Twenty Minute Fight
I met a leader of one of the IL-2 communities and his wingman in what seems to be a chance encounter online...
This is my true story of an online fight that I had a few days ago:
I was flying my Bf-109 G-4 over the Baltic Map in the World at War server of HyperLobby. (About twenty online missions of wide variety are available and rotate.)
My patrol objective was to gain height advantage, loiter over the recon objective, and wait for the late arrival of my wingman. He was delayed by technical difficulties.
Of course, the patrol must stay on schedule because recon is the eyes of the Luftwaffe - no eyes and you lose the war for sure!
Altitude of my fighter was about 6,500 meters and climbing when I saw two enemy fighters at my 11 o'clock low, perhaps 5,500 meters, and traveling to my left, almost perpendicular. "They don't see me yet!", I thought. "This is a perfect position for an attack!"
I closed my radiator and pushed the throttle to full. My tactic was to do a diving bank to the right and swoop down into their rear. I nosed down slightly and began my approach. The true air speed gauge and the tachometer were getting my glancing looks every few seconds: 475 K/h and increasing with 2,600 RPM, perfect advantage.
"Hurricanes!"
"They see me, but too late for them!", I said out load staring through the cockpit glass at the two fighers growing rapidly bigger in my sight. They attempted to bank hard to the left, but I was already too close.
Fire was held by me until the wingman's aircraft was near. As I pulled the trigger, I saw flashes and pieces fell under the target. I pushed my stick, pitching down to avoid collision. Swooping past the wingman, I focused my HUD on the leader. Another burst with more flashes and pieces of aircraft falling toward the water below us.
I looked over my left shoulder as I saw that the prey survived the attack! "How could that be?" I began a Scharnell to preserve potential energy in my fighter.
The next twenty minutes involved their trying to surround me and coerce me into dog-fighting. That would be giving their manueverable fighters both the tactical and numerical advantage.
My tactics were to use superior speed and climbing ability of my Bf-109 over their Hurricanes. With this, I could chose when we engage. It reduced the effectiveness of their number advantage and gave me great defense. However, they were good pilots! It was very difficult to get on the six o'clock of one of them without the other making a shot at me.
I had settled on swooping tactic with forward deflection shots when available. Eventually, I made a few more hits on both aircraft. One of them pulled out the fight while the other covered his retreat.
2 vs 1 in Online Combat with Live Pilots
"That's a confirmed victory." With some damage to my fighter and losing control of my pitch, I climbed out the fight and turned toward home base.
I learned that my defeated enemy was the leader of a rival fighter squadron and his wingman! The leader had taken a dunk into the Baltic Sea.
A famous ace was killed by me!
Upon approach to my base, I had lost all elevator control. In IL-2, the stock forests are nearly invisible at level view because of the layered graphics that make the forest appear like trees from the higher view. The forest was in sight at the last moment and it was too late. I crashed into the "invisible forest" near the landing strip and died!
:lol:
The pilot who was shot by me is a great person, skilled pilot, commander of his squadron, and leader of his online orgranization. Despite my fortune to have this victory, he is an ace who deserves honor. He is one of the leaders of the IL-2 communities. I will honor him by not mentioning his call name, but if I did, many people reading this would recognize immediately who it is.
Salute!