If you had an interesting mission

June 26, 2020

Good that in PWCG campaigns there's so much action on the ground now. Even deep in your own rear area.

Today we had an attack on our German airfield on the Moscow map and during the scramble mission I got separated from my flight of 109s and suddenly I had three Ratas behind me. Couldn't call for help because I was number two.

But I could see the steam of a train half a mile away and discovered their Flak were already shooting roughly in my direction. I started to circle around and above the train and was trying to get one of the Ratas in front of me with no luck until at last one or two planes from our squad arrived at the scene.

After some minutes there was no enemy visible anymore and I could land my (motor) damaged plane. AAR showed one got shot by this Flak.

First time for me I got help from a train. Cool

Edited July 5, 2020 by vonGraf

June 28, 2020

Had a boring patrol in Kuban just inside the German lines. No planes were spotted. On the way RTB, I saw an outbound flight of Soviet Bombers then the distance a pack of planes (bombers?) over a friendly city. I went to investigate and say it was a flight of He-111 (the big German bombers). I saw some explosions and noped back to base since my wingman did not have the same curiosity I had.

I also had another mission to escort bombers. About 4 min into the flight right after forming up on the bombers, what do we see--a flight of 2 German bombers. I was able to pepper one and get both engines leaking. My wingman hit the other one and they both went back over the German lines. We had lost our bombers so I chose to try to find them. This failed miserably. But, what did I find--a few Stuka fully loaded with bombs! I had just enough ammo to make one low sweeping pass on two of them which was enough to get them both to drop their bombs and run (one with some engine damage). I did get a hole in the cockpit and a bit of wing peppering but was able to set it down at a divert field.

July 10, 2020

I just had another great Coop mission. Kuban 1st day of the campaign in Yak1 Ser67 (or is it s69?). Took for for a patrol mission in the north of the map. As we were forming up about 2 min after takeoff, I look to the left to check on the formation and see 2 109's come screaming in at us. We break and are able to shoot one down. The other we lose tally on. We reform and fly over the large city on the river. Nothing happens so we head south and meet up with out old friend the bounced 109. One Soviet pilots dives to engage and gets into collision with the 109 killing both.

I tally 2 planes on the horizon flying toward them. Turns out they are Russians on a patrol as well. They pass us and while watching them go, a flight of 4 202's are on our six! I break hard and end up with 2 on my tail. My wingman is able to see them and pull hard quickly killing one, leaving 3. I dive to the deck to get some space but two stay on me. I pull at near GLOC for a few min with the 2 202's on my tail firing but behind me. This allows my wingman to swoop down and get them off me. I follow one while I fight GLOC with ever small movement of the stick. Eventually I pull to get lead and 202 blacks out arching over and crashing. My wingman finishes off the other guy who was following me since he cannot pull any hard maneuvers. The last 202 is then tallied and taken down in short order.

Great random mission!

October 13, 2020

Flying Circus version...

Assigned to Jasta 4('The All Blacks') flying out of Lille North Aerodrome.

My group of 3 Pfalz fighters were assigned to destroy a recon balloon operating just east

of Arras.

Flying parallel to No Mans Land in our 3 O Clock position we were bounced by a flight of 4 Sopworth Camels.

I managed to shoot down 2 while my mates took care of the other 2.

Having enough ammo and light damage I continued with the flight.

Spotted the balloon and engaged...sucker burst into flames.

In the distance another group of Tommies were coming to intercept.

Being low on ammo I decided to retreat to the safety of our lines where friendly AAA made the

Camels withdraw.

Landed safely at base to fly another day.

October 19, 2020

Honestly, it's rare that we don't have an interesting mission in our co-op campaigns, however, something that has surprised us is the "replay-ability" of a given mission. For example;

Flying the Tempest for 56 Sqn RAF, our little cohort of 4 pilots departed Kirchhellen airfield at 12:30pm on the 22nd of April 1945 on a patrol mission near Borculo.

Medium Cloud cover at 10,500ft with a 3 kt wind out of the West

Our route takes us up to 20,000ft toward the start of our patrol, and this is where things get interesting. We've taken this to be our standard 'rotation mission' when one of our 4 virtual pilots aren't available and we're just looking for a quick mission to fly. The mission was originally created back in around version 10, and so far we've flown this mission 5 times, and every single time it has played out slightly differently. During the patrol, sometimes we'll spot the enemy out at a good few miles, sometimes were jumped, but it always plays out a little different each time.

One of our custom skins, we use a unique color on the tips, and tail for each of our pilots to make staying with your wingman easier in a fur ball

The first time we flew it, we didn't encounter anything on the patrol, but ran into some Ju-88's on our way back to base.

The second time we flew it we were jumped by a flight of 109's with little notice which came up at us from under the clouds

The third time we flew it we spotted a flight of 262's crossing our patrol route at around the same altitude. As we jumped in on those, we were pounced on by a flight of 4 FW-190's and fought incredibly poor odds (enemy fighter skill set to 3 in the Campaign Manager) to come out on top, and nurse our wounded aircraft home, and so on with differences with every subsequent re-play.

Results after this mission which was just before the end of the war for us, you can see our squad with 41 and 37 flights under our belt

We're so impressed that what is effectively the same mission has so much variation in it. Admittedly we may have taken longer to get from one waypoint to another on occasion, or missed one entirely and had to go back for it which maybe the determining factor in all of this, but it's simply amazing that we've had so much fun out of just one of a whole campaign of missions.

Bravo!

Edited October 19, 2020 by Highwayman

November 3, 2020

OLGA'S FIRST DAY - AKA Rudely Telling the Comrade Major to Jump in a Lake:

Meet AI Szt Olga Orlov. She joined the 3rd Guards Fighter Squadron as the first female fighter pilot to fly with my player pilot, Major Breznev. In fact, she was the first female pilot I have ever seen since I had been mostly in the Rhineland since that PWCG update - more great work by Pat bringing that interesting history to PWCG. However, I was a little surprised by her deep voice on the radio! (Maybe @AnPetrovich could convince wife to do some voice acting between parasail flights ).

Background: My pilot, Major Rori Breznev, had worked his way up the ranks flying P-39s with the 45th Guards in the Kuban, eventually making Kaptain. Since the 45th was still commanded by a Major, and also had the IRL ace Kap Glinka flying, I decided to see if any of the other Soviet squadrons were struggling. In looking at the intel report, the 3rd Guards was down to 5 pilots, currently ineffective, and commanded by a SLt. Even better, they were flying the LA-5FN which should be a major improvement over the P-39. So, Rori accepted a transfer to take command, got the 3rd back into the air, and was almost immediately promoted to Major. Replacements were added and the squadron, that had no victories when he arrived, even started downing a few bombers.

Then, to my surprise, Olga showed up on the roster from the replacement pool. She was assigned to the next flight, an intercept over Taman. We were moving as a flight of 4 toward the lines when 2 109s came out of the sun tearing through our formation. I immediately broke left and tried to pursue, but the 109s had energy and were using it well. I then found myself seemingly alone and trying to maneuver with one of the 109s as he went vertical. This 109 finally leveled out and I was trying to get behind him when I suddenly see Olga slashing down from his high 12. I am thinking she probably is using the FN better than I am at that point since she isn't trying to turn fight with him. I of course then blissfully ignore this thought and she disappears from view.

