All the below pictures are partial thumbnail images (150x100 pixels) of the actual screen shots from WarBirds version 2, 3 and World War II Online. The story next to the picture might not be related to the pictutre. The author in each of the pictures may vary, however they are all taken in ICEBREAKERS squad nights. More pictures and maybe even some related texts will appear here periodically... See also ok's squad night screen shot gallery.

(WW2OL)

27.07.2004 Pack of different kinds of pictures from various ICE operations, on squadnights and on smaller missions on the weekdays.

Flying for RAF and France - escorting Lagus' bombers

(WW2OL)

26.12.2003. For the sake of variety ICE has flown on the Allied side as well. It's been very challenging and interesting - it gives good view on how the other planes act like, how they must be flown and how you should fly against them. It is a new world. And a good pilot is successfull here as well, even flying Curtiss Hawk 75 versus Me 109 Fs!

(WW2OL)

Men of Osasto Lagus climbed to Heinkel 111 level bombers and headed towards the French factories. Mission was to lay destruction to the factories producing advanced weapons to the French army. The mission lasted for almost two hours. Lagus were able to keep their group together pretty well, through the formation sure wasn't usually pretty. More practise on formation flying guys! ;-) But we had no losses to enemy fire and the mission was a great success.

Flying with the Dutchmen

(WW2OL) We've been runnign coop ops with our friends from the Dutch squadron 1st ROF for three Sundays in row. And it's been a blast. Few views into the action follows.

Sunday 14.9.2003. Major Stuka action. Please note the string of Ju-87 dive bombers diving as a long long string, sirens screaming, into an enemy held town. Comments from AGW and not necessarily related to the pics themselves:
Sascha: Here' what I came up with after a night of laughs, kills, thrills and spills. Kill tally after our 3 or 4 Stuka raids was pretty impressive, including 2 DDs which sunk near their port at Gravenpolder (hope some of the guys got a screenshot of those).
Unescorted Stuka mission to Antwerp harbor. We had an estimated 15 or so Stukas all hellbent on sinking a DD N of Antwerp. When Antwerp was reported empty, we decided to go to the deep water port of Gravenpolder. We were almost intercepted shortly before target (a Spit and some Dewos showed up at 3-4km). Formation broke up a bit and I was the first one (I think) to arrive over the port. Spotted 2 DDs near the harbor exit and commenced my dive from 2.5 kms. With that much alt, hitting the ship was quite simple, most of our formation scored direct hits and both DDs despawned. One more destroyer came up but was also sunk, which left Gravenpolder attrited of destroyers...wtg guys!
Lapwin: It was a very enjoyable squadnight to fly alongside the Uberfins in ww2ol. The sound of sirens, the prelude of terror bombing British strongholds was indeed quite impressive and we hardly lost crews in the missions.
Grendel: Especially the DD dive bombing mission was a blast. Quite fun that we came through with very little losses from all missions, two I think with absolutely no losses at all. And these right next to Antwerp and enemy aerial activity. Good bombing by the Stuka pilots too!

And more flying 21.9.2003. Take notice of the flyboys making low pass over our ships.

And Sunday 28.9.2003. This time there was some jabo and fighter operations initially but then the combined Finn-Dutch-German forces headed towards Great Britain with 110 fighter-bombers.

Grendel: Our ground forces were attacking a town but were under relentless aerial assault. We regrouped and put a multinational aerial umbrella over the town with few BARCAP pilots protecting inbound route. After a while the ground forces sent big thanks for clearing the skies. The 110 Jabo raid to Brisith factories was very much like a "good old times" WB mission, with awesome bullshitting while climbing and otw. Poor old Lapwin got a direct hit from AA during his attack dive, but seems we did hit the target pretty well.
Lapwin: Sure was a very enjoyable way to spent an evening Grendel. The 110-C4 raid was indeed a very pleasant mission. About 40 minutes from Eindhoven to Whitstable (sp?) but never one boring moment. Hehehe, bs chat is the best way to kill the time, and I recall sascha doing a 15 second inverted flight on 6km orso and got that nasty "tick-tick" in his engines. Stevie who forgot to start up his engines again on egress and as a former Navy soldier ended up where he likes to be the most... in the sea. Frin, who was my tailgunner during the mission, but never saw one enemy and see our Messerschmidt going down uncontrolled when his pilot (me) got killed by a direct FLAK hit from the AAA-crew at Whitstable and he couldn't do anything about it. The fins, always good for a laugh, dadada, netfly, kossu, yourself. Man I had a grin on my face all the way to target. Well organised, well flown. Disciplined with a smile is what makes flying fun.
Was good to see the most of us getting back at Vlissingen Fliegerhorst unhurt. Even sascha made it back with a damaged engine from that inverted show-off (g)
Kossu: Big thanks to Elk, Kuhlmey CO, and Lapwin the Supreme Orange Dweeb for organizing these great Sunday Night Sessions for us! Good Old Times at least once a week!
Ragge: As stevies gunner I had to use all my barfbags on the jabo raid and we did a nice bomb run at their factories. Started to wonder why we got lower and lower, but naa the experianced pilot just have a great tactic to get away from ack's I thought . Next time I will listen for enginesounds and make a reminder LOL. Well stevie made a nice ditch but it was a long,long swim back. No points that sortie and I do really need them in luftwaffe. Those coops with the Finnish kuhlmey are just great and elk and his guys are just great to find out fun missions. Hakka pälä Suomen pojkaa !! (err... spelling).

(WW2OL) Brigadier General Grendel was shot down behind enemy lines with a streak of 25 or so. A rescue mission was organized, with corporal Grendeli taking off with a Fieseler Storch. His mission was to fly behind enemy lines, land, waiting for the fatso to fit into rear seat of the Storch, take off and return the General back to nearest airfield. A number of friendly fighters were launched for protection. An RPG style mission was flown (with Stuka), 109s protecting the Storch and successfully keeping enemy fighters away. Read the text buffers :-)

(WW2OL) Randon shots from WW2OL flying from ICE squad nights.

