If you had an interesting mission

[Stonehouse]

19 hours ago, grcurmudgeon said:

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

 

Helmut was a slave to his GPS? "Fly at 2 m and turn left in 1.25 kms, ignoring insignificant obstacles.......route recalculation........."

[PatrickAWlson]

3 hours ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

 

Helmut was a slave to his GPS? "Fly at 2 m and turn left in 1.25 kms, ignoring insignificant obstacles.......route recalculation........."

 

I use "truck" for all types of trucks - even those with AA guns mounted on them.

[Panzerlang]

Maj Sigard Falke was KIA late yesterday afternoon. While chasing a P40 he was attacked from behind by a LaGG3 and lost the use of his elevators. He managed to get out of his plane but was too low for his chute to fully deploy and was killed upon impact with the ground. The following conversation was had with his brother:

Brother: "We'll send a crew to the crash site to clear up the body that's splattered across the landscape."

Me: "Can you see if his Knights Cross can be retrieved and sent to his wife?"

Brother: "Would you like us to collect the body in a bucket and send her that too?"

?

 

[Varibraun]

14 hours ago, Hetzer-JG51 said:

Maj Sigard Falke was KIA late yesterday afternoon.

 An impressive run in Ironman.  Looks like he will still be the "Ace of Aces" on your board for quite awhile. 

[Stonehouse]

I had an unusually atmospheric mission yesterday.

 

486 SQD flying Tempests was tasked to an airfield strike with P47s in escort. Market Garden is in full swing in this campaign and we must have had an early morning visit from the Luftwaffe as the airfield still had hangars smoking. Arnhem and Nijmegen were on fire as we flew past to the target to their north. It was very busy airspace and we got attacked crossing the front lines which sucked off the escorts and unfortunately the flight lead ( I was tail end charlie) decided to jettison bombs instead of waiting to see how the escorts went. I decided to ignore him lol. After the escorts went off we continued on although I had to run a higher power setting to keep up with the added weight.

 

I could see our escorts had decided to have a go at a formation of Ju88s bombing our troops at Nijmegen instead of rejoining - a bad decision as they had high cover from a flight of FW190s and they ended up shooting down one of the P47s and badly damaging the other. But they kept them busy and our Tempest flight just quietly kept going albeit with heads constantly swiveling looking for threats.

 

A bit further north and almost at the IP we passed some more P47s hitting ground targets around a burning small town near what seemed to be a strategic set of bridges. We finally made the IP and could see the airfield in the distance and the formation wheeled around onto the run in heading...........right over the airfield defense AAA hiding in the trees. The first section of 4 must have surprised them as they  got through with a curtain of AAA coming up behind them. My section lead got hit and broke off for home. His wingman went down in flames crashing on the airfield perimeter. My element lead and I tried to press on - he made it but I copped a solid smack in the left wing and engine underside leaving me no choice but to drop my bombs where I was and get down on the deck and try to get back over our lines before I ran out of fuel or the engine packed up. I could see a very slight oil film starting to build up on the canopy already.

 

I had a very nervous run back home, getting tickled by some more AAA and by pure luck tiptoed past a couple of FW190s shooting up an airfield. I think our AAA kept them so busy they didn't notice me.......... In the end I was lucky and managed to grope my way back to Eindhoven peering through small gaps in the oil covered canopy and with only a small amount of fuel left and got the aircraft down through a tricky wheels down landing with the left wing wanting to drop as my speed reduced for finals.

 

The thing that impressed me was the mission really felt like a war zone with the smoke and fire and all the activity injected by PWCG. Some pics in rough chronological order (I'm in SA-M)...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse
fixing horrible formatting

[TheSNAFU]

The current version of pwcg is producing great fun. Flying p51’s with 352 group we have for the past 5 missions, been engaged in supporting market garden. The missions have been full of action with air engagements and tons of ground targets. The sky becomes full of AAA with flak bursts bracketing my flights. On the last CAP mission we dispatched 2 109’s then began pounding ground targets. I got one of the 109’s and took out 3 flak guns. After running out of ammo I headed home but was hit by flak over Eindhoven and was forced by fire to bail out. I safely made it down and returned to my unit. The rest of my flight reached base safely. Note to self, don’t linger in areas full of AAA! 
 

