March 3 Charge of the Light Brigade

[Ghosth]

14 mongrels rode forth to the valley of death.
14 x 3 in formation's we rode, endlessly east, searching, looking.
Tightly in formation skimming the waves did we fly, ever onward.

42 ki-67's searched the wide seas for the floating palaces of death.
Eastward we searched, then southward, then west.
There they are! Was the cry on the radio, as the mongrels prepared to die.

Tora Tora Tora! was our attack cry as we swept down on the enemy.
14 formations of ki-67 each ship carrying one long torpedo.
Watch your speed, watch your alt, lets get that ship!

Onward the mongrels swept yea into the very fires of hell.
Through the waterspouts and ack bursts we came.
Right up to the very edge of the ships themseves.

Then did we level our spears and charge, stern faced.
acks pinging us, waterspouts all around yet onward we raced.
Then did we release our lances to drive against the steel

Swiftly now, did we dodge amonst the ships.
Straight through the fleet we flew, ack tearing pieces as we went.
Onward to death did we ride, and knew no fear.

Then did we see whistleing death ride down from on high.
Then we did man our guns, running ever homeward.
Then we did'st die, man by man as the enemy planes killed us.

We are ghost's now, ghosts out of a distant past.
Yet for one night we were the charge of the Light Brigade.
We were every man who has fought & died for his country.

We flew well, we fought like tigers and we died like men.
Few there are to remember, too few who survived the flight home.
The rest of us lie broken beneath the waves. Verily, we paid the price.

Yet the enemy ships lie also neath the waves.
They share our dark dreams, never more shall whistleing death ride forth.
As for us, we sleep well, for we did our duty, we sunk the fleet.


Well done mongrels, VERY VERY well done each of you.

[daddog]

That is a keeper!
 
I read the logs, lots of kills... and I think HeavyH sunk a SHP000 which is a CV. Though I know it takes more than 3 torps, so several of you must have hit it.

Can someone send me their film?

[skernsk]

Was a fun night.  Some were not too keen to be on a 'scuicide mission' by the sounds of it, but those are the ones I look forward to.  Beating the odds and sinking the CV was one of the funnest frames for me to date.  That being said, I have no idea if one of my torps hit and I took one hell of a beating running through the ack .. and then my last plane was blown out of the sky.

Other than that minor set-back I have to say it was great fun.  Was a nice formation also. 

<S>Ghosth nice job last night.

[MP Sarge]

Sarge
22:10:32 Departed from Field #30 in a Ki-67
22:49:27 Shot down a F4U-1D flown by AKgrog.
22:56:53 Shot down a F4U-1D flown by AKKarma.

23:03:29 Arrived Safely at Field #31
 Dont know what happened to that pesky f6f that trailed me all the way to 31. I fired at him once in a while so he would keep his distance, he would try to get ahead of me and hit me from the side. as he climbed i turned awway from him to keep him in my gun sights, so he could not straffe me from left to right. then all of a sudden i didnt see him anymore, Dont know if he gave up on me or ran out of bullets. and then landed safely at 31.

[HeavyH]

I was on the phone trying to coordinate an emergency water heater install at an Applebees restaurant for most of the flight and only put the phone down when I heard Ghosth's "Tora Tora Tora" cry.  I had fallen behind the group somewhat, and when I saw everyone taking a straight in approach to the stern of the fleet, I saw an opportunity.  I headed off to the left and brought my flight around for a 90 degree offset shot to the port side of the fleet.  Since the main group was drawing the main ack concentration, I was able to get really close before letting my torps go.  I let them run and immediately knew I was going to get a hit on something.  I was worried about the destroyers, but the fish found their mark. 

I also shot up a few fighters, must have been some real newbees as they all came in straight on the 20 mil cannon in my tail.  Easy fodder!  They finally picked me apart.  I was back into my work clothes and gone by 9pm.

By the way, Applebees in Everett Washington is back into hot water thanks to my crew, I arrived back home at 3am with a check for $8400.00! What a night!

[Wklink]

It says I killed 4 a/c.  I remember 3 of them (man were they stupid, just flying right into my tail gunners sights) but don't remember the fourth.

Oh well, will take it.

[skernsk]

I'm sure that many thought 'groan, KI-67's'  But that was one of our best showings in a while

[daddog]

By the way, Applebees in Everett Washington is back into hot water thanks to my crew, I arrived back home at 3am with a check for $8400.00! What a night!

