The night and airstart surprised me, but I gotta admit: it added something to the immersion factor. And it was nice not to have to claw up those 10,000 extra feet.

The last minute mission change didn't create too much of a problem for us, think it was more the last minute issuance of orders from command.

I joined up with Kobra and the the 308th with -tune- on my wing, and I really have to commend him on the job he did. He was never out of icon range the whole time, from launch until he died by a 190, as we were bugging out.

In the 12 o'clock position, we were the first to encounter the LW. First saw them over the Ruhr dead to the east. We engaged them and I got some hits on one, but not enough to even slow him down. A half dozen of us got in a long tail chase with them, dragging us north on a 030 heading. There was just no way to catch the Dora's so I broke off and headed 160 to try to gety back with the buffs. IMHO we chased them too long, and I take reponsibility for that. I shoulda broke off a few minutes sooner.

As the buffs were north of Frankfurt, the rest of the group picked up a bunch of 109's. We were hauling trying to catch back up with the buffs, and got engaged again by another group of 190's. The 190's ended up running off after we chased them to the deck.

Somewhere in the 9,4 box we encountered a pair of 190's heading toward the bombers general area. They did not see us as I was able to wax the first one by crawling up to d 0.5 and hosing him down. I tore a wing off him and he fell 20k in a ball of fire. I gotta admit it was cool to watch. Anyway, Iheaded back upstairs with -tune- and dracon, still trying to find the buffs. At that point I saw the first 190's wingman and dove in on him. Almost the same result as the first. I crawled right up his ass to d 0.5 and let him have it with a real long burst. This time with no visible damage, which is pure BS. I lit him up. He was able to get me to black out after a long dive, and I lost sight of him after that. I think Dracon went on and finally found the buffs, and Tune and I picked up Sharkey, who had turned around to investigate us.

We finally caught up to the buffs in time to see Zeefox rip the wing off of one of the two remaining 450th B-24's. A few of us chased him down to the deck, and he somehow caught Tune with his pants down and smoked him. Raml and I chased him for a couple minutes but there was no way we were gonna catch him. At some point, Rammer said, "Let's get home." And I was thinking that was a pretty good idea myself. We headed west, with Gshep behind us. The three of us landed on fumes about a half hour later. Never saw another soul, allied or luftwaffe.

My total was 1 kill, 2 damaged.

Capt. Dave "=dslk=" Churchill
Operations Officer
31st Fighter Group

Dracons AAR:
Took off from F-6 in P-51d flying high escort for the 450th. Things were tough from the start with an air-start and darkened pre-dawn sky conditions. The bombers were placed under escort and the trip to Germany proceeded. As we entered LW air space, cons entered and scattered or escort with diving attacks on the 450th. I was to find myself some 20 miles N of the bombers. After 2 skirmishes that involved raga, tune, lb, dslk, gshep and others I headed back to the bombers at the 665 area and finally resumed escort at 10,6,1. Two were left. Snoopy and Turret. Snoopy was a smoker. The bombers turned due W for the RTB to F-6. Runnin, Raml, smiley, and others were there. Snoopy was lost to a diving attack. Turret was escorted W. Turret was then attacked by a 190 -badf- whom I shot down. Turret and other pilots of the 31st RTB'd F-6.

Dracon OUT!