Thanks Pat!!

[grcurmudgeon]

Varibraun's Ace of Aces challenge is giving me a new appreciation for PWCG. Before this I flew for fun, which meant haring off after the first enemy plane I saw, whining about flight leaders who ignored said flights, etc. Now I'm trying to survive, so I'm following the missions a bit more, calculating the odds better (I actually turned away from a 1v3 today), and seeing more of what goes on around me.

 

Two flights in particular today stood out. On one of them we were given an offensive patrol, fly to an enemy transport junction attacking any enemy aircraft we see. As we cross our lines we fly over an inbound enemy flight 2-3k below us. My flight leader blindly ignores them, I sigh wondering how he interpreted "attack any enemy aircraft you come across", and keeping going. We have an uneventful flight to the target so turn to head for home. As we are leaving the area, here comes a flight of 5 friendlies on their way to attack the target. Aha, we were running a fighter sweep, clearing space ahead of the strike! Now ignoring the flight below us makes more sense, they were no threat. And it makes the coordination of the flights more obvious than even turning on all the squadrons on the map briefing. We had a nice tussle with some I16s when we crossed back over into our territory, clearing the egress route.

 

The other one was far more impressive, but I was not quick enough to get a screenshot. Hauptmann Rach and I are scrambled to intercept some enemy planes entering our airspace northwest of the airbase. I'm not sure why they only sent two of us, guess the rest were still finishing lunch or something. As we head towards them, dots appear all over the sky in front of us. Looks like flights at 3 different altitude levels, maybe 4 groups? As we close a pair of Hurricanes at our altitude peel off to chase us away, I see a pair of higher dots that turn into Mig3s, and I get a quick glance at some Pe-2s also at our level. I turn after the Hurricane that goes after my flight leader, get him to break and manage a pretty quick kill. I turn after the other Hurricane who is also on the tail of the Hauptmann, get him to break, and suddenly wonder what all those white dots are between me and the landscape. At first I think maybe the Pe-2s dropped their bombs, but they are too spread out, and then I see the C-47s. Paradrop! I think the Hurricanes at our level were escorting the C-47s, while the Migs had the Pe-2s, putting the Hurricanes in with the bombers. Poor Hauptmann Rach fell to one of the Migs while I was busy chasing the Hurricanes away. I end up skeedaddling with just the one kill, but the sheer number of aircraft on that raid and seeing all the paratroopers floating down was an impressive sight. Quite the raid they put together. If only we'd scrambled something more like 6 fighters to deal with it, the number of flaming C-47s would have put it over the top.

 

Paying a bit more attention to the actual mission I'm flying and what's going on around me makes me realize just how alive Pat is making these skies...

[Mtnbiker1998]

Started a P-39 campaign from March 1943 in the Kuban and boy, is Pashkovskaya sure a HOT target area. Between the Airfield, and all the German forces in the area I couldn't see a single area of sky that wasn't filled with yellow and blue Tracers! We were sent in on a Truck free hunt, flying North from Agoy (beautiful airbase btw, tucked into the mountains right by the coast, wonderful) we followed the road into P-town searching for targets, My wingmen went of east, and I patrolled directly over the town.

 

Unfortunately for me, the trucks were still waiting presumably right where they'd spawned, in the middle of the town and stuck on buildings. Nonetheless I engaged, getting a direct hit on one with my 250kg bomb, strafed another with my 37mm, and while rolling over to line up on the next, my left wing took a big hit from the AAA. sent into a flatspin, I bailed out too low to the ground and made a nice splat into the countryside on my fourth mission.

 

 

And thus ends that saga, with 6 kills to my name I was the highest scoring ace of the squadron before my untimely demise.

 

Seriously though, I don't think I've ever flown in an area with more guns in it than the Krasnodar/Pashkovskaya area. it is CRAZY. In the future I may leave the strike missions into that area to my squadronmates for the sake of my own survival...

[Varibraun]

3 hours ago, Mtnbiker1998 said:

Seriously though, I don't think I've ever flown in an area with more guns in it than the Krasnodar/Pashkovskaya area.

