Intense dogfight

[Ruben_Szabo]

Been playing some multi today, and I had a quite intense dogfight. I was in a 109, managed to kill somebody, nothing special. I checked six once he was down, and saw something pilots don't like to see: 3 reds behind me, 2 of them Spitfires. I decided that, as I was alone, thre was no point in getting dragged into this fight that I have no chance to win, so I escaped to our home field, in very, very intense manuevering to avoid getting shot. All went well, no damage, the Spits found another target so they went off. But the third (a La-5) was stll following. As I looked away from the screen for a split second, he hit my engine, it was smoking quite bad, and he hit the coolant too, although nothing seruis there.I decided that I was not gonna give up my virual life this easily, and started to turn like an idiot. Usually, I just get killed with this, but as I didn't see any other options, I tried it. Suprisingly, it worked, and I even managed hit his coolant and fuel tank. After some 2 minutes of intense dogfighting, I saw that he was stalling out. I had little speed and energy, but as I knew my engine can stop anytime now, I went for it. I hit his engine with a 20mm round, and he was going down. With my hands shaking and my heart pumping, I pulled of an emergency landing at a nearby airfield, it went good. I managed to save my virtual life!

[dkoor]

9 hours ago, III./JG5_Ruben_Szabo said:

I managed to save my virtual life!

Unfortunately, we are very rarely aware of how good this should feel.

You will rarely remember a sortie where you managed to survive against the odds unless you managed to bag couple of bandits too...

 

But as of lately, I quite enjoy in the fact that I managed to bring my crate to home airfield with no additional holes in its operator.

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

39 minutes ago, dkoor said:

Unfortunately, we are very rarely aware of how good this should feel.

You will rarely remember a sortie where you managed to survive against the odds unless you managed to bag couple of bandits too...

 

But as of lately, I quite enjoy in the fact that I managed to bring my crate to home airfield with no additional holes in its operator.

I feel ya!  Il2 1946, MP, after a large B-17 raid on Palermo, limping home to Tunisia with one and a half engines, throttle stuck, no aileron or elevator control... steering by adjusting prop pitch, rudder, and flaps... for god knows how long from 30k feet to home...  landing dead center-line on the runway, soaked from head to toe with my ashtray full and a now empty bottle of glenfidich....  hands thrown up in the air!!!

 

I SURVIVED!!!!

 

now with il2 BoX series, i'm enjoying these moments more and more...

[Thad]

Salutations to all of you. This is the mindset and experience all of us should strive to have. Well done.  

[1./KG4_OldJames]

17 hours ago, dkoor said:

Unfortunately, we are very rarely aware of how good this should feel.

Yeah, I have seen Tron as well.

[ethelward]

On 6/9/2018 at 10:48 AM, III./JG5_Ruben_Szabo said:

I even managed hit his coolant

 

Then it was not a La-5

[D3adCZE]

Yes, this kind of situations is what makes this sim so thrilling. My friend and I have similar experience, it was when we were just rookies in this game. 

 

Once upon a time, we decided to fly a sortie on the newly released Kuban map. As my friend didnt like 109 G2, he was in F4, I was in G2. We decided to go over our arriving ships to protect them from red bombers. As we were patrolling around at 3km, my friend(wingman) spotted Pe-2 at 1.5km and dove after it. I was watching his 6 and was making sure that we are not bounced. But as my wingman was getting ready to send that daring Peshka to capitalist hell, I froze with realisation that we have made a serious mistake. The Peshka was only a bait, as I saw two Yaks and two La5Fs comming in 500 meters below me. Thankfully they did not notice me, as I was in the sun, but something much worse happened, they saw my wingman. I shouted at my wingman: "BREAK OFF THE ATTACK! NOW!" But it was too late, he engaged that pesky Peshka and was just making a barrel roll to start another attack. I told him that he had 4 planes on his 6 and that he must break off the attack. By the time we were shouting at each other what to do, I was already in a dive after those 4 planes in an attempt to save my wingman's virtual life. He wanted to fight them, but we would die. Then we decided that the best idea is to run, as it was our only hope. We didnt want to drown in the Black Sea. 

