Friday night fun

After loading the new release candidate patch and finally getting an aircraft in the air, we had a bit of a mess about flying through Manston's hangars as well as some strafing practice.

Clipped wing Spit :)

Splash strafing run 1

Surveying the damage

Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka

Dungeness to Dover

On July 31st, the day dawned as a typical summers day with clear skies and higher temperatures and even a number of people braved the consequences and a number of seaside resorts reported bathers on many of their beaches.

Morning combat was over the Channel at 1100hrs, when Ju87's attacked small convoys.

At 1530hrs, a formation was detected off the coast off Dover. Fighter Command despatched 74 Squadron Hornchurch (Spitfires) to intercept. The raiders turned out to be a small formation of Bf109's and a dogfight ensued over the Dover area.....

Patrolling over the Convoy off Dungeness

 We had a few dramas taking off at Biggin, but eventually headed out to rendevous over the convoy as it made its slooooooow progress to Dover.

Having missed the dramas at Biggin, Splash had taken a quick trip down to Tangmere and then re-surfaced at Hawkinge. Having got airborne and over the Convoy, he fended off a number of Stukas, with the cavalry just arriving in time to chase them back to France.

Stukas en-route for the convoy

Whilst Splash re-armed, the rest of us, in Hurricanes, patrolled the skies up and down the coast. It wasn't long before the next wave of Stukas came in, this time from the east. With a number of us at the right altitude, the Stukas were harrassed on their way in to the convoy and for most of the way back across the channel. I was hit in the engine and made a forced landing at Lympne.

Having landed and re-armed it went quiet for a time, then Brigstock and Splash spotted a large formation of contacts heading in at altitude. Confidently heading right into the middle of the formation, they quickly realised they weren't Stukas. :)

I hope you've made your will

The formation had an initial tangle, then headed east. Smelling blood, they came back to finish the job on Splash. (note: The "follow" command seems to work in the FMB) Swoop and I called out to assist and headed for Dover.

Splash was being hassled by at least 8 109's down low over the harbour. We got stuck in and did the best we could. I dont think I saw any aicraft shot down, but it was enought to, allow him to escape.

Almost there....

We headed back to Hawkinge having successfully protected the convoy for two hours.

Get the kettle on.

Most of us landed safely, with Brigstock planting the obligatory EAF Spitfire tree.

Brigstock's EAF Spitfire tree

Cappe did his best to demolish a hanger with an hilarious low fly-by and break..... straight into the side of it. We'll send the bill for the refit of the hanger to the 51 mess. :) Apollo then flew his best airshow routine and we couldn't get him to land.

A good nights flying.

Scores on the doors

Lesson 101: 3 Point Landing

..........Done :)

What's next in the advanced flying book.

Rise Of Flight Current Scoreboard

Good mission chaps.

Jasta 11 had a rolling dogfight with 1 flight of Nieuports followed by another flight of Noops on top of that. Then to top it all off, a flight of Tripes turned up to the party.

Then out of nowhere came Jasta 4 and saved the day
Hurrah! for Jasta 4

Biggin at the beginning

Monday July 29th, 1940

On July 29th, the weather was fine and it was expected that more attacks would be made by the Luftwaffe as flying conditions were as perfect as one could get. It was not until 0700hrs that the first enemy formations were detected coming in across the Channel towards Dover.

The observer Corps reported that the formation consisted of 30+ Ju 87 Stukas and 50 + Bf109s.

Inbound

 We decided rather than get airborne from the Forward Operating Base at Manston, we'd get airborne at Biggin Hill and fly down to intercept the massed formation. This would give us time to get to altitude and hopefully spawn some AI wingmen to deal with the large number of fighters.

After some difficulty with working out how to do this, we managed to get airborne and begin the short hop down to Dover.

We'd just arrived when Swoop spotted a lot of contacts at our four o'clock position. I could see multiple formations of high contacts at my twelve, then got a call to immediately break as we had contacts diving from behind.

Split S'ing down, I could see I had around 10 109's strung out like a washing line behind me.

Brigstock and Swoop seemed unmolested and got stuck in to the Stuka's which were now diving on Dover.

In a world of hurt

Evading the 109's as best I could and flying low over the town I tried to give the AAA gunners some targets. In desperation, I tried to get some assistance from the barrage balloons but to no avail.

Hurricane down

Swoop, Brigstock and Flash were having better luck with the Stuka's who were now heading back off over the channel. Multiple aircraft were seen to be damaged and losing altitude. However Dover had taken a beating.

The Hurri's recovered at Manston and got airborne as quickly as possibly as there were still reports of fighters in the area. Circling Manston, the radar plotters had spotted incoming aircraft from the South East.

Dorniers head for Manston

Around 30 Dorniers were heading for Manston at angels 12. Even with the additional AI's help, it was going to be tough to stop them.

We faired much better against the Dorniers than the Heinkel's last week. Swoop managed to take a wing off one of them in one pass. Despite our efforts, Manston still got a heavy delivery.

