Scrivsland: Bag the Hun

Showing posts with label Bag the Hun. Show all posts

Monday, 26 August 2019

Deep Dish Lard Day!

The chaps from Chitown Wargames are running a Deep Dish Lard day at Noble Knight Games on Saturday 12th October.

"Wanted to give everyone a heads up that Lard America Midwest will be hosting the first ever "Deep Dish Lard" at Noble Knight Games in Fitchburg, Wisconsin on Saturday, October 12th. Gaming will be from 10 AM to 6 PM, current plan is for two blocks of games beginning at 10 AM and 2 PM.

We hope local Lardies will be able to join us, we are still working on a game schedule but there will be CoC, CoC: DMZ, WaT and SP from early musings. As soon as we have a concrete game schedule it will be shared here or on the Lard America Facebook Page

If you are interested in possibly running a game let me know via email at wharding91@gmail.com."

I hope to be running a WWII game using my Burma campaign collection that has not been out of the boxes since we moved here.

Saturday, 16 September 2017

21 Squadron RAF - 14th July 1940

Instinctively Harry pressed the fire button, the 109 before him was engulfed in a fireball as the fuel caught fire and the Messerschmidt exploded. After suffering from many jams in the previous days sortie the armourer had really done his job overnight and the Brownings were operating like clockwork, Archie would be bought a pint tonight!

Thursday evening saw another chapter in the ongoing Battle of Britain campaign, this time 'B' Flight led by Pilot Officer Darren White intercepted a flight of three He111 inbound over the south Kent coast.

Drew and new pilot Seth took the part of the RAF while Bruce and son Sasha were the Luftwaffe. I had play tested this scenario before so forewarned the players that the escorting Messerschmidts would almost certainly turn up so not to get too carried away with a turkey shoot.

If the bombers could complete two lengths of the table they would have accomplished their mission, if not it would be a RAF victory.

The RAF were soon laying about the Heinkels, but heedful of my earlier warnings were ever cautious for the arrival of the Luftwaffe fighters. The He111 is a tough old bird and can take a lot of cumulative damage without being shot down, but it wasn't long before P.O. White had claimed his first kill of the day as his rounds walked up the port wing and entered the bomb bay where the munitions exploded in a fireball.

Our squadron hero Sgt. Pilot Harry McWalters soon claimed another Heinkel, with flames licking around the cockpit door four Hun exited the plane to parachute into the arms of the local home guard patrol while the stricken beast crashed in woodland just outside Lyminge.

Summoned by the frantic radio calls of the bombers a schwarm of four Me109 made their appearance over the battlefield and were soon swooping in to the fray. The Hurricanes forewent their attack on the final He111 and attempted to gain altitude. The first casualty was P.O. White, the schwarm-fuhrer on his tail unleashed a burst of 20mm cannon fire and the Hurricane exploded in a fireball. However, it was certainly Whites day, thrown clear of the explosion he safely parachuted, sustaining only light injuries as he crashed through a greenhouse roof on landing.

Sgt. Pilot Harry McWalters certainly had his dander up and was swiftly into the Messerschmidts, he seemed to be everywhere and his expedient use of the ammunition remaining after attacking the Heinkels will be used in pilot training for years to come.

He first got onto the tail of the schwarm-fuhrer and a short burst of fire saw the Messerschmidt almost cut in half with a catastrophic structural failure, sweeping back in for the kill another Messerschmidt exploded in a massive fireball. With a run of cards and fantastic shooting rolls that will become legend another Messserschmidt was dispatched as the pilot slumped in his seat and the final one exploded scattering debris over the Kent countryside as McWalters emptied his final rounds into it.

McWalters had accounted for all four of the Bosche fighters in short order. Drews firing rolls were truly magnificent and for several rounds of shooting he expended non noticeable quantities of ammunition at all. He'll certainly be getting another bar added to that DFC!

After bailing out the previous day, Charles Morris had another run of bad luck, fire from one of the Messerschmidt had ruptured his fuel line and his plane caught fire on landing at Hendon and was a total write off, the burns suffered will keep him out of action for a good few days.

As the fitters were putting out the fire 'A' Flight was scrambled to intercept a new raid inbound over the English Channel.

Squadron Roster Sheet

Basic Details	Aircraft (11)		Pilots (15)
Date: 13^th July 1940 (Phase I) Unit: 21 Squadron (11 Group) Airfield: Hendon Aircraft: Hurricane MK1	Aircraft under repair b/fwd		Pilots absent b/fwd	1
	Back from workshop today		Pilots returning today
	Serviceable aircraft b/fwd	11	Active pilots b/fwd	14
	New aircraft received
	Serviceable next sortie	11	Available for Sortie	14

Events scheduled for today	This Sortie
	‘B’ Flight is vectored onto a trio of HE-111

“A” Flight
Red Section
		Kills on t/off	Sortie Log
Red 1	F.O. Damien Townsend (Veteran)	3
Red 2	Sgt. Pilot James Phillips (Regular)	0
Red 3	Sgt. Pilot Kerry O’Malley (Veteran)	2
Yellow Section
		Kills on t/off	Sortie Log
Yellow 1	F.O. Stephen Hines (Regular)	2
Yellow 2	Sgt. Pilot Mark Wilson (Regular)	2
Yellow 3	P.O. Adrian Jacobs (Regular)	1