My wingman used his 1.5km altitude to equilise the speeds and drag them away towards our airbase. The Yaks were already on the limit, but the La5Fs were closing in quicky, leaving those Yaks behind. I followed. Storming above those Yaks, ignoring them and their tracers flying around me, as I was too fast for them and their bullets to endanger me, I lined up my sights, leading the second La5F and peppering him with short burst. He got hit in the wing and was forced to maneuver and disengage the attack on my wingman. Now there was only one La5F left. I quickly got on it's 6 and shot it down. 3 planes left. As we were shallow climbing away, towards our airbase, leaving the reds far below and behind, I noticed a P40 booming onto us. This was bad. He was higher, faster, in plane with better E retention. As I was higher and faster than my wingman, I managed to dodge the P40, but he went straight after my wingman. I shouted: "BREAK RIGHT!" But it was too late. My wingman was hit by his .50 cals. Thankfully, P40 was shooting out of convergence and hit fuel tank and caused coolant leak, forcing him to slow down. But he forced use to maneuver as well and those Yaks with La5F were following us, getting closer and closer. I immediately engaged that P40 and damaged it, but it was sturdy and didnt want to go down. To get rid of it, we steeped up the climb and went to 4km. During the climb, they were trying to catch us, force us to slow down and kill us. At that altitude, we had the advantage. I commenced attack after attack on those 4 reds, but they were determined to kill my bleeding wingman. For whole 20 minutes, I was booming on them, zooming up, energy trapping them only to keep them from killing my wingman. It worked, P40 was forced to go home due to leaks, and the rest switched their focus onto me and I was able to drag them away. I climbed even higher to increase my advantage and it worked, I made them leak fuel and coolants. However, one lucky hit punctured my fuel tank and radiators. I had to flee immediately, thankfully, my wingman already landed safely, I was happy. Not caring about my engine, I smacked the throttle full forward, and ran away. At this fight, we managed to survive, outnumbered, in disadvantage, we turned the tides and emerged victorious. Enemy lost two planes, other damaged. After I landed, I was incredibly shaking and could not fly another sortie as I could not control the joystick with precision anymore. But the feeling of saving my wingman, and surviving was wort it. 

[Ruben_Szabo]

17 hours ago, ethelward said:

 

Then it was not a La-5

I have no idea about what russian planes have, the leak had the same color as the coolant leak on the 109. But if u can tell me i'll be very happy

[ethelward]

1 hour ago, III./JG5_Ruben_Szabo said:

I have no idea about what russian planes have, the leak had the same color as the coolant leak on the 109. But if u can tell me i'll be very happy

 

Like the FW-190 or the I-16, the La-5(FN) has a radial engine. Therefore, it doesn't need glycol as it is cooled by the airflow (which is why these planes have a big hole in the front compared to other fighters), which is an abvious plus in fight, as it's a failure point less to worry about.

 

So if it was a Soviet (not lend-lease) fighter, you probably jousted with a MiG-3, a Yak-1(b) or 7b, or a LaGG-3 (if it really looked like a La-5, as the La-5 is basically a LaGG-3 with a radial engine)

Edited June 11, 2018 by ethelward

[Ruben_Szabo]

No, it was a La-5, it was probably fuel leak then and I am blind. And now I remember that the La-5 had a radial. Thanks for reminding me!

[Wolferl_1791]

I notice people quoting MP dogfights, but I'll reminisce a SP Career fight.