(WarBirds II) While cleaning up stuff and screenshots I stumbled on a pile of old screenshots from the old, good days of WarBirds II flying. Here is presented a small gallery from the nostalgic days, when WB2 was the king and the online wars raged hard. (grendel)

Scenario EMC 26

Scenario EMC 32

Scenario EMC 33

Icebreakers squadnight - squadron duel 28.1.2001

A bit of dumbass activity during squadnight

(WW2OL) German forces had pushed all the way to channel front and after heavy combat pushed the British Expedition Force to the sea. A battle raged over the Channel. German Messerchmitt fighters sweeped to the British coast, even over Britain itself. On the other hand British fighters rose to the skies to intercept the marauders and extremerely heavy combats ensued. German navy attempted to push to the other coast and Luftwaffe attempted to protect them.

In these skies Grendel, Stubit and Kasvi arrived - took off - and fought.

Kossu of Icebreakers created these absolute gorgeous, amazing fighters for WarBirds III. Aren't they amazing?

MT-437:
Artist: Timo "Kossu" Niiranen Aircraft: Finnish Air Force Bf 109 G-6. This plane (W.Nr 163627) coded MT-437 by the FAF served in 3./HLeLv 24 (Fighter squadron 24) during summer 1944. The plane was made by the Messerschmitt factories in early -44 and sported an older type tail and canopy, but was equipped with the "Galland-panzer", armored-glass, head armor. The plane was named to Sergeant-Major L. Ahokas and had a tactical number "Yellow 9" painted on it's horizontal stabilizer. The stylized Lynx on the rudder was a suggested symbol of the Squadron, but was only painted on a very few aircraft before the war ended in Finland. MT-437 was credited with 4 victories in WWII.

MT-453:
Artist: Timo "Kossu" Niiranen Aircraft: Finnish Air Force Bf 109 G-6/R6. This skin is dedicated to Mr. Antti Tani, a FAF WWII veteran, and a fine gentleman. < S > This "Cannon Boat" or "Battery" (W.Nr 165274), as the pilots called them, coded MT-453 by the FAF, served in 1./HLeLv 34 (Fighter squadron 34), and was based in Taipalsaari during the soviet summer offensive in 1944. The plane was also made by the Messerschmitt factories and was similarly equipped as the MT-437. The aircraft was named to Sergeant-Major Osku Länsivaara and had a tactical number "White 11" painted on both sides of the fuselage, just in front of the cockpit. MT-453 was credited with 5 victories in WWII. Of the five victories 3 were soviet Il-2 Sturmoviks, all shot down in a sigle battle by Sergeant-Major Antti Tani on Saturday, July 1st 1944.

Went buffin in EMC scenario. Shortly put, didn't go too well as fighter cover failed to materialize and damn enemies didn't go after the another fighter sweep. To make things perfect even the targets were not around - at all - CM had forgotten to turn them on ;-) But some made it back home!

When WarBirds III made it possible to use custom skins - oh boy we did.

Most of the pictures below show us flying the Messerchmitt 109 G-2 "MT-208", a Finnish Air Force fighter which was recently rescued and restored. Read the full story of MT-208.

SG ICE flying towards enemy target.

Icebreakers took a slightly different approach to squadnight action 22042001. This time we decided to go into pure ground attack role in our trusty Focke Wulfs. And so the usual callsign -= VLeLv Icebreakers =- changed to SG Icebreakers. Not a surprise that it caused many amused and puzzled moments to friends and enemies alike.

It was a wonderful sight, looking at the SG ICE Focke Wulfs screaming through the skies, low level, in tight formation, each starting their attack run towards assigned targets and several times completely routing the enemies.

The first air to air kill of SG Icebreakers.

Operational tactics for the evening were generally to find an enemy field that is source of some attack against the land of Axis - and made fast, heavy hitting attack and retreat. More or less by accident even some fields were captured. The wrecks of shot down enemy planes were numerous, wavering and hiding Allied soldiers in fox holes innumerous. The enemy was struck a heavy blow after blow and the squadnight was considered to be great fun and big success.

And so it became, that in Scenario Lite 191 in the January 14th 2001, the Icebreakers stepped into shoes of a BUFF pilot.

Naturally we organized ourselves pretty well. Each pilot had his own position and we formed as tight as we just could. A misunderstanding about buff throttle settings, we havent flown these heavies so much you know, caused our group to drop as the lowest of all our bomber squadrons. Usually the sure sign of impending death and swarming Luftwaffe fighters.

Yet, our very close formation proved efficient. Not a single bomber was left undamaged - but the losses were much lighter than we dared to expect. The whole Luftwaffe had zeroed on us - yet we fought them off. The other two bomber groups were practically undamaged. Of course we must give very big thanks to the great escorts, who worked really hard to fend the enemy fighters off. In the end there wasn't that much of our formation left. Many were still, by some miracle, together but some were struggling with only two engines left, someone barely one. But we made it home!

Modo reports:

I flew 100-200 meters from Grendel but a moment after the attack started others throttled up, and it took a moment before I noticed that, as I was watching the enemy fighters. So I was dropped 500-1000 meters behind others. My number 4 engine was smoking only a bit and I kicked throttles up to get back to others, but even now it was too late.

One 190 attacked and shot my rudder off. And even that wasn't enough for him. He continued firing so I exploded. Very unfriendly people towards tourists.

So there I was then flying in WW2 Arena, listening through Roger Wilco in bittersweet mood how the fellas bombed their target, and started returning to England. I'm confidne I heard even a song "Rolling Home" being sun, as they slowly dragged themselves towards home, with varying number of engines in their swinging homes.

But it was unbelievable feeling to fly in such a formation. I just could have lasted longer...

Official debriefing:

3 B-17 groups attacked key industries in the Hannover area. The escorted formations were attacked by a combined force of Messerschitt Bf-109, Bf-110 and Focke Wulf fighters. Damage was heavy with 50% of the sortied ordnance dropped on target.

12 B-17 were shot down and another was lost later. Most damage was dealt to the first B-17 group, nevertheless some made it back despite damage to the airframes. Escorts and attacking fighters fought a running battle in the wake of the bomber group with losses to both sides.

	And many made it back home!

Running low on fuel both sides disengage and head home, some aircraft barely making it back - one P-47 had to land meters before an airfield.