“B” Flight
Blue Section
		Kills on t/off	Sortie Log
Blue 1	P.O. Darren Wright (Regular)	3	Claim HE-111, Hurricane exploded, thrown clear, available 15^th July.
Blue 2	Sgt. Pilot Peter Lewis (Regular)	4	Returns safely with minor damage.
Blue 3	Sgt. Pilot Charles Morris (Regular)	0	Crash landed, aircraft destroyed, out of action until 23^rd July.
Green Section
		Kills on t/off	Sortie Log
Green 1	Sgt. Pilot Harry McWalters DFC & bar (Top Ace)	15	Claim HE-111, four ME-109
Green 2	P.O. Terry Smith (Regular)	2	Returned safely
Green 3	P.O. Clement Bates (Sprog)	0	Returned safely

Pilots not assigned to flying duties this Sortie		Aircraft
Name	Kills	Aircraft available pre sortie	11
Sgt. Pilot Archie Spencer (Sprog)	0	Aircraft lost this sortie	1
P.O. Francis Clinton (Sprog)	0	Aircraft damaged (to workshop)	2
Sqdn Ldr Terry Deakin (Veteran) Wounded back on 16^th July	4	Other post sortie adjustments
~~F.0. Simon Barrington (Regular) KIA~~ ~~Flt. Lt. Matthew Palmer (Veteran) KIA~~	0 2	Number of aircraft c/fwd next sortie	8


Other post sortie events		Pilots
		No of pilots pre sortie	14
		Pilots killed this sortie	0
		Pilots missing this sortie	1
		Pilots new wounded/sick	1
		Other post sortie adjustments
		Active pilots c/fwd next sortie	12

Notes

Harry gets another bar to his DFC.

Another mission:

‘A’ flight scrambled to intercept an enemy raid of three Ju87 Stuka escorted by two schwarm of Me109.

Sunday, 10 September 2017

21 Squadron RAF - 13th July 1940 (2)

"B Flight shall proceed directly to intercept an enemy raid on the Chain Home station at Bawdsley"
"Roger that Control"
"All pilots climb to eighteen thousand feet and keep your eyes peeled"
"Blue leader, we have many Stukas at fourteen thousand feet, with fighters ahead at seventeen thousand feet"
"Green leader, this is Blue leader, engage the fighters, we shall get into the bombers"
"Roger that Blue leader, Green section follow me and stay tight"

I decided to solo play the next mission in the campaign, being card driven with random movement, Bag the Hun are perfect for this.

The mission description was ‘B’ Flight is about to bounce 12 Ju87 Stukas at band 3 escorted by one schwarm of Bf110.

With such a large game it's difficult to write an accurate blog report but from the start the RAF were on their top game, With a "Tally Ho" Blue section were swooping into the rear of the Stukas and before three cards had been turned P.O. Darren Wright had shot down a Stuka, his first kill of the campaign.

I'll give a brief resume of each pilots actions:

Pilot Officer Darren Wright: As already mentioned got a very early kill on a Stuka, and was soon on the tail of another, pouring rounds into that until that also went down in flames. With his blood up he got on the tail of a third Stuka but was driven off by excellent marksmanship from the tail gunner. Undeterred, he got onto the tail of a fourth Stuka and was really unlucky not to shoot that down before running out of ammo. P.O. Wright arrived safely back at Hendon.

Sergeant Pilot Peter Lewis: Following his leader he let a belt off into his first Stuka that exploded with no chutes seen, another Stuka soon followed its companion. Following P.O. Wrights hard evade from the tail gunner fire the formation was broken so seeking a target of opportunity Lewis latched onto one of the escorting Bf110, rounds splattered into that cockpit and the Messerschmidt turned for home with shattered control panels. Another Bf110 had manoeuvred onto his tail, but a well executed tight chandelle soon threw it off. Lewis was soon onto the tail of another Ju87, the Stuka was soon trailing fuel and a well placed burst saw a third Hun go down in a trail of smoke. Before his ammo was expended Lewis had damaged a fourth Stuka, three kills and two Hun limping home was an excellent tally.

Sergeant Pilot Charles Morris: Morris was not as fortunate as his colleagues, he tailed one Stuka pouring round after round into it, bits flew off the JU87 and the rear gunner was obviously either dead or very seriously wounded but with his ammo expended Morris was furious that the Stuka managed to limp away. Looking over his shoulder he noted a Messerschmidt on his tail, pulling hard on his stick he was unable to break the tail, the first cannon rounds tore into the fuselage and fuel spilled everywhere, more rounds caused the Hurricane to break up completely. Morris bailed out safely and was soon picked up by the local police and driven back to Hendon.

Sergeant Pilot Harry McWalters: Our man of the moment was heavily engaged in this action. As instructed by Blue One, McWalters engaged the Messerschmidts immediately downing the flight leader before turning to face the Stukas. In an uncharacteristic loss of concentration McWalters managed to jam his guns and lose his tail, breaking contact to free the jam he was soon back into the action and badly damaging three Stukas and causing a fourth to explode. McWalters expended his final ammunition attempting to take out one of the Messerschmidts but it was able to evade and break for home.

Pilot Officer Terry Smith: Early in the action the tail gunner of the Stuka that he was menacing managed to crack the engine block of the Merlin and Smith had to head for home crash landing at Martlesham Heath.

Pilot Officer Clement Bates: Bates acted as an excellent wing-man for McWalters but was unable to contribute much as his Brownings jammed early on in the action. Two Stukas suffered damage from his fire but he was unable to get his first kill of the campaign.

As can be seen of the 'dead box' at the end of this game it was rather a stunning victory for the RAF, one Hurricane had been shot down and another had been written off in a crash landing, but no pilots were lost. The Luftwaffe had suffered the loss of six Stukas and another four damaged, one Bf110 was lost and another badly damaged. The loss of pilots and air gunners was severe.

A few more shots of the action