Mid November 1941 - I've shot down 79 German planes so far, but they still keep coming. Almost 2 months ago, nobody gave me or my Mig any chance to make it past the week. "Too slow" they said. "Flies like a cow" they laughed. But so far, my "slow cow" has had an answer to everything. It didn't take long to become Captain. They even gave me a gold star for my efforts. And, after our Major got wounded a couple of days ago, they put me in charge of a 6 plane flight. I don't like to lead, especially a flight of rookies. I trust myself to keep the 109s off of their backs, but I don't trust them to return the favor. Anyway, our mission looked simple enough, just take off from Vnukovo, head west to Kubinka, go south of the lake to pass Dorohovo and then keep heading towards the river east of Mozhaisk to strafe an artillery position. Since I was leading, I decided to come from the south to avoid the nasty AAA guns camped in the village of Oblyanischevo and come out of the sun when we went on our bomb run. I didn't plan to stick around, as there were two German airfields nearby. The Major planned for us to fly at 1000m, but after take-off, I went to 2000m, as usual.

 

And there they were. Just as we were passing the lake between Kubinka and Dorohovo. We were 6, they were 5. I radioed my flight to engage and went up. I wanted to keep my bombs, if possible. The Mig dives well with bombs. Anything does, I guess. Two 109s went under me, going for one of the rookies. I rolled over and dived on the one behind. A quick burst left him smoking. But, as I was lining up for the second one, something hit me. I looked behind and saw two Germans behind me, but I was quickly leaving them behind. They must've got a lucky shot from a distance. But what a shot it was. My aiming sight was gone, as were my compass and attitude indicator. I must've had 10 bullets in my seat armor. At least the broken glass was keeping me cool. How to aim without my sight? I still had plenty of ammo, so I just used the nose of my plane and what was left of my broken aiming sight. My boys were spewing bullets everywhere, hitting nothing, leaving their backs wide open. All I could do was to scare the enemy off of them, right? Wrong.

 

After 79... uhmm, 80 kills, you learn a thing or two about shooting. Rule number 1: get in close. And close they were. There was no way to miss. Even when they flew into the sun, I stayed in their shade. One rookie got lucky and scored a kill as well, but I eventually killed the other 3. We did lose one pilot. I didn't see anyone bail out, later we learned he did die. But as i said, I didn't see anyone bail out, so the Germans payed in full for their little victory. After it was over, we were still near the lake. I was lucky, without a compass, and the target still far off west, at least I wasn't lost, so I decided to stick to my mental plan, go past Dorohovo, then look for the river. My team joined the formation and we went west, looking for trouble.

 

And we found plenty of it. Just above the river, just as we were lining up for a bomb dive, there they were, 6 more 109s. I had little ammo, but at least I was higher than them. I went straight over them and, as they tried to climb to me, I turned right and started my bomb run. I didn't even look behind. Why search for bullets behind you when there were plenty of them in front? The AAA didn't give a damn about the sun. Or maybe they did, because they didn't hit me, but they did hit one of their own who was coming right on my tail. Almost 700kph, barely pulled out of my dive. Bombs out, 3 gun emplacements hit. Later, my boys told me that my second bomb exploded right under a German plane who was on my tail. I confess, I didn't see him. I carried my speed and went up again once I realized my back was clear. The boys came in behind me, no bombs mind you, they must've dropped them before during the first fight. What the heck were they thinking?! The Mig dives well with bombs! By this time the AAA near Oblyanischevo was also opening up on us and the arty platoon must've had three AAA guns of their own. With so much steel in the air, it was difficult to see who was who. One Mig had 2 109s on his tail. I dove back into the fray, dodging AAA left and right. I shot another 109 and lined up for yet another one. But even though I hit it once, my guns ran out of ammo. At least my boys were clear with only one loosing fuel. Anyway, there was nothing left to do there, so I radioed everyone to head back home. By this time, there were still 3 Germans in the air. The 3 rookies who were unscathed ran for their lives, but I stayed with our damaged plane. Somehow, we managed to get back over our lines before the Germans caught up with us.

