6/12/09 Frame 2

[daddog]

Sorry that was so ugly guys.

So what are your thoughts of not having formations? If we had our drones at least some of us would have been able to drop and then defend ourselves. Some could have joined us (our drones). Would have been much more enjoyable.

I did not like it in the design and like it less now.

Messed up my first drop. Was shot up and leaking fuel. Knew I would not make it back. Dove in and figured I would take any fighters after me low. Took out a couple objects and then a Spit finished me off. BigRat who was my gunner did the best he could with BB's.

[Ghosth]

Got attacked, screwed up my run, also the haze the way it was set made it hard to see and line up on the target prior to calibrating.

Dropped throttle, dumped the dive flaps, set salvo to 20, dropped em all on my target, but I don't think it was enough.
Both engines on fire from ack's and spitfires shooting at me I was back in the tower shortly.


Man it was UGLY!

Escorts did their best. Just way too few of them.

[JDog]

When I accepted a gunner, I was in a gunner position myself. At that point I was stuck there  . Mikira informed me none of my guns even worked. I could not do anything to get back into the cockpit, or bombsite. 

Are we unable to accept gunner from any other position than #1  . By the time Mikira decided to tower, I was past the base, lower then calibrated, and spits everywhere 

Decided that it was time to low level bomb at that point. Dropped dive flaps, went down and dropped on several targets, I think I got a fighter hanger. then ack and spits were all over me quick.

I know that there were issues with our cover, ( short an entire squad ) which kinda leaves a bad taste ya know?

I'm not really convinced we can blame it entirely on formations, but it was still FUN! 


 

[mookdog]

Well THAT was interesting.Kinda like running through a swarm of bees to step on an ant hill.OUCH!WE may have done better with more advanced notice of missing air support.Oh Well...What can you do?

[Kansas2]

I have only myself to blame for my bad bombing. Was watching spits go by from the gunner postion, then jumped back to pilot and saw the wrong field off to my left. By the time I got lined back up on the correct field I was just past the bomber hanger I was assigned to. I was able to drop on the next 4 field guns. I then looked around for everyone else and we were all scattered. Turned and flew straight into about 6 spits. Pinged up one pretty good before he turned me into a torch. Hit the silk and called it a night.

[trap78]

While in route our escorts seemed to be doing a decent job of keeping the interceptors off us. By the time we reached the target however, we were on our own without any fighter cover. I dropped a pair of 500's on my first pass and missed. I flew out over the water, turned and lined up for my next run. I dropped my last two 500's and ten 50's missing again. By this time I was starting to get swarmed by Spitfires and decided to begin my egress instead of attempting another pass on the field. My route took me over the town so I unloaded the rest of my bombload there. After releasing my last bombs, I put my plane into a shallow dive and continued to pick up speed until the airframe began to creak and groan. The horde of Spits was all over me by now, and despite jinking, rolling to keep the bad guys out of phase and Cajun gunning like a mad man the fighters eventually brought us down.

With respect to formations, what was the reasoning behind turning them off in the first place? I think that one of the important benefits the JU88 gets from formations is increased defensive firepower. With formations enabled, you can bring multiple machine guns to bear on the bad guys instead of just one, which is basically ineffective. The bottom line IMO; JU88 mission success is totally dependent on adequate escort cover to and from the target.

[trap78]

One more thing....when flying the JU88, I could not jump directly from the bombardier position to the pilot position. I had to move from bombardier to gunner and then to pilot. This became a real problem once Cajun attached as a gunner. After my first bomb run, I couldn't get back into the pilot position. The only way I found to accomplish this was to go from bombardier to external view and then to internal view which put me back in the pilot's seat. Having to figure this out on the fly wasted valuable time at the most critical point of the mission. Anyone else have this problem?

[Malap]

I was looking out of the canopy thinking "Oo look at those beautiful Spitfires" when my engine caught fire for some unexplained reason. I thought to myself, "Surely I wasn't attacked by Spitfires, me being a fellow Spitfire Pilot" Then i died.
 

[daddog]

LOL Malap.

With respect to formations, what was the reasoning behind turning them off in the first place?

I think to add to the immersion is what ghostdancer (the designer for this FSO) had in mind.

[LuckyI3]

man I was in the bomb sight thought I had a Gunner Seen mad shooting towards me and I thought he shoot me down watched the film was two low spits both of them shot at me    tyred to join teerex as gunner to no avail he said he was stuck so I dumped on my end and rejoined by the time I got back in game no one needed a gunner  or was all shoot down 

[Harppa]

I got one barrack with ALL those bombs, then I turned back home in a shallow dive.

Well, there was two P-47's just few miles further North waiting for me, and for some odd reason I couldn't escape...

 
Harppa

[BigRat]

Well that didn't go so well now did it .  The funny thing is I don't think my 88 got hit by a single bullet, but it did get hit with a spit9 after deploying my dive brakes and pulling up hard.  Still trying to figure out how I ended up immediately in the tower after that. Anybody see what happened to that spit   I then went to daddog's 88 as a gunner.  Fortunately we didn't have any issues like many of the others, except for the spitfire issue.  I'm not sure exactly how many 7.9mm rounds it takes to knock down a spit9 but it's a lot .  Seems I got one in the logs , so I feel I got a little revenge.  I got enough hits on spits that I think if I had a single .50 I would have knocked down much more.  I'm under the conclusion that 88's without formations are more defenceless then ju-87's. At least with the Stuka you have two forward facing guns and you can turn, and in those you get a second life.

 
BigRat

[mookdog]

 On my first pass,I took out a bomber hanger.Turned around for another pass and picked up Wolfgang as my gunner.2 seconds from drop I hear"mookdog!you got 1 on your 6!turn!turn!turn!"We died before I could say
"Wolfgang...aim gun,pull trigger!"Had no chance.