Two main factors decided this frame:
1) The Messerschmitt 109 failed to intercept the incoming flights early and bind the escorts.
2) Quite a number of german fighters was lost to attacks from inferior positions - HO attacks proved to have a good survivability with a decent chance to damage enemy heavy bombers. Especially the heavy fighter archieved deadly results, but a "Herausschuss" was often enough as lone bombers were downed rather quickly.

Overall this frame is judged as a substantial allied victory.

Not sure but I think it was Lizking who joined our squadron inflight, as he had been forced out of his own group and didn't naturally want to RTB alone.

ICE debrief:

Thanks to all participants. We lost 4 bombers out of 9. This included two of our own and both walkon pilots. Yet, thanks to the very tight box, as said even by Netfly, we managed to generally survive. Ok managed to return with two engines from northern Germany!

	JG51 and JG2 find their target. But they also find out that Icebreakers won't submit easily.

We got the heaviest introduction by the enemy. Ow. Salute to the fallen! We got even some air to air victories: Mobo 2 kills, Kossu 1 kill, Modo 1 kill. Bomber with largest score: Kossu. Scoring parser here.

A comment from an enemy pilot: Our squadron was in the other side and so it happened, we met ICE. Our group had JG51 and J2 pilots. I think all died, me included. Your group was in so tight formation that my FPS must have been around 15. That was REALLY good formation... =) Netfly / JG51.

A day in the ocean...

A carrier fleet is sailing... When hostile eyes find it. Icebreakers team up for a large torpedo attack - Junkers 88s fitted with two torpedoes - now that should give any ship a hell.

But we we just a bit too slow. Other pilots sink the rest of the carrier fleet, only carrier itself is still floating. So, thats a great target, lets ATTACK.

And every single torpedo misses.

There we were. Peacefully gliding in the skies, in the days of the old Main Arena.

And Mobo called "my 6, dragging.

And that he did. I dipped my wing to see situation better...

Attacked. One less. More attacks. And then there's so many Zeros, chasing me.

This couldn't have ended well :-).

	The -=ICE=- Ju88 flight enroute to the target. Enemy opened heawy ack fire at midway causing no damage. The flack was spectacular though!

On Sunday 22nd August 1999 the Icebreakers squadron took the squadnight to the Historical Arena instead Main. Result was pretty nice.

After warming up flying Luftwaffe Bf 109Gs in air combats we made a major Junkers 88 assault to F19. The LW/VVS odds weren't too good so instead air combat we thought to put our % to something more interesting. The bombers reversed twice finishing single targets while VVS fighters tried to furiously engage. SOme mishaps with the fighter escorts allowed VVS close and some losses occurred. During final approach VVS finally managed to strike very hard before new escort group had entered position. As result final attack was abandoned and the rest of bombers were ordered to jettison ordnance and dive towards the F20.

Loner enemy planes jumped the formation, however the über-otto gave the attacking fighter no chances. Severe damage was caused to the target, amongst other damage all of the field ack was killed.

Ju88s claimed more kills than losses with Stubit as the ackstar of the day, with at least 2 kills claimed when escaping in his 88 with no elevators (and finally landed on the strip alive!). Toad polluted ch100 during the ju88 attack. ;-) We decidedly didn't climb over the airstart altitude to give VVS fighters a chance to spot and intercept us. No risk no fun. ;-)

After this guys thought "hmmmm lets capture it". Most rolled F20 with Ju52s trying to sneak behind front lines and enter F19 from behind. One Ju88 was rolled from F17 to check damage and bomb acks. Toad had excellent time bouncing 6 Ju52s in Yak-9, but had only 50% ammo.

	The buss flight is sneaking behind the enemy lines, however -toad- gets lucky and spots us. During a quick and fierce battle we loose two of the six Ju's and Toad looses contact on us.

Good thing he didn't see all of the Ju52s :-) Recon Ju88 reported all targets up in 19 and proceeded into bombing them. Ju52s entered F19 NOE from east, and jabos hit target at the same time. F19 was promptly captured. Special <S> to the Ju52 pilots who hold their nerves and position after managing to escape VVS fighters and patiently waiting permission to hit F19.

After this ICE made a trademark combined NOE jabo/Ju52 attack from F21 to F22. No resistance, quick job. At this time there was major VVS bomber attack to Paris, unfortunately all were shot down when we got over there.

At this point ratios were very bad for VVS. Most ICEs left, rest moved to VVS. More combats followed with the special moment near F28, when JG3 bounced us in Yak-9s. Now, so THAT'S how it feels, when you got well flown Focke Wulfs on you. Note specially, well flown. The Icebreakers FOcke Wulf specialist Kruger (-krug-) commented after being asked for expert's opinion "boys did it the right way." <S> JG3.

Sunny day in 1940, European Micro Scenario (EMC) 8, Frame 2. Finnish mixed squadron in the skies of Britain in Wednesday 19.08.1999. Finnish volunteer pilots were grouped together by Grendel to fly Me-110C fighters in fighter and jabo missions. But, what happened?

Luftwaffe commander, Vadr: - "Finns rule!" (during scenario), "Compliment your fine pilots for me, what an Outstanding job they did! !" and "Grendl and his Icebreakers certainly did far more than I asked or expected of them." Grendel corrected this that it was not the Icebreakers squadron but a collection of Finns even though many of us just happened to be from the Icebreakers.

Scenario CM, apex-d makes a summary and here are the bits about us: - "Luftwaffe focus however was on gaining air superiority, with a concentrated effort of light 110s employed in the air-to-air role and 109s hitting a numerically inferior spitfire force and causing significant casualties there.", - "110s time and again attacked Tangmere and southern coast radars. After that fighting started to get quieter as both sides withdrew after a long and hard day fighting the unfriendly skies over England." and - "An interesting point is the success of the 110s in the air-to-air role, which were responsible for a good part of the LW victories, nearly on par with the numerically superior 109s, while at the same time serving as a fighter bomber - impressive performance, Zerstörer!"

Now, WHAT did actually happen? Why all sides flood the "Überfinnsperkele" with surprising praise? Hell, dunno. But it appears the Finnish squadron did its job.

The squadron organization: Schwarm 1: Finair Huba Salomo, Schwarm 2: Matson Jarz Kivi Koko, Schwarm 3: Grendel Modo and Schwarm 4: Korva Ok Stubit. S1 was composed of Crasher's Club pilots, S2 had Crasher's Club, Crows and freelancers and S3/S4 were Icebreakers. CO Grendel, XO Matson.