 

Just north of Kubinka there is an airfield. Somehow, my dazed comrades confused it with Vnukovo and started to land there. Imbeciles, that field didn't have AAA protection. Luckily, the Germans didn't know that. Unfortunately, that also meant that they immediately turned on me. So now here I was, without ammo, running for my life towards Vnukovo. I tried everything to keep my engine running at maximum, but the lead enemy was slowly creeping up on me. Our glorious radio didn't allow me to call for help so I had to take action, just 15 km west of our airfield. I turned left towards the German, he turned into me, I dove under his bullets, then reversed to the right. As usual, this caught Fritz by surprise and he lost me under his nose. Usually, this would've been game over for him, but what could I do now? Threaten him with bad words? I did use them, probably my best ones yet, but since his plane didn't show any sign of damage from my cursing, I continued my turn and headed again along the river to our blessed airfield. By the time the German realized I was running again, he was far behind me. The other two also thought they could be smart so they had went up to pick on me like the vultures they were, instead of closing the distance. So long, vultures.

 

Long story short, I reached Vnukovo and there were were 3 Russian planes landing on our airfield. I shot every flare I had at them (maybe that's what I should've shot at the German). At the end of them, there were still 3 stupid planes landing on our airfield! I thought the point of having ammo was to use it on the enemy, you know, to save your comrade who's shooting the flares just hundred of meters away from you. They must've been very busy with flaps configurations... Anyway, at least our AAA got a spectacular fireworks display. And they were quick to return the favor. I've never seen a more beautiful sight. At least 12 guns protecting their Hero of the Soviet Union. After 3 minutes of dodging my overzealous enemies at a respectful distance, two of them were running home with busted radiators, and the other was admiring the clouds from inside a burning crater. It was over before our planes had even landed, so I landed right in front of them. "Oh no, is the runway occupied? Sorry! I'm a bit tired after my 5 kills today, you know, as much as you'll never make in your entire career." So what if they get mad? I made 5000 rubles today so I'll just buy them a drink and throw it in their eyes for not seeing 10 flares shot at them. Back at debrief, I received 2000 more rubles, for the German that ate my bomb and another one I forget shooting at. In total, 9 for us, 1 for them. Not a bad November day.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Wolferl_1791

[novicebutdeadly]

The 2 battles that stick with me the most were from the original il2 series possible in the battlefields 1 server,

The first was on the eastern front possible 1942 (the Russians could fly the P39), and I don't think that I had trackir at the time, and my tactical choices were not all that great,

 

So it wasn't long until I was on the deck with 3 reds behind me and 1 above me, with a bit of ducking and weaving 2 of the over eager reds crashed into each other (they were too busy shoulder shooting to use their brains), the high red for some reason decided to dive into the ground leaving 1 single red with me, I had a hole in my wing, but slowly going round and round I ended up behind the Comrad and shot him down.


The second was a later war (Frankfurt??) map, I had my trusty K4 (C3??) with a full load of fuel, 

 

After taking off I headed north west away from the combat so that I could gain some altitude (I had trackir by this stage), but it wasn't long (I was passing through circa 2km) when 2 red arrows appeared..... clearly eager to check out my ride...

They were higher than me but also far away, so I decided to continue my climb at a slightly shallower angle to try to prolong the inevitable, that was until 1 of them shallow dived to try to catch me..

As the first LA closed in I thought about turning and hoping to take at least one of them to Valhalla with me..... but the strangest thing happened which is the thought of a gazelle cornered by 2 lions making pointless defensive thrusts before being overwhelmed appeared in my mind

So I resisted the urge and the first LA stopped gaining on me when they were around 1.5km away from me, So I continued my climb hoping to loose them, with the chase now going above 10 km I had enough separation from the closest LA to do a long lazy turn back towards the furthest LA that could not catch up, hoping to get lucky in a head on,

the LA wasn't a fan of my elephant gun and so would dive away before either one of us could shoot with any chance of achieving any hits , So I would continue my gentle climb (reaching over 12km at one point), gain some separation before slowly looping back on that same LA that could never catch up,

this went one for some time before the LA's I'm guessing running short of fuel broke off and headed for home, I was def still sweating and trembling even after I landed.

