30 September. Not so phoney war

MJDixon Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:38 am

Having flown an uneventful patrol around the Zeelands in search of enemy raiders, red section (Dixon and Speedy) began a combat air patrol around the town of Bouillon, scene of heavy ground fighting during the early evening.

Shortly after entering the combat area at an altitude of 17,000 feet, a flight of 5 contacts were spotted at 3 o'clock, some 2000 feet below, these turned out to be a flight of enemy Bf109s, as such we begain slashing attacks on the enemy fighters from above - however, we were unable to land any hits with our machinegun bursts, as whenever we began to dive on the enemy fighters they would always nose over and dive away and, knowing that there were five enemy aircraft to our two, I did not wish to lose out altitude advantage against them by chasing them lower.

Having not managed to score any hits on the enemy craft and, having by now lost most of our altitude advantage against the enemy, we disengaged to the south in order to break visual contact and return at higher altitude.

Continuing our patrol we then moved to the north of Bouillon, and again spotted a number of enemy craft at lower altitude - diving in on them, however again we found that the enemy did not wish to fight - and would dive out before we entered guns range, with myself only managing to damage on Bf109 by sneaking up behind the Hun unseen, firing a burst into his tail, however I was unable to do enough damage to him before he also rolled over and dove out.

We then spotted a flight of two Bf109s to the north east, and again begain to attack them from above - I dove down on one but was unable to get any hits on him, for the usual reason of them breaking away - Speedy also dove down and managed to damage a Hun, smoking his engine, before I then spotted another Bf109 coming up on Speedy's tail, I told Speedy to break and dove down to assist, but had too much energy to get a gun solution on the enemy craft - I then found myself under fire from behind - looking back to see another Bf109, Speedy told me to drag him to the south, but I took hits to my starboard side and began to stream a white cloud of coolant and, looking back again, saw three of the yellow nosed buggers latched to my tail, as such I was forced to turn and engage.

Speedy and I began a confused turning battle with the enemy, which numbered some five or more Bf109s, slowly bleeding off energy until we found ourselves at low altitude, I continued to take damage from a number of enemy fighters, whilst also spraying fire at any enemy that came into view - but being unable to get properly stuck in due to the risk of being picked off by their wingmen.

We continued to hold our own against the larger number of enemy fighters, but I again took damage, this time to my port wing, which restricted my turning ability significantly - as such I begain to scissor at ever decreasing speeds, in an effort to throw of the enemy aim and, hopefully - force them to such a slow speed that they would flop out of the sky - then attempting to fly straight towards Speedy, so that we might try to clear eachother's tails head on!

Having taken heavy damage and almost run out of tricks, we were eventually reinforced by aditional allied fighters and - the enemy now retreating back to the east, we limped back home.

We then began a second patrol starting around Wellin, together with a Pilot from another Squadron - and took it in turns to dive down over town in search of the enemy, only encountering small numbers of enemy Fighters, one of which Speedy shot down, the enemy Pilot bailing out of his craft after Speedy's attack.

We continued our patrol northwards towards the town of Andenne, which was coming under increasing attacks, and again took it in turns to dive down to look for the enemy - Speedy diving down over town just as a pair of enemy 109s attacked me from above - but thankfully I was able to break away from them before they got a gun solution on me.

We then tried to keep the two enemy fighters at bay whilst Speedy regained altitude from his patrol over town, and were just getting into a good position to turn the tables on the Boche, when I glanced to the west and saw another five aircraft coming directly towards us some 3000 feet which, as I had feared - turned out to be even more 109s. As such we were now faced with a battle against seven Bf109s at higher altitude, as such - knowing that it was a choice between either running away or being killed - Speedy and I immediately dove to lower altitude, losing contact with the enemy as we levelled off at 1000 feet and returned to base - with our total tally for the evening being two Bf109s confirmed destroyed without loss.