Mission 11: 13 August 1940

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Robo
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Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Robo » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:39 am

Mission 11 (09/12/12)
Date: 13.08.1940
Airfield: RAF Lympne
Aircraft: Hurricane Mk.I NN-X

After the exhausting morning sortie, there was very little time for me to recover from the forced landing near Southhampton. My elbow is still sore as I smashed it against the side of the cockpit as one side of my harness snapped. To be honest I am actually quite lucky I am in one piece considering I was through hell of a fight with this guys - some of these Germans can really fly I tell you, I've heard the 109 I got over Southhampton was piloted by a famous ace with many victories. The bloke parachuted alright and got a warm welcome with a pitchfork pointing at his silly Prussian arse. I wanted to kill him but now I feel relieved he's OK. I am sure my trusty Hurricane with R for Robert will be serviceable in no time, but for the rest of the day, I will be flying one of the older reserve planes. The British are kind enough to provide us with plenty Hurricanes - some are quite beaten up, but we're still grateful for we can fight the German in England when we were not allowed to do so in our homeland. The mechanics are painting small Czechoslovak roundels on the sides of the cockpit to let everybody know we're proud to fight for the King and for the freedom of our families back home. Mor ho!

Another quite succesful sortie of the newly formed Squadron - after we scrambled from Lympne in the strength of 8 Hurricanes, we climbed to Angels 10 as other Squads kept reporting small groups of enemy fighters over Canterbury at altitude much higher than ours. We kept away from the action until we reached Angels 18 and were approaching Thames Estuary from the West. Coordinating with No.501 'Mandril' Squadron, we got position of two large Stuka formations approachong London area from Manston. We spotted them alright on our 2 o'clock low at Angels 13, good match with the intormation from our plotters. These guys are doing a jolly good job vectoring us towards the enemy. They were some 10-15 Ju-87 with escort. I decided to split the force and one section attacked the dive bombers while the remaining 4 Hurricanes stayed higher up to engage the 109s. We had no visual with any friendly Squadrons at that point. I ordered my wingman to follow me in a lazy turn behind the last of the enemy fighters - they didn't see us at all! I am coming close and gave him a quick burst at convergence range - 109 in flames, no parachute seen, confirmed by my wingman No.310_falkon over Sittingbourne, Angels 18. I still keep my speed up and am attacking another Messerschmitt - he's still climbing but I am fast enough, cought him as he was crawling at the top of his climb and hit him from point blank range - massive stream of fuel, glycol and oil poured out and he spun in. I followed him down as he recovered, his port wing aileron clearly on fire. I will kill you German. I attacked again, more hits seen and in he spins again and in he goes right there at the coast of Sheerness. I confirm this 109 destroyed by No.310_Nuker and myself as 50/50 shared victory. We're climbing back to the altitude, in the meantime we hear the rest of the flight having joy with the dive-bombers in Gravesend area, but apparently they only got 3 before they dove to their targets and dissapeared in low level flight. I reformed with Falkon over the Southend airfield as we climb after the initial scrap back to safe altitude. The rest of the group is with us except for those who expended their ammunition on the Stukas or got damaged and rtb'd. No.310_Ucho radioed for help as he got a Stuka but got shot down himself by a 109 over Thames. He parachuted safely. Flying east towards Manston I was struggling a bit behind the group as they had more time to climb and re-join when I noticed a 109 passing me on my 2 o'clock. He hasn't seen me and all I had to do was turn behind him and pull the trigger - the pilot got killed straight away as the e/a got lifeless after the first burst and the poor sod made no attemt to save himself. At this moment I was sure there must be more enemy fighters around and I got just lucky I happened to jump one loner - I checked above me, all clear. There they are below me, 3 109s climbing towards me already - full power, I am flying level towards the rest of the group. Guys are alerted by my excited shouting - whole Schwarm (minus one) just for ourselves! Five minutes later, 2 109s crashed in flames in Canterbury erea, last one crashlanded with massive fuel tank leak not too far from there. Jolly good. I used all of my ammunition and RTBd, remaining flight kept patrolling the Manston - Lympne area and also landed safely after a long and exciting sortie.