Well, since I don't see the other 109, or the rest of my squad, I stubbornly decide I am going to try to stay on my elusive target's tail. He continues doing a great job avoiding me getting into a firing position, when Olga streaks in again from his high 12, but this time uncomfortably close to me as I get a face full of that big radial engine. I jerk the joystick, but too little, too late...BANG!! Most of my left wing has departed with Olga.

This begins a wicked spin, with me now recalling reading something about the FNs canopy not opening at high speeds and wondering if this also includes spins. My immediate attempt to bail out isn't getting me anywhere. So, I am now seeing a spinning Kuban lake below and trying to use rudder and whatever is left of any ailerons to somehow counter the spin. I finally get it to at least slow and then finally manage to bail. I look down, and in addition to the lake, there is another chute below and an arrogant 109 pilot heading west - his work for the day complete.

So ended Szt Olga's first mission...swimming to the friendly shore with her commander (who adding injury to insult, is slighted wounded, while Olga is just fine). I don't know who was wrong, but in the 3rd Guards, Szt's shouldn't give dizzy Majors swim lessons. Szt Olga Orlov now has a very long way to go to earn all those medals someone (Pat?) evidently photoshopped into her official dossier photo.

November 5, 2020

On 11/2/2020 at 8:57 PM, Varibraun said:

However, I was a little surprised by her deep voice on the radio! (Maybe @AnPetrovich could convince wife to do some voice acting between parasail flights ).

3. Female crews got female voices in the radio messages; I will pretend like this one was for me in today's update - Thank you @AnPetrovich and team!!

Now I just need Olga to get out of her nice comfy PWCG hospital bed to see what she sounds like on the radio. To her credit though, she advanced to Veteran status before being lightly wounded on a mission last night.

November 5, 2020

3 hours ago, Varibraun said:

3. Female crews got female voices in the radio messages; I will pretend like this one was for me in today's update - Thank you @AnPetrovich and team!!

Now I just need Olga to get out of her nice comfy PWCG hospital bed to see what she sounds like on the radio. To her credit though, she advanced to Veteran status before being lightly wounded on a mission last night.

That might be her actual voice you know. Possible if she was on the USSR Olympic swim team before the war.

November 8, 2020

So I've been writing down in the Narrative portion of my Campaign for the last week, this is whats happened so far...

Sept 1 1944:

well I'm here, part of the 352nd Blue Nose Bastards of Bodney its been a long road to get here only to get shot up and crash land within my first few minutes of my first mission, Boy I'm gonna make Ma and Pa proud. Got engaged by some fighters and lost control authority over my plane but managed to set it down in a field and survive. Don't even know what shot me, had hot daggers whistling through me and my plane, and that's about all I know. Doc said I was lucky to be alive.

Sept 15 1944:
First time out since I was wounded. We got into the thick of things, I got two!! Shot them down over enemy territory and they both popped their chutes, thought about flying real close to them and giving them the finger, hahaha! Heard of one of their Aces who shoots us while we are defenseless in our parachute, coward! Hope I meet up with him someday, I'll make sure he doesn't have a chance to pull his chute!

Sept 16 1944:
four Fw 190's wow, I was on fire tonight! the boys bought me rounds all night on our first night of leave. Lt. Evans even had a bottle of the good stuff stashed away and let me have the first drink. Starting to make friends here now, unfortunately that means I'm going to lose some friends, wish it weren't so, maybe I'll be the first one to get got, I'd almost prefer that.

Sept 18 1944:
We engaged several BF-110's over the front lines north of our patrol, I lost contact with Bell during the engagement and managed to bring down one BF-110 and critically damage another, would be surprised if it made it home. hopefully Bell made it! didn't see him anywhere after the engagement.

Sept 21 1944:
3 kills! great solo mission to support friendlies in contact north of my planned route. Unfortunately I ran out of ammo, but I guess thats better than leaving ammo in the gun and no kills.

Sept 22 1944:
       Got surprised by a large group of FW190's managed to take out one of them but unfortunately during pursuit my flaps got stuck and I had to rtb at the nearest friendly airfield and took contact while on the ground.I shut off engine got out and tried un jamming them but was unsuccessful so took shelter in a bunker while friendly forces in the air fought off the 190's unfortunately for me I could only watch from the ground as there were no available aircraft for me to take up and help out, not the way I wanted to spend the dogfight... just glad I managed to take one of the bastards down! lost one good friend, ol Baker from Oregon, hell of a pilot. Chapmen narrowly escaped with some injuries, was able to visit him in the Infirmary and found out he'll be good as new in a few days. we lost that fight.

Sept 27 1944:
       today running ground attack on a fortified position that our men have been trying to take for weeks, unable to cross the river. We were sent in three of us and took out some heavy guns and triple A with 500 lbs bombs, I even straffed some panzers retreating through a wooded outcropping but wasn't able to penetrate their armor, they didn't even slow down with direct hits from my .50 cal. I re engaged 4 times straffing some gun emplacements and actually took some large caliber fire to my tail and wings. Kinda spooky when you look out the window and see glowing angry red bee's whizzing past your canopy and looking at the ground through a softball sized hole in your wing. I was able to shoot down three FW 190 A-8's on the way home, they had been harrassing one of our HQ's outside of a city, unfortunately they were able to do some damage before we arrived and even shot down some of our escort fighters in P-47's fortunately none of our allied lancasters were shot down who were also doing some heavy bombing to the south east of our AO. another minor casualty in our flight, Chamberlain, sucks, we were already down to three in our flight now we are going to be just two unless we get some fresh meat from Command or from another Unit... ask and ye shall recieve after chow and writing in this journal we got a new guy goes by the name of 2nd LT.Mark Jackson, hope he's as good as he says he is. Talked to chamberlain before they shipped him off to a field hospital, he got one of the bastards too before he got wounded! Looks like we got a green kid from Missouri goes by Murph he's got "I just fell off the Turnip truck" written all over him. Seems like a smart kid, hope he makes it home.

Sept 29 1944:
I invited a young kid murphy into the fold, wanted to watch over him as his wingman and get some experience in combat under his belt as he is the youngest pilot we got next to me. Kid did well shot down a k4 or a g14 109. going to try and keep him close I don't wanna see another friend go down while i'm flying by his side. We still lost 1 lancaster even though I stuck real close and didn't pursue the fighters that I turned to swiss cheese, they looked beat up and I knew they wouldn't make it far so I broke off and kept our boys close that were bombing a major target, and yet one slipped past me somehow. I managed to shoot him down but too late....
9:00P.M Got back to the Barracks and got some news, guess I'm a 2nd Lt. now, now I get to lead a CAP mission tomorrow. Kinda nervous first time flying where my only responsibility was me and shooting down bad guys, now I have to watch over the other three in my flight. I'm torn between making sure every one I engage goes down or hitting 'em hard and reforming up with at least my wingman, its not worked well in the past, shot up a fw 190 thought for sure he was a gonner and he got one of our guys when I broke off to engage another target who was fighting another one of us. I just can't seem to win either I spread myself out thin or I focus on my kill and hope the other guys can fend for themselves until I'm sure the target is out of the fight and no threat to anyone else. God, if your listening, please let me make the right decisions. If I do anything wrong I just hope I keep this green pilot Murph safe. It's the least I can do after losing so many, I know I shouldn't but I blame myself...

