Assigned to Republic's venerable P-47D-22 aircraft, the Group was tasked with Sweep/Reception Escort for the lead buff group. As CO Juice= knew that the Group would be on enemy radar within a short period of flight time, we would take a route to the RDV that drew as much attention as possible to draw off as many enemy fighters as possible. We had a few sightings of enemy aircraft scouts along the route of flight , but the predominance of the opposition we met didn't appear until we joined the buff flight as close and sweep escort. The enemy appeared to come in waves as the various elements converged on the various elements of the BG. Everyone had been on enemy radar for quite a long time and we had a known destination, so it's not surprising that we would meet lots of opposition over the Capitol. It is well within range of most of the larger airfields and the bad guys can land a wounded airplane in a whole bunch of places.
On our first sortie, several of our flights stretched the capabilities of their aircraft to the maximum. The largest available DTs were carried until empty prior to jetting the tanks. One of our pilots landed with 3 gallons of fuel on board, another with 6. These pilots pressed the fight to keep the bad guys off the buffs as close to Berlin as was mechanically possible, and then had to do cyber pilot stuff to get their airplanes back to the home field, essentially on fumes. Its a pleasure to have pilots with our Group who can get their airplanes to perform to the edge of the aircraft's endurance envelope.
Second/Reception sortie was also relatively uneventful. RTB from Berlin takes a bit, particularly if one has to attempt to conserve fuel just to get home. By the time even our earliest elements were arriving on the position reported for the returning buffs, there were none left to find. We engaged some of the lingering LW fighters that were encountered, but most seemed to RTB once the bomber force targets had been destroyed.
Attending
Juice=
Todzla
=JMan=
-bbgn-
Vulche
Jlordj
Fencer
HogJaw
MadCat
-Oskar-
Chicdg
RedSgt
Yobtee
-Sky--
=Wilz=
DeWolf
Claims
-Oskar: Kills (2). Bf 209G-6 (2).
Juice=: Kills (1). FW 190A-4 (1).
Todzla: Kills (1). Bf 109G-6 (1).
Chicdg: Assist: (1).
Summary
•16 pilots
•35 sorties
•29 safe landing(s)
•6 airframe(s) lost ( 6 x P-47d-22 *)
•3 pilot(s) KIA
•2 taken POW
•4 victories
•1 assist(s)
Thanks to Bollok for taking the Allied lead, and to our Janitors.
<S>