S3 Series

23rd FG AAR for HOG Frame 1.

Sortie 1: We launched from field 65 with 14 pilots with goal of taking out the bridge and vehicles at 68. We stayed low, practically mowing the grass on the way. The 74th Squadron was assigned first run in and 2 brave pilots made runs on the ack, knocking in down in one fast pass. The rest of the squadron followed in dropping bombs on all available targets. As the 74th took high cover, the rest of the 23rd dropped in and finished the job and closed 68 in short order. We then RTB’d for fuel and more bombs.

Sortie 2: Rinse and repeat of the first sortie, except the 75th was tasked first in. They took down the ack, then rest of the squadron, dropped in to close 70. While on egress, a large group of cons showed on radar south of our position. The enemy was hunting for us, on group of the 23rd went a bit north to draw the bad guys from our low pilots escaping to the west from 73. A fight ensued and we killed 3 enemy fighters losing one pilot to combat. We lost another pilot to a mechanical malfunction and suffered a fatal collision with the ground.

Sortie 3: Rearmed we headed to 73 to close our last target of the night. As we approached 73, we again had a large group of cons to our south, they seemed to be going to 109-69 area but some headed to our position, so we dropped on 73 and escaped low back to 65.

Sortie 4: we armed one squadron with bombs and the rest of us went light. The light planes climbed like mad, hoping to draw the enemy attacking 109/69 to us and let our low pilots sneak in and finish 73. Our pilots did drop on 73 and strafe a few trucks down, but they were running out of ammo and fuel and had to RTB. Meanwhile the lights went after the bad guys attacking 69/109 and engaged the enemy 110’s in a running battle, knocking 3 more from the sky. As the ground attack time ran out, we RTB’d for the last time.

We lost 1 pilot to combat, 1 to contact with the ground at a high rate of speed and killed 6 enemies 110’s and prevented them from closing 69/109. We closed 68 and 70 and knocked the bridge out at 73 and inflicted heavy damage of Ground Vehicles and building.

Overall, we had a good night and a good time was had by all!!

Excellent job for the 23rd <S>.

And thanks for taking care of things so I could concentrate on the middle.