seen 4 black dots, 15 miles out to sea, they were flying low to avoid the radar detection from the Chain Home Radar System and had managed to get close to the coast without being picked up.
As they closed the shore two of the planes climbed, gaining altitude prior to making their attack.
The other two kept low and as they passed the lookout point the Observers could easily identify them as Me 110’s.
“They don’t half move fast” said Martin, remembering his days in the RFC when 100mph was considered speedy. “Yes responded Doug, they’d blow the cobwebs away soon enough”. “Where are our chaps, if they’re not here soon it’ll be all over before it’s begun.
“Here they come, late as usual” quipped Martin as a pair of Hurricanes responding to Control call arrived in the distance.
“They’re flying a bit raggedly” was the morose response from Doug, “we would have had a real ticking off if we had maintained such poor formation”.
“Well they’re here now” soothed Observer Martin, as he looked over to the location in the angle between Brown Cliff Point and the Wallmington beach area, he knew it contained a juicy target for the Hun. There was a big battery of 6” Naval guns they had been installed only a couple of months previously. Walmington harbour was quite small and didn’t warrant such defences but the beach was large and offered an ideal landing point for any German invasion that the Royal Navy couldn’t persuade to stay at home.
They saw the Me 110’s bank to port, before starting their final approach run, the Hurricanes were still too high and far away to be able to intercept.
Unbeknown to our two members of the Observation Corps the Hurricane pilots were very new to the planes and to flying in general. They were on a reconnaissance mission to identify local landmarks so they could fight effectively in the future, defending their sector of the south coast from raiding enemy planes.
This was the first time they had flown these planes on an active mission, they hadn’t seen an enemy plane before today nor fired their guns in anger at anything other than designated targets in training, and even then they were not very good at it.
As the 110’s came in low from the left they were met with anti aircraft fire from the cliff top and the two Hurricanes split, one climbing to intercept the high planes and one swept wide to do the same for the 110’s
Firing at a close and unusually low target put the gunners off and they missed the 110’s by quite a big margin. “Blimey” muttered Doug “They’re pretty useless aren’t they” Martin nodded wondering how effective the Lewis gun he was so used to in the last war would be against these planes. “It’s probably the first time they’ve fired at a moving target” he said quietly
Red Leader, the low Hurricane mistimed his attack completely and the 110’s were passed him and he knew that with their speed advantage he would never be able to catch them, let alone stop them. His wingman Red 2 had finally reached a height at which he could open fire on the Stuka’s but his shooting was as bad in action as it had been on the range in training.
Making final corrections to their approach the German planes have selected their targets and the low level attack is going in unopposed.
Red 2 has let the Stuka’s slip past as well but he is in the process of making an Immelmann turn prior to chasing them.
The Me110’s take more fire from A.A. guns on the beach, but they miss as well.
Martin splutters, as Doug spits over the cliff top and remarks “they couldn’t hit a barn door”
“from inside the barn” Martin completes the sentence he’s heard so often, but it still brings a smile to his face.
BOOM – BOOM, the two pilots drop their bombs almost simultaneously and two of the 6” guns leap into the air, a mass of so much twisted scrap metal now.
Red 2 has been caught in a Stuka sandwich and their rear gunners have splattered his brand new Hurricane with red hot lead, maybe cutting an oil line, whatever the cause his plane starts to smoke badly. He reads the safety warning that says “No Smoking in the Cockpit” and shrugs his shoulders philosophically.
One of the AA guns opens up on the nearest Stuka but maintains their unbroken record of missing. “They’d do better with catapults and stones” mutters Doug under his breath.
Red 2 continues his battle with the two Stuka’s and even though his shooting is better than the AA gun crew he’s still flying in a position where they can both riddle him with bullets.
Red Leader is trying to decide if he should chase after the fast disappearing 110’s, try and climb the staircase to the Stuka’s or just go home for tea and crumpet.
Tea and crumpet is the most attractive option but he decides that as Red 2 owes him a fiver he will go and help him stay alive so he can repay the debt, he starts the long, slow process of gaining altitude.
The Stuka’s both turn to starboard having picked out their targets, Red 2 is sticking to the lead Stuka like a good un and things are looking up. His shooting is improving with practice and he’s out of angle for the 2nd Stuka to be able to fire on him. Things are decidedly looking up.
Red Leader has nearly made it to the right altitude and Red 2 has slowly reeled in the lead Stuka, he’s so close the rear gunner can’t shoot at him without taking his own tail off and he didn’t want to repeat that experience.
He knew Gunter, his pilot didn’t want to repeat it either, the last time, once the parachutes had opened and they reached terra firma, Gunter had struck him, hard, on the nose and said, “don’t ever do that again”
He didn’t intend to.
The view from the ground.
“You know what’s going to happen now, don’t you” said Doug
“Yes” said Martin and it did.
Gunter put the nose down and the Stuka fell like a stone, Red 2 caught unawares is still up in the sky somewhere.
He starts to dive, drops his bombs and the gun position explodes, another direct hit. These German’s are good.
As Red Leader finally gets up to the 2nd Stuka, it too dives leaving him behind. The AA gun crew are looking straight up and the Stuka is coming straight down, they can’t miss, and they don’t, but it keeps coming.
The final indignity is that the Hurricane dives in a much shallower dive than the Stuka and so overshoots it, enabling the wily Stuka pilot to pull back from the dive and climb, he’s now behind the Hurricane and open fire.
The other Stuka has also done a near vertical dive but pulled out sooner than number 1, he’s also hit his target, I told you they were good.
Red 2 is skittering every which way to avoid the Stuka behind him but both Stuka’s have banked to starboard and are making the long journey back across the Channel and home for tea and crumpet.
I stopped the game at this point, the Hurricanes would catch the slow Stuka’s but the Me110’s went off the table for 6 moves and will turn their unwieldy planes around and end up catching the Hurricanes, so there will be a Hurricane sandwich at some point.
This is my 2nd game of Wings of War WW2, and there is a lot to learn and that’s different from the WW1 planes and rules that I’m used to and I’m pretty hopeless using those rules at the best of times. I used Black Ronin’s template to control the Hurricanes and I flew the bombers.
These are my first acquisitions apart from the Battle of Britain set and I think I was very lucky to be able to get these planes at all, so I’ve played and reported this game as a small homage and thank you for kindness and generosity.
Pip Pip
Flying Officer Vagabond
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Originally Posted by Flying Helmut
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