[CKY_86]

A report from troops on the ground came in of a bomber force approching Groki. Three aircraft were ordered to intercept them, led by Osaka 1.

We took off from base at about 1400 hours. In my group I had my wingman, who has been credited with 20 large sized aircraft & a new recruit, this being his first combat mission. Since we were up against bombers, this would be good experiance for him & also a chance to gain his first kill.

Imidiatly after take-off we climb up to 2000 meters & head in the direction of Groki, all the time getting reports from base of the bombers postion.
''Ground control to Osaka group. Babies 5 miles north of Groki at 20 altitude.''
''Victor Victor ground control, continuing intercept.''

We reach Groki airspace & at first there is no sign of them. Osaka 2 breaks radio silence: ''there they are! babies coming out of the clouds''. Sure enough to my left the bomber force emerged out of the clouds. I counted 12 aircraft in all.

I ordered the group to close in. We would go in for a head-on attack. As we dived down on the group they started to swerve. Blast! They have seen us. We continue with the attack & I manage to hit one of the bombers in the wing with my fire. Diving below the group my planes shudders and the engine starts to make a strange ticking noise. Ive been hit, but the gauges arn't showing anything out of the ordinary, so i continue my attack on the bombers.

Coming back round in a climbing turn to the left I manage to get on the tail of one of them. I fire all I have into the tail of the bomber. My fire registers as one of the fins breaks away and the aircraft bursts into flames



The bombers were now firing all their guns at our three aircraft. Their fire was pretty poor however. Dodging the fire I pass quite below but very close to one of the bombers, a bit too close for comfort. During the close pass I noticed the bomber had its bombay doors open. We had passed Groki so it was quite obious what their target was.



Flying through the defensive fire we managed to press home our attacks against the bombers. The new recruit, Osaka 3, was getting well stuck in. I felt quite proud as I watched him firing with all his guns into one of the bombers untill it caught fire and the crew bailed out.



I picked out one bomber from the group as my next victim. As I was closing in on my victim, Osaka 2 dived out from nowhere and managed to hit another bomber in it's right wing fuel tank. His speed was so great that he nearly ended up becoming a part of the bomber. I said over the radio to him ''Osaka 2, dont get too eager. And leave some for the rest of us ya selfish git!'' By now my victim had seen me an started to make evasive action to aviod my fire. ''Oh no you dont lad'' I muttered to myself.



I closed in as close as I dared to & then opened up on him with cannon & machine gun fire



The machine gun bullets ripped & teared at the fabric of the aircraft & the cannon shells burst along the fusalage creating gaping holes. As my fire was chewing my victim to pieces, I could see Osaka 3 copying my moves to the right of me. Through the corner of my eye i saw him pressing home his fire. His bomber caught fire & went into a dive. Another kill for Osaka 3. Then my bomber caught fire. It reared up & then turned almost on it's side to begin it's final dive in flames.



By now we had almost shot down half of the bomber force. However the remaining bombers defensive fire was getting more accurate. I had come in for a 9 o clock pass on a bomber and it's turret gunner put alot of nice holes in my cockpit glass. It's amazing I wasn't injured by one of the bullets. I had run out of cannon fire & had only my machine guns left, but they were more than enough to set one of these bombers ablaze. All it took was a few well placed shots in the engine nacelle and it's almost certain it would catch fire.

Some of them managed to get through to our airfield & dropped their eggs. They hit just short of the runway & didn't do much damage at all, wich was lucky.



The bombers that had made it through to our field were quickly set upon by out AA batteries, and were still coming under fire from our group.



I closed the gap on my smoking victim & then held down the fire button on my stick to hopefully give him the final blow. The bullets teared away at the fabric an then my fire stopped. Shit! My ammunition had run out. To my right Osaka 2 had drawn up along side me and looked at me. He then came over the radio.
''Osaka 2 to Osaka 1, what's wrong?''
''Osaka 1 to Osaka 2, I'm out of ammunition''
He laughed then said ''Osaka 2 to Osaka 1, leave him to me, i'll finish him for ya.''
I peeled away from the bomber & watched as Osaka 2 was true to his word & dived upon the bomber, firing what must have been the last of his ammunition into the forward fusalage area of the aircraft. The stricken plane then make a slow diving turn to the right & disentagrated before hitting the ground.



Out of the 12 aircraft only 3 managed to escape. Before we returned to base we had a bit of fun with them, diving on them & getting on their tail into a firing position, making them take evasive action. It's amazing how manouvarable an aircraft of that size is when it's being chucked around. We headed back to base & I was the first one to land.
''Osaka 1 to Ground control, requesting clearence to land.''
After a while a voice came back: ''Ground control to Osaka 1, you are cleared to land.''
On my final approach Osaka 2 came low over the field waggaling his wings to confirm the victorys.



Just after touchdown a plane crashed into the ground just outside of the airfield. It was Osaka 3



As I parked up I saw a fire truck & an ambulance rushing to the site where he had crashed. He had got the canapy open but the force from hitting the ground threw him clear of the aircraft and very unfortunatlly, killed him. A very sad end to what was a succsesful mission. Later on, one of the mechanics told me he watched Osaka 3's plane as it crashed. He said it seemed he tried to glide it in but looked like it ended in a stall. We decided the cause of the crash was engine faliure. The ambulance crew recoverd his body an we buried him in the evening just outside of the woods on the edge of the airfield.



In the early evening we headed out in a junkers W.34 to see if any of the escaping aircraft had crashlanded. My hunch was correct. We came accross one wich had made a very tidy wheels up landing near a river. The crew had left the plane & were long gone.



The next one we came accross was not such a good landing. The plane came down & must have rolled as all the control surfaces had been broken away. All the crew were still in the plane, dead. We burried the crew near the final resting place of their plane.



That night, me and Dieger (Osaka 2), wrote out our reports & discussed our kills today over a bottle of brandy. We had come to agreement and I wrote on the pilots scoreboared:

Take off: 1400 hours
Osaka 1: 3 Bombers shot down
Osaka 2: 3 bombers shot down
Osaka 3: 4 bombers shot down
Landing: 1426 hours

We had a toast to Manichek (Osaka 3), an then called it a night & went to bed. I didn't get much sleep however as I was puzzeled over what that ticking noise was that my engine was making. I never did find out what it was.