Oct. 1 1944:
Well today started on the wrong foot, first off I ended up getting bumped down to second in command, then on taxi our fearless leader crashed into Murph and grounded both of them the third was stuck on the ground as well not sure what happened there. I was told to hurry to the front and support our B-25's who laid waste to the enemy spearhead. I engaged two low fighters on the way lost some altitude and had to watch as several of our b-25's were shot down while I tried climbing to their altitude once I got above the clouds. I did manage to hit a couple more and got into a head on fight with an fw 190, he managed to take out my prop and I glided to friendly territory and had to eject as the fighter came in to finish me off, he must not have seen me bail as he followed my plane and kept shooting. Scariest fight I've been in. At least I'm alive and can fight another day! took forever to walk to a nearby British held City and get a hold of HQ and eventually caught a ride with a General on his way to deal with some logistics for our supply lines, he said to tell Preddy that we we'll get another plane in the next week or so to replace mine and not be too hard on me... 8:45pm got done with chow and had a shower, Major Preddy our squadron lead and our resident Ace, told me to meet him after chow, hadn't planned on telling him what the General said when riding back about being easy on me, but I was definitely second guessing that choice on the way to confront him. He told me to have a seat as I walked into the command tent, and awarded me the medal of honor. I couldn't believe it! After such a shitty day I was getting a damn medal of honor!

Oct 4 1944:
Harris our flight lead disappointed me, we flew our patrol and saw what looked to be some Bombers far north of us granted it was out of our patrol zone a little bit but we should have investigated. I broke off about 3 klicks to try and ID the planes but couldn't from that range. We saw nobody else. I didn't wanna leave the guys as although all but one are the same rank the others don't have much combat under their belts even though they may have flown more missions. Not bragging just stating the facts, combat and missions are two different beasts altogether. I know how fast a bad situation can get worse or a good situation can get disastrous in seconds. I get it Harris is playing his role as lead, trying to keep us all alive if we don't have to pick a fight that's not in our lane then should we? The way I see it is that's just giving those bastards another chance to kill our guys on the front lines I saw opportunity but Harris disagreed... I'm going to be leader soon so these are questions I need to answer, Did Harris do the right thing? We would have been deep behind enemy lines had we pursued had they been friendly Bombers it would have been a possibility that we missed the enemy in our patrol zone bombing our guys and they seemed to be under no threat, however they also were not escorted by fighters as far as I could tell.

Oct 5 1944:
On Intercept duty to repel a large strike of ground attack/fighters and bombers today, Wow! I got shot to shit had several rounds go through my cockpit, one even took out my aiming reticle and I was shooting without it In a dogfight to save my ass and get back to base. Murph came and saved my life, shot the bastard that was was chewing me up, I thought they had been shot down and they came just in the knick of time. Hadn't heard them on the radio and was calling out to them for cover, radio must have been taken a round. After I saw the 190 chasing me have to turn and try to fight ol Murph I decided since I was so beat up I'd better land at the closest airfield, barely kept my plane in the air let alone landed it on the runway. as I was landing my engine cut out completely just sputtered to a stop I was thinking I just survived those rounds going through my cockpit to crash and die on the runway. two planes and narrowly escaping death twice now. maybe my numbers up, not going to talk too much more but I managed to get three of them before i had to retreat. well now I'm going to go see the doc, he wants to check out these injuries in my legs and back from the hot spaulling that hit me, find out if I can fly the next mission. Almost blacked out from the pain trying to fly and stay alive!

Oct 6 1944:
Helped out some P-47's on a squadron of JU-88's just south of our patrol, I got one and Murph got one, knew there was something I liked about this kid. Continued on patrol and Murph and the others rtb'd Winchester I saw a couple of planes with Bombs, and made the mistake of firing without PID them turned out they were friendlies who were lost and flying over our own guys with bombs no one got injured but I filled one plane with lead and found out later he bailed out due to my screw up. I'm and idiot! Always PID even if they look like they are bombing our own troops.. The Brits assured me it was fine as no one was injured and" it was there damn fault for being in the wrong place and it must have looked bad" still there's no excuse for blue one blue and not PID'ing. Glad the boys weren't there to witness it as leader, that's one hell of an example to set. Sick to my stomach, wont be eating tonight, gonna go sit on my bunk and read some letters from back home, try and clear my head. 9:25 Murph came back to the barracks with a grin a mile wide after being called into command, he got promoted to 2nd Lt. he's going to out rank me before long!

Oct 9 1944:
Major Preddy took us out on a low altitude CAP. We were spotted by four BF 110's flying high above us, we tried climbing to engage them but they were on us fast with the energy advantage, I took several hits and thanks to Murphy shooting my attacker, I was able to regain the advantage and down him, Preddy downed one as well and I finished off the last two with Murphy's help. the other guys were then engaged by a large group of Dora's, my first encounter with them, they out maneuvered Preddy and them and I was only able to damage two of them trying to save my wingmen. I heard Murphy over the radio just as I was taking severe damage trying to maneuver, I also lost my flaps in a diving turn fight with one of the Dora's who were attacking Collins I also went Winchester at exactly the same time. Murphy said he was going down and then yelled that he was on fire and bailing out. He bailed out behind enemy lines and that was the last we heard from him. Our guys on the ground made a hard push to the north east extending our front and reported that they had found a burning chute splayed out in a field with Murphy's burned and broken body underneath it about an hour after our engagement. they also reported that his chute had most likey taken damage from the fire and malfunction and although he was severely burnt he probably had gone quick as the impact was likely the cause of death. I cant imagine burning up in my plane only to perish by falling to my death trying to get away from the flames, I picture it over and over lying here and his scream on the radio that he was on fire. RIP 2nd Lt. Patrick "Murph" Murphy. You died in duty and honor. Three of my flight shot down one seriously injured but going to return to duty and the Major not a scratch and returning tomorrow and then Murph, we had the deck stacked against the enemy and we were crushed, my morale is shaken.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Blast
few of many grammatical errors fixed

November 12, 2020

@Blast Well written...great work! I would enjoy seeing you keep this going and posting your mission logs/narration as they happen. Congrats on the Medal of Honor, but sorry about poor Murph...

On 11/5/2020 at 1:44 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

That might be her actual voice you know. Possible if she was on the USSR Olympic swim team before the war.

I can now confirm that you were correct on both counts

At least that explains how Olga got to the lake shore before the Major Breznev (RIP...victim of the pilot fatigue).

November 12, 2020

2 hours ago, Varibraun said:

@Blast Well written...great work! I would enjoy seeing you keep this going and posting your mission logs/narration as they happen. Congrats on the Medal of Honor, but sorry about poor Murph...