The No.310 squadron claims
3x Ju-87 destroyed
6x Bf 109 destroyed
at the loss of 1 Hurricane

Claims: 2x Bf 109 destroyed, 3x Bf 109 destroyed (shared) (0.50 + 0.33 + 0.33)
Plane: OK
Pilot: OK

Hawes
Posts: 290
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Re: Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Hawes » Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:08 am

Mission No.11 (9.12.2012)
Date: ( 13/8/1940)
Location: Gravesend airfield
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 (100 oct) - SD-T P3208
T/O: 16:40
L/D: 17:59

I took off as Blue Leader with SAC Bully and P/O Teepee on my wing. We followed Red Section up to Angels 20 over the Manston sector. As we were turning W up towards Eastchurch Blue section was bounced by 2 E/As. I turned and engaged the 109s, managing to get a long range burst off before the cowardly Hun dropped towards the deck. I ordered Blue Section to break off because I knew that there would be more E/As up high.
By this time Red Section was also engaged with some E/As S of Southend at around Angels 18. I flew towards the area and gave chase to many a contact which turned out to be a Spit or Hurricane.
I had become separated from my flight and went from Angels 2 up to Angels 12 along the north Kent coast without seeing any more E/As. I linked up with SAC “Kup” over Eastchurch and I led him in a final CAP over Dover.
I saw one final contact and closed into for the kill, only to find out it was another Hurricane!
As all seemed quiet, I vectored back to Gravesend and landed.

I claim:
Nothing at all. The enemy didn’t want to come any where near and play!

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 JU 88 destroyed
3 JU 88 probable destroyed
1 JU88 shared destroyed

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Re: Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Dickie » Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:31 am

Mission No.11 (9.12.2012)
Date: 13th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 (100 oct) - SD-K for King L2329
T/O: 16:40
L/D: 17:52

The squadron was having trouble with supply again and only mustered 6 Hurricanes when we were put on readiness. We also had some chaps on leave. The squadron was scrambled and vectored to the south for a patrol in central Kent, west to east, as Jerry was up to something again in the Pas-De-Calais. A flick of channel on the R/T gave us a clearer picture as No.71 squadron, the American volunteers, were involved with a large group of Stuka's and their escort had got stuck in. Brave but not well organised after sharing the airfield with them at Southampton last week. It wasn't pleasant, it sounded like a massacre until the R/T went quiet. I switched back to our channel "Mandrel...Mandrel.....are you there?". "This is Mandrel to Control, Sorry control, had some trouble with the crystals old boy". "Well bloody well pay attention Squadron Leader" was the stark reply. We were then vectored toward the action, I had contact with the buggers from No.64, they were up at Angels 20 on our vector and 2000ft overhead. "Turn 030 Mandrel, they should be ahead of you" I swung the squadron north at Canterbury facing North Foreland but nothing "Can't see anything Control", "Give it a little time, check your 10 O'Clock" came the reply There they were, 50+ Stuka low down and dozens of fighters above them heading up the Thames Estuary to cause a menace. "We have visual Control, thank you. Out.". I banked the squadron left and gave chase, at that point 2 Hun fighters engaged Blue section led by Hawes so we split the section I let his chaps deal with that whilst we went for the main group. Unfortunately we couldn't engage as too many fighters were about so I ordered an attack on them to drive them away and clear the way for No.310. Turns out these 109's were brightly painted with red white and green tails - Huns - Genuine Huns. We'd heard that Hitler had been pressing the Nazi cause by calling up volunteer elite pilots - this must've been their group. No.501 fought for a full 30 minutes south of Southend between 12 and 20 thousand feet, outnumbered, exchanging lead without striking home. There were Spitfires and Hurricanes milling about in support and a few went in but not for No.501 today, we all landed safely back at Gravesend later without a scratch satisfied that although we didn't score today we did remove the protective escort from the bomber group, opening them up for other fighters. They lost quite a few, rumour is that the Stuka is to be withdrawn from service, moral in their crews from downed pilots is very low - this will be a major victory in this battle so far, I am convinced Goering won't win this.

Claims
None

Bully
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Location: Gloucestershire, UK

Re: Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Bully » Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:40 pm

Mission No.11 - 9.12.2012
Date: 13th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 100oct- SD-B

