14 October, The Fatherland

Date: 14th of October 1941
Time: 20:45 - 22:15
Location: Etain - Frankfurt
Objective: Bomber Escort
Pilots: Dixon Dezey Acroyer

Red Section of 'B' Flight were assigned to fly close escort to a flight of eight Douglas DB-7 Attack Bombers of Escadron de Bombardement 6/17 of the French Air Force, to their target - a munitions plant in the city of Frankfurt, Germany.

Taking off in our Spitfires from the forward airfield at Etain, we headed to the rendezvous point near the city of Saarbrücken, along the franco-german border - circling there at angels 22 until the bombers reached our location.

Heading towards Frankfurt from the south west we positioned ourselves above and slightly behind the bomber formation to counter attacks from their high six o'clock position, which were soon to materialize when Dezey reported a high 109 diving on the rear of the bomber stream, which in fact turned out to be a flight of two Messerschmitt Bf109s with a third 109 trailing.

Seeing the two lead snappers dive down I immediately gave chase on the rear fighter whilst Dezey and Acroyer went for the one at the front.

Diving down I could see that my hun was trying to line up for an attack on the 'tail end charlie' bomber at the rear of the pack, and was firing short bursts from long range to try to sight his guns - as such I was forced to open fire at a range of some 250 - 300 yards (as opposed to the usual 100 - 200 yards) firing a two second cannon and machinegun burst, hitting the rear of the 109, resulting in a stream of thick white smoke bursting from the undersides of both wing roots of the 109, after which he gave up his attack and dove down out of sight - I was then unable to give chase and finish him, however - having committed to flying close escort to the bombers, rather than diving after the enemy for kills.

During this time the lead 109 had also been forced to disengage and dive away from the bombers by Dezey and Acroyer, leaving only the final 109 who, after making a half hearted head on attack without making any damage, lost his energy advantage and was also forced to flee to lower altitude - leaving the bombers unmolested as they began their bomb run, reporting good hits on the target area - with the target factory being completely destroyed, after which we escorted the bombers back to the forward field at Etain, running into no further enemy interceptors.

The escort mission was a complete success, without the loss of a single bomber or escort fighter, with three enemy interceptors forced to disengage, one streaming smoke heavily.

As I recall, it was more like:

MJ and Dezey shepherd the flock of bombers who are chattering about Rugby and football, while Acroyer wanders around all over the sky. (So many buttons and levers, what does this do? Hmm..)

Bad guy shows up and is promptly jumped by MJ, while Dezey chases the second one. Acroyer looks around wildly for the enemy.

First bad guy limps away smoking, 2nd bad guy runs away shaking his fist at Dezey.

Acroyer counts on his fingers and realizes one of those circles must be a bad guy and dives toward it. The enemy pilot pauses while making a sandwich and notes the tag on the approaching Spitfire, shrugs, then resumes making a sandwich.

Acroyer zooms by guns blazing, and the enemy pilot is forced to bump his stick with an elbow while layering the lunch meat properly on the bread. Acroyer wheels around, vision dimming and returning, for another pass.

Enemy pilot ponders whether to add pickles or not, as Acroyer lines up behind him and fires roughly half the aircraft weight in ammunition at him.

Enemy pilot decides against the pickles, and finishes making the sandwich. A single round plinks off the wing root, and he waves the sandwich at Acroyer, offering half.

MJ says "Don't make me come over there, Acroyer".
Dezey shakes his head sadly, but politely says nothing aloud.

Enemy pilot realizes he doesn't have enough sandwich for MJ, Dezey and Acroyer, so he keeps the whole thing and flies away waving a napkin over one shoulder.

Acroyer chases him for a bit, shooting now and then to show he still wants half the sandwich.

MJ reminds Acroyer that there is wine and cheese at the airfield.

Acroyer returns to flying around the bombers, until someone points out he is upside down again, and asks him to back off a grid square or two. Acroyer sulks, and follows the group at a distance, listening to his stomach growl.

Bombs are dropped, factories are blown up, politics are discussed, and everyone returns home.

All watch as Acroyer plows through fences, treetops, and brush to end up crossways in the exact center of the airfield...in the path of another flight waiting to take off. His ground crew pretends not to understand English, or even recognize his plane, so he is forced to push it to the hangar himself.

No cheese, but some whine.


(I got hits on the one enemy, but no kill. Sigh.)

Well, yeah - you could put it like that I suppose.

Forget the rest of that guff, I need to know what happened to the sandwich?

nice AAR, (both of them)

Brilliant report Acroyer, it had me laughing loudly enough to make the rabbits jump ! And you got a lot closer to that jerry than I did

I want you to know that, of all the pilots that post in our squadron forums, your avatar is the only one my wife remembers, Dezey! She sees it and says "Oh, it's the PUPPY! I remember that picture!". When I'm flying, she always asks 'Is that the puppy guy?', too.