Adlerangriff. Mission 25: 13th August (1. Portsmouth 1430)

[Wiesel]

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Mission Date: 00-00-0000 0000-0000

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Aerodrome: 
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Victory Claims:[table]
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Mission Date: 13-08-1940 1445-1545

Name: Wiesel
Rank: Leutnant
Unit: 6./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E4
Markings: Brown 4
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: Ditched safely in the water and was picked up by friendly ASR. Arrived back at mess in time for the weekly trip to the local brothel
Victory Claims:

Time	Place	Aircraft	Opponent	Confirmed
1545	Isle of Wight	Spitfire	Nitrous	No
1545	Isle of Wight	Hurricane	-	No

We took off from Theville for a long range fighter sweep over the Isle of Wight and further inlands. All three waves of Bombers passed our area of operations quietly, no sign from the Reds.
The 4. and 5. Staffeln had to cover the formations by close escort and were stretched over a huge area. 6. was all above them scanning the skies over Southhampton when we got contact with enemy Spitfires at co altitude. Minor dogfights started. I was dragged south over the Isle of Wight, where I saw a Bomber formation and lots of enemy aircraft behind them. With my high energy, I made several boom and zomm approaches on them, damaging a Spitfire and a Hurricane which both had to broke away. The Hurricane was badly damaged by my 20mm Minengeschosse. After my third pass, I was hit and wounded by an unseen enemy. Also, the radiator was broken. I set full climb power and course to the south immediatelly and with my actual height, I was confident to make it back to our lines.

I was on my way back from the Isle of Wight southwards with damaged water radiator and already gliding with a dead engine. I was then chased by two Spits (Vranac and Redeye) which passed by me, circled around and then opened fire. The first scored nearly nothing, the second one set my plane on fire. Between these passes I wiggled. They clearly saw that my engine was dead but shot me down anyways.

[Esri]

Mission Date: 13-08-1940 1445-1545

Name: Esri
Rank: Gereifter
Unit: 5./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E3
Markings: Black 12
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: Crashed into hangar
Victory Claims: Zip

We took off and zigzagged the bombers, when we arrived the danger zone, we did not see any contacts. We followed the bombers back to isle of white and tehre separated due to spitfire sightings. we got engaged by group of spitfires so we disengaged. We got bingo fuel and so we decided to rtb. All went well until we decided to formation buzz some plane on ground and i crashed into hangar. FML

[Pitti]

Mission Date: 13-08-1940 1445-1619

Name: Pitti
Rank: Major
Unit: Stab II./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E4
Markings: << + -
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: RTB undamaged

We had to escort Ju88s from Cherbourg to their attack on the RAF airfields Boscombe Down, Worthy Down and Andover (all in the same area north west of the Isle of Wight).

I took off together with the 6th Staffel at 1445 from Theville. There were three waves of bombers, each 10 minutes apart. The first wave crossed Cherbourg at 1452 at an altitude of 1000m.
I ordered the 4th and 5th Staffel to fly direct escort for the first wave while I swept ahead of the bombers with the 6th Staffel to clear the way for them.

At 1507 we reached the Isle of Wight and looked around for the enemy. But there weren't any which is quite unusually since they must have spotted us already with their radar.
The first bomber wave was approximately 4 minutes behind us. I kept circling the Isle of Wight area with the 6th Staffel until the bomber reached it. Then we attached us as high front cover to the bombers. We were flying at 7200m and were trailing vapour trails.

We left the first wave near their target to turn back to the Isle of Wight and look out for the second wave of the bombers. Still no sight of the enemy.
I received calls over the radio that the bombers can't find their targets and thus will attack the secondary target, the harbour of Southampton.

I gave orders to all Staffeln to take position over the Southampton area to clear it for the bombers that were about to attack it from north to south. The 4th and 5th Staffel now reported enemy planes starting their attack on the first wave some few minutes north of Southampton. The clock showed 1535. We spotted a squadron of Spitfires directly over the city. A big dogfight began. I heavily damged two Spitfires but couldn't observe their fate due to the overall action. We stayed and fought there for about 20 minutes. Then also the third wave of bombers had successfully bombed the target and could start our long way back home.

The Hurricanes and Spitfires were still attacking the bombers over the Isle of Wight. At 1595 I witnessed a victory by Hauptmann Trautloft. He shot down a Hurricane that was about to attack our bombers from the sixth o'clock position, over the south end of the Isle of Wight. Some nasty Spitfires attacked us till have way across the channel.

Low on fuel and totally exhausted, but happy that I survived once more without any damage, I landed at Theville at 1619. The whole Gruppe did a really good job and the number of our losses was quite low for such a long mission in this broad area of the channel.

[Keroth]

Mission 25. Tuesday 13th August, 1430hrs.