I can now confirm that you were correct on both counts

At least that explains how Olga got to the lake shore before the Major Breznev (RIP...victim of the pilot fatigue).

My guess is that they hard coded female voices to the in game Night Witch squadron. However they did it, there is no additional parameter on a plane that defines pilot gender, so the female voices are not readily available to mission makers.

November 12, 2020

46 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

so the female voices are not readily available to mission makers.

I was afraid of that as soon as I heard Olga's transmission on the radio after the update. I was just coming to accept learning of her role in the 1936 games, when Maj Breznev learned about his new pilot fatigue the hard way...rough week for the 3rd Guards!

Truly having a great time!

November 22, 2020

Currently flying in an absolutely battered, understrength Hurricane squadron on Kuban. Whilst not a specific mission objective, our 2 ship patrol had a phenomenal entanglement with a massive German offensive.

Just clearing the mountains, we see some Mig 3s tangling with Mc202s about 200m above the trees. We both dive in and my flight lead goes one way, I go the other. I quickly latch onto a 202 and the Hispanos quickly rip the vertical stabiliser apart and the pilot hits the chute. I turn back towards the main thrall and found 2 Migs engaged in a turn battle with a remaining 202. The 202 fails to notice me and turns in such a way that I can get behind him easily. Another quick burst and he rolls over into the wooded mountainside.

I pulled up and located my flight lead, chasing an E7 across the front lines. The E7 turns towards the mountain as my Lead dives on him. The E7 goes down and explodes but the diving hurricane can't pull up fast enough and buries itself in the trees. I don't have time to see the wreckage as I'm eyeballing a pair of E7s at my 12oclock. I dive and latch onto the leading E7. I empty my Hispanos into him from 300 yards and his airframe disintegrates. I turn for home and make a successful landing despite being chased by the remaining E7, who had a significant energy disadvantage.

I learnt afterwards that my flight lead was seriously wounded in the crash but will fly again someday. For now though, we are down to 5 pilots.

November 22, 2020

I had an unusual thing happen. Flying an FW 190 we were tasked with taking out a train. Everything is outright calm as we encounter no enemy planes. I drop my bomb, missing the locomotive but taking out some of the train cars. My wingman does better and blows up the locomotive. We are just beginning to egress when a flight of Stukas comes down to hit the exact same target. High command obviously badly wanted that train.

November 22, 2020

3 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

High command obviously badly wanted that train.

Reminds me of the first couple episodes of "The Attackers" where the Soviet fighter squadron is solely focused on destroying an armored train. Maybe this was a revenge mission

December 1, 2020

Early 1942, my staffel has recently been transferred to the sunny Kuban after a stint on the Stalingrad front. Once we had taken a few days to sun on the beaches of Crimea, we began operations from Anapa.

The Major calls Rudi Steichen to the briefing room.

We were to perform a sweep over Novorossiysk in the new G-2s.

No sweat for us, as far as intel had it the only Soviet fighters in this area were P-40s and I-16s, hardly a challenge.

We took off that afternoon, flying low towards the east.

Rudi goes on and on about a this girl he had met on leave in Sevastopol, despite the order for limited radio chatter.

We aren't concerned.

We are invincible, our staffel has yet to lose a pilot in action.

My attention is drawn back to reality.

I see a lone aircraft ahead, twin engine.

I gun my engine and zoom ahead, leaving Rudi behind.

It's a C-47, I realize.

I abandon caution and slow down to stay on his tail.

I depress the trigger for two seconds, his left engine catches fire.

The Soviet plummets into the impossibly green landscape below. This is my 50th victory.

Panicked words fill my headphones.

I look up and around and see a Soviet on Rudi's tail.

I pull back on the stick and push the throttle into the red, I have to save my friend.

I see flames.

Rudi's shouts turn to shrieks.

I can't gain altitude.

The Ivan zooms away.

I watch as Rudi throws the canopy off and struggles to leave his aircraft.

He doesn't.

I listen in terror as he burns in a doomed spiral toward the sea below.

I land ten minutes later.

I'm put up for a Knight's cross.

It seems all too unfair, I get a medal and Rudi gets a eulogy.

I drink myself into a stupor, too hung over to fly the next day.

December 2, 2020

@worldwarli Had something similar happen to me the other day. Flying low in bad weather. We engage a group of yaks. At one point I see a group of planes just under the clouds. They are close so I close in. C47s. I get on one and he goes in burning. Back to the yaks. I shoot one up but my aim is poor and my own plane has been damaged so I do not finish him. Out of ammo I turn for home. I call my flight to return to formation. As my wingman is rejoining a yak that I did not see hits him hard. He goes in burning.

I actually felt awful. I gave the order that got him killed.

December 2, 2020

@PatrickAWilson

I love the program, you get connected to your squadronmates and feel sad if they die.

December 4, 2020

Reached the Stalingrad area today on Mar. 42 after 109 missions/17 air kills in my very first campaign that started Oct. 41 on the Moscow map. Nice

6 or 7 missions I had to refly because they shoot me down or I lost too much comrades due to strange AI behaviour or crashes.

December 6, 2020

Had another great mission yesterday afternoon.

Our flight of Spit Mk IX's were to intercept attack planes at low altitude,

Solid cloud cover with falling snow, and visibility was quite poor.,

It was a fantastic mission - and I managed 7 kills - 5 FW 190's and 2 JU88's. That last JU88, his gunner managed to damage my plane, was spewing black smoke out the back.

So I quickly lowered RPM for a gentle cruise and babied the plane for the trip back to home base.

Windscreen was accumulating black soot making visibility even worse for me.

Got close to the runway and slowed down for landing prep. The engine was running rough, but thankfully it was still running. Opened the canopy ( flying VR), and hung my head out the left side a little to see better.

Immediately after hanging my head out oil starts accumulating on my flight goggles. Ugh, going to make it more difficult.

Well I managed to land on the runway but it was a hard landing and did a little more damage to the plane, but at least I was not injured.

Absolutely fantastic mission and I am so loving the new weather settings. They can create quite a challenge.

Edited December 6, 2020 by dburne

December 6, 2020

2 часа назад, dburne сказал:

Solid cloud cover with falling snow, and visibility was quite poor.,

Do you play with markers?
I play without markers. I somehow flew out in the same weather, only instead of snow there was rain and fog. Nothing could be seen further than 500 m.
I lost sight of the leader and never found him. And in general I did not see anyone, although according to the report there were intense air battles everywhere.
Since then, I have removed realistic weather in the settings. Planes did not fly in such weather.

December 6, 2020

30 minutes ago, Kur12 said:

Do you play with markers?
I play without markers. I somehow flew out in the same weather, only instead of snow there was rain and fog. Nothing could be seen further than 500 m.
I lost sight of the leader and never found him. And in general I did not see anyone, although according to the report there were intense air battles everywhere.
Since then, I have removed realistic weather in the settings. Planes did not fly in such weather.

Yes I toggle them on and off as needed.