For today's mission I was flying as Blue 2 with Tech Hawes as Blue Leader, and P/O Teepee as Blue 3. Was feeling reasonably optimistic that today I would finally be able to get into the Hun as the last two patrols had proved unsuccessful. The whole of 501 squadron quickly assembled on the runway waiting for the command to take off.
After a few minutes wait, we got the call from Red one to go, and we quickly all joined up in the air. We then headed out towards the Eastchurch/Manston area. Formation flying is still something I am trying to get used to, and often found myself some way away from the rest of Blue section for the majority of the flight out to the target area. But this will hopefully improve as I get used to flying my Hurricane.
After catching up (and passing) the rest of Blue section, we joined up over the Thames Estuary at about 20000 feet. We heard over the radio that Red section had spotted the bombers and were tracking them to try and let us catch up. However Blue Section were then jumped by two 109's diving down on me. they both flew passed me after a few off their bullets had whizzed by my aircraft. I then followed Blue leader as he chased one of the enemy, but the Hun dived down and we kept our altitude. Then I looked behind and saw a dreaded yellow nose diving down on me again, but after a quick turn and dive, he over shot and went down to join his friend.
Rejoining Blue leader we headed up the Channel to try and catch the bombers. We were getting reports from various places of squadrons mates engaged, but they seemed to be changing location every 30 seconds. I Looked around to find that I was by myself, but could see in the distance a speck and started to close in hoping it would a 109. It turned out to be F/Sgt Bunny, who I had to convince I was not a 109, I joined up with him.
We flew around a bit, and up and down a bit, and then saw a Spitfire engaged with a 109 at low altitude. We dived down to help out,but stayed back as it soon appeared that the enemy plane was in trouble. We reformed in the vicinity of Eastchurch and flew back to Gravesend. We were the first two back, closely followed by Red leader, and the rest of the squadron. We soon heard of the lack of victories, so we quickly reported to the pub for a beer. I hope I am doing the RAF a favour by saving all this ammunition!!

Claims - None
Damage - None
Pilot - Alive and kicking
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Kupsised
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Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Kupsised » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:45 pm

Mission No.11 - 9.12.2012
Date: 13th August 1940
Location: Gravesend
A/C: Hurricane Mk1 100oct- SD-A

Today I was flying as Red 2 with S/Ldr Osprey as Red Leader and F/Sgt Bunny as Red 3. We taxied up perfectly (for once) and got up without a hitch, heading for a CAP over the Thames estury. We flew in probably the best formation we've flown in a long while, although some comms problems with Red Leader led to a few too many near misses, so I had to drop back a bit and rely on Red 3 for engine settings. As we neared the estury we spotted the bombers heading in very low, but ignored them to engage a large number of 109s. Chaos ensued, and nothing really remarkable happened except that the whole of 501 was broken up and at various times I was formed up with F/Sgt Bunny, SAC Bully from Blue Section, at one point both Bunny and Bully, then in the end finally linked up with Tech Hawes, leader of Blue Section. In the mean time I had seen a number of 109s, but not hit anything (they were really zooming today and we had no hope of catching them at all, but that also left them with very little chance to hit us) and took only very minor scratches from a 109 when I had stupidly put myself in a spin trying to chase him. It was only very minor structural damage though as no majors parts were damaged and I couldn't even see bullet holes anywhere. I can only be sure he hit me because I heard the bangs.

After forming up with Hawes we went on a short CAP over Dover, on the way to which we saw a contact, but were disapointed to find out it was a Hurricane. Then I realised my main tank was empty (I had totally forgotten about fuel as I usually run out of ammo before I run out of fuel) and switched over to my reserve in the nick of time. We contemplated pursuing the hun back sausage side and doing a bit of a rhubarb (something myself and Tech Hawes have become fairly competant at lately), but decided it wasn't worth it and went to put in back at home base. On the way back, frustrated at not having hit anything, we started shooting at each other. We aimed well over the top so we wouldn't hit each other, except that at one point Tech Hawes did a violent role I wasn't expecting. I watched my rounds clip the edge of his wing , then he went in to a spin for a moment. I thought he might have had it, but quickly recovered and we carried on our way, lessons definately learnt but probably quickly forgotten. Was glad to find the whole of 501 had made it safely back to base with no one missing. No kills either mind, but definately a good show in one sense.

That definately brought home the potential embarrassment if Tech Hawes had gone down. Definately won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Claims: None
Pilot: A-ok
Aircraft: One or two very minor cosmetic scratches, but still ready to go up again soon!

Urizen
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Location: The home of the Oktoberfest, cheers!

Re: Mission 11: 13 August 1940

Post by Urizen » Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:44 pm

Second Storm of War Campaign

Mission 11 (Sun 09/12/12):
Duration: 90 minutes
Home Airfield: RAF Kenley
Aircraft: SH-K; Spitfire IIa

Took off at Kenley, flew around a bit, tangled with a 109 and landed back home. Any questions?

Claims: 1 109 Damaged (Damage to the fuel tank)
Damage: next to none
Pilot: Ok
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