S3 Series

Team Gold tried a different tactic at the start of the frame as compared to Team Green in frame 1. Two pilots acted as a diversion to the east while the bulk of Team Gold flew NOE P-47s to attempt to close the airfield at F15. A route far to the west and good NOE flying were of no use. 5 miles short of the target the P-47s were intercepted by a mixed group of Fw 190A-8s, Bf 109G-6s and Bf-109G6/RVIs diving from above. It was bloody, with several P-47s going down and none making it to target, or if they did, their 1000lb bombs failed to detonate. Some damage was inflicted on at least one enemy 190, but results were inconclusive. Abandoning the plan to close F15, a second strike of 3 P-51Bs launched from F20 and took a direct NOE route to P46. The attackers made it to target unobserved and the post was heavily damaged. A second strike was required to take down the last remaining structure and close the field. A gold C-47 had snuck across the channel and was waiting just to the east of P46 when the field was closed. Bombr- snuck in his 2-ship of Dakotas and got the troops out for the capture. His wingman was shot down, but bomber- managed to evade enemy fighters and made it home back across the channel. After taking heavy losses and lacking the numbers to successfully close one of the Axis airfields, Allied high command elected to stand down.
Overall, air to air losses were similar to frame 1, with the Allies failing to shoot down many aircraft while the Axis fighters seemed to have a field day.
One guest pilot, onhunt, started as gold, but quickly switched to green before flying.

Team Gold (Axis)
8 pilots: WLDBIL, bombr-, jedijc, muzz--, -deak-, yukone-, grmpy-, -splt-.
P-47D, 22 sorties: shot down 1 Fw 190A-8: 5 aircraft lost
P-51B, 6 sorties: no kills: 5 aircraft lost.
Spit MkIXe, 8 sorties: 3 aircraft lost.
C-47, 1 sortie: P46 captured: 1 player and 1 AI wingman lost

Team Green (Allied)
8 pilots: juice=, =wilz=, redsgt, vokker, -guns-, okdoc-, swanee, onhunt
Fw 190A-8, 16 sorties: 2 P-47D, 3 P-51B shot down: 8 aircraft lost.
Bf 109G-6, 8 sorties: 1 P-47D and 1 Spit IXe shot down: no aircraft lost.
Bf 109G-6/RVI, 5 sorties: 2 P-47D, 1 P-51B, 1 Spit IXe, and 1 C-47 shot down: no aircraft lost.
C-47, 2 sorties: P-46 captured: 5 aircraft lost

Scoring
Team Green scores 13 VPs for allied fighter losses and 4 VPs for C-47 losses, for a total of 17 VPs
Team Gold scores 8 VPs for axis fighter losses and 10 VPs for the capture of P46, for a total of 18 VPs.
Team Gold wins the frame, but if Team Green's augering-in after the Allies ceased flight ops was discounted, then team gold would have scored 5 fewer points.

For the series,
Team Green has a total of 30 VPs.
Team Gold has a total of 37 VPs and wins the series.

Thanks for coming out. Hope you enjoyed the 2022/2023 S3 Series.
The 2023-2024 series will be starting in October.

WLDBIL has a number of Summer fun events lined, if you are interested.

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