Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 19th July 1940

RAF flight reports for the epic ACG Historical Campaign - "Peace In Our Time" covering the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain. We are recruiting new pilots so you can join this - post in the Reception to request a seat. This forum is publically viewable.

Moderators: Board of Directors, Administration Staff, Skin Team, Treasurers

Nitrous
Posts: 307
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:41 pm

Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 19th July 1940

Post by Nitrous » Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:39 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Nitrous
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire
Marking: I
Serial number: GLORIA

Synopsis:
Took off from hawkinge after being given the order to scramble and intercepted fighters with pink flight at angel 20 east of ramgate.
Shot one of the 109's radiator and broke off to engage other contacts towards deal. Engaged another contact just east of manston bay and got hits in on him, when his wingman shot out my radiator.
I ran towards manston bay/ramsgate and radioed for help. The 109 was about to open up his guns on me when in came LUKE and shot him to shit and he went in the drink(Thanks luke). With my engine giving up on me I ditched 100yds off the coast of ramsgate and swam to shore. After taking a 10 minute bathe on the beach I made my way back to RAF Ramsgate and sunk a few pint's of a ale in the officers mess before returing to hawkinge for my de-brief.


Claims
Destroyed: 0
Probable: 1
Damaged: 1

Losses
Pilot: OK
A/C: Ditched near the beach of ramsgate
Last edited by Nitrous on Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Katt
Posts: 185
Joined: Sun Dec 22, 2013 6:51 pm

Mission #10 - 19 July 1940

Post by Katt » Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:52 pm

Squadron: No. 615 "County of Surrey" Squadron
Squadron Code: WK
Pilot Name: Katt
Date: 19 July 1940
Time: 1320
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Hawker Hurricane
Marking: "P"
Serial number: R4194

Synopsis: Flew as wing for No. 401 Wolverine - good squadron flight integrity - Manston strafed by 109's.


Claims
Destroyed: None
Probable: None
Damaged: None

Losses
Pilot - OK
A/C: No damage, landed and secured
Image

Von Archie
Posts: 1868
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:30 pm
Location: Stratford Upon Avon UK

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 18th July 1940

Post by Von Archie » Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:56 pm

Squadron: No. 615 "County of Surrey" Squadron
Squadron Code: KW
Pilot Name: Archie
Date: 19 July 1940
Time: 1320
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Hawker Hurricane
Marking: K
Serial number: R4192

Synopsis: Flew as No2 to Hollywood, suffered radiator failure while engaged with 109's strafing Manston, and had to land there. Must stop pulling tits.


Claims
Destroyed: None
Probable: None
Damaged: None

Losses
Pilot - OK
A/C- Needs a new rad
Last edited by Von Archie on Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i5 4690k / MSI Gaming 5 / 2 x 8 GB Crucial Ballistix ram / Zotac AMP! 980Ti / 2 x 250 SSDs
VPC MongoosT-50 joystick / MFG Crosswind pedals / GVL 109/111 Throttle / Oculus Rift

Luke
Posts: 423
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:51 am
Location: Burnley, UK

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 18th July 1940

Post by Luke » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:01 pm

Squadron: No.64 Squadron
Squadron code: "SH"
Pilot name: Luke
Date: 19 July 1940
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire Ia 100oct
Marking: "R for Romeo"
Serial number: P9563


Claims
Destroyed: 1x BF109
Probable: 0
Damaged: 0

Losses
Pilot: OK
A/C: OK
Image

Random
Posts: 614
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:16 pm
Location: Croydon

Re: Mission #10 - 19 July 1940

Post by Random » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:04 pm

Squadron: No. 615 "County of Surrey" Squadron
Squadron Code: KW
Pilot Name: Random
Date: 19 July 1940
Time: 1320
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Hawker Hurricane
Marking: N
Serial number:

Synopsis: Took off from Hawkinge, vectored towards contacts to the east. Had about 10 minutes of confusion as we met up with Mandrel and Freema squadrons, mistaking them for the Hun. Finally meet the enemy and mill about for a while but I manage to get into a spin and lose a lot of altitude. I get seperated from the rest of the squadron and spy a single 109 heading east from Deal. I dive down and latch onto his six, waste the majority of my ammunion before he turns back towards deal and I manage to get him burning. Unfortunately no witness so only a probable.