December 6, 2020

4 hours ago, dburne said:

I am so loving the new weather settings. They can create quite a challenge.

Agreed and as proven to me yesterday:

Background - Flying 3 pilots in the same campaign (one German - Eastern Front, one Free French - transferred from Normandie-Nieman & one Soviet). Campaign has moved into early 1945 and lately I have been mostly flying the Spitfire IX (Free French) and the Yak-9T. I decide to switch over to Maj Gerhardt Abel leading the Elite II./JG52 since they have just received the K-4, and I have never flown it on the Eastern Front. So far, Gerhardt Abel has survived the war as my least played pilot in the campaign (focusing more on the Allies for this one), but his 26 kills were still enough to take command of the squadron that includes Gunter Rall (Hartmann died prematurely early in the Kuban portion of the campaign). So, I think it is finally time to see what this amazing 1945 109 can do to the 1943/1944 era Soviet fighters.

Gerhardt pairs up with Hptm Oswin Sauer another squadron ace (actually every pilot in the squadron is an ace at this point*) for a low altitude patrol. Weather is full low cloud cover with light snow which looks beautiful as we take off. Once we reach the lines, the Soviets mob us - 4 Yaks, 4 P-39s, and some A-20s on their way to cause some "Havoc" somewhere behind our lines. (My guess is that we caught a fighter patrol overlapping with a bomber flight with it's own escort). I still decide to engage, my wingman is an ace and we are flying K-4s, so this seems about even with 2 vs 8 knowing the P-39s are hopelessly outclassed - right?

I at least know better than to turn fight with the Soviet fighters with so many of them in the air and Sauer seems to know the same thing ("good boy" AI). I hit that wonderful MW50 booze boost and go vertical above the cloud layer hoping that some inexperienced Soviet will attempt to follow. A couple oblige, coming above right above the clouds. However, they immediately dip back onto the clouds as I start my downhill into my planned "boom." You see where this is going...

Well, no reason to let them escape into the clouds I think, I will just catch them below and then "zoom" away. The clouds are thick, but I finally break free starting to look for my quarry. Then I notice the ground not very far away...oh yeah, that was a LOW cloud layer. Hmm, time for some hard back pressure on the stick and full nose up elevator trim. Well, you remember I said I hadn't flown the 109 in this campaign for a while, and I was suddenly remembering a little more about its high speed dive characteristics and the fate of many who flew it the way I was flying it right now.

As you guessed, PWCG's new weather meant that dive ended very abruptly for Maj Abel. Fortunately, Hptm Sauer lived to share the lesson for my new rookie pilot who will be joining this Experten Squadron next week.

* @PatrickAWlson really nice work on getting the behind the scenes, out of mission, squadron action to reflect some historical reality. In this campaign, the elite II./JG52 has been racking up behind the scenes victories against the novice Soviet squadrons while I have been away flying the other pilots. I can see it happening especially on the replacement cycles as the German aces add the new Soviet pilots to their kills. As noted above, I have not been flying this German pilot much, but the squadron's pilots are all over 15 victories with most into the 20s and one over 30. (Of course Rall is over 200). This feels right to me based on my historical reading, and makes the Soviet part of the campaign challenging when trying to help your AI wingmen against the German aces. Thank you for all the work you have put into this portion of PWCG as well as our new wonderful weather!

Edited December 6, 2020 by Varibraun

December 6, 2020

I had a really bad sight in a mission too today; thick layer of clouds (modded) and snow the first time, plus a lot of haze and wind under the layer.

At my first try I crashed because of loss of sight and orientation when trying to fly to a point above the clouds. Felt almost like flying blind in a whiteout somehow.

The next was much better. I cancelled the 'patrol in 2200m' part of the mission order and stayed directly below the overcast and went for the 'ground targets of opportunity'.

Managed to destroy two AA positions, a wingman had success as well. Everyone had a safe landing.

I like the new weather system and the challenge it adds to the game.

(Because it's mentioned; I play with tiny points as markers above the planes and small squares above ground targets.Without them I wouldn't recognize much even in broad daylight)

December 6, 2020

2 hours ago, vonGraf said:

I like the new weather system and the challenge it adds to the game.

(Because it's mentioned; I play with tiny points as markers above the planes and small squares above ground targets.Without them I wouldn't recognize much even in broad daylight)

Same here. Gives me what I need without being overbearing. I am closer to 60 than 50. I use visual aids with no shame

December 7, 2020

17 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

Same here. Gives me what I need without being overbearing. I am closer to 60 than 50. I use visual aids with no shame

Yay I am not alone in this!

December 7, 2020

2 hours ago, dburne said:

Yay I am not alone in this!

Yes, for me in VR it is a necessity to enjoy the Sim without it becoming an exercise in the spotting/IDing straining my approaching 60 year old eyes.

My view is that if I am going to engage in the fantasy of flying WWI & WWII aircraft, there is no reason not to extend that to having the same extraordinary vision that most of those top aces possessed. Plus, at least so far, the AI hasn't complained and still does a really good job being sure that none of my PWCG pilots survive the war regardless of my "enhanced" vision. So there is plenty of challenge for me with Icons on.

December 7, 2020

1 minute ago, Varibraun said:

Yes, for me in VR it is a necessity to enjoy the Sim without it becoming an exercise in the spotting/IDing straining my approaching 60 year old eyes.

My view is that if I am going to engage in the fantasy of flying WWI & WWII aircraft, there is no reason not to extend that to having the same extraordinary vision that most of those top aces possessed. Plus, at least so far, the AI hasn't complained and still does a really good job being sure that none of my PWCG pilots survive the war regardless of my "enhanced" vision. So there is plenty of challenge for me with Icons on.

Yep same here.

December 8, 2020

On 12/6/2020 at 7:03 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

I am closer to 60 than 50.

Me as well.

I think installing this 'icon mod' was the first thing I did for this game two years ago. And I'm gIad it works so well and it's easily configurable here, unfortunately in Cliffs of Dover I have to keep the 'distance' as marker. Looks not so good when watching a group of planes from far away, it's a mess of red/blue numbers.

December 8, 2020

I thought I'd share my last flight as it became rather more exciting than I expected, compounded by some seriously bad weather. What started out as a simple attack on a rail depot ended up with the worst losses the 34th Fighter Regiment has seen to date in the battle for Moscow.

Taken from the logbook with my narrative:

34th Fighter Regiment - I-16/24s

6th October 1941 -

Remarks on flight and hostile aircraft

This mission was flown by:
SLt Roman Zholdin
Kap Semyon Kozhurov
Maj Gennady Polansky
Szt Vasiliy Trukhin
SLt Moisey Boreyev

The mission was flown from Varvarovka aerodrome.

Claim Status:
On 06/10/1941 near Gzhatsk.
A Ju-87 of II./St.G.77 was brought down by Szt Vasiliy Trukhin of 34th Fighter Air Regiment.
Szt Vasiliy Trukhin was flying a I-16.