 

Sounds like an exciting mission...right until the "sudden stop" at the end.  Lately, @PatrickAWlson has advised to set AA density to "low" in the PWCG Advanced Config because of the improved AI accuracy that seems to have been applied to the AA too.  Your pilots will thank you on their ground attack missions if you do!

[PatrickAWlson]

In my career I started in 110s with I/ZG26 and flew with them for five months.  I only recently transferred to I/JG51 in 109s.  On a recon mission, flying my 109, I finished the assignment and stumbled upon an unprotected flight of IL2 1941 heading home.  I was joined by my old mates as four 110s joined the fray.  Suddenly I got hit hard.  We had flown over a well protected area.  The debrief said it was a 25mm hit.  I finished off my target and turned for home.  

 

When the debrief rolled I discovered that three 110s had been downed by AAA.  Two pilots killed and one captured.  I had flown with all three.  It was really a downer.

[Stonehouse]

Don't forget this mod, it's very customisable to suit your preferences and theatre. 

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/73101-mod-less-accurate-gunners-more-powerful-ap-ammo/

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Stonehouse

[Stonehouse]

 

A very big mission. Got home on pure luck. Aircraft and flak everywhere over Arnhem. Had the misfortune of running out of ammo mid attack on a 110 that seemed to come up behind me from nowhere and got hit by flak at the moment I realised I was winchester, making for a very hairy sprint for home leaking fuel and glycol. It was only because an AI squadron mate put his last rounds into the 110 chasing me and making it seem to lose power that allowed me to escape. 

<edit> It is available in HD, not sure why it selects 360 for me but probably worth checking it is 1080

Edited August 17, 2021 by Stonehouse

[Varibraun]

1 hour ago, Stonehouse said:

A very big mission. Got home on pure luck. Aircraft and flak everywhere over Arnhem. Had the misfortune of running out of ammo mid attack on a 110 that seemed to come up behind me from nowhere and got hit by flak at the moment I realised I was winchester, making for a very hairy sprint for home leaking fuel and glycol. It was only because an AI squadron mate put his last rounds into the 110 chasing me and making it seem to lose power that allowed me to escape. 

<edit> It is available in HD, not sure why it selects 360 for me but probably worth checking it is 1080

 

Really nice work Stonehouse, great shots!

[Duce_de_Zoop]

https://streamable.com/8vd14c

 

One of the coolest moments I've experienced in Il-2 so far. PWCG happened to put three large flights of Il-2s and Pe-2s on the same course together. Really felt like I was part of a massive strike force.

 

If you can tell: yes, that's autopilot. I like to read between when I take off and before I reach the front. Dont judge me, I dont have much free time 

[Varibraun]

Probably not what @PatrickAWlson meant about "interesting" missions, but a tale of woe and word of caution to the Voice Attack crew follows: 

 

Flying my leading WWI Ace Billy Egan in his beloved Camel.  Following the squadron leader into an attack on 3 Huns in their Pfalz III and quickly grab 2 kills putting Billy as the current leading British ace.  Our flight was broken up, but everyone is still generally headed across the trenches with more specks on the horizon, looking like juicy targets for Billy's quest to now best Guynemer.  Just as I cross the trenches, a RL belch goes politely into my Reverb mic.  Next thing I know, Billy had departed the Camel without a chute...a bit of a jarring surprise in VR I must say!  (It eventually dawned on me that Voice Attack evidently read a burp as a panicked "BAIL" command). 

 

Now I had a PWCG dilemma, I always play hard core Ironman, no do overs, no matter what.  But should this count?  The answer lies in the aces screen below...I guess poor Billy just couldn't face another trip over the front.   

 

[Majpalmer]

No way. You have my permission to bypass that mission. 

[Varibraun]

 

11 hours ago, Majpalmer said:

No way. You have my permission to bypass that mission. 

