16 Nov 2011

Took off in a Spit Mk2 last night (all the IX and V were gone from the forward airfield, but I have been practicing with the Mk2 offline anyway). Climbed parallel to the front, where radar showed 3 yellow squares adjacent to mine. Turned east at 9k, saw a report (on ch55) of a 109 over the airfield I just left. Turned back south to look for him, arrived as he was being shot down by another pilot. Turned east again, climbed to 11 k, entered yellow grid square, which promptly turned clear. The square to the south of it turned yellow though, which led me to believe the enemy had just crossed into that grid. I plotted a course to Cobreville, which was closest friendly town in that hex.

Passed thru clouds above town, saw 3 cons below me swooping and circling. Went down for a look and saw a 190, then a 109, and a Stuka. The 190 started to climb up to meet me immediately, almost head on, so I turned away and started my own climb. At that exact moment I heard bullets hitting my plane from behind (I did not see any tracers) so I broke hard right (almost blacked out totally), then converted it to a Split-S and turned back toward Allied lines. Over my left shoulder I saw a second 190 overshoot me, no idea where he came from, other than the cloud layer.

I also saw brown colored smoke coming from my plane! (Didn't notice it at first, it was only visible in the right rear view, not the left rear view.) I know white smoke is fuel, black smoke is oil/fire, couldn't remember what brown smoke is supposed to be but I was sure it was not good.

I put the nose down and started a shallow dive to pick up speed, jinking a little and trying to see behind me. I survived two more passes from the 190s (they were both chasing me now) but I got peppered both times. On the second pass, I tried a climbing turn toward the incoming 190 and he clipped across my tail with his plane. Controls instantly became very sluggish, and I saw him spiraling away trailing smoke. The other 190 overshot me, but his shells hit my pilot in the legs and my plane then became almost totally unresponsive. I added full elevator trim and pulled the stick all the way back, but the nose kept dropping anyway. As I was near Cobreville, I decided to bail out and did so before the plane went totally vertical. I got a RES result after I floated to the ground, and I saw my Spit crash west of town. Reported the name of the pilot who got me, and the location/type of bandits on ch55, but there was no response.

Went back to the airfield, nothing left but Blens and Mark Is, and it was pretty late, so I logged for the night.

nice report. I'll bring you back to this in a month or so and see if you can work out where you went wrong

Well, off hand I'd say:

1. Didn't check above the cloud layer before I decided to go down under it.
2. Didn't check my six again before I committed to descending.

and

3. Should have stayed home and played Silent Hunter 4, where I do much better.

good points...

check private for some more feedback!

https://19squadron.darkbb.com/t888-acroyers-aar-debrief#4715