Pilots lost:
Kap Semyon Kozhurov: Seriously Wounded
Maj Gennady Polansky: Seriously Wounded
SLt Moisey Boreyev: Killed in Action
Aircraft lost:
I-16 type 24: 5000036
I-16 type 24: 5000032
I-16 type 24: 5000034

Narrative:

Flight took off from Varvarovka and approached Gzhatsk.

Flight attacked a small train leaving the railyard with machineguns and rockets. No effect was seen on target and significant ground fire received.

I lost sight of the flight briefly in low cloud, before finding them again over Gzhatsk engaging a flight of Ju-87s preparing to land at the airfield there. I engaged one JU-87 in the landing pattern with my remaining ammunition and saw it catch fire. It crashed near Gzhatsk airfield. I then engaged a second JU-87, causing a radiator leak and forcing his landing. With all ammunition expended, I turned for home and reunited with a number of flight members at Zenino as a divert airfield.

December 9, 2020

Still very much enjoying the occasional snow filled days of my Spit Mk IX Campaign.

Loving the new weather in PWCG! Visibility can certainly present a challenge.

Edited December 9, 2020 by dburne

May 23, 2021

Finally hit a personal milestone, I will call this an "Interesting Campaign" (at least for me) vs. Interesting Mission. My "Ironman" Soviet Pilot "Maj Roman Breznev" has taken the top spot on the Aces Board, finally overtaking Gunther Rall. He has survived flying only the Hurricane starting outside Moscow at the beginning of 1942 with his 85th victory occurring in late December 1942 defending against Goring's airdrops into Stalingrad (thank you @PatrickAWlson, loving the Iconic Events).

He lost several a/c along the way (crossing back from enemy lines on at least two occasions), unchivalrously eliminated Hermann Graf, and incurred one major injury that kept him grounded for a couple of months. The sturdiness of the Hurricane and the 4 Hispanos his Anglo Allies provided have definitely contributed to his success.

Celebratory screenshots for your Vodka toasts - “За успех!!”

For background, this is how I play PWCG, (the TLDR is Ironman with multiple pilots/squadrons):

June 7, 2021

What mission isn’t interesting! But, here’s a rundown of our sortie tonight. I’ve elaborated a little to turn it into a story, but the events, for the most part, were exactly how they went.

It’s December 4th and over the past few days, the snow has started to buildup. Allied armored units are planning on breaking through the German Wehrmacht lines North of Geldern and encircling the town and our job is to support them.

Overnight the southerly winds brought in fresh snow and low clouds that are starting to lift by the time we step out to our aircraft at 11:00 am. We’re performing the walkarounds on our Jugs when our number 4, Aussie, finds an oil leak. He calls the mechanics to take a look, but the news isn’t good and it looks like we’re down to a 3 ship. (In reality, our number 4 had to lend a hand with grading at his dojo and couldn't make it)

The 3 of us remaining strap into our jugs, I’m in a D22 with red markings along with JayCee who has blue, and Live has his precious D28 that are in short supply with his green markings and our teams "Sabretooth" on our tails. We start up, taxi to the active, drop 20 degrees of flap, link the supercharger, open the cowl flaps and line up. With 5 second spacing between us, we run up the engine on the brakes to 30”, hold for a 3 count and release them, carefully increasing up to 52” with the speed climbing letting the tail lift a little, but maintaining a slight nose-up attitude as our 7-ton beasts charge down the Marsden matting of Opoven airfield scaring the air into submission as we claw our way into the cold winter morning.

We clean up, raising the gear, then the flaps as we make our way clear of the pattern at 165MPH climbing up to 3,000ft, ticking off the Take Off waypoint on the map, then building up to our planned cruising speed of 230MPH once we reach altitude and closing the cowl flaps. Turning right toward our rendezvous, we meet up with Chieftain flight orbiting at 4,000ft just below the broken cloud deck at 5,000ft shortly afterward. Chieftain is also out of Opoven who took off 15 minutes ahead of us in their D28’s and they fall into covering positions above us as we ingress at 3,000ft.

The sun is peeking through the broken clouds occasionally off our 2 O’Clock creating beautiful light shafts reflecting off our polished aluminum skins, but also lighting us up like beacons for any Huns in the sun, we need to keep an eye on those gaps in the cloud where we can, but Chieftain should be on the job and watch our asses.

As we approach our Initial Point and turn toward the target area, Live in number 3 position spots a flight of 4 contacts low on the horizon to our South West over Geldern, possibly a CAP, but Chieftain either haven’t seen them or doesn’t think they’re a threat, so we press on. “Flight fall into 1/2 mile trail, 3, keep an eye on those guys”. “2”, “3” they call back and start dropping back into position.

“5 miles to target, let’s take it left 30 and get the area off our right side and gain some separation on those contacts over Geldern” I call as we ‘tick off’ the navigation marker on the map for the Target final approach.
”2”
“3”

We roll out on 020 degrees and spot what looks like a platoon of tanks just outside of a wooded patch in the target area, “flight, 4 vehicles 2 O’clock, to the West of the wooded area just past the railway line.”
“2 has them.”
“3, I have them too.”
“OK, I want you guys to circle here, I’m going to ID them and come back up to you”
”2”
“3”

I roll over on my right side and gently pull my nose just past the targets to have them pass down my left side. Sherman’s. “Flight, they’re friendlies, coming back up, move the anchor point 2 miles to the East, just past the river”
”2”, “3, lead, jink! Triple-A to your 10 o’clock”
I break off to the right to throw their aim off, small puffs of small caliber HE rounds detonate where I would have been in another few seconds without 3’s call. “Thanks 3, you got a bead on that gun”
”Yeah, I’ve got it, East side of the river 100ft from the riverbank, in the open”
”3, that’s your target”
”copy, rolling in”
Live over banks to 120 degrees pulling his nose around gently onto the target, diving down from 3,000ft.
”Bomb off” he calls as he gently pulls off the target, jinking. The bomb arcs over gracefully from its release at 800ft impacting perfectly amongst the ammo crates and sandbags of the 37mm AAA emplacement, BOOM!
”Good bombs 3, great job”

Live climbed back up as we searched for more targets. Suddenly there's a call on the radio that grabs our attention, “Chieftain, engaging fighter, 3 miles to the North East”
”Eyes peeled boys” I call
“2”
“3”

”Lead, 2, got something to the East 1 mile from the last target. 3 units lined up North, South just North of the road”
”Looking” I call, “Same” calls Live in 3.

”Got them” calls 3.
”I’ll follow you over”, and I fall in 500ft behind Live.
I glance over to my right on a sweep toward Geldern and see the contacts we’d spotted earlier coming in our direction.
“Those contacts at Geldern are on their way over, get ready for a fight”.
Just as I was turning to the right to get a better angle and reaching for my jettison button, I heard a welcome call over the radio “Angel, Engaging fighters to the North, 4 miles, out”. Sure enough, as I got a bead on their profile I could see the elliptical wingtips and shortly thereafter the beautiful growl of the Merlin engines as Angel flight of 4 Spitfires pass overhead.