 

Thank you...but too late:

 

 

[Hotaru_Ito]

Just got done flying a reconnaissance mission in a "Friedrich," December '41. Took off, climbed up to 4,000 meters, immediately spotted what I thought was a flight of five bombers, couldn't resist making one head-on attack before going on my way. Turned out to be three "Peshkas" escorted by two I-16s, so instead of a quick no-risk pass I ended up in a 2v1 dogfight. Managed to send one into a spin, first victory of the career. Second I-16 disengaged, I climbed back up to altitude and continued the patrol. Lesson learned about attacking random bombers while I'm supposed to be doing recon. Resisted the temptation to forget the lesson and attack some Sturmoviks over the front lines, outran a group of P-40s and the same I-16 again on its way back, finally got chased by some more P-40s or Hurricanes (didn't get a good look) that only gave up on me once I crossed the front line. The I-16s had done a lot of shooting and not so much hitting, nobody else could catch me, and I was too high for flak, so in the end I landed with no damage.

 

It wasn't that unusual of a mission, but what was especially cool was that the AI actually behaved way better than it would have in a vanilla career sortie. Rather than doggedly following me to the ends of the earth, they disengaged when it became obvious that they couldn't catch me. They also spawned far enough away from me to give me time to make intelligent decisions about whether I could outrun them or would have to fight them. Overall result was a mission that felt totally unscripted and realistic. Very cool.

[Mtnbiker1998]

On 6/5/2022 at 9:07 PM, Varibraun said:

Probably not what @PatrickAWlson meant about "interesting" missions, but a tale of woe and word of caution to the Voice Attack crew follows: 

 

Flying my leading WWI Ace Billy Egan in his beloved Camel.  Following the squadron leader into an attack on 3 Huns in their Pfalz III and quickly grab 2 kills putting Billy as the current leading British ace.  Our flight was broken up, but everyone is still generally headed across the trenches with more specks on the horizon, looking like juicy targets for Billy's quest to now best Guynemer.  Just as I cross the trenches, a RL belch goes politely into my Reverb mic.  Next thing I know, Billy had departed the Camel without a chute...a bit of a jarring surprise in VR I must say!  (It eventually dawned on me that Voice Attack evidently read a burp as a panicked "BAIL" command). 

 

Now I had a PWCG dilemma, I always play hard core Ironman, no do overs, no matter what.  But should this count?  The answer lies in the aces screen below...I guess poor Billy just couldn't face another trip over the front.   

 

Pro Tip as a fellow Voiceattack user, set up a PTT (Listen, I believe VA calls it) key! 

 

I have mine setup so that my voiceattack PTT key will also act as a push to mute on Discord, so I avoid bothering all my flightmates with constant commands in flight. 

 

Alternatively, adding some complexity to the bail command like having to say it three times "BAIL BAIL BAIL" Will help reduce accidents for the more... volatile commands.

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, Mtnbiker1998 said:

Pro Tip as a fellow Voiceattack user, set up a PTT (Listen, I believe VA calls it) key! 

 

I have mine setup so that my voiceattack PTT key will also act as a push to mute on Discord, so I avoid bothering all my flightmates with constant commands in flight. 

 

Alternatively, adding some complexity to the bail command like having to say it three times "BAIL BAIL BAIL" Will help reduce accidents for the more... volatile commands.

 

I used to have my return to base set to "home".  Don't know how many times I grunted and found myself flying alone.  Now it's "Return to base" and life is better.

[bongotastic]

First IL2 campaign, using PWCG on ironman. 5th pilot in about 14 sorties...

 

The 273rd is sent again near Popov (April 27th) to interdict transports. The squad lost three pilots two days earlier on almost the same mission template. First flight without object/nave markers, so a lot of my brain bandwidth goes to formation flying and SA. Flight leader goes down out of the blue on near final approach, we zig-zag until near the target area and find a convoy. We take down a AAA and a truck (mine), in my case, the first time I blow anything with FABs. Second pass since the AAA is silenced, I maintain enough SA to keep an eye on my wingman. We scare poor German truckers senselessly. 

 

As I transition out of zig-zagging after the pass, the screen goes black. It comes back shortly as a blurry mess, drops of blood, field of view rather narrow for a first experience in navigating alone and without magic aids. I don't think that I could have seen bandits beyond 600m in this state. Trusty RPK-10 gets me roughly on a beam back home. Land with not much of a wing, park, then head for a 17 days hospital/spa treatment. Lots of friends die meanwhile. Looking forward to jump back in mid-May.

