One hour in the day of a Virtual Combat Pilot

I was a member of 5 combat pilots called out to stand in and wait for what was believed to be an attack on an emplacement about 40 miles northeast of our base.  We had one observer with us, so that made 6 of us in our group.  We were ordered to our planes, an unusual mix of four P-51s and two FW-190s.  I was seated in a P-51.  We waited on the apron for about 35 minutes when someone yelled,  “SCRAMBLE!”  Off we went and a short time later I hooked up with my Flight Leader.  We had no idea what direction the enemy would come from or how they would return home, so we broke up into 3 groups, trying to cover as much area as possible.  It wasn’t too long before the Flight Leader spotted an unidentified aircraft when he called me.  I looked around and had to tell him that it was our observer, so we continued our patrol.

After changing course a few times, my Flight Leader spotted what we were looking for, four enemy Bombers and six escorts.  We called out to the other patrols and vectored them to the location.  At that time, we were told to keep them insight until help arrived.  Keeping our distance, we took up a parallel course with the enemy formation.  We were soon spotted by the escorts as they changed course and headed in our direction.  We climbed to keep them at bay.  That worked for awhile.  Then, the bombers also turned in our direction and my Flight Leader said, "Lets make a run at them head on!"

     I said, "I am right behind you!"  We made 2 passes on one the Bombers, which were

our main target.  In and instant, I had 3 bogies on my tail.  Realizing I could be in trouble shortly, I headed in the direction of my Flight Leader as he did a GRAND job of clearing my six. 

     It was a short while later that my 6 again was swarmed with bogies.  I rolled a few times and made a run at the bombers.  This time…..I was hit pretty hard.  The motor got hit.  It was smoking and windscreen was covered in oil.

     I climbed back up to altitude the best I could and kept changing course to shake my bogie.  I heard my Flight Leader call out on the radio that he had blacked out.  I saw him crash a short time later.  I don't think he made it.  

     While climbing I looked around and saw a stricken bomber smoking.  I headed toward him to see if I could finish him off.   I couldn’t see much because of all the oil that had sprayed on to my windscreen, so just took my best guess as to where he was at when I made my pass on him.  He was loosing altitude, so I thought I might have hit him. 

     In the mean time, the bogie that had been trying to line up a firing solution on me finally got me into his sites again.  This time, he took out my aileron controls and finished off what was left of the motor.  I had enough speed to circle around and make 2 more passes on that stricken bomber.  Now, my speed was getting critical so I looked for a soft spot to belly in.  I made the landing and vacated my damaged plane.

     So, There we were, one bomber hit very badly,  my Flight Leader down, and I was out of action.  Our side still had all 4 of our bombers in the air.  I had heard sometime later that the other two P-51’s got lost due to bad co ordinances given them, but one FW-190 did find the bombers and finished them off.  The other P-51’s, after getting correct directions from the FW-190 and seeing tracers, did manage to find the bogies.  I was told they said, "I see the escorts but where are the bombers?"

     They were informed that the last one just went down.

     Still in friendly territory, I finally made it back to base.  Still not sure about my Flight Leader’s outcome, I was informed that the others made it back safely.