Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

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Midge
Posts: 421
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:25 pm
Location: Leeds- West Yorkshire-Great Britain

Re: Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

Post by Midge » Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:46 pm

Squadron: No.615"County of Surrey"Squadron
Squadron code: KW
Pilot name: Midge
Date: 16th August 1940
Time: 1700hrs
Aerodrome: Kenley
Type: Hawker Hurricane Mk1[100oct]
Marking: C for Charlie
Serial no: P2564

Flying out of Kenley as part of blue section,Baron being blue1,Random blue2 and me as blue3,Panta took off and shook out in fine form.Contacts were spotted and blue section dived from the lefthand side onto the bombers[He111's],I followed blue1 down has he attacked the rightside element and saw him destroy a He111,i engaged the bomber to the left and blew it full of holes.Turning in for another run I destroyed a He111 "confirmed by both Baron and the skip"recieving one or two holes for my trouble[the hunny Oakly gunners were in fine form] out of ammo I rtb'd to kenley

Claims:

Destroyed: 1 He111[confirmed-Baron and Spud]
Probable: 1 He111
Damaged: 0

Losses:

Pilot:ok
Aircraft:a few holes
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Broadsword
Posts: 3124
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:54 pm
Location: Cheshire, UK

Re: Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

Post by Broadsword » Sun Nov 16, 2014 6:03 pm

Squadron: No.501 "County of Gloucester" Squadron
Squadron Code: SD
Pilot Name: Broadsword
Date: 16th August 1940
Time: 1700 hrs.
Base: Biggin Hill
Type: Hawker Hurricane 1a 100 Oct
Marking: E for Edward
Serial: P3582



"Yellow is engaged with two 109s, they are higher than us. Any spitfires around?"

After a long lazy afternoon trying to read the Times in my deckchair we had had a long lazy sightseeing flight across most of Southern England, but just as the time came to earn our pay by shooting down some Heinkels, Robo had spotted a pair of Bf109s approaching out of the sun like the sneaky rotters they were.

"Yellow three, are you still with me?"

The evening was all haze and glare, and I'd had only the briefest glimpse of the Huns that were stalking us. After climbing from Biggin over towards central London (where Yellow Two had had to RTB with engine trouble) Osprey had led us back in a patrol towards Guildford. All the while we could hear Wagon and Panta on R/T as they engaged Jerry, so we had a pretty good idea where the bomber squadrons should be, but all I could see were the few scattered Hurricanes of 501 around me. Even the ground was indistinct, with the setting sun glinting of every river and pond to make a spiderweb of glistening gold lines against the darkening farmland. The only solid, dependable point in the whole world for me was Yellow One, the dark outline of his Hurricane turning sharply to starboard close in front of me. So, yes, I was still with him, clinging on for dear life.

"I'm just turning into one that's streaming."

Finally Robo said something that I could confirm. Above him, off to the left of my nose as I cirlced around, I could see two dark, gold-highlighted dots against the impossibly deep blue of the August sky. For the life of me I couldn't make them out well enough to say what they were, but their leader had a thin stream of condensation showing at his starboard wingtip as he tried to turn with us. So far today it had been Robo's eyes that saw everything first, and if he said these were 109s I wasn't about to disagree. I followed him in a slowly climbing spiral as he tried to bring his Brownings to bear.

"Yellow Three break down, break down. Disengage, disengage, third 109 coming at us."

Robo tightened his turn, rolled over and started to dive, and I followed as best I could. We shot down towards the coast, presumably getting a little closer to the rest of 501 as they circled the bombers, but Jerry was apparently following us.

"Yellow section, prepare to break. Break, break."

Yet again Robo could see things that were beyond me, and it was keeping me alive. We rolled over to port and pulled hard, at which point my engine died. I was in a total panic. Had my engine taken a hit without my noticing it? Or was this just a mechanical breakdown? I kept turning, knowing my life depended on it, knowing that to lose sight of Robo was to lose any chance I had at avoiding the Hun. But without power I was losing speed fast in the turn. Had I had a fuel leak? No, the main tank gauge still read almost completely full. Wait a minute! How could it be full after all this flying around? I glanced at my fuel selector and saw the horrible truth - at some point on the climbout I must have accidentally knocked it onto 'Aux', and the Gods had chosen this point to punish me for my stupidity. Flicking the selector to 'Main' I immediately felt the engine cough back into life, the mighty Merlin dragged me forwards once again. Robo was by now half a turn ahead of me, but there was no way I was going to lose him now! We circled to port once more and tighted the turn as much as possible as the 109s overshot us. Thinking better of getting into a knife fight with two twisting Hurricanes, they powered onwards towards the coast.

"We're clear. Turning right and climbing back up."

I reversed my turn and came up under Robo's left wing, slightly amazed that after everything that had happened I was still in one piece, and still with my Section Leader. We began to chase down the homeward-bound bomber formation, with little hope as they were moving very fast indeed.