”OK boys, let’s get a wriggle on and find these targets, 2, we’ve got you in sight, you’re cleared to engage”
“2, running in”
JayCee’s bomb delivery couldn’t have been better as he placed one bomb on each of the PAK 40 guns, destroying them in a single pass. “Great job, good secondary's on all targets”

As we stayed on overwatch we spotted several more AAA units which we took turns on running in on with the other 2 circling overhead on overwatch.

Suddenly we hear “Chieftain 3, I’m on fire, bailing out” Uh oh, this could be an issue.
”Flight, any more targets?”
”3, we do, pair of AAA back toward the river, just North of that wooded area that looks like an exclamation mark”
“Weapons state" I called out
”2 has 6 Rocks, full guns”
”3 has 6 Rocks, full guns”
”Lead has 2 Bombs, 2 Rocks, and full guns”

”Chieftain 2, I’m wounded” comes over the radio. “Guys, time to get out of here, turn 180 for egress.”
”2”
“3”
We turn tail and start running for the Egress waypoint. “Angel 3, I’m on fire, bailing out”… things are getting hot.

”Contacts, North East, co-alt about 3 miles, at least 4” calls Live.
”Lead has them”
”2 has them”
”Tripple A at you lead” Live calls out, we’re already flying a weaving pattern back up at 4,000ft on our way out, but conscious that it’s slowing our egress out of the badlands. “Got it, thanks” I replied.

Another couple of miles closer to the front lines and we hear ”Angel 2, I’m wounded”.
”Boss, those contacts are closing, are we running or fighting?” Calls Live
”Jettison any remaining stores, I think they’re making the decision for us” I reach over (in my VR fumbling for my WinWing Combat Panel) and press the Jettison switch seeing my rocket tubes disappear in the mirror and I pickle my bombs off over a field.
“Roger, 2’s clean”
”3’s clean”
”Leads clean, you boys operate as a pair, I’ll stay high and cover”

We turn North into the fray just a couple of miles from us now and see a swarm of dots chasing each other around the sky. We know that there are still 2 Jugs from Chieftain and Spitfires from Angel in the mix, but there are at least 4 others there too. We close on the fighting, staying high and looking for targets. “I’ve got a 190 here, looks like an Anton, smoking” calls Live in 3. “I’ve got it, I’m with you” calls JayCee.
Live drops from his perch in a beautifully timed dive and drops in behind the Anton whose at a power disadvantage, closing rapidly he rakes the Anton from nose to tail as he lets him fly through the stream of 50 cals setting him alight, “Splash”

”Guys, another smoker off your right side, he’s got a lot of smash and is turning in” I call.
“I can’t see him” calls 2, “me neith-got him” calls 3.
”Live bring it left, help me engage and I’ll drop in” I call.
“3”
As he banks to the left, the 190 pilot either knows that he’s being baited, or has second thoughts and drops his nose, building speed, zooming through and booming up in a vertical climb. However, he’s climbing up through 3 to maybe 4 thousand where he’ll bleed off all of his energy. If I can bring my nose around and maintain mine, I should be good for a snapshot.

Sure enough, the Dora bleeds off his E as he reaches my altitude and starts to pull over to the left to come back around right through my gunsight as I grip the trigger scoring multiple hits as he passes. Fluids bellow out of his wing root as he continues to drop over toward 2 and 3. “He’s hit, but he’s coming back around for you” I call.
”Got him” calls 3
”Pulling in for a snapshot” calls 2
”Clear” calls 3
As JayCee and the Dora close on one another, they both let off a stream of rounds, both scoring hits.
”Son of a bitch” calls JayCee, “I’m down” as his pilotless Jug spirals to the ground after taking a 20mm HE round to the cockpit.
Somehow the Dora keeps flying and zooms up again, only this time he’s in much worse shape and I’ve maneuvered ready for this move, I’ve seen the Dora show before. As he reaches the apex of his climb, he rolls inverted and pulls for the ground, but I’m in the saddle right behind him at around 500ft. I firewall the throttle and turn on the water injection after glancing at my temperatures, closing the distance further.

He wobbles, no doubt from the aero damage caused by flying through the stream of 50 cals from JayCee and I, and spots me over his shoulder. He continues his unloaded accelerated dive to pull away, but there’s no more that the wounded Dora can give, and as he breaks to the high and right I pull in just the right amount of lead to stitch him full of holes.
Pieces of his 190 fly off and I break away to avoid them, seeing his wing come apart and the Dora enter a spiral I call “Splash”.

“Two more coming in from the North” calls Live. Straining in my VR to see them, I look over my shoulder but can’t find them. “ I’m blind” I call, “coming to you”
Live crosses my nose from left to right and I fall into a loose trail, seeing the targets he’d called moments before. Squinting at the profiles I see they’re Jugs. “Friendlies” I call “looks like a pair of Jugs”
We continue the right turn, seeing nothing close by. “I think we’re clear, let’s turn to 270 and Dee Dee out of here”
”3” calls Live.

As we roll out on 270, Live spots another target. “Contact, off the nose, left side, low, about half a mile”.
“Looking... got him” I call, “You’re shooter, I’ll cover, let’s ID him”
We close the distance and make out the tell-tale smoke trail of a 190 pushing his engine. “Looks like another 190” calls Live. We have the height advantage and more speed. As we close the distance, the German pilot seems oblivious to our presence.

Then he’s not and breaks hard right into us. Seeing that we’re going to overshoot, Live breaks left and enters a flat scissors with the 190 who is cooperative and already rolled to the left pulling back. The scissors continue for 3 or 4 more passes until Live manages to squeeze the Anton out in front and scores a hit to the cockpit as they cross. “Splash” calls Live.
“Back to 270” I call
“3”

As we cross our lines we relax a little and start checking our position. I open the map just as Live calls “Contact, pair 7 O’clock high, they’re coming right at us”
I close the map and squint to try and find them in the sun using the canopy bars of my D22 to obscure it, I see the tracer first!
I break hard left and pull, fortunately, the bad guy overshoots and zooms out the other side, his wingman however tries to turn with me and bleeds off much more energy than he should. Live won’t let that go unpunished though and pulls into a lag pursuit letting the inexperienced pilot bleed off his remaining energy attempting to come back around onto me.
I keep my turn in with the Anton attempting to match it, but Live is now pulling into lead pursuit after a high yo-yo ready for a shot. Rounds impact the Anton and he realizes his mistake breaking off to the right and attempting to disengage.

Live stitches him with another few rounds, but the lead fighter is diving back down from his zoom climb, “Break left, the other guys coming down on your 7 O’clock” I call. Live breaks off his attack and spoils the shot of the lead Anton as it zooms up and away again. “I’m back in on the other guy” Live calls as he comes back right to re-engage, “covering” I call, looking out for the high Anton.

We close on the wounded Anton and Live pulls the trigger, but after only a few rounds he’s dry “Winchester” he calls. “I’m in” I call and take lead, “watch the other guy”
“3”
I pull in for my shot but damn if the same thing doesn’t happen, it’s that Anton's lucky day. “Winchester” I call, “we need to get out of here, Duerne is 10 miles to the West”
“3” calls Live.