Wow!  Jeeze... I need to pick another profession.

I know for some of you those "objective" based frames are not your cup of tea. I have to say they are not my favorite because the number of AC lost does not count. Yet torp runs on enemy ships is a favorite pastime for me. Wish I could have made it. Many forget the Ki-67 has a 20mm gun and quickly get nailed. Well done guys.

Someone send me their .AHF film please. You can trim it in the Aces High film viewer so it is not huge. If you keep it under 3 megs you can e-mail itto me. All I need is about 2 minutes before the run and the attack itself. I will put it to good use.

[skernsk]

dd, check e-mail, I uploaded my film via FTP and sent you a link.

[forHIM]

An AAR for McArgyll -- I was an honorary canuck -- that is I spent the first 10 minutes being stupid  and then spent the rest of it either way out front or way back as tail end charlie.

Launched A30 and followed orders to launch SS -- I knew I should have launched NE, but followed orders and to my dismay my planes wouldn't spin up to full speed -- I couldn't get off the runway and was sliding all over the place.  Finally ditched that set.  Then upped NE and promptly got over the ocean and augered em all.  Finally I got up and headed to a point I thought would intercept the pack.  Turns out I was close, but was a few K in front of them.  Slowed down a bit, but when maddog decided to pass me I sped up again. 

Ghost finally called a turn to the south.  Well he turned right away putting us pack leaders at the back.  Well I decided to do some short range scouting from the pack and headed farther south then the pack -- so when Ghost called the fleet I had to head back north.  My fish run allowed me to come in at a 45 degree angle to the travel of the ships.  I was inside the protecting ships before I let my fish swim.  I was at about 75 feet AGL and IAS of 170.  I immediately started cross controlling and waving the rudder to attempt to throw off the ACK's AI routine.  I should note that since I was tail end charlie the AI gunners were all focused on the pack in front of me, so I had hardly any ack pointing at me until I got to the same side of the fleet as the dogs.  I don't have a clue as to how the fish swam as I couldn't see them in the water at all.

As I cleared the ack range, I had 2 F4u's and an F6 attack me from all angles.  I managed to hit two or three of them, but one of them crashed into me and took out one of my drones and another one shot off my stabilzer.  So I ended up with only 1 plane left and a sector and a halft to get home.

As I headed home, I was separated from the pack and decided to head direct to A30 instead of A31.  I had at least 4 singles or pairs of Allied fighters fly over me and none engaged me.  I did get a pair to engage me, but they respected the 20mm and stayed back obout 1000m.  They took pot shots while I chose to ignore them until they got closer.  One got parts of my right engine and oil started to leak.  I should note that the 1000m on my FE could have been 400 on theirs as I had some issues with frame rate / lag last night.  Once the oil started flowing, they peeled off and headed away from me.

I then nursed that plane back home for a relatively uneventful landing.  The only issue was that when I alt - tabbed to the desktop to check to see who got what on the ships my view hat stopped working.  So I had to revert back to my keyboard for views.

It was a good night in FSO.  A lot better than the last 2 FSO events where we've been tail kicked across the map.

[forHIM]

ummmm -- heavy did you use torps only or did you also use something else?  The logs indicate that you used 9 bombs -- since we could only carry 3 torps, I'm trying to figure that one out 

Either way, sinking the ship was pretty good.  It appears that all 3 of your fish hit as I see two object damages on the ship from bombs and then an object damage on the ship.  I'm interpreting that as all three hit.

[HeavyH]

I only loaded torps, as far as I know.  I didn't overfly the fleet at all and couldn't have dropped bombs, so I don't know what to say about that.  Others probably hit the ship too, as it takes 4 fish to sink the carrier.  Since I diverted from orders and made use of the rest of the group to draw the ack, my run on the fleet was long after everyone else had cleared out.  My guess is that 2 of my fish hit the boat, and others provided the other 2.  I am going to review my film to see if I can figure it out.

I hope we can start getting orders earlier in the week so we can spend time getting familiar with the aircraft we are assigned.  I rarely fly IJN aircraft, and generally suck in them, so practice is good for me.  Is there any reason why orders can't be sent out Monday or Tues?  Hope we get fighters next Fri.

[skernsk]

  Is there any reason why orders can't be sent out Monday or Tues?  Hope we get fighters next Fri.