The missions: Finnish squadron operated Bf-110C fighters, as Luftwaffe Gruppe II. 1st mission: Simulate an escorted bomber strike on F9. Engage and destroy all enemy fighters encountered. Escorted by 109 group. 2nd mission: Reload with bombs and attack the (cencored) Radar Stations. 3rd mission: Freie jagd.

First mission. The takeoff was somewhat delayed as two guys still had trouble getting into squad or assignment to a scwarm but the CO finally had to "bugger it, ROLL" telling the two guys to follow as soon as they can. The group met escorting 109s, Gruppe I, in the right point and proceeded into following the plan. There was trouble with following plan exactly as planned, though, as the 110 CO Grendel started experiencing severe keyboard locks. So the turn to v270 into Britain was delayed a bit, and again just during the turn when Gren was checking map KB froze again, locking G into map screen. Earlier when climbing a sudden joystick jolt had almost crashed Grendel's 110 so it really didn't start too well.

But finally the formation was ok. Schwarm 4 was tasked with high alt cover while other three proceeded forward. And then, the moment came. DOTS, AHEAD, HIGH. HURRICANES. ATTACK! And combat begun. Our 110s were holding our own and while there naturally was a lot of trouble, we felt being in control. Then, HIGH DOTS. SPITFIRES. A command is given: OUT; SOUTH. 110s begin a fighting retreat with repeated commands of heading southwards. Then, bless them, the escorting 109s bounce Spits & Hurris with altitude advantage. 110s get a bit more space and withdraw south. Fuel is getting low. Very low. Southward withdrawal is occasionally interrupted as some of the 110 pilots cannot continue running south and need help.

Combat is mostly over, with pilots either going RTB to 12, or if low fuel to 10, while three 110s are heavily engaged by three Hurricanes. BUT the 110 pilots are old hands. One Hurricane goes down. 3vs2. Fly, withdraw, turn, boom, shoot, out, check, drag, dive, in, shoot, out. Second Hurricane goes down. 3vs1. But the third Hurri is tough. He is purely on defensive. 110s go in, out, full speed, not giving him a shooting chance but he dances and twists. He is hit time after time, his Hurricane is all holed with mg and cannon shell holes, but he's not giving up. The big dance finally ends when a 109 schwarm joins and wastes his engine. All three 110s land to F10, two of them making deadstick landings turn engines screaming for even a sip of fuel.

Second mission. Into Britain. Load bombs. Climb. Gruppe II climbs into altitude over France and is pretty confused about what's going where. Fearing Ju88s are already getting into zone where radars are supposed to be busted the group goes in with less altitude than ordered. Some confusion reigns about targets, "now is this the target? Where is the target? Hey, I'm bombing the WRONG target!" and so on. It goes pretty smoothly after all. There is no opposition in <CENCORED>, radar is busted with few well placed bombs and everyone continues to <CENCORED> to make sure it goes down. A jolly good sightseeing.

There's air combat raging over and around target but 110s scream in. Second target takes more hitting than first but there it goes. Withdrawal order is sounded. 110s run east, towards home and find themselves in middle of "lots of enemy." Enemies in front, up and behind. Err. RUN RUN RUN. Leading 110s climb and clear those who are tailing formation. Group continues towards safe area, some fighting happens, maybe some kills too, while 110s who still have heavy ordnance drop them into Dover harbour claiming at least one ship. After group has cleared all enemies it climbs over channel and return into raging air combat near Britain's coast. Some kills, some losses. RTB order is sounded when fuel is about 20%.

Third mission, freie jags. Group climbs into 5 km and heads into enemy territory. An attempt to escort Ju-88s home is made but Jus get over channel when we manage to intercept them. Some air combat is done but as enemies seem to have enough Luftwaffe we turn away. Group continues towards general London area and few 109s join the group. Few false alarms, Luftwaffe seems to own the sky as all cons are friendly.

THEN... MANY CONS, 2CLOCK LOW, INVESTIGATING, sounds Grendel's voice. 110s follow. SUSPECTED ENEMY. 100% WEP. Slight turning right, heading in north. Group follows. ENEMY. THEIR VECTOR EAST. Group continues a shallow right turn, nose down, speed up, into the enemy's six. SPITFIRES. YESYESYESYESYES. Spitfires start a gentle right turn, then break turn, giving amazingly beautiful sight of whole Spitfire group bleeding their E and giving perfect 90degree deflection shots. PENDELUM TACTICS screams Grendel with lots of other tactical babble following.

RAF Commander, Pyton: - "Most of the 110 victories went to Überfinns perkele, it was especially dishearting to hear the destruction of the only Spit flight by 110s".

Only two Spitfires managed to escape. There was not a single 110 loss. At times some of the guys were seen in trouble, especially the 'newer' guys, but wingmannin worked well and we got them out. Then Gruppe II regrouped and started to RTB. But it was not over yet. Enemies suddenly entered scene, to our group's high six. Full speed retreat was ordered, then INTO COMBAT. Combat raged but it was again pretty equal, with our 110s gaining upper hand. EXCEPT, Joch, bloody Joch. A low level combat developed just above the waves, one of the last fights. Joch's mate was shot down but he continued fighting very stubbornly. Result, two dead 110s, Joch going home. Other loss was a lucky PK in HO (bummer, bloody Hurricane with its puny guns beat my 20mms), other a maneuver kill. General retreat had been sounded earlier, now final RTB was ordered.

A 109 Pilot tells about his 3rd sortie on which he happened to fly near/with us. Snipped the 110 bits: "Next take-off, and it was just Swavek and myself. We came across a large group of 110's and flew with them for awhile, searching for the enemy. Four Spitfires (Grendel's note: more, more, at least 6 Spitfies, could have been 6-8) were spotted low at our 3 o'clock, over the mouth of the river Thames. A furious dogfight followed, Grendl cleared my tail once, and eventually Swavek and I got separated from the 110's."

...later... "I happened across some 110's low, tackling with a lone Hurricane over the channel just off Calais. I joined the fray; this Hurricane was no beginner, shooting and dodging although hopelessly outnumbered and low on the deck. After a couple of passes I was too exhausted and low on ammunition to continue the fight. All but one of the 110's had disengaged, too. The single remaining 110 crashed into the waves and I left for home, waving the brave Hurricane goodbye." Grendel's note: that was Joch the bastard.

