After Action Report May 14, 2008
Skies over Europe
Two FW190-D single seat fighters bounced our flight of two P-47D Thunderbolts as we crossed into Belgium. I was flying wing in our flight. The lead attacker settled in well behind me and fired off a distant burst. A couple of holes appeared along my fuselage. The attacker's wingman lagged far behind his leader and my lead was able to hole his aircraft a little. It was sloppy teamwork on their part.
My lead was able to take advantage of the strung out enemy formation and closed within medium range of the trailing wingman. He let loose a burst and I saw several rounds strike the enemy aircraft about the canopy. There was no smoke or flame that I saw, but the enemy a/c rolled over and entered a death spiral. No one bailed out. My leader's second kill in as many days.
After that, we tried to take advantage of our two to one advantage, but the remaining enemy pilot was awfully good. Round and round we went. Now and then we traded snapshots. He was getting the better of us in these exchanges. Try as I might I couldn't sandwich him between me and my leader. I would fly tight on his wing then loosen up a bit. One time we were bunched so close together that nobody could fire! Along the way, my leader's aircraft had been shot up pretty well and he missed an opportunity to inflict damage because some his ammo had been chewed up and several of his guns disabled. Shortly after that he suffered a light, then moderate wound.
I was doing my darnedest to save my leader and it looked as if I had finally solved the enemy's maneuvers and had placed myself closer to him than he was to my leader. I know that he saw me and I figured that he had to break off! My position appeared to be much stronger than his. Instead, he showed real courage, and chose to press home his attack. I let loose with a stream of lead that should have taken him down. His aircraft was lit up nose to tail with all sorts of strikes, but nothing that took him out. I watched in horror as he fired upon my wounded leader. His salvo destroyed his target and my lead failed to bail out successfully.
I shook off his next attack pass and came around so hard that I actually lost control of my aircraft. I suffered through two more of his passes as I struggled to regain control. Then he made the same mistake I had made yesterday. And that was to make a nearly perfect pass, but slightly misjudge it. He ended up slightly ahead of me and his aircraft filled my windscreen. Yesterday, my opponent had blasted me from the skies from point blank range. I was lucky enough to bail out and return to action today, but the experience was still fresh in my mind. And what flashed through my mind was the fact that the fellow who shot me down yesterday had been killed by the debris from my aircraft! Maybe I should have held off and waited for a safer shot, but I was so upset by the sight of my leader's death, that I let loose for the sure kill, hunkered down and just let the fragments fly where they will. I suffered half a dozen holes, but no wounds. My crew chief will be 
ed, but my flight surgeon will be glad! Either way, I avenged my leader's sacrifice. Unfortunately, I noticed my enemy's parachute billowing above his aircraft's burning wreckage and he'll fly to fight another day. Damn!
Start to finish, this action took 25 minutes of real time to complete. This game was played using the solo rules and all the detail in the report was generated by the game. Getting in position for an attack is NOT generated by the game, die rolls or charts, but rather by the skill of each pilot in his turn.
ponders nirvana.