"Yellow Three, can you confirm those three 109s at three o'clock high?"

I could not. Try as I might I could see no sign of any aircraft to my right, but by now I was more than happy to trust Robo's eyes. We circled up towards them when suddenly the three became seven, and Robo reversed our course and led us away to safety. This time I hadn't seen anything at all, and would no doubt have gone like a lamb to the slaughter if not for my sheer good luck in being posted to Robo's section. (I've even gone back over my cockpit footage, and I can't find any sign of this group!) Clearly someone on the ground had better eyes than me, as the sky around us erupted with flak for a few moments, but we weaved our way southwards and eventually the skies cleared.

"Yellow, we have the bombers at 11 o'clock, try to get into them and attack."

Finally we had closed the gap, after circling and snaking and doing everything we could to make sure that no more 109s were hiding in the setting sun to pounce on us. We had climbed to angels 19 in anticipation of our attack, when we came across Dave playing tag with a 109. We joined the scrap but the cowardly Jerry obviously didn't like the odds any more so he extended away and we left him to it. Joining up with Dave we climbed up once more and closed in on an undamaged bomber, the only one I would see all day.

"Hit the port engine if you can, I hit the starboard one."

Robo had swung in behind the Hun and let loose with his .303, before climbing out to guide Dave's attack. The port engine now began to stream as well, as I dived down for my own attack. My first burst chewed into the starboard wing, just outside the engine nacelle, the second spattered across the fuselage, elevators, and port engine. I rolled out to port and downwards, circling round to join back up with the others.

"Great hits, great hits. He's definitely going down with two engines streaming well."

In the turn I finally lost sight of Robo, after all the twists and evasions we'd gone through. I could still see Dave, and tried to join up with him, but I was still scanning for Robo and the bombers and suddenly I lost Dave as well. Over R/T I coulde hear him join up with Robo and attak some stragglers, but I never caught sight of them. With fuel running low we headed to Hastings to meet up, but they had to RTB before I could get there, and so with my own fuel almost gone I settled back to enjoy the sunset over Eastbourne for a few moments, before coming in to a beautiful, if unobserved, three-point landing at Wilmington.


Claims:
Destroyed: None
Probable: None
Damaged: 1 x He111

Losses:
Aircraft: In fine fettle
Pilot: A little sweaty, but unharmed
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I must go up to the skies again, to the peace of silent flight, To the gull’s way, and the hawk’s way, and the free wings’ delight;
And all I ask is a friendly joke with a laughing fellow rover, And a large beer, and a deep sleep, when the long flight’s over.

Raptor
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2014 2:34 am
Location: Knoxville Tn

Re: Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

Post by Raptor » Sun Nov 16, 2014 7:32 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Raptor
Type: Spitfire Ia 100 octane
Marking: L for Romeo
Date: 16 Aug 1940
Base: Kenley



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

Losses:
AC: Lost
Pilot: Shot to pieces
"Dont just stand there get one up"

Vranac
Posts: 1281
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:59 pm

Re: Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

Post by Vranac » Sun Nov 16, 2014 7:39 pm

Squadron: No. 64 Squadron
Squadron Code: SH
Pilot Name: Vranac
Type: Spitfire Ia
Marking: V
Date: 16 Aug 1940
Base: Kenley

Took off from Kenley covering Hurricanes. East of Maidstone at 16000ft we spotted contrailing enemy aeroplanes. Started to maneuver to keep them in sight and flew toward enemy bombers that were heading towards London. Soon I saw two groups of four planes, one slightly higher than us and another much higher with contrails. We didn't have enough speed to catch even lower ones and the higher group started to attack us.That lasted around 15 min.
Finally situation cleared a bit and we got current bomber position from wing leader so we went to find them.
Spotted them pretty quickly and dived toward them and then I saw one smaller contact behind the bombers and dived on it.
It was a Me109. Even if I had altitude advantage I couldn't get a clear shot, he was maneuvering well and went toward the coast.
I was just closing on him again when my plane just shook. I was hit badly and shouted to Redeye: "Watch it another 109 ! ".
I broke but my plane was behaving very poorly, then another attack and I got hit in the other wing. Luckily Redeye jumped in and attacked him and probably saved my life. Badly crippled I managed to land at Wilmington.




Claims:
Confirmed: 0
Probable: 0
Damaged: 0

Losses:
AC: Badly damaged wings
Pilot: ok
Image

User avatar
Hollywood
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:57 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Adlerangriff. Mission 31: 16th August (1700 Guildford)

Post by Hollywood » Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:14 pm

Squadron: No.615 "County of Surrey" Squadron
Squadron Code: KW
Pilot Name: Hollywood
Call sign: Red 4
Date: August 16th 1940
Time: 17.07 hrs
Base: Kenley
Type: Hurricane I Rotol
Marking: F- Freddy





Destroyed: 3 he111

Pilot: OK
A/C: oil damaged
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