Mission 1: First Foray into the Skies over France
The 33rd had their first call to action today, being tasked with patrolling Northern France and knocking out whatever Luftwaffe pilots they could find. The squadron commander, “Fire”, opted to lead the first combat sortie, knowing it would look poor if he didn’t, bringing along with him the flight and element leaders to give them the first taste of combat.
Despite James’ eagle eyes, a five ship of Bf 109Gs managed to attack the P-38 squadron from their 4 o clock position.
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| 33rd FS patrolling over northern France |
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| Bf 109Gs move to intercept |
Spotting the 109s, Holcomb maneuvers his element to intercept, followed shortly by the entirety of Blue Flight, led by “Fire”. Before they can react, a particularly aggressive 109 (Junior Ace) breaks from his formation and dives on Fire’s P-38. Fire sustains critical structural damage and bails out of his stricken aircraft. Unfortunately, his chute fails to open - rough start for 33rd FS, their commander killed in the first seconds of combat.
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| The 109 Junior Ace sets up for an overhead attack |
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| A successful dive attack, with 33rd FS CO bailing out |
Holcomb manages to damage a 109s cockpit and sights, but nothing more decisive than that. Despite the damage sustained, that pair of 109s set up for another overhead attack on Blue Flight.
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| Bf 109s setup for another overhead attack on Blue Flight |
Fire’s Wingman, Mills, now alone, sets himself up for a long range shot against a lagging pair of 109s with great success. The lead 109 explodes under Mills’ rain of 20mm. So much for being a sprog.
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| Mills’ long range front deflection shot |
The P-38s and 109s continue to dance around one another, neither with a particular lead on the other. Two 109s dive on McCarthy, but having cockpit and gunsight damage from their previous encounter, they fail to damage and find themselves now below and in front of McCarthy. McCarthy is now set up for his own dive on them, damaging the trailing 109s aileron. With cockpit damage, and now wing damage, the two ship of 109s decide to head home. Unfortunately, in the dive attack, McCarthy lost his wingman as Combs sails onward, oblivious to his lead’s counterattack.
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| Attempted (and failed) dive attack on McCarthy and Combs |
The two aces continue their deadly tangle, neither able to score meaningful hits on one another. In their dance, the 109 Ace finds himself setup for a shot on the sprog Mills. He doesn’t score hits for any major damage, but does cause Mills to lose control of his P-38. In doing so, Holcomb swings behind the German Ace and proceeds to put cannon rounds through the rear of the 109, killing the Ace.
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| Holcomb lining up his shot on the German Ace |
Seeing the ace shot down, and an element of 109s bugging out, the remaining 109 dives for home. Unfortunately for him, Combs races down, trading altitude for airspeed, getting onto the Messerschmitt’s tail. He fires two sustained bursts into his quarry, wounding the pilot and then catastrophically damaging the 109. The wounded pilot bails, but again, a chute fails to open!
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| Comb’s second burst, ripping the 109 |
While all this is happening, Mills is still struggling to regain control of his 109. Unfortunately he’s so heads down, he misses his opportunity to bail out (though what good that would do with the run of bad parachutes, who can say) and crashes amidst the hedgerows and tilled fields, being severely wounded in the process. He’s subsequently captured by gendarmerie and becomes a POW.
Holcomb takes command of the formation and brings the four P-38s home without a hitch. Unfortunately the Group Commander didn’t take well to the Squadron CO being killed and the squadron’s reputation diminishes to a -1. Mills is replaced by another young pilot, 2Lt Calvin Graham, a pilot with aggressive tendencies. Unfortunately the Sq CO isn’t replaced and Capt “Chew” Cobb takes command. They were able to acquire a replacement P-38, bringing them to 9 pilots and 9 aircraft.
Lastly, Holcomb, Mills, and Comb are awarded with an Air Medal each for their kills over France. In the end, three Bf 109s were shot down for the loss of two P-38s. Considering one was the squadron commander, the trade off is debatable.
Hopefully I’ll get some more of the 33rd’s exploits up soon. I’m still working on painting up the slew of B-17s, so once those are finished, we may see some escort missions.
Caleb
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