Craters and Hangar damage

Good night's flying. Well done Flash on getting out of the blast pens and breaking your CoD online duck.

Still learning a lot with the sim. We need to work out the radio commands to get the AI to attack the bombers rather than follow us round on a sight seeing tour. Especially as the fighting gets heavier the more we get through August.

"Heinkel's, Thousands of 'em!"

Sunday July 28th, 1940

After the previous day's raids in the Solent, the Luftwaffe switches attention to the shipping in Dover harbour with two large raids. One around midday and the other in the early afternoon. (more detail of the raid here)

Pilots of Hawkinge and Manston are tasked with repelling the attacks.

Fighter Command that day flew 758 sorties with the loss of only 2 Spitfires, lets see how we get on.

"Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes"

With a few more bodies in, the mission felt busier than last week. It was great to be taxying out across the runway at Manston with three Spitfires coming in low over the airfield.

Heading for Dover, we could see the coast of France, though the haze seemed to hide aircraft very easily.



Looking down on Dover harbour

I think I spotted the first attack, coming in direct from Calais. A large formation of Heinkel's approximately 20 aircraft. We went for head on attacks as they didn't seem to have fighter cover, but quickly found out the Heinkel has good defensive fire, especially in a close formation.

We all took damage, Splash bailed (no parachute), I think WB went as did Apollo. I was PK'd and I think Brigstock bailed as well. Not as good a result as last week....

Taking a new aicraft from Manston, the 51 boys were now in the fray. Marsh made an emergency landing "Undercarriage lever a bit sticky, sir?" :)

We did a nice scramble formation take off, with Apollo leading, WB, yours truly and Swoop, just as two 110's came low over the airfield and demolished one of the hangars.

Manston hangar damage

After dealing with the 110's, we were all up again patrolling Dover. Nerves jangling, multiple calls across the comms of a large formation sighted, heading in from the SE. At least 40+ Heinkels this time, with 20+ 109's flying high cover.

Counting Heinkels.

I lost everyone at this time as the air was full of planes. There were a/c falling out of the sky, smoke trails (and some slow downs - when they dropped their bombs).

Shipping under attack in Dover harbour

The final raid was non-historic just to kill the last 20 minutes and was essentially a re-run of the first wave.

Dover harbour after the raids

Eventually it was all done and the raids on Dover was over. We did lose some shipping and a few aircraft along the way. According to the above link, the Luftwaffe lost 18 aircraft in the raids.

I don't think we did too badly.

Netstats....

Good fun all. I'm feeling more at home in this sim now. I need to start skinning.

BoB mission - Stepping it up to CoD

July 27th, 1940

It's 5:30am on the morning of July 27th, the weather is misty and promises to be hot. Convoy Able is moving from Poole harbour to Southampton docks for loading.

Unfortunately for the pilots stationed of Tangmere, Westhampnett and Ford, the convoy has been spotted by a recon Condor out of Le Harve. It looks like its going to be a busy day......

 

Patrolling with WB over The Solent

Very atmospheric at 5.30 in the morning. The sun had been up for around 30 minutes and you could feel the cold misty morning as we climbed into the air.

 

Looking down on Convoy Able. Swanage just in the background

It was quite difficult to spot the ships from 12000ft and keep an eye out for enemy aircraft. Our sightseeing was interrupted as Splash spotted contacts that had slipped through and were approaching the convoy.

 

Convoy Able under attack.

Within minutes two of the ships were on fire and the sky was full of Stukas. No idea if there was any fighters in the mix as it was too frantic. Overall I think we gave a good account of ourselves and the attack was repelled and we headed back to Tangmere.

Great fun repelling the different attacks on the convoy which comprised of a flight of JU88's the second time covered by 109's.

One highlight for me was seeing a JU88 dive straight in as I was taking off from Sandown. It looked exactly like that famous picture from WW2 and I wished I'd had the sense to take a screenshot.

 

Smash and grab raid on Tangmere

 

109's ruin WB day. :)

We managed to defend the convoy for nearly two hours until it was way up the Solent towards Southampton. Splash managed to bag the Condor reporting the position of the convoy. This sim is getting better and better.

Is this Bloody April?

Nice mission last night, though a dip in Central Powers active fliers saw the Entente outnumbering the boche for a change.

Quick trip along the front with yours truly leading. Osprey calling out bandits, takes the lead and heads for them. I think I wasn't the only one who didn't see them until the tyres had whistled overhead.

 

The weather looks nice for April

In the brittle N17, I fully expected a slaughter, but being gentle with things seems to work. Good work from all pilots had the bad guys either running or on the deck.

A climb back up to patrol height, whiz across the lines and then back for tea and medals muffins. :-)

 

A landing of sorts - check Osprey's bent wing.

Great fun all and nice to have the 19 chaps in. A complaint from the ground crew that we had to hose out Marsh's cockpit and not because he was wounded. :)

 

Good mission all round. Thanks for joining chaps