It was early 1944 and a patrol of 4 American P38s lazily prowled through the clear skies over northern France. 1LT Simmons had been in the cockpit of the P38 Lightning for some time now and he had managed to destroy 6 kraut fighters along the way so they picked him to lead this hunting mission. Of course 3 of those krauts were on the ground but that counted.
Simmons had 1LT Ball on his wing. Along with them was 1LT Jefferies and 2LT Jackson. They hadn't seen anything all day and they were expecting to be going home soon. But what was those dots on the canopy off to the left?
2LT Jackson called over the radio "Enemy fighters up ahead and to the left. Looks like the same angels as we are. We going to go see who they are?" "Hold on. Lets try the radio first. That big B17 raid just came through
near here. Maybe its stragglers."
"Nope, no answer 1 on the bomber channels and our frequencies are clear. I bet they are bad guys!" Jackson reported.
"No sense in getting your shorts in knot Jackson. You will get your chance soon. Alright everyone. Look sharp. Jefferies you lag to the left and we will go straight in. If they bite on us you tear off their tails. We're in!
Ball, stay tight. Lets get this over and done."
"I am with you chief. I don't feel like dying today. I got a date tonight."
Simmons flew straight ahead as if he hadn't seen the enemy planes. This trick had worked before on new enemy crews the Germans were sending up so it had a chance of working again. The germans were scraping the barrel for
pilots. Jefferies and Jackson banked hard to the left and prepared to lag in behind anyone who wanted to deal with the lead flight.
But the enemy was having none of it. A rotte took off toward Simmons' group and another at Jefferies. It was going to be a stand up fight.
"At this range, they look like 109s to me." radioed Jackson.
"No way. 190s Jackson. Now stay with me." and Jefferies grunted as he turn hard to the left and barrel rolled into a better position.
The planes passed through each other in a split second and the sound of ripping cloth filled the air over France. The German lead flight had gotten a forward deflection shot at Ball's plane.
"Jesus! Sim, I am breaking hard right! These boys mean business. But nothing serious yet."
"Hang in their Tom! I am coming."
The other German flight veered into Jackson's gunsights. "Wahoo! Here we go!" and Jackson poured a stream of lead into the tailing German aircraft.
Both sides twisted and turned throughout the sky and before long the flights were busted up.
"Where the hell are you Ball? I got a sticky bugger on my 6!"
Simmons canopy was holed several times as he broke hard and to the right. Glass filled the cockpit and he had blood dripping into his left eye. But nothing serious. He was 
ed now.
"Can't get there chief! I have troubles of my own."
"Enough of this crap," and Simmons looped up and over and caught the German flyer intent on where he had been. He poured round after round into the 190 ahead and it started dragging black smoke.
"Alright! Now that is what we are talking about!"
Grunting hard, Jefferies heard Simmons calling for help but couldnt do a thing about it. He had two on his tail and he was taking hits everywhere. Somehow the lightning kept flying but it wouldnt keep it up long though. Where the hell was Jackson?
"Ball! Where are you? Wait I see you! Hold on."
There was a bright flash to the right of Simmons' plane.
"Jefferies is down! He just exploded! Jesus he is gone!"
"Calm down Jackson. There is nothing we can do for him now. Find Ball!"
"Just one more shot into this bugger and he is done for." More lead flew from Simmons plane and the smoke dragging 190 started to lose altitude. Moments later the pilot leapt clear of the burning plane.
"Lets cut and run now! Everyone evade southwest then north. Break now!"
The sky cleared quickly enough and the only sound was the wind whistling...
- - - - - - - - -
This was our first Bag the Hun game and it involved 4-P38s vs 4-FW190s with 1 junior ace, 1 veteran, and 2 regular pilots each. We used the excellent 1/600 Tumbling Dice aircraft. I took the P38s and my son took the FW190s. It was a cool little battle that lasted about 2 hours.
Much of that time was referring to the rules and such (as this was our first game) but after a while it when pretty quick. Ben succeeded in shooting my veteran down with a solid volley of fire and I downed only one of his regulars in return. My ace had a damaged windscreen and his ace had a fuel line leak and his other regular had elevator damage. All in all a good time was had by us.
BAG THE HUN can be found at toofatlardies.co.uk
Jay Haygood
experiments to find a better way to mount aircraft for wargaming.