Squadron score gave 15 kills but only 14 can be counted here. Someone is missing kills now. Also, because some hassles early in the frame 2 guys were not in squadron so it could be that not all kills were on it. In total, the squadron score gave 15 kills, 18 assists vs 9 deaths. The official scores (http://www3.imagiconline.com/events/scoring/index.html) give 14 kills vs 13 deaths. The official EMC#8 Frame 2 debrief: http://www.cyberus.ca/~argo/agw/Forum5/HTML/000316.html.

Story written by Grendel VLeLv Icebreakers.

This is the VLeLv Icebreakers captured while implementing one of the secret field capture strategies in the arena. We are able to reviel this efficient tactics due to the changes in the are settings, the pictures were taken during the days when no structural damage was dmanded on the field, drunks in the tower were enough for a capture.

The Russian squad VVS challenged Icebreakers to a duel one nice Sunday evening. It took some time to arrange the things but finally rules had been made, date agreed and things proceeded. Icebreakers' numbers coming to the duel were slightly low so we opened the ranks for all interested Finnish pilots and managed to bring a good number of Finnish pilots to oppose our more numerous Russian opposition. Since we had agreed to roll with similar numbers some Russian pilots had to stay on ground on each frame, unfortunately.

PRE-FLIGHT RULES AND CONDITIONS FOR THE DUEL: Time: Saturday 27th March 1999, 21:00 GMT (23:00 Finnish time, 0:00 MSK), meeting at arena 15 minutes earlier CM: Flop Place: Dueling Arena, Mediterranean terrain Fields: ICE at Purple F12, VVS at Red F2 Arena settings: All planes enabled, killshooter off, SL icons, flak off, standard tower radar. CV stuck to some hellhole elsewhere. Planes: 1st frame: 109Gs (ICE) vs yak-3(33%), yak-9(33%) and p-39(33%) (VVS). 2nd frame: Both sides FM-2. 3rd frame: Any plane. 4th frame optional if people can still fly and are interested enough: Both sides B-25H - NO OTTO General: Both sides can use volunteer reinforcements if needed to get similar numbers. Simultaneous roll, similar numbers. All form and climb NE to sector crossing, then turn towards center of sector 4,3 to meet somewhere in middle. Weapons free at first sighting. Combat will happen in the dedicated sector between the takeoff fields. Planes who drift outside the sector -> out of fight, considered "forced landing". RTB on damage -> out of sector -> out of fight. No replaning. Slugfest till the end. Ditching allowed. No sitting in cockpit. Discoes, dumps considered on the spot and depending on the situation. Fair play. Overall rule single discoes bah, multiple ISP dumps allow to re-fly the frame if necessary. Winner: Winner is the last one with _planes up & operational_ in the combat sector. You fight for air supremacy. Plain and simple. Lenght: A frame is maximum 30 minutes. If planes still up at 30mins (huh!?) hostilities cease and winner is the side with more (operational) planes up.

Duel ended with 2:1 for VVS/Finns: Frame one was won by Finns, frame two by VVS, frame three again by VVS and the fourth unofficial frame by Finns.

There was a substantial difference between the two opposing sides. VVS were of one squad, therefore used to fly well together. Finnish pilots were a mixed group of different squads and single pilots. Finnish CO Grendel -=ICE=- tried to organize Finns a bit, with following manner:

Group 1 "high cover" (Icebreakers): Grendel + Modo, Stef + Korva. G1 will attempt to give high cover at all times

Group 2 "heavy metal dweebs" (Icebreakers): Kruger + Hex (Group 2 was supposed to have also Neck but his VISA just declined). G2 are heavy the guns

Group 3 "strike force bait": Salomo + PJK, Jarz + Kivi. G3 will bait/drag for G2, cover G2 & naturally kill as necessary.

Group 4: My + Tern + Huba

Killing is good but not main priority. Aim is to gain air supremacy. If enemy plane is smoking, damaged, going down or out, leave it, he's out of fight and no more factor, he's as good as dead. Don't try to finish enemy who's out of fight already, giving his mates possible shot at you.

Frame I

Finnish plan: Stay HIGH. HIGH. 109G has only one thing for it and it's climbing and high altitude performance. Therefore we climb initially as high as we can. And stay there. Don't get suckered into turnfight, don't go down. Use E tactics, zoom in shoot and climb out. Never turn! Wings/groups should cover each other, with one going down and second covering his pullout.

And what happened? For once, the plan worked like a charm. The two opposing forces met each other and engaged in furious combat with the Finns soon capturing the tactical initiative. Finnish CO Grendel used tactical comms and sent groups in at various times. Usually 2 or 3 groups were engaged with the rest climbing near or over the fight. Wingmannin worked well to the extreme. The very hard combat continued full 30 minutes until the bell rang. At that moment VVS had only Askas up in Yak9 while Finns had still 7 Bf 109 G-6s. There are no kill statistics, just Grendel's own note of making 2 kills and 2 assists.

Praise from opposition is the best praise. Boroda of the VVS says: "We made a brief tactical analysis right after, and admit that we need some lessons from you... You fly 109s much better then anyone else. We couldn't even imagine it's possible to fly 109 like that!!! You can't imagine how i felt after your decisive victory in Frame One!!! Great flying and tactics!!! You managed to start hi on our 6, and used all the 109G hi-alt performance! Please, tell all your teammates that we admire your pilot skills! (sorry for too many "!"s)"

Frame II

Finnish plan: Nifty. Similar planes. Need good section tactics. We try this: Group 3 goes in simulating HO at first contact, if enemy is more or less in one group. But NO HO, avoid, fly through, dont turn or engage. Group 2 is somewhat behind G3 and will attempt to shoot eager enemies who turn after G1. Group 1 is reserve, bit higher if possible and will then zoom in to clear G2. At this time G3 might be clear and will get OUT, reverse and check situation. Stay together. You don't have 6 view. You need friends. If possible I will give Group commands. Stay together. If things work out we might have always one group more or less clear and climbing. Try not to sucker into turnfight, instead drag, push through and then reverse, letting another group or your wing to keep you clear.