I spot aircraft heading towards Manston at about 3000 feet and engage. After a second my guns run dry with a couple of hits on the EA. I stay with them as they seem totally oblivious... The three of them start to strafe manston which I considered to be a bloody bad show. Called the rest of 615 in to teach them a lesson and I try to maintain the pressure on them.

I hear over the radio that all three eventually go in, and we RTB to hawkinge.


Claims
Destroyed:
Probable: 1 BF 109
Damaged: 1 BF 109

Losses
Pilot - OK
A/C: A few bullet holes

Fenris
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:25 pm
Location: Norway

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 18th July 1940

Post by Fenris » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:07 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Fenris
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire
Marking: F


Synopsis:
Followed pink 1 into combat as we pursued 2 109's outside of deal at angels 20. Got on the inside of the tail-end 109, in position to give him a lead breakfast. I followed him in the dive and hit him several times setting him on fire. I left him at angels 10 as i was having problems with overspeeding, he was last seen on the deck streaming black smoke but no longer on fire. As i started to climb back up i was jumped by 2 109's which resulted in loss of rudder control as well as several electical problems. More spitfires joined the fray, i RTB'd to Eastchurch and landed safely.


Claims
Destroyed: 0
Probable: 1
Damaged: 0

Losses
Pilot: OK
A/C: Landed at Eastchurch
- Fluffy slippers on, gun button to fire! -

Binkitone
Posts: 83
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 6:19 pm
Location: South Gloucestershire, England

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 19th July 1940

Post by Binkitone » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:50 pm

Form 540
Mission date: 19th July 1940
Aerodrome: Hawkinge
Aeroplane: Spitfire 1a (100oct) / SH-W / K9964

Synopsis:
Scrambled from Hawkinge Aerodrome following Green Flight with S/L Gromic as Red Two, circled the airfield. Formed up as lead with Red One as wing, continued to gain height with the rest of the squadron passing through 20k east of Deal, eventual making contrails on a wide left hand turn over North Forland. Many reports of 109s at much lower altitudes, instructed to descend to 10k to assist with contacts over Hell Fire Corner, on reaching 11k, further directed to descend sharply towards two ships a few miles south of Dover to support Bounder engaged with 109s. Identified several contacts to my low 10 o'clock, bank sharply over to my left into a dive behind a group on the deck, informed that I was on the six of a 109, I was not sure in the R/T chatter, so as I closed in to identify, I was still assured that it was a 109. My burst was though quickly shorten as I could plainly see that it was a Spitfire, in fact there were at least four Spits chasing one 109 towards the French coast. I announce that I'm breaking off back towards blightly, at that moment a 109 passes me by towards France, the general consensus was that there were to many 109 in this area so I continued to climb to RTB.

Claims
Destroyed:0
Probable:0
Damaged:0

Lost
Pilot status: OK
Aeroplane status: OK.
Image

Venom
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:53 am
Location: Bedfordshire

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 18th July 1940

Post by Venom » Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:00 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Venom
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire
Marking: Z
Serial number: Unknown

Synopsis:
Scrambled from Hawkinge with blue flight lead by No.64_Thaine, with No.64_Dange as number 2. Climbed to angels 18 east of Ramsgate. I focused on staying on the 7/8 o'clock of blue 1 as we struggled to find enemy contacts. Eventually we saw a lone 109 producing a contrail on our high 3 o'clock. The 109 dove on another group of allied fighters and Blue 1 attempted to dive in pursuit, but was too slow. I then spotted Multiple 109's passing in the opposite direction very close on my left wing, We turned onto them but didn't have the energy to engage. I continued to shadow Blue 1 until he put on the brakes and I overshot, at which point I completely lost him. I flew around trying to find him to no avail, while coms were choked up by other flights engaged with 109's mid channel.

Not long after that, I latched onto the six of another lone spitfire at around angels 10, providing him with some cover. We soon bumped into two 109's towards the top of a climb. They were slow enough for me to lift my bird around on one of them and fire a couple of bursts getting light hits. I tried to hold on his tail, but the bugger went into a defensive dive. I wasn't going to catch him, so broke away to maintain altitude.

