Mission 6 : August 1940

[Bounder]

Mission 6 (05/08/12):
Duration: 1hour 17 minutes
Spitfire IIa

After all the false starts we eventually got going - air start at Westhampnet. Formed up with 64 Squadron and proceeded to climb toward Selsey Bill and then onward toward the Isle of Wight; changes to the FM in the recent patch hampered our climb where every so often a member of the flight would report engine overheating and so the group would level off and throttle even further down until temps had settled down. We climbed at 24,000 rpm, 50% throttle, rads open and adjusted mixture - funny thing was that seemingly one person would experience overheating on the same settings as another who was not.

Arrived over the Isle of Wight at 17-18 thousand feet and circled back towards Selsey Bill to meet up with 501 Squadron. Upon locating 501 we dropped our altitude slightly and also slowed down in order not to shoot past them - this was probably my mistake as whilst we were slowing and watching the Hurricanes we were meeting up with, 109s dropped down from a greater altitude with all the speed and energy advantage. As we were reacting to the 109s diving on the Hurricanes we then found 109s diving on our six and broke to engage. Lag was particularly bad, I've not had a slow down or stuttering in the campaign until now - the level of lag was particularly surprising and made defending a bad situation untenable with FPS dropping to single digits. After going evasive and taking light damage to my rudder trim I found myself slightly below the engagement with my engine running hot and struggled to get back into the fight. Quickly we lost 4 of the 6 Spitfires in 64.

After the lag fest I managed to meet up with Fenris down at 8 thousand feet between Selsey Bill and the eastern tip of the IOW and in doing so spotted 3 Hurricanes; we followed the Hurricanes hoping they knew where the bombers were and did a circuit around Portsmouth harbor to Selsey Bill. Spotted low flack east of Portsmouth but after investigating no contacts could be found initially.

Turning out to sea toward the Hurricanes we spotted some contacts which attacked the Hurricanes - more 109s. Aware we were low on fuel we proceeded to help out - boost cut out on and in we go - lag free this time! I got good hits on Farber's 109, striking his nose and cockpit area from 45 degree angle as he attempted to evade. Got more hits on him again from a side angle toward the cockpit/nose and then he got a shot off on me. He proceeded to disengage on the deck toward the IOW and I gave chase, frantically checking my six - couldn't see anything but was very aware the 109 was slowing climbing and was paranoid there could be something on my low six. Fenris followed the chase and spotted an extra contact with us - and a bit of wiggling revealed a 109. I broke off and turned back for Selsey Bill but Fenris became engaged and so return with a small altitude advantage. Managed to get on the chap following Fenris, who broke and zoom climbed - I had an energy advantage so followed his climb and managed to get hits on his six. The 109s promptly disengaged. Fenris was running on fumes and landed on IOW, I believe running out of fuel on landing. I had about 10 gallions ish left and made it back to Thorney Island, landing with around 5 gallons left. Lord knows how the 109s made it back to France all beaten up from the IOW given we were out of fuel. Farber did report they were limping back home so I kept an eye on his SoW mission 6 record hoping he would plunge into the sea for a bit of a swim - it doesn't record his landing but weirdly his records report he shot me down?... which is weird as he didn't. The server and my records show my RTB and oddly enough I had taken a screenshots including my returning to base as my spit was looking pretty on the ground with the grass and trees back in...

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/542 ... 6CE690877/


Claims: one lightly damaged bf109; one more heavily damaged 109 (possibly destroyed - server records no landing but server records are meh)
Pilot: ok
Plane: SH-B ok, light damage received to rudder trim.

[EDIT:] full server log report now posted on SoW forum. Myself and Gromic record credit for an AI bf109e-1 following Farber's disconnect without landing at the end of the server. Server also reports my downing an AI bf109e-4 following Steiner (the other 109 over IOW) disconnect, although his records report a safe landing