S3 Series

We were tasked for bomber escort and jabo this frame. The Jabo mission didn't actually happen, as I
spoke to bomber command and we decided it was required to escort their mission up North.
We wouldn't have time to jabo, rtb for re-arm, re-fuel and catch the buffs at alt near the RP.
Launched our 18 Spit 9s from F77 and climbed north for alt. As we went feet dry west of F 69, GCI
called out a large group of LW to the west near F30. Looked like we were outnumbered, so I
kept climbing and GCI turned us south on a vector to F77. Word was the buffs were climbing east northeast
near F12/13, so we were vectored to them and met up south of F78 and escorted to northern target area.
As the buffs turned for home, we saw a few LW near F 30 and sent a flight to investigate. We were low on fuel
and most remained on course for F77 to re-fuel and re-arm for next run as our chasers made the LW dive low.
All recovered at F77.
Second sortie we launched south to meet the buffs out of F87.To do this, we needed to re-fuel at the quad(F 17/F 18).
Up from quad to meet the buffs and heard calls of bandit near 87 low. We chased around the field for a while and
found a couple of LW Macchis NW,which were dispatchedm but with 1 or 2 losses ourselves.
The rest of the escort mission took long enough we didn't have time to try our jabo run, nor did we have enough piots
left with the cat and mouse games down south and east,
We finished the frame with 3 kills and 3 assists with 7 losses.

Hey Pappy, I give you the missions and you do them to the best of your ability. The buff protection was the most important mission and you obviously did the correct thing. <S>

All I can say is you fellas did an outstanding job of protecting our bomber group. Many thanks!

<S>

From the Axis side, it was a very good escort. I intercepted the bomber group twice on the first sortie and twice had to find away around those pesky spits. I had a giggle following a flight around in formation sneaking into the group but the Macchi didn't have the speed to get close enough. The only B-17 I did snag was pure luck. It was a fun frame and series <S>

Yup, what Zinhwk said. I was never able to get to the B17s for all those pesky Spits. Y'all did your jobs well.

<S>