Five or so minutes later, I heard No.64_Bounder on coms, stating he was in trouble on the deck with a 109 on his six. From his description of the fight, I was able to identify him at long range towards my very low 12 o'clock, immediately diving to engage. As I was getting lined up, Bounder managed to shake Jerry off by breaking hard right, while the 109 continued on straight and level. I had the speed advantage and got up behind him with my guns singing the taka-taka song. I struggled to stay on his tail while he made some decent manoeuvres. At one point slamming on the breaks so hard that I had to swing my rudder like a jive dancer as to not over-shoot. Luckily I had my Leica on me and was able to capture a portrait of the little bugger during our dance off, (which I've attached to this report for intel purposes). At this point he fired his throttle and started pulling away from me, but I managed to get some good hits leaving him with a black smoke trail before Bounder blasted through on my close left, finishing him off nicely.

Bounder and I soon engaged with another two enemy fighters, one of which I got a fair amount of hit's on, but not enough to bring him down. The furball was over almost as quickly as it started, with both 109's running back to France with their tails between their legs. We then broke off back in the direction of Dover to RTB, along with another spitfire who I did a beautiful tandem landing with at Hawkinge.

Claims
Destroyed: 1 (shared with Bounder)
Probable: 0
Damaged: 2

Losses
Pilot: OK
A/C: Undamaged

Image
Last edited by Venom on Mon Mar 10, 2014 3:39 am, edited 3 times in total.

Bounder
Posts: 455
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:03 pm
Location: Notts UK

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 19th July 1940

Post by Bounder » Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:02 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Bounder
Date: 19 July 1940
Time: 1320
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire
Marking: B

Synopsis: Took off from Hawkinge as pink 2, the squadron spearheaded by white section leader Vranac. Followed radar which took us on a wild goose chase. We ended up over the Deal to Manston area and met up with Hurricanes at around angles 18. We received radio reports (server messages) that Defiants were getting mauled by the Hun but with no ability to contact them we were helpless to find out where this was going on. Things got messy with the shear number of allied fighters over the east coast - we frantically checked as radar reported 109s in the area but all we could see were Hurricanes. Finally I picked up a group of 109s feet wet south east of Manston and pink section engaged. The 109s split up and we locked on to two, Fenris picking up the wingman and Nitrous the leader. I witnessed Fenris hit his 109 getting the Hun venting - I then covered Nitrous' attack and we took turns on Jerry. He was a wily chap who's manoeuvres reminded me of 'breakdancing', whatever that is. Nitrous got the lions share, getting the 109 venting. We left Jerry to go for a swim as his engine died mid channel to head back to hells corner where Fenris was in a bit of a pickle...

By the time we got back Fenris reported being ok but we soon picked up more. Nitrous and I picked up another pair and engaged one each. Nitrous followed his low whilst mine went high. I followed him up and back down as he bounced a lone Hurricane, with Jerry missing the bus. I got hits into the 109 but could not quite finish him off. With our speed the fight quickly found it's way mid channel, and with my spider senses tingling I pulled away from his six to reveal a second 109 on mine. I "tactfully retreated" to the shipping off of Dover with my new friends in tow and was met by the might of 64 squadron lying in wait...

The 109s turned tail and now the boot was on the other foot. We pursued the 109s with No.64 Venom leading the charge. We caught one of them mid channel, Venom damaged the Hun from range and I burst past to put in the final blow - shots hit the cockpit and the 109 lurched suddenly downwards into the drink. I called out to turn back as we were dangerously close to the French coast and 3 Spitfires followed. Unfortunately a couple of minutes later it transpired that S/L Gromic and F/S Binkitone had inadvertently missed the call and had met two high 109s. We span around and raced back, Gromic had lost elevator controls and was now a sitting duck - F/S Binkitone kept the 109s busy and S/L Gromic must have pulled stunts out of his arse to survive in his damaged Spit. The reinforcements arrived and drove the 109s off - P/O Luke pursuing one and leading aircraftman Venom and myself the other. We got some hits into the 109 but with them in retreat we turned back to RTB as the raid was over and it isn't cricket to pursue Jerry back to his lair.