What happened? Well, the actual meeting happened as planned but nothing after that. Actually G1 went in first and got butchered since the backup groups got heavily engaged and did not follow in, leaving G1 to die on their own. VVS hit in very hard so planned drag'n'bait moved to drag'n'die. Very complete loss.

Combat started at around 6km alt and it was very one sided. G1 was forced lower and lower, yelling for the supposed backup group but everybody was already very engaged. Some bad decisions by invidual pilots were also witnessed but even after major dancing nothing helped: VVS just butchered us all!

The scorers: VVS: Afrosu, Slb, Ki, Pap, Afrosu, Slb, Dr, Boroda, Dr and Pap. Finns: Pjk. VVS total victory in 12 minutes.

Frame III

Finnish plan: Climb climb climb. Stay together. Section tactics rule. G2 will be the main killer force with G1 giving higher altitude cover. G3 are weapons free, stay near, try to stay with G2 and act as dragbaits. G2 are good pilots and especially Kruger is amazing FW shot. Try to drag for them. G1 will be altitude dweebs in 109K or Ki-84 or other plane good for high alt G2 will be pure Focke Wulf force. G3 have planes free. Don't know you guys so cant order your planes :)

And what happened? It was very balanced frame for a long time. Finnish force composed of mostly Ki-84s with G2 in FW Doras and some 109s & P51s mixed in. Combat started very evenly at about 8.5km and went on for quite some time. First casualty was Modo when Zuza zoomed in from a blind angle. Combat continued quite evenly until the Finnish side made a slight tactical blunder: FW section dragged out of the fight, and some of their cover group followed but were not able to catch. Because this VVS gained numerical superiority in main battle area and Finns started to fall down.

The FW group was intended as big killers because they fielded the best shooters of whole Finnish force. Only problem was that the SL icon settings were unfortunate surprise: the FW guys weren't used to them and couldn't actually hit about anything since judging distances by plane icons was new to them. Bugger. Still, it was rather long and intense and they did well. As it took 25 minutes to finish the combat

The scorers: VVS: Zuza, Pap, Afrosu, Zuza, Asp, Pap, Afrosu, Zuza, Afrosu and W-ind. Finns: Tern, Krug, Hex, My, My and Hex. Time: 25 minutes

Frame IV

This was extra 'fun' frame with pilots hopping to B-25H with Sir Otto turned off. VVS sent in single pilots to harass and scout our group but Finns stayed together and didn't fall to the trap VVS tried to setup. Didn't take up the result but seems Finns still had something like half of the force still up when last VVS B-25 went down. It was quite a sight to see lumbering 25s trying to cut inside nme turn, shooting rockets on HO merse and blasting with the huge 75mm cannon. Muahahhahaa.

Some afterwords

VVS showed excellent flying skills and group operations. And we can only admire how that one single pilot they always sent up as scout must have felt. Courage, huh.

Grendel: "Thanks! Was hellishly intense and big fun! I was so filled with adrenaline that even 3 hours later when I went to sleep it took some 1 1/2 hours before I actually managed to sleep ;-)"

Boroda: "Me too :) Had to sleep a while with my head on the keyboard... We had tons of fun!!! Thanks for a great duel!!! And thank you for a great duel! I am glad that we had such a duel, andwe were friendly to each other. Now we have a lot of things to remember together :) And I want to say that you are damn good pilots!"

Many Icebreakers took part in the Blitzkrieg campaign, flying the Me 109E, Ju-87 Stuka and Ju-52. We had some excellent combat and great happenings. Squadron BK ace was Grendel with 11 kills from 7 frames. 30 Jan 1300 we had a major 109 ICE flight on JG19.

Sat 1300 Feb 06. Luftwaffe commander Auger spoke following wise words: "Victory is at hand! Paris is ours and the English are in full retreat. Yesterday's bold attack on Marsden has shaken the English to their very core. All that remains of the BEF are a few isolated pockets of resistance. Saturday we will see those pockets destroyed."

There was big Finnish force up in the skies. JG28 had Modo, Grendel and Banzai flying 109s. And a whole Stuka flight consisted of Finns alone: Kaizu, Mobo, Hex, and Ibon from Icebreakers; Hubano, Oiva, Opj, Matson, Haukka and Tern from Crasher's Club.

Icebreakers strike on London - Historical Arena 02.05.1999

London left in flames. Parliament destroyed. British government puzzled. Operation Seelion launched.

The main arena was down several times in succcession resulting in major attendance in HA, which has Battle of Britain settings. Was major WTG. The standard channel F9<>F10 furball formed as usual but also some imaginative engagements and plans were seen.

Also several MA "dweebs" were seen complaining "why no planes are available". "Do you pay 2$ hour to sit in tower?". Hmm.

We decided to do some serious action. First a bit of furballing, then a plan. And London was calling! Icebreakers pulled a Junkers 88 raid into London, with two friendly 109 squadrons and several single pilots providing sweeps and escort. London was left behind in flames.

Bombers made two passes on the city, pulverizing it with heavy bombs and firebombs in two passes.

Whole London center was in flames! Big bombs and firebombs rained from the sky, spreading fires, fire department was helpless. Inhabitants raged about RAF inability to intercept incoming bombers. Stunned people were seen on the streets screaming "where is the RAF!" Remaining members of parliament and British war cabinet were still trying to recover from the shock when things got even worse: Operation Seelion was underway and German forces captured a foothold in British mainland!

Group landed with only 1 loss even after being engaged for most of the trip from feet dry on England. Few kills were reported as well as multiple assists.

Seems British had good spy intel all the time as it was reported that they had a formation waiting on 5km for our Ju88s, but the Junkerses proved their excellence. At 4 km altitude we pushed inwards throttles open and both own ICE and other escort fighters guarded our tails.

After safe return we went to escort a vStuka strike. Stukas had maybe made 1/3 of the way when first enemies bounced in. Close and sweep escort handled them quite ok but couldnt stop the enemies from hitting the unlucky slow bombers. Still, the raid was overall success as the target field defences were down and F7 was captured somewhat later. Operation Seelion was on!

Junkers 88 raid into London was almost like a mini-scenario, with both friendlies and enemies fighting hard around us.