Name: KerOth
Rank:
Unit: 5./JG26
Aircraft:Bf 109 -E3
Markings: Black 18
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: Hurt
Victory Claims:

Time	Place	Aircraft	Opponent	Confirmed
-	-	-	-	-

Stig, Gray and I in swarm 2 took off from Theville airfield where we then started to cirkleclimb for a bit until we met with the bombers. When all the swarms of 5./JG26 was with the bombers we spread out and started to zigzag over the first wave.

Everything went fine we saw nathing for a good our i got lost at one time but made it back to my swarm, just a bit after i regrouped i spot a spitfire overtake me on my low right going for Stig! i quicly warn him and he dives, the spitfire continues as nothing happened. I decide idioticly that hes an easy target (He was) and get completely tunnelvision not thinking there proberbly is someone on my tail if he has the balls to just overtake me like that, they have decided to split their targets and go for one of us each. Ofcourse i realize it and look back way to late i managde to pull a slight bit up which proberbly saved me. A good ½-1 second birst hit my plane, i do some slight evasive manuvers but the bullethell stops and i see if i can find the bastard, and he was peeling off. I found this very strange because when i checked my engine it was fine, but as i look further over my aircraft i realized my instuments where smashed, fingroot damaged and tail unresponsive plus my pilot was bleeding everywhere, the most scary thing though was that he had shot my gunsight to pieces he must have missed my head by militimeters.

I decided to fly back the guy who shot my proberbly thought he instantly killed me and thats why he just left me, after a good 15-20 minutes of flight i saw the airfield and did a fine landing, it was a bit difficult because of the flapdamaged i had taken but still managdebel. After i jumped out of my plane i saw what state my plane was in and i could not believe what i had flown back.

There were bulletholes from the tail to the cocpit basically making my planes tail swisscheese.

[Trautloft]

Mission Date: 12th August 1940

Name: Trautloft
Rank: Hauptmann
Unit: 6./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E-4
Markings: Brown 8
Aerodrome: Theville
Pilot Status: OK, land at homebase at 16:20
Aircraft Status: Ok

Victory Claims:
Time Place Aircraft Opponent Confirmed
15:59 south of Isle of white, Hurricane, Pitti confirmed

[Villiers]

Mission Date: 13-08-1940 19:45 - 21:45

Name: Villiers
Rank: Gefreiter
Unit: 4./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E-1
Markings: White 5
Aerodrome: TheVille
Status: Pilot alive and well, not a scratch!
Victory Claims: None

Recently joining the squadron after finally being conscripted into the army, I was looking forward to our first mission. Took off and got halfway to the Isle of Wight and the amazing (launcher crash) done me over. However, I managed to get back up into the air and met many of the bombers which were going to the target or coming back. I saw some targets as they were called out over the radio and I engaged and had a few shots on one and broke off, after the last wave of bombers were north of the Isle of Wight there was a big formation of hurricanes moving in onto the bombers six. I dived and took a few shots and pulled off then dived back, after that I pulled off for home and flew back to base and I achieved a very bouncy landing. I congratulated the others on their kills and headed straight back to the pub. It was great flying with the Luftwaffe!

[Grey]

Mission Date: 08-13-1940

Name: Grey
Rank: Uf
Unit: 5th
Aircraft: Bf-109E3
Markings: black 1
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: OK
Victory Claims:

Time	Place	Aircraft	Opponent	Confirmed
-	-	-	-	-

I'd spotted pesky Hurricanes with the bombers, so I called it out and went in. Chased a Hurrie and gave him multiple potshots, as he was dragging me towards the deck, I didn't feel comfortable about that situation cause I was getting further away from our bombers, so I left the poor chap as it was, and returned as a good Prussian soldier back to do what I came here to do: keep those bombers safe! Everything from there on is a blank, lost comms and everything that goes with it.

[MarLeo]

Mission Date: 13-08-1940 1445-1630

Name: MarLeo
Rank: Uffz.
Unit: 6./JG26
Aircraft: Bf-109 E4
Markings: Brown 1 + -
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: RTB
Plane: 1A

Victory Claims:

Time	Place	Aircraft	Opponent	Confirmed
~1545	Southern Part Isle of Wight ~3000m	Spitfire		No

[IronJockel]

Name: IronJockel
Rank: Obergefreiter
Unit: 6th
Aircraft: E4
Markings: Brown 6
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: Injured, rescured by friendly ASR after crashlanding
Victory Claims: none

[Javelina]

Name: Javelina
Rank: Hauptgefreiter
Unit: 4./JG26
Aircraft: BF-109 E-4
Markings: White 13
Aerodrome: Theville
Status: RTB - minutes before landing, had a governor issue, but was able to put the bird down. It'll need some engine work
Victory Claims: partial kill of a Hurricane

Victory Claims:

Time	Place	Aircraft	Opponent	Confirmed
-	-	-	-	-

- Was already to spawn in, got an emergency call at work. (I'm the IT duty manager for this week). So I missed the airshow takeoff. Resolved issues at work and was able to spawn in at Theville about 25 minutes late. So I jumped into an E-4, (sorry Pitti), and went balls to the wall to get over to the Isle of Wight.

More info to follow....