Mission 12: 15 August 1940

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Dickie
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Mission 12: 15 August 1940

Post by Dickie » Sun Dec 16, 2012 2:12 pm

Mission No.12 (15.12.2012)
Date: 15th August 1940
Location: Gravesend airfield
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 (100 oct) - SD-K for King L2329
T/O: 12:20

Due to bad weather there had been a lull in Hun activity for 48 hours allowing chaps to catch up on some badly needed sleep. The silly buggers had come over on the 13th and bombed Eastchurch for some reason, and paid a price. News is that my good friend Sailor Malan was shot down and bailed out during that one though. As usual big mouth Badar's "Big Wing" failed to turn up and prevent it happening anyway even though it's on their doorstep, by the time the fools had formed up the Hun had left the area. Anyway, after a quiet morning all hell broke loose, multiple plots were appearing over France and many squadrons were put At Readiness, including 501. Unfortunately, due to food poisoning we could only field 4 chaps today but nevertheless up we went. We were ordered to cover the convoy heading out from Southend and we did so nice and high up, things went bad early on when we lost Tech Hawes to engine problems. He wanted to fight on but I ordered him back to Gravesend, good job too because his engine ceased completely on approach.
The R/T was full of calls for scraps all over the place, reports of over 300 Jerries in the same area. Finally Mandrel were ordered south to pick up the remnants of a battered Luftwaffe bombing group, we caught Fritz turning for home over Essex and bore in, SAC's Kupsised and Bully with me. We had to be careful since there were 109's about. I picked my target, a pair of tail end Dorniers and hosed one of them into the engines and canopy for a full 4 seconds. Black smoke belched out and small fire started. I claim this Do17 as probable. I was close, too close, and in that instant the leader panicked, pulling up and banking into me - I could not avoid this Bosh and we struck. Lord it hurt, a mighty thump and my aircraft was a mess. Lucky to be alive and conscious I bailed out of my machine immediately. On the way down I saw that the Do17 was in a bad way and the crew had the same idea to jump. Well, I never shot him but I'm going to claim him as rammed and destroyed!! I landed in a heap on the Isle of Sheppey and was taken to the Naval hospital there for a check up. Badly bruise but OK.

Claims
1x Do17 destroyed
1x Do17 Probable (later confirmed by SAC Bully as destroyed. 1/2 each shared)

Lost
1x Hurricane I

Kupsised
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Mission 12: 15 August 1940

Post by Kupsised » Sun Dec 16, 2012 2:38 pm

Mission No.12 (15.12.2012)
Date: 15th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 (100 oct) - SD-A

Took off as Red 2 with S/Ldr Osprey as Red Leader, Tech Hawes as Red 3 and SAC Bully as Red 4. We climbed out to see to do a CAP over some ships near Saafend on Sea. As we climbed, Tech Hawes' engine controls buggered and he lost control of his rads and made it back to base, leaving me, Red Leader and Red 4 to fight on. A formation of bombers came in from the south and, after almost everyone else had had a go and we were itching to muck in, we were finally given the order to attack. As we lined up, we saw a Spit and a 109 engaged right near us, so broke up a little bit in confusion, but still maintaining course. I lost visual on Red Leader at this point, and didn't see him again until he had a nasty bump on a Dornier and disapeared about two minutes later.

I formed up with Bully and, just as we came in to range, the bombers started a 180 turn to head back home. Perfect. I dived in on one, raked him and got some good hits, but overshot quickly. I was kicking myself because I had set my gunsight up wrong and, if I'd have had it right, would have had a few more valuable seconds that could have meant the end of him. As I pulled around for another go I noticed 109's above me. At first I thought there were two and, as Bully was near by and on his way to assist, fancied my chances with them a bit as they were co-alt. I started to turn with them, being careful not to lose any altitude, when I noticed at least 5 more 109s behind them. 7 on 2 weren't exactly odds that I fancied, so dived for the deck as fast as possible. Two followed me down and I had to turn to avoid fire from them several times, but was always comforatbly out of range and I never felt particularly threatened. What was very annoying though was that I was watching the bombers getting further and further away and, as these 109s chased me right down to around 3,000 before disapearing, I knew I'd never climb back up there to engage again. As I came down I noticed one of the Dorniers Bully had raked splash down in the sea just North of Sheppy. It was turning out to be a good day for us!

I found myself at a few thousand feet over Eastchurch when I noticed I was surrounded by Flak. I know the boys down there aren't that stupid, so I hunted around and found a Dornier streaming like a bugger low level just off the south end of Sheppy. He was only leaking a bit of fuel, but it came out in bursts, sometimes several feet in diameter and other times not there at all. It looked a bit strange, but I went in anyway. Just as I was in range one of his bursts started and I couldn't see. I lost sight of him, but pulled the trigger anyway, and came out the cloud of fuel to find his crew bailing out and the bomber spiraling towards the sea. Scratch one, shared. I then met up with Bully over Eastchurch, us being the only two remaining members of 501 up, and we decided to RTB back to Gravesend. In my eagerness to land, I accidently put down at Rochester, before realising my mistake and quickly getting back up again to land at Gravesend. Both me and Bully then came in to Gravesend and executed perfect three-pointers. Even though 501 had a bit of a rough day overall, for me and Bully it was one of our best days so far.