Ram1 AAR:
We took off and formed on Daddy and proceeded to the bombers. Once over the bombers we assumed our 12 high position and climbed to 30K. We encountered the first wave of enemy planes about 1/2 way to the objective. The enemy attacked first with 109s from 32K (approx 6 of them). These were engaged but only briefly to try and drive them off. We then reformed and soon found the next wave of enemy, these were 13 190s and some 109s mixed in (these could have been from the first wave). They came in from 32-34K and attacked. It was at this point that we all got separated. I never saw the group again until we reformed near the target area to try and fend off 262's. During the second attack I was able to drive off a couple of 190s, got pings on 1 of them. Then found some 109s attacking the P51s and went in to help there. Wound up with Shky and I fighting down to about 5K. After this fight shky and I tried to reform with the bomber and ran into Kobra. All 3 of us then went after the bombers who were being attacked by 262 and 190s. Once we found them another fight was engaged and again we got split up. I found a smoking B24 and dslk. A 190 came in hard and fast and killed the B24 before we could do anything. We gave pursuit but had to give up as he was just too fast. Dslk, Gshep and I then decided to RTB and all landed safely at F6 without further incident. The LW used 3 waves to attack us, this is a good strategy. First wave of 109s were intended to drag us down and away from the second wave of 190s. The 262s were used after the 190s engaged and the escort was busy. I think we did OK on the first wave and didn't get suckered down with them, they were mostly engaged by Daddy and some of the other 31st. The second wave caused us all kinds of problems and left the bombers very vulnerable to the 262s on their final approach. One suggestion I have is to keep at least 5 P51s high and above the bombers and they don't engage until the 262s attack. The rest of the squad should deal with the 109s and 190s. As for 309th kills, I need to wait for all the reports to come in. I registered 2 kills. One 109 the other either a 109 or 190, not sure which since I damaged both and one eventually died. Anyone else from the 309th can put in their views of what happened.

Ram1
CO 309th FS

Daddy AAR:
31st Rolled with 19 p51s. The darkness made forming up quite difficult, but shortly after T/O rendezvous was achieved with the 450th BG(H).
307th FS covered the hi 9c
308th FS covered the 12c
309th FS covered the 3c
We lost a few guys to disco right away. Once we were over the Ruhr a flight of approx 5 190s was seen making fast attacks through our formation. We were able to fight these 190s off and the 31st claimed 1 or 2 kills here. A few minutes later, a swarm and I do mean swarm of 109K's appeared on the high 9c of the bombers. Estimated strength of these 109s was approx 12+ LW. This was JG44. These 109s began their attacks on the bombers. Their initial attack was blocked successfully by the ranks of the 31st FG. A few 109s were killed and a few others were seen smoking. Otto did not seem effective at all in this attack. This battle at 27k quickly turned into a running fight to target. It was pure craziness!!! We were holding our own quite well against these LW and the 31st claimed many kills here. THe 262s began their attacks through the bombers, and the 31st was unable to stop them successfully. I dove on a jet after he flew through the formation and was able to ping him a few times before he got away. A flight of 109s bounced sharky, slapshot, and I. I claimed 1 109 very quickly. The me262 attempted to climb away and I was able to close within d4 and nailed him nicely. At this time I saw slapshot go down. Another 109 was seen smoking who later ditched. The last 109 and I were in a nasty turn fight, and he also began to smoke. As the 109 was going down the smoking jet came back around for a final HO pass. I was taken out by the 262. The jet crashed seconds later. We were unable to stop the jets from destroying our bombers, even though most of the enemy a/c had been destroyed by now. We landed 13 of our 19 p51s. We brought down 7+ LW including 1 262. Some interesting notes: It is not difficult to notice that EVERY SINGLE LW in the North attacked our group. The first 60 minutes of this fight, the 31st was the only Allied group engaged. Once the fight broke out I never saw another Allied a/c. We were indeed greatly outnumbered. In fact even JG2 in the south flew North to attack us. Rough estimates as to LW strength that attacked us
JG26 190s *5
JG44 109K *12
JG44 Me262 *4
JG2 Me262 * 4
JG2 190 * 10
I don't know where the other allied units were. They sure as heck were not supporting us. I suppose that is because the RAF is flying purple, so they can't get to close to the bombers. We held our own very well. JG26 was nearly destroyed, and JG44 got beat up pretty dang good. I saw many LW ditch, which is great because they won't be flying their 1st line a/c next week. This was a hard frame for us. For the first 60 minutes we were fighting almost all the LW in the arena and we were alone at this. I thought everyone did a fantastic job, and I'm quite proud of you guys. 31st lost 6 p51s, and we claimed 7 or 8 LW destroyed. Another 4+ LW were forced to ditch, which in the long run is just as good. Nicely done gents

