War Stories

[WWRenevant]

Post your story about any missions you fly..

[WWSandMan]

~~Salute!~~

With a nervous glance out my tent flap at the pouring rain, I realize the mission alert I've just been handed is not going to be an easy one to accomplish. Partisans in the Krasnodar area have reported many aircraft engines audible through the early morning murk. This can only mean the Germans are going to send an attack our way, even in this miserable weather.

I don my wet weather gear and trot through the mud over to the radio room, hoping that the Germans are being talkative today. With even a hint of where they are headed, I can have at least a few planes airborne to attempt an intercept. The news is good, well... sort of. The radio intercept guys have picked up the Germans trying to herd their bombers towards Goryachiy Kluch... right where I'm standing!

I send a runner to sound the alert, and make some fast pre-mission plans with XO and FL's who are nearby. With the weather as bad as it is, I can't see the Germans wanting to waste time with fancy aerial subterfuge. I suspect a straight-in run, with fighters in the lead.

I give the squadron leader of a visiting fighter unit some basic area landmarks to look for, and he heads out to brief his own men on what to expect. I'm worried about having these good folks flying low near the base in this weather, when I know the enemy is coming here with every advantage, but there's simply nothing to be done about it. His boys are good pilots, and will do what is necessary to stop the attackers.

With at least an outline of a plan in hand, I order the engines started on our old but trusty MiG-3UD's. With a salute to the crew chief, we point our noses to far end of the runway and wait for a small break in the wind before pushing the throttles forward. It's a good thing I ordered all non-essential people off the airstrip, as the wind gusts force our planes all over the place... my own ship bucks wildly as it struggles to gain altitude, after running completely off the runway on what had to be the worst looking take off in history.

The radio soon comes alive as everyone tries to find each other in the gloomy gray mass of clouds. If not for orders, I certainly wouldn't fly in this stuff... it seems mere seconds before I start hearing calls of in-bound bandits. My God... had we taken so long to get airborne that the enemy is already here??

After mushing around the local area for a bit, I finally break out of the clouds. After one pull on the engine's choke lever to produce some extra smoke, I realize my XO has managed to find me. Somewhere nearby is another pilot from our squadron, but we're unable to make eye-ball contact with each other.

We know by now from the radio that the enemy has indeed sent his fighters on ahead of the bombers. That's both good and bad... the fellows from the visiting unit are having a rough time of it, but the enemy bombers are surely unprotected. Dee -my XO- and I set up a ractrack pattern across what we hope is the enemy's flight path and start searching even more closely than before.

Finally, I spot them... three specs in close formation at my 9 o'clock low. Because of the haze, I'm unsure of which direction they're headed, and think at first Dee and I are meeting them head-on. It turns out I was wrong, so after a cold pass that did nothing more than arouse the rear gunners Dee and I press our attack. These bombers have already unloaded their "cargo", so I know we're too late to stop the raid. But we can surely make them pay for doing it...

Dee draws first blood, as a wing or tail falls from one of the Stukas. I launch my rockets at another and it explodes in a blinding flash. The tail gunner on the third does his utmost to foil our attck run, gaining some hits on Dee's ship causing it to smoke. I saddle up on this fellow, launch my remaining rockets (to no effect) and finally start puilling the trigger. The tail seperates and the last one goes down. Those Nazi's won't be coming back to bother us again...

Dee's engine is steadily leaving a thin, greasy black trail so we decide to head for the nearest airfield to land and affect reapirs. It's not going to be that easy though, as more enemy machines are seen through the clouds. In my wild neck-swinging trying to keep an eye on the disappearing enemy, I lose sight of Dee... but he soon calls over the radio he's under attack!

I scan vigorously, and finally find the machine gun tracers from a German ship lancing through the clouds. I aim my ship in that direction, and soon find Dee with an enemy 109 on his tail. I dive in hard and fast... dammit!, Too fast! With a hard, gut wrenching pull on the controil stick I'm up high again, and angling back down to my XO's tormentor. A few loose bullets to let the German know he's got company and the fight is on. Two or three times I think I've got him, only to have my shells go into space.

Finally the 109 pulls a beautiful looping Chandelle and locks his nose earthward, with the throttle wide open. Dee sees his chance, but doesn't have enough engine left to give chase. He soon departs to take his chances landing, while I engage the boost and chase the 109 north. I don't have enough speed, or enough engine left myself to catch the fast German plane, and after chasing him half-way back to his own base, I pull up into the clouds and reverse direction. That Gerry pilot will have to be dealt with another day.

I fumble my way back to the aerodrome, and make a couple cautious orbits to ascertain where all the bomb craters are. None on the main runway, and I settle my MiG down for a landing as ugly as the take-off, finally coming to stop a fe wshort meters from my tent.

I look across the field and see Dee's ship with a broken landing gear, leaning drunkenly on one wing. Evidently he found one of the bomb craters... BF's ship -he of the believe in high altitude, and whom I never did see in the air- is standing nearby, as is one or two others. I don't see the same number as were here before though...

Intel says that despite the bombers getting through to unload, they actually caused very little damage to the drome. The fact they didn't make it home is causing HQ to call this a successful mission.

All I see are the stacks of letters I need to write to the families of those men from the visiting unit who never nade it back. Men I never got a chance to know, yet I must write their families about their heroism this rainy day....

~~~