Frame objectives go out by SUNDAY from the Admin CM.  The Frame CO's have until Wednesday night to get orders to each squad.  It is possible but rare for orders to be out sooner than Wednesday. 

We will ALL be in fighters Friday night.  IJN will be on the defensive so practice up in zeke's, KI84 and KI61's.  The N1k is available also in limited numbers ..

[Wklink]

I was on the phone trying to coordinate an emergency water heater install at an Applebees restaurant for most of the flight and only put the phone down when I heard Ghosth's "Tora Tora Tora" cry.  I had fallen behind the group somewhat, and when I saw everyone taking a straight in approach to the stern of the fleet, I saw an opportunity.  I headed off to the left and brought my flight around for a 90 degree offset shot to the port side of the fleet.  Since the main group was drawing the main ack concentration, I was able to get really close before letting my torps go.  I let them run and immediately knew I was going to get a hit on something.  I was worried about the destroyers, but the fish found their mark. 

I also shot up a few fighters, must have been some real newbees as they all came in straight on the 20 mil cannon in my tail.  Easy fodder!  They finally picked me apart.  I was back into my work clothes and gone by 9pm.

By the way, Applebees in Everett Washington is back into hot water thanks to my crew, I arrived back home at 3am with a check for $8400.00! What a night!

You need to come down to Olympia and spend some of that on some beers with me.

[Ghosth]

BTW you guys made a BIG impression on Tank.

He's been flying AH for 2 or 3 years now. Was in another squad a year ago. But he Had to quit flying for a bit last year. Well now he is back up and his squadmates of a year ago won't even talk to him.

He came over yesterday & I just causually pointed out the 332nd site, msg board, etc.
I see he's already sent an application in. Sitting here in my office talking about being in that tight
formation heading into the ships. Well, it was about as animated as I've ever seen him.

Tank btw is kinda the quiet type. 
He's been through a lot in the last year, and is still struggling to get back on his feet.
Double Shots  of what you guys pass around on fri nights has to be pretty heady stuff for him.

Outlaw, maddog, he's had a few good things to say about flying with you guys in the main as well.
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

[CarbHeat]

Good for Tank.  We always welcome new good members.  Yea  MD and Outlaw are great representatives for 332nd.  I always enjoy my MA time when they are around.  Did you show Tank the ladder?

Carb

[outlaw]

was in there last night and tank was chasing buffs at 30k+ and not giving up and in a n1k2 at that....defiantly a don't give up attitude

[gospel]

Good write up Bill.

Sorry I missed it. 

I planned on being there, but had some last minute dad duty stuff to take care of 

[HeavyH]

 

Wow!  Jeeze... I need to pick another profession.

As I'm sure you can imagine, it isn't quite as great as it seems.... 
collect $8400.00 from customer, send about $700.00 right off the top to the State of Washington.

Balance =$7700.00.  Pay for equipment used, and fee to have supplier open warehouse at 11pm ($5500.00).

Balance = $2200.00.  Pay 2 technicians after hours pay to put their stinky dirty work clothers back on and head back to work at 9pm ($450.00).

Balance =  $1750.00.  Pay for trucks, phones, uniforms, advertising, office help, accountant, insurance, etc etc etc. 

Balance...  I don't want to get depressed so I won't grind it down all the way.  You get the picture though.  It is EXTREMELY costly to be in business these days.  Our customers always ask why plumbers charge so much.  In Seattle and the surrounding areas that we have to advertise in, we pay about 8-9k a month just for yellow pages.  Add another 6k a month for radio ads.  Heck, there's one plumbing contractor here that pays $60k a month for yellow pages. 

I'm depressed. Off to the MA to take my mind off reality!   

[outlaw]

i'll be a tech for ya heavy   

[Sour]

Tank was online with MD and I the other night. He was a regular killer. Seems like a real nice guy.

Sour

[HeavyH]

i'll be a tech for ya heavy   

You probably wouldn't like the traffic out here. It makes me do this >>>>>>>>>>> , and then this>>>>>> , and finally>>>>>>>>>

[Wklink]

Still have to have a beer with me.

Maybe split the difference and have one near SeaTac.

[HeavyH]

Still have to have a beer with me.

Maybe split the difference and have one near SeaTac.

I live in Renton, but am not much of a drinker.  (20 years ago.... thats another story)  I get down to Oly Town once in a while, maybe we can join up for lunch someday.

Steve

[daddog]

I always encourage squadies to get together when they can. Helps to build the foundation our group is on.