Steve

Ram1 AAR:
The 309th took its position of high 3 O'clock above the bombers. We had two contacts with the enemy. First was 5 109s that were South of our position at 30K. They never engaged and kept flying West. The second was 2 190s that were attempting to attack the bombers. These were driven off. Bombers were escorted to target and then back to friendly air space. Squad landed at F9. 309th reports no losses and no kills. Fighters present - Smiley, Seasky(Hawk?), slpsht, ram1. Note: slpsht had engine problems (Disco) and needed to RTB, hope that doesn't count as a loss? The key to this mission was being above the incoming fighters. We were able to get to 32K (but its hard to hold that alt in P51D). However, once near the target we were able to keep speed and alt, so we could gain the advantage on the attackers and drive them off.

Ram1
CO 309th FS

Kobra AAR:
The 308th was well ahead in the 12oc position and had limited enemy sightings. There was one 109 (probably a scout) over the target area, who decided not to attack us. I had us a bit out of position when the jets came through on our egress, but the other squads managed to keep the jets from downing any bombers. All in all, it was a pretty successful mission. We got to the target, let the heavies do their thing and got out with only minor damage to one bomber. We report no kills and no deaths. Bomber coverage was good tonight. We didn't kill any LW, but we didn't allow them to get our chubby friends either :) 308th members flying were efiter, sadsac, tune, bllxxm and myself. Other than some disco problems, all were right there in tight formation for the whole flight. Nice flying guys. Kobra
CO 308th FS/31st FG

"Return with Honor"

Dracon AAR:
The 307th took off from F-6 and maintained contact at the high 9 o'clock position of the 450th Bomber Group. Coverage was provided to and from the target with minor engagements. The 307th RTB'd with No kills no losses. Members present were: (5) Dracon, Runnin, -rebl-, Tinyti, and Gshep. A well done to the 307th and the 31st FG.
Dracon
CO 307th FS

31st FG

"Return With Honor"

Dracon AAR:
The 307th took off F-6 in P-51s B/D Lite 5 pilots strong. We circled and landed for refueling at F-6. T+25, The 307th took off F-6 and joined the rest of the 31st and the 450th BG in the escort position at the bombers 9 O'clock enroute to Dassau. The 307th engaged in several skirmishes with the LW. Resulting in one confirmed kill for -rebl- and the loss of Tinyti while covering SadSac's 6. A shot-out engine forced Tinyti to ditch, but 3 LW followed him in, destroying his aircraft. Tinyti then manned DAR and provided further positional assistance to the 307th, 31st FG and 450th BG. Submitted to Daddy= CO of the 31st FG and with my appreciation for a "Job Well Done" to the fighting 307th.
Dracon
CO 307th FS

31st FG

"Return With Honor"

Kobra AAR:
The 308th was flying the 12 oc position ahead of the bombers. About 1/2 way to the target we had a radar report of LW activity near our route. A few minutes later we blew thru a group of 3 FW 190's and gave chase. They were not very interested in fighting us, but did make a right turn that allowed us to catch one of them. Eventually he was caught and shot down. Unfortunately, the others had broken to cover him and one of them managed to get Hazard's horizontal stabilizer. We got one, but also lost one of our group. A bit later we caught up to the bombers, in time to try to keep the 262's away. That was a big mismatch of speeds and I don't think any of us had much luck persuading the 262's to go elsewhere. They made a pass or two, then wisked away. There were also a couple of 109s in the area, but they weren't a threat. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Once the 262's left, we faced no more LW challenges and cruised home. I think we lost one bomber to the LW guns (and a few to discos). We shot down one 190, but lost a P51d. Kobra
CO 308th FS/31st FG

"Return with Honor"

Ram1 AAR:
Escorted the buffs into the heartland of Germany. We first encountered 3 109s but did not engage. Second encounter was with 12 or more 190s. We engaged to keep them away from the bombers. No reported kills but they didn't get to the bombers. Third encounter was with 2 262s but they got through and destroyed 1 bomber and damaged another which later was killed. 309th reports no losses and no kills.

Ram1
CO 309th FS