For me it was the most memorable because I managed to keep my head and make good tactical decisions, I managed to handle my aircraft within it's performance envelope at what I deemed to be extreme heights, 

I didn't get any victories that flight, but I also didn't die :-)

 

[D3adCZE]

As I was searching for an old post of mine, I found this topic and remembered I had an interesting dogfight to share. I know, by reviving this topic, I've become a necromancer.

 

Once upon a time I've decided to jump into my favourite pony. I was patrolling above our bomber base at the altitude of 7km(~22K ft in freedom units) when I noticed a dot closing in, I thought to myself: "Meh, some pony joining in formation with me." Oh how wrong I was. I noticed it when I saw flashes in the prop hub of that small dot. I yanked the stick into my guts to dodge those tennis balls lobbed at me by that 109 K4, but as I dodged those, I almost stalled. I forced an overshoot, tried to go after that K4, but I was too slow to do so. He tried to boom at me again, but I was too maneuverable for him to hit me, so he disengaged and I didnt follow for enemies were close. As I reclimbed to 7km, I thought: "Uff, at least no more enemies here," and as I checked my 6, I saw a small dot slotting in the firing position. I was like: "Aw sh*t, here we go again." I engaged him in rolling scissors. Even though I tried to throw off his aim, he managed to pepper me with his 13mms, fortunately it was nothing serious. As I tangled with him up and down, fast and slow, when I got him in my sights, a Tempest stormed in. With this unexpected help, we forced him to dive away and as I was diving behind the Tempest to cover him, the Tempest blasted that Jerry into oblivion. After regular climbing routine, this time at 9km(~30K ft in freedom units) I was thinking: "Yeah, nothing except TA-152 H1 can challenge my mighty pony up here!" As a regular habit, when I was to happy about my situation, I expected a slap, so I checked my rear hemisphere. Nothing there, everything was nice and clear. Sun was shining, contrail emerging, Merlin purring, so I looked back to the front only to see 2 contrails 1.5km higher, diving in my way. Since no sane German would fly at this altitude when the sky is swarming with P47s and Ponies, I though that they were ponies or jugs. The moment long noses of enemy Doras were flying around me, I started to do chandelle to gain energy advantage. It felt like eternity, trying to turn into them, climb above them and get my guns on them, especially when I was in a disadvantage 1v2. When I tried to hit one, the other one got on my tail. We were swinging at that altitude to and fro, spinning, rolling, tail slipping, barrel rolling, rope'doping, nobody managed to hit anyone. When I finally got sufficient lead on the leader of the Doras, I, thankfully, checked my 6, to see a Schwalbe getting into firing position! I had only fractions of seconds to react, so, knowing that the 262 cannot slow down and follow me through some crazy ass maneuvers, I yanked my stick to the ballz, kicked full right rudder, the pony spinned around like a truly crazy horse and I prayed that the Jerry in that Schwalbe cannot put his nose down quickly enough to hit me with those 4 tennis ball launchers. As I was trying not to vomit my virtual lunch into the virtual cockpit, tracers flew past me, directly in the place where I was mere fractions of a second earlier. I was spinning like mad man, upside down, trying to make this crazy ass horse flying straight again. After many, seemingly eternal seconds, I managed to stabilize the plane and manage to get back into the fight, on the defensive side, again, but I was back nonetheless. With 2 Doras and a Schwalbe after my sexy ass. I have decided to spam the chat for help, but knew, that the help might be too late, I dove to the deck, utilised my high speed roll rate against Doras to force them to break off, because they saw few contrails above our heads. Since I was clear for few seconds, I didnt care for my engine, pushed the throttle fully forward and decided to disappear, since I was running low on fuel, ammo and sweat. I knew the Schwalbe will run me down so I got prepared. As he closed in, I forced an overshoot and watched him go up for another attack. At that moment my heart jumped with relief, as a mighty Jug stormed by my left wing after that daring Schwalbe, blasting from it's 8 brownings. Freedom intensified and I was watching this spectacle with my mouth open. The schwalbe was damaged, Jug and I happy, and when I landed, I couldn't even get my head around what just happened.