Claims: 1x Dornier Damaged
1x Dornier Destroyed (shared with unkown, confirmed by Bully)
Aircraft: Unscathed
Pilot: Unscathed

Hawes
Posts: 290
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:23 pm

Re: Mission 12: 15 August 1940

Post by Hawes » Sun Dec 16, 2012 3:40 pm

mission No.12 (15.12.2012)
Date: 15th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 (100 oct) - SD-T

T/0: 15:11

I took off in Red Flight with S/L Osprey and SACs "Kup" and Bully. We were ordered to patrol over a small convoy passing to the N of the Isle of Sheppey.
We formed up and kept fairly well together until we started to patrol over the Convoy, which was now S of Southend. At this point I started to notice my speed dropping off and I was unable to operate my radiators. The temperatures started to rise and I had to leave the formation. As I reduced power and glided away I thought I might be able to nurse the old girl into combat, but after a few minutes I knew I had to RTB. I was by this time over Eastchurch at Angels 11. I turned N/W towards home and was over Rochester when I saw that I wouldn't make it back to Gravesend with much height to play with.
I then turned around and circled down over Eastchurch. At Angels 1, I let down the flaps and the landing gear, but neither worked. I was dropping fast and couldn't get the hand pump to work, so I had to belly land the old girl on the airfield. I didn't damage her too much and the "Flight" on duty said she"ll do for spares if nothing else.

I had a drink in the mess and then came out to watch a scrap of to the N, I saw at least 3 E/As go in, and what I thought was a Hurricane. Surely from another squadron.
Some POWs had been rounded up meanwhile and they passed through the guard house on their way to camps elsewhere. They looked extremely peeved, but what did the swine expect would happen!!!

I got the crew bus back to Gravesend and spent several painful minutes explaining to my ground crew how I'd lost "their" aircraft. Still I should have a replacement by tomorrow!

I claim:
A few empty glasses of beer, and nothing more

Campaign tally:

2 JU 87 destroyed
2 JU 87 as a probable
2 JU 87s as damaged
1 Bf 109 destroyed (confirmed)
2 BF 109 Probable
2 Dornier 17 destroyed
3 Dornier 17 damaged
2 damaged JU 88 destroyed
3 JU 88 probable destroyed
1 JU88 shared destroyed
Last edited by Hawes on Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

Bully
Posts: 2676
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:06 pm
Location: Gloucestershire, UK

Re: Mission 12: 15 August 1940

Post by Bully » Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:22 pm

Mission No.12 (15.12.2012)
Date: 15th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 100oct - SD-B

For today's mission I was flying as Red 4, With Tech Hawes asRed 3. there were only four pilots of 501 available today, S/L Osprey and SAC Kup made up the other pair. We took off from Gravesend with orders to protect a convoy around the mouth of the river Thames.
We made contact with convoy after around 15 minutes and started to climb to 24,000 feet. I had for some time been lagging slightly behind Red 3, but all of a sudden shot past him. Heard over the radio that his Radiator lever was stuck and his engine had overheated, so had to RTB. I had visual on Red 1 & 2, and eventually managed to join them to form a group of three.
After patrolling over the convoy for a few minutes, Red leader yelled out over the radio that he had spotted the bomber formation, now heading north. I followed Red leader as we lined up an attack, but lost visual on him when he went to investigate a contact flying towards us - turned out to be a Spit. I now lined up on the group of two bombers at the back of the formation started to dive in.
I saw SAC Kup go in and attack and he got a few good hits into some of the Hun. I followed suit, and lined up on the rear bomber. My Bullets smashed into his left wing, throwing all sorts of crap over my aircraft. As I flew over the first bomber, the next one got a going over, and he started to pour back smoke out of right engine. He dropped out of the formation. I swung my plane round to the left to dive down and pull away but found myself nicely lined up on the tail of a third bomber. I pulled the trigger and got some nice shot into him. I sensed another kill but got a shout over the radio to break as there was a 109 on me. Broke hard right and down to escape. It turned out it wasn't me that ny fellow pilots had been watching but by this time I had lost to bomber formation. Still better to be alive than to wait and see if a 109 was on my tail!
I had seen S/L Osprey plane get rammed by the enemy bomber, so made radio contact with Kup who was now at a lower altitude engaged with some 109's, somewhere in the vicinity of Eastchurch. I turned away to find him, but by the time I got near the enemy had gone. We re-grouped as a pair and headed back to to Gravesend, via a slight detour to Rochester.
After making it back to base in the last few missions without firing a gun, it was nice to finally be able to report some victories.

Claims - 1 x Dornier Probable, 2 x Dornier damaged
Aircraft - no Damage
Pilot - celebrating with a few beers.
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