 

Ground attacks are rough, I rather deal with 109, but these truck won't blow themselves up I guess.

Edited June 23, 2022 by bongotastic

[bongotastic]

I think this this qualifies as interesting not because this was glorious, but mainly because the flight leader went rogue and I had no idea of what was going on. 

 

The 273rd was relocated from the Stalingrad to the Kuban map a few days ago. I get assigned a train attack 100km away in a two-plane flight. I figure that this will be a good way to get a feel with the new theatre as there was a long transit before entering the operation area. Switching to this theatre on June 1st 1942 was not expected. 

 

At some point, the flight leader turns 20 degrees towards the front line. Weird, but OK: we're only 50% of the way there but this puts us on a straight course to the objective. Almost immediately, we attack a section of German tanks. I figure out that they must have broken through our line. One of them goes out in a fireball. We regroup after on pass and continue over what I still believe to be our side of the lines. Just as I rejoin the formation and begin trying to figure out where we are, I notice AAA *everywhere*, the sky is full of planes. A pair of Ju-87 are very tempting, but the flight leader stays on course. Out of the blue, my plane turns into a fireball as I die on the spot. I have no idea how I died, but probably AAA.

 

Turns out that flight leader had diverted to the worst possible path to the objective: a bit inside their line. We ran into every possible CAP and AAA. Back to the random Russian name generator to make a new pilot. 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by bongotastic
grammar

[Varibraun]

Passing along another thank you to @PatrickAWlson for keeping it interesting!

 

Just returned from the Armistice in the Great War and back into my late war Western Front Campaign.  Just another day at the office in the P-51B with a couple of 110s added to the kill count while they were harassing some Typhoons, and time to head home with a little ammo for the return trip.  Then, a trio of Ju-88s present a tempting opportunity with no escorts.  Wary of their gunners, I mounted a few high speed beam attacks from their high 2 - 8 o'clock and finally manage to land a couple of engine hits to separate one from the herd.  Now he is just meat on table as I exhaust my ammo taking out the pilot.

 

I think, not a bad day's work as my wingman and I turn for a leisurely flight home.  About half way there, we spot some dots on the horizon.  Even without ammo, I am not concerned - likely friendlies, but even if not, my Mustang is fast enough to outpace the competition if we are going in opposite directions.  All true, most of the time, but these dots turn into Me-262s and they are hungry for horse steak.  They kept me pumping my rudders and glued to my mirrors (what an angry front silhouette that aircraft presents), while they climbed and dived on my poor toothless pony.  I dodged and turned tight and low in those German foothills and just kept waiting for the impact of a 30mm cannon.  I was literally hunched down in VR and sweating when they finally broke off as I slowly got close enough to our field for them to be unwilling to risk our AAA. 

 

I am not exactly sure how long it lasted, but it seemed like forever.   to Pat - I think you are getting every ounce of fight out of the AI in 13.11!  This was my first WWII encounter with it.  Plus there were at least 6 different types of aircraft in that one mission, all doing their own thing.  Can't wait to see what you do with Normandy.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Varibraun

[Mtnbiker1998]

Just flew a close air support mission in P-38s, its July 1944 and we're closing in on Caen, the whole city was absolutely billowing with smoke and I could barely even see the ground, much less any targets! One of my wingmen dropped his bombs on a AAA gun and I watched the infantry advance. Super cool! 

 

Right as we were egressing we ran into a flight of 410s and despite taking a few bullets from the rear gunners we managed to down them all, pretty fun fight, 38s vs 410s! On the way home I watched as far above us, a flight of bf110s ravaged a formation of A-20s. I couldn'tclimb up there and sadly the poor bomber boys got slaughtered before I could help.

 

Heading on back to the hangar I was all ready to claim my 3 410 kills when the combat report failed. Seems the game had some issue with the logs. Oh well! Still a great mission regardless. One for the memory banks if not the logbooks.

 

Pat, I've been a fan of your generator for awhile but you've really done an excellent job with the latest version. The Normandy campaign (and the earlier channel battles,) the tactical codes, the squadron blanks, its all really coming together into something absolutely awesome. This is the kind of flight sim experience I dreamed about as a kid!