 

This game is just awesome.

 

Sortie here: http://combatbox.net/en/sortie/199173/?tour=15

[Ribbon]

It really is nice feeling!

Yesterday i went bombing in pe2 on TAW.

Got hit by flak and lost one engine, than 109 got on me damaging my second engine and fuel tanks but my gunner ? damaged him so ge broke off.

Was crippling treetop level in hope my navigation skills are good enough to hit airfield (could only use compas and approx shape of the forrest i was flying above, couldn't see anything else since i was on 5~10m alt.)

After some time i saw af hangar sticking on my  right side, nearly crashed upon landing since my RH flap was gone....but managed to retract left one and land.

It felt better than shooting down multiple enemies!

[EAF19_Marsh]

On 6/9/2018 at 8:49 PM, spartan85 said:

I feel ya!  Il2 1946, MP, after a large B-17 raid on Palermo, limping home to Tunisia with one and a half engines, throttle stuck, no aileron or elevator control... steering by adjusting prop pitch, rudder, and flaps... for god knows how long from 30k feet to home...  landing dead center-line on the runway, soaked from head to toe with my ashtray full and a now empty bottle of glenfidich....  hands thrown up in the air!!!

 

I SURVIVED!!!!

 

now with il2 BoX series, i'm enjoying these moments more and more...

 

You should not smoke in a damaged aircraft: next time, get clear then light-up.

[US63_SpadLivesMatter]

My best 'dogfight' was diving away from two yaks so fast that I lost elevator authority, and having to use my stabiliser to pull out of the dive.  I levelled out just above treetop level.  Then I look behind me and see both yaks plow straight into the ground.

 

I still call it 2 kills. 

[ZachariasX]

1 minute ago, J28w-Broccoli said:

My best 'dogfight' was diving away from two yaks so fast that I lost elevator authority, and having to use my stabiliser to pull out of the dive.  I levelled out just above treetop level.  Then I look behind me and see both yaks plow straight into the ground.

 

I still call it 2 kills. 

Only if you fired at least one shot from your guns befor landing. Else, they would not have been counted.

 

Charles Lamb claimed a Fiat like this off the Albanian coast. He circled as tight and as low as he could, hanging on the prop. The Fiat's (CR42 IIRC) misjudged the altitude over the clear water and slammed right in the drink. (Charles Lamb did so as he remembered a previous accident during training off the Bermudas, where a comerade of his was practising attack runs in a Skua, Lamb in his Swordfish trying to evade him. To his horror he saw his comerade plow right into the sea when attacking him in his incredibly tight circle from above.) Upon returning to base, he found one machine gun bullet stuck in his chute, coming to a stop less than a centimeter from his family jewels. At least being fond of himself for downing the Italian aircraft, he made a report on that, only to be told that he didn't fire a singe shot from his guns, hence he could not claim for a victory in what was a contest of pure airmanship to Lamb.

[Krisu]

This one time I met a pesky La-5 doing fancy things before trying to make me overshoot, the fancy things worked. Had I known his tactics I'd have just dropped my throttle nice and early but I decided to keep speed and climb rather too aggressively as I usually do, the guy shreds my elevators with twin 20mm fire. I'm coming down thinking is my tail gonna come clean off because my controls are totally messed. 

 

On the way down I pull out of a dive for a shot at him, my pitch controls are totally discombobulated...I score a MASSIVE fluke hit on his engine, I'm like this guy is probably so mad at this point that was his win with the fancy moves but nope DENIED

 

Did I land on that flight? I don't remember I think I did, I just remember it was Krupinski. 

 

He knew it was a fluke too on the chat but I didn't say anything LOL