We peel off from the Anton’s and attempt to disengage, but they’re not done, and even the wounded guy fancies his chances. Many people love the Jug, some hate it. But one thing is for sure, when you down at 500ft with a hot engine, she sure flies like a brick. As we make our way to the West in a painfully slow manner, we come across some Allied triple-A and drag the Anton’s in circles around it, the lead Anton pulls off and disengages after a few more passes, but the other guy falls to our guns and adds 1 more to my tally on the scoreboard.

“Fuel check” I call with an ashen face after reading my gauges”
“Shit, 40 pounds” calls Live.
“That’s plenty, I’ve got 10!” I reply “ make straight in, airfield is just the other side or Duerne.
“3” calls live

Shortly afterward we both put down on the airfield at Helmond. Climb out of our Cockpits and our VR and wiped off the sweat from another great PWCG mission!

This mission was flown by:
Flt O Highway
Flt O JayCee
Flt O Live

 The mission was flown from Ophoven aerodrome.

Claim Status: 
On 05/12/1944 near Bonninghardt.
A Fw 190 A-8 of I./JG6 was brought down by Flt O Live of 48th Fighter Group.
Ltn Manfred Kochel was lightly wounded
Flt O Live was flying a P-47D-28.

On 05/12/1944 near Weeze.
A Fw 190 A-8 of I./JG6 was brought down by Flt O Live of 48th Fighter Group.
OFw Frederich Ungerman was killed in action
Flt O Live was flying a P-47D-28.

On 05/12/1944 near Weeze.
A anti aircraft gun was destroyed by Flt O Live of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O Live was flying a P-47D-28.

On 05/12/1944 near Bonninghardt.
A Fw 190 A-8 of I./JG6 was brought down by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
OFw Georg Gerson was killed in action
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A anti tank gun was destroyed by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A anti tank gun was destroyed by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A howitzer was destroyed by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A howitzer was destroyed by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A howitzer was destroyed by Flt O JayCee of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O JayCee was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Weeze.
A Fw 190 A-8 of I./JG1 was brought down by Flt O Highway of 48th Fighter Group.
Ltn Rainer Brecher was killed in action
Flt O Highway was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Weeze.
A Fw 190 A-8 of I./JG6 was brought down by Flt O Highway of 48th Fighter Group.
Ltn Rudolph Wagenseil was killed in action
Flt O Highway was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Weeze.
A Fw 190 D-9 of I./JG2 was brought down by Flt O Highway of 48th Fighter Group.
Olt Uwe Bittermann was killed in action
Flt O Highway was flying a P-47D-22.

On 05/12/1944 near Geldern.
A AAA machine gun was destroyed by Flt O Highway of 48th Fighter Group.
Flt O Highway was flying a P-47D-22.

Squadron: 48th Fighter Group
Date: 5 December 1944
Flt O Live has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Squadron: 48th Fighter Group
Date: 5 December 1944
Flt O JayCee has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Highwayman
Updated with images & After Action Report

June 14, 2021

On 6/7/2021 at 12:37 PM, Highwayman said:

Climb out of our Cockpits and our VR and wiped off the sweat from another great PWCG mission!

Nice write up - has a little of everything I love about PWCG. Thank you!

June 14, 2021

Since I was experimenting with the AA trucks:

Sitting on shore near Kerch, we get a warning that an invasion is coming. Russian aircraft begin to fill the skies and in the distance landing craft approach the shore. I order the driver to fire up the engine of the captured Gaz that we were provided. We head towards the shore, stopping several times to fire at Russian planes that we encounter along the way. No effect. They are tiny dots in the sky. Hitting one seems as very unlikely.

As we approach the shore we stop to fire at the landing craft. They are quite distant and our first shots fall short. We are getting the range when suddenly they disgorge a troop of light tanks. We fire on the ship a couple more times when a shell slams our truck. We are not injured but the truck is ruined. Nothing for it but to beat a hasty retreat.

June 14, 2021

4 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

As we approach the shore we stop to fire at the landing craft. They are quite distant and our first shots fall short. We are getting the range when suddenly they disgorge a troop of light tanks. We fire on the ship a couple more times when a shell slams our truck. We are not injured but the truck is ruined. Nothing for it but to beat a hasty retreat.

Uh...oh, I think you are on a slippery slope - sliding right into Tank Crew! I am naming my Tiger Company crewman right now. :biggrin:

June 14, 2021

1 hour ago, Varibraun said:

Uh...oh, I think you are on a slippery slope - sliding right into Tank Crew! I am naming my Tiger Company crewman right now.

Now that I have the AAA trucks I can do any player crewed vehicle. it's just a matter of definition and substitution. Probably going to shoot for that next weekend. The hard work is already done.

Going to full campaign mode with units and working AAR is much more difficult. PWCG is built with planes in mind, and it's not really a simple switch. Weeks to months of work to get something working, and it won't be very good at that.

Then there is the issue of not knowing the first thing about the underlying terrain. With the AAA trucks you can still end up in the water. When I tested it in Uranus I ended up on a frozen river. My truck stayed up. The tanks next to me did not. That is tolerable if one is making something with limited goals like having fun with an AAA truck, less so if one is stating that this is a fully functional ground campaign.

And let's not even get started on the complaints about unit positioning, tactics (or complete lack thereof), etc. It's all OK if all of that stuff is targets. Not so much if it is central to the experience.

Oh, and pathing. Very simple if you are flying above things. Not so much if you have to drive around things.

So hold off on the Tiger crew for a bit . Still, driving a tank in a PWCG mission should be fun.

I am also waiting for the first complaint from a player who's truck sank after selecting Kuban anti shipping missions

June 14, 2021

4 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

Going to full campaign mode with units and working AAR is much more difficult. PWCG is built with planes in mind, and it's not really a simple switch. Weeks to months of work to get something working, and it won't be very good at that.

Understood, I was just joking because I had been following your explanations a while back, and I know you are likely going to be deluged with requests now that we can drive vehicles in PWCG. At least I can claim a "First" for this go around.

Plus, I still have this profile pic ready. (Seriously though, we appreciate all you do!)

June 15, 2021

I wish I had recording turned on. In my MiG-3 career, we went into a furball with some 109s. I see one of my squadmates arcing around, and a 109 turning to get on his tail. I turn after the 109, but can't get there in time. I watch my squaddie catch fire as he pops up a bit, and while I missed it the AAR indicates he bails out. So his plane continues on a nice smooth climb, slowly rolling right and back down. Meanwhile the 109 after his shot finished his diving right turn and started to climb back to his left for another pass. So the pilotless flaming MiG is finishing a mild climb, slow roll to the right to a gentle glide down and right, while the 109 has started his roll back left into a gentle climb ... right into the burning MiG. Pieces of both planes rain down below.

I mean this was not the typical "unload at close range then smash into the pieces", and not a "got too close on the scissors" collision, this was "both planes are on gentle curving courses a good 10 seconds after the first one caught fire with a huge smoke trail behind it and the shooter still flies right into him" collision.

June 19, 2021

If I was robbed of a kill because the bomber hit a truck while crashing...

If you had an interesting mission

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