After Action Report
October 15
Skies above Bad Tölz.
Today, our Thunderbolts were tasked to escort B-17s on a long range shuttle mission. The P-51 wing / airfield that would normally fly this type of mission was mired in mud and socked in by fog. Auxiliary fuel tanks dangled from every possible hard-point of our overloaded Jugs. If intercepted by enemy a/c early on into this mission, tanks would have to be jettisoned and we wouldn't have the legs to protect the bombers all the way to today's target.
Fortunately, we only had to shed four of our escort fighters along the way to deal with a pair of 109s. The heavies made their bomb run above a clearing in the lower cloud bank then continued straight ahead for sanctuary instead of turning back over enemy territory to their home base.
In order to make their escape complete, my wingman and I engaged two late model Fw190A-8s. We threw ourselves between these attackers and our charges.
We were at a disadvantage from the start. The lead plane of this attacking element bracketed my wingman with a perfect shot. His cannon tore my wingman's aircraft to pieces, but it was his cowling mounted MGs that snuck through his pilot armor to lightly wound him and shear away the control column. My partner had no choice other than to bailout. The good news, his parachute opened up. The bad news? It's was over Bad Tölz.
I was able to heavily damage the enemy's wingman during this attack pass. He was moderately wounded and his aircraft sported lots of holes. Gamely, he stuck around to help his element leader.
A botched attack on my part followed by a good maneuver by my opponent left me seriously wounded. I nose-dived out this fray, survived several attacks along the way, and made it to a friendly base to land my badly wounded mount.
My wound kept me out of action for the next six missions. I was half hoping for that "Million Dollar Wound" that would have been my ticket home. I should be fully thankful I did not die!
assembles and paints two varieties of Hurricanes from