We escorted Gromic who was badly damaged, control surfaces jammed he could muster no more than 90mph. We returned to Hawkinge and Gromic landed perfectly, a real feat given his state. Those remaining landed soon after. Today's sortie was a real bitty affair, I believe we lost three Spitfires although I hear the pilots survived and are being picked up. Reports are still coming in.

Claims
Destroyed: 1 109 shared with Venom
Probable: 1 109 shared with Nitrous (109 heavily damaged with engine visibly dead mid channel witnessed by Nitrous and I)
Damaged: 2 109s

Losses
Pilot - OK
A/C: OK, no damaged sustained.

Image
Image
My PC specs: Win10 64 Pro, CPU i7-3820 4.4GHz, 16GB RAM, GPU Nvidia 1070 (8gb vram).
Controls: Microsoft FFB2, Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle, MFG Crosswind Pedals, TrackIR5, & a bottle of Scotch.

Redeye
Posts: 1487
Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 2:50 pm
Location: Haugesund, Norway

Re: Kanalkampf. Mission 10: 19th July 1940

Post by Redeye » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:17 am

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Redeye
Base: Hawkinge
Type: Spitfire
Marking: P
Serial number: K9964

Synopsis: Took of as White 2, with Vrananc as lead to intercept. Beautiful flying weather. We
circled in right hand turn after takeoff from Hawkinge and I could see the rest of 64
taking off behind us. We were lead element and as we climbed east, there much much
debacle on coms, interpreting the vectors and locations of the enemy formation.

We arrived in force over Deal and observed numerous contact around angels 20, but many
suspicious crosses in the sky turned out to be Hurricanes operationg in the same area.
Reports started coming in of a group of Defiants under attack by E/A, but the could
not be seen even though Ground Control claimed they were in our sector. A right bloody
mess today.

Tried to keep my postion in the flight while Vranac desperately weavered left and
right scanning the sky until the call came that E/A indeed were in the area. Vranac
picked up a 109 and I followed the best I could. He shot could see no damage at this
time.

After a few minutes of turning a 109 came screaming down, ramming Vranac and taking
his wing clean off. He reported the damage before his comms feel silent. The 109
continued like nothing happened and what later attacked by a spit, but I could not see
the letter code. I followed the same E/A as he turned south, just feet wet east of
Deal and as I approached firing range I could feel my heart pumping adrenaline. I
opened up on him at 250 yards, observing hits in both wing and in the fuselage, but
without causing catastrophic damage. He went vertical with me on his six before he
boomed down and engaged me in a scissors fight. I felt confident that I would outturn
him at this level, but I had to much energy and the bastard managed to get the
tightest turn and let off a pot shot at me as he passed. I heard a loud bang and
vibrations in my aircraft, observing a hole as large as Nitrous' mouth in my right
wing root. I still had control and considered staying in the fight, but realizig the
folly of this I disengaged and headed for the deck over Manston in a shallow dive.

I observed several 109's weavering about on the deck, picking fights with pilots
limping home. I did my best to avoid a fight and took her down to treetop level. My
airframe was now shaking heavily and I was drifting sideways, but temps were ok. I
mananged to get back to Hawkinge (I avoided Manston as it was too hot), but my gear
would not deploy. I used my emergency deployment system and the wheels came down, but did not
lock in postion. At this time, my airframe was positively shaking so I did not dare to
try and climb to altitude and jump. I put her down on the grass going east/west and
belly landed successfully, breaking my one extended wheel and prop. I was hauled out
of the spit by the Hawkinge firecrew and driven over to the dispersal and given a
blanket, a mug of tea and a cigarette. As I watched from the dispersal, I could the the Skipper
putting down his crate successfully despite severe battledamage. Nicely done.

I thought of the 109 pilot. I found myself hoping he had made it back to France alive. And what had
happened to Vranac? Did he get out or did he follow his spit down in the drink?
That evening I was flown back to Kenley in a Miles Magister and had my arse handed to
me for not following correct procedure for emergency landing. Well, at least my crate
would get fixed and I was still alive.

Claims
Destroyed: 0
Probable: 0
Damaged: 1

Losses
Pilot: OK
A/C: Damaged, but fixable (No thanks to me according to Hawkinges chief mech)

Locked