Best Dogfight I ever had

[Hard Sarge]

Flying a mission in a FW 190 A9, armed with 30 mm wing guns, very large 17 raid coming in, a quick count shows at least 25 b-17's in the formation !

Long track and chase to get to same alt as the bombers, once I get close enough and start to regain my speed, the 17s turn !!, so much for a high speed attack

make the turn with them, hold to regain some speed, check map and see a lot of US fighters are now closing in

been calling for help, and now am out of aid, call out to attack and start my run

close the range in my dive and take out a 17, roll and start to climb, look back over my shoulder and got at least 10 bombers fireing at me ! the stream is large enough that I don't have to anything fancy, so just roll back towards the raid, and point my nose down, once I pick up some speed, pick on the target closest to my nose

a 2nd 17 is going down in flames, again get back to alt, plane is not reacting well, so do a slow turn to get more alt while I get my speed back up, get back onto the tail of the raid, sitting at 24 K and doing 200 mph, see the US fighters are starting to engage our forces

start my next dive, pick a target and close in, open fire and so does the bomber, well so much for that idea, my plane is hit but the 17 is going down, see another 17 right off to the side, so roll towards it, not going to be able to make another pass anyway

nice threequarter angle attack, outboard engine on fire, inboard engine on fire, strikes across the body, inboard engine on fire, big guns out of ammo, time to roll and get, show the raid my belly and head for the deck

as I get down to safe levels, see the 38's, a FW is chaseing a 38, while 2 38s are breaking into the FW, and 2 more 38s are flying over head

the FW gets the kill, then the next 38 gets him, I close in, open fire, start to pull up and see my wingman doing a head on, now that was close, my wingman broke into a steep climb, while I just pass over top of my striken target, look over my shoulder and see 2 38s diving, my wingman keeps his climb into the diver, but loses the fight

but both 38s turn to follow him and leave me alone, I use the time and space to get back some alt and get back onto the 38s as they turn away

make my turn (and lose control of my stick, got a wireless and the batterys went out !!!!! get the stick back up and unpause the battle but am out of postion to do anything now)

do some climbing and tracking and finally get the target, dive in, get close to the wingman, open fire, see strikes on the right engine, he pulls up and rolls left, I start to follow, fire and see a 20mm explode off of the cockpit, counter roll back to the wingleader, fire and see more strikes on his right engine, he rolls on to his back, we too low to follow, so I slide off to the side, shakeing my head, 1600 ft is too low for a Split S, watch over my shoulder, not only does he do the Split, he counter rolls out of it, pulls his nose up and is aimed right at me !, but he is going too slow to do anything with his lucky break, but not taking any chances, I roll and turn away

unbelieveable, but planes are still up and headed for the broder, both are tailing smoke, dive in strikes on the left engine and again across the cockpit and the wingman rolls and flys into the ground, close in on the leader, fire and he again rolls onto his back, and again, he is too low to do a Split S, but as I pull up and over, see he went into a barrel roll instead, again, if he could hold his nose up, I would be in trouble, but the damage to his engine wouldn't let him hold his nose up, make two more passes and each pass, he just avoids the fireing pass, but both engines are smoking

getting target fix, this guy is going down, get in close and he again starts his rolling escape, but a 20mm hit the tail span, the back half of his plane is gone, see the plane start to tumble and start yelling to get out, see the cockpit break away and a body flip out, come on man, see the chute start to pull out, but, he was too low, the chute never opened all the way, he was the only AI pilot I have been sorry to see not live out the battle

the last part of the battle took 15 minutes to end !

7 kills for me, 2 for my section, but I lost the whole section, 2 KIA and 1 WIA

I get the Gold Cross for this mission

HARD_Sarge