One of the other squadrons acting in same theatre and Icebreakers' support was JG5 http://www.naysayers.com/jg5.html

We have taken liberty to quote their battle report:

JG5 gloriously takes British land and "casts a vote" in Parliment as London burns!
2 May, 1940 JG5 after Action Reports
Operation Irritate-the RAF
Operation JG5 Casts-a-Vote

Prelude: As the Icebreakers earlier in the day launched immensely destructive, harrassment raids in London, key air defense forces on the order of Winston himself were diverted away from the other fray around outer reaches of the Isles, leaving the LW with total air superiority.

Shocked by the brazen and effective attack of the Icebreakers, RAF defences were thrown into a debilitating "fog of war" as other Frei Jadg's took their toll on the now weaker, spreadout forces.

Later, Jg5 was further tasked with continuing the demoralization of the RAF, and mounted additional raids on London. The punishing raid by JG5 ju88's left the remainder of London burning, including destroying both spans of the London Bridge, several oil tanks and other assundry targets. (The normally professional Hptm. Crucible was overheard gleefully singing "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down..." and must be reprimanded for his breach of radio decorum.) As the last moment orders came through not to destroy Parliment, as this would deny the populace and government a proper meeting place to say "I refer the right honerable gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago" for hours, although the meaning of this statement is still being researched by OKW. At any rate, Jg5 did "cast a vote" by damaging the building with 50kg bombs, if only to make the previous activity there more dreadful than it apparently already is.

One of these missions is recounted at http://www.naysayers.com/martlesham.html

EMC5 saw the desparate battle of Luftwaffe remnants against marauding American medium bombers and fighters. But the Luftwaffe had something in its sleeve: jet fighters. In each scenario 12 Messerchmitt 262 jet fighters flew sorties against the American forces, with 4 (four!) Focke-Wulf 190 Doras trying to protect the jet bases.

The frames were desparate, hard battles. Special problem was that Allies cheated in first two frames. In frame I their bombers hit their target after scenario deadline. More distressing was that in next frame they completely ignored the scenario rules. Instead bombers they sent fighters after fighters. Grendel/ICE was acting as radar operator during whole frame. Grendel led his fighter groups well but the Allied cheating/onslaught was too much.

Things were completely different in the last frame. This time Allies were penalized and they were forced to play by the rules. Result was a great Luftwaffe victory! Several Icebreakers, Grendel / Kruger / Neck and other Finns flew either the Focke Wulfs or Me 262s. Many kills were scored and only a few losses, as the Luftwaffe flew very aggressive attacks, keeping home field clear and hitting bombers hard.

When frame end was reached the whole Luftwaffe was dancing and singing. It was a huge victory celebration. Unlike anything we had ever seen in Warbirds. Against impossible odds the impossible was done! Victory! Victory! Victory!

Returning fighter flew formation passes over the field and the tower. Men on ground cheered and prepared huge loads of beer for the pilots. The Luftwaffe observation corps girls were waiting on the plane parking area.

"Us" is the members of squadron Icebreakers there with support from other recruited Finns.

When frame was launched the group headed with gruppenkapitan Grendel in lead to west, then nw, then north in heavily laden 110s. Target was originally Portsmith port, but during the flying target was changed to Southhampton port, since it was more west, meaning the group could get nearer without radar dectection.

Standing orders were to do only fast bombing pass or two, and then WEP the hell out of the place to Cherbourg. Heavy ack shot down 3 of the planes. RAF reacted late as expected and was only able to chase the retreating planes. Shot down pilots climbed into lite 110s at F14 and headed NW to escort RTB pilots home. Remaining group was spotted with a horde of Spits in 6, gunners shooting. RTB escort 110s swooped in clearing the kamrades. Result would have been almost perfect if some green pilots hadn't allowed themselves to be drawn into battle, therefore forcing some of the vets turn back to help greenies out of the fight. This resulted in possibly 2 110 losses, both being green pilots. Veteran 110s mostly got back into mainland, RAF giving up the chase with honours.

After regrouping pilots moved into F10 and put again bombs into the 110s. Since some pilots were up elsewhere, escorting a buff raid I think or were up/loaded with fuel and heading to a battle, not as many pilots as in 1st strike got OTR. 110s headed west from F10, very low. Target was the port of Dover. Loitering RAF fighters were seen over F9, but they only reacted after seeing bombs fall away, explosions in the port. At this moment the jabos were already returning to mainland. Only casualty was the gruppenkapitan who fell victim to the accurate anti aircraftmen, leading the attack. Jabos retreated fast to mainland and were able to return with no casualties, except one escorting 110 who managed to rip wings off when clearing the 6 of one 110 jabo. At this moment RAF violated airspace rules, entering France mainland area.

Group was also attempting to escort Gatt's buff group otw F9, but due radio scrambling by the enemy a whole escorting squadron of 110s missed the Ju-88s. Fortunes of war, truly. Afterwards a surviving bomber pilot told seeing the escorting group to pass directly over the bombers but without noticing them. At this same moment Spitfires tore into the bombers, possibly shooting down many/all of them because lack of adequate escort. Therefore the 110 group changed into freie jagd, that was finally inconclusive in battle against RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes. No planes lost because some excellent wingman flying, but no sure confirmed kills.

Somewhat later a group of two Junkers 88 bombers crossed the canal coast over F14, heading towards Southhampton port (south), a factory and suspected fuel storage tanks. Escorted by 109s and 110s buffs made their way safely into target, escorts made a couple kills meanwhile keeping excellent care of the heavies. Bombs were dropped into targets. Results unknown. Other buff dumped, other returned safely. The raid lacked only in numbers - otherwise it was perfectly executed with RAF kept away from buffs using a combination of near&far escort and frei jagd in front of the buffs.

Note that Icebreakers had struck hard into RAF's radar stations in previous frame. Because this the RAF acted with greatly reduced radar coverage.

Official EMC news quote:

Fierce Fighting in Final Phase!

Fighting was indeed very hard in these last few days, in what was to become the final phase of the battle. Relying more on their heavy aircraft, the LW did severe damage to several harbour installations, Southampton * and Dover * harbours having an especially hard time. Other targets during the recent fighting were Manston and Martlesham airfields. Although Manston was again more or less completely destroyed, Martlesham seems to have suffered only light structural damage. Industrial installations near Reading * were also hit, with an oil refinery being the only total loss.

Current Aces
-stef- (5) (ICE)

Top Mud Movers
adavis (47519)
grendl (26218) (ICE)
-neck- (19804) (ICE)

ICE/Finnish actions are marked with * on the report.

...Then became time to partisipate F6 vulcing party, and plan is to secure red port againg and continue directly to F6. When we regroup and start to approach red port, we found this doomed red squad performing low level attact against F7. Here we found real power of flying relatively thight group, because we can throu our whole power immedeatly to they neck. This great victory 10:1 could be remebered long time!

--ok--

...On the right is the order of battle, where the purple flight "a" is a single ICE scout otw to port and the actual sq is the "b" line. At "a1" the scout spotted the low reds at "1" and noted the main force at "b1" with a radio. The scout proceeded maintaining visuals with reds to untill "a2" when the main group reached "b2" and all zoomed down to the reds at "2" jettisoning ordance and killing fish. The fite too place approx at location "3".

One red revealed the whole sq of reds by fying too high and showing colors (and icon). At first I thought it must be a purp sq coming back from the red harb. Another mistake by the red sq was turning all left in a nice formation that gave us zoomers plenty of nicely lined up tgts in a slow turn...

This was one of the highlights of my whole wb career and I do feel sorry for you lads who were not there this time... Too bad we were all too bz to take pics for the rest of you!

StuBit

This was amazing, damn you who weren't there!

We had rolled from F23 to the red port. There was 1 or 2 guys ahead already, others climbed to around 1-2 km alt and proceeded to the target area. Then scouts reported a bunch of low red planes. I got vis as well and proceeded nearer. One or two of them were too high for a moment which helped getting exact fix. Slightly dove then to investigate and recognized one F6F. Then got IDs of more of them, F6Fs and Corsairs. Jiihaa! IN IN IN!

Started diving to them and a killfest begun! Jettisoned my bomb (in FW A8), was going to zoom directly into the group but then noted a Corsair in low 10 which might have got a snapshot. Targeted him, pings but no serious damage, now didn't have as optimal zoom into the main group but what do you do... They were now jettisoning ordnance as well and I pushed through them WEPpin and getting hits on more of them, with one kill. Then I was through the group and other ICE were right now slicing into the red group's rear.

What a beautiful combat. We hit them with big E advantage, from high 6, reaping death! Too bad we lost one plane, but the result was still a lovely 10:1. They had no chance, nothing at all. Muahahhahaha. Feels still great. One of the best highlights of our Sq operations ever. Completely unexpected situation and everyone adjusted to it immediately and took full benefit. Jeh!

Grendl

At this time the temporary CO Grendel was trying to make a viable strategy for attack. Current purp empire situation didn't show any immediately good targets, since the planned takeoff fields were under heavy siege by the golds.

'Grendel, come on' was voiced on the squad channel. Multiple squadron buddies insisted on takeoff from F27 to hit F19. 'But the golds F17->F4 will butcher us!' 'Naaah, Grendel, don't be wussy' was the overall response. And so we went. The trademark Nap of Earth (tm) was done with excellent results. Gold formation overflew us, and finally we turned to west for F19 course.

"OOOooops" says Grendel here. You know, if you got too much speed when trying to fit into the runway, you SHOULD make a circle around the field first. And NOT try to force the bird into the runway. BOUNCYYYY! Look my, no engines, no rear fuselage!

At one point a lone P51 got a huge shock. He was lazily cruising at 10 feet altitude, sneaking into jabo attack to F4 or F21 I guess. And he plummeted head on to a Icebreakers Corsair formation, going exactly the same route to opposite direction. So low was the flying that hardly anyone managed to get a shot into the lone gold, and he wasn't willing to turn back to fight. Vili the FW Dweeb was told to get the P51, dunno it he got it.

Hum. Would you agree, if I would claim that Grendel has overshot the runway a little bit? And oh my, look at the engines. Hmm, and what does it say in the radio box? Another mission ended happily though. Look at the smiles of Grendel's resurrected crew. After closing gold mainfield F16 with Stef, Lart and Bex and actually landing alive you can really smile. Stef was also very surprised on the fact that he landed on a buff. Those guys are more dangerouns to their own crew than the enemy in buffs.

At this moment a chill came up, 'they know we're coming now' and truly, a number of golds were seen climbing to us. Note: climbing. We were pressing even more closely to the dear sea, and they din't notice us at all. Not until when our planes pulled Feet Dry into their screaming attack runs golds reacted at all. A last ditch defence attempt was seen, maybe 5, maybe more planes circling in the field and actually they managed to fend off the initial strike.

Something was left up, and guys either replaned and took off from much-less-under-siege-now F4 or continued keeping the golds down. The 2nd wave hadn't even arried when F19 was announced closed, and seems most guys were still OTR when the field was captured. All up'n'hvy pilots were immediately dispatched into the gold port, where 2 very outnumbered golds made valiant defence, managing to harass the incoming ICEs a bit and downing at least 1 of them, but eventually got shot down while port was steadily leveled.

Yesterday 20:00-22:00 CET the Icebreakers squadron (at about half-strenght with a dozen pilots online or so) swept over the godless red hordes like a steamroller on steroids. Capturing 10 red fields (one of them (F19) twice so make it 11), utterly flattened red port twice, sunk the frog CV that didn't have the decency to stay out from our way, and finally ended the war for the victory of glorious Purplandia, all within 2 hours, leaving everyone ample time to watch Babylon 5. Now is this a new record or something? Any idea how many reds were online during the time?

One quote from our highly esteemed and decorated CO (that's me <G>) pretty much sums it all up: "Bloody hell guys, leave me something too, you're wasting them way too fast". (I have a habit of taking off last in the formation to see everyone really is there - I also have a habit of augering a heavy Jug on takeoff on the first try and thus often get left a bit behind :)

Many thanks to those Purps who occasionally provided us backup and fighter cover. And mainly acting as involuntary decoys to keep them from noticing our jabo formations flying at 30 feet :)

-lark-

Pictures next to this story are captured on a different sq nite(s), the actual screen shots are still in the development department...

I wasn't online for too long - I frustrated at general purp efficiency, as almost all of them were "capping" a field which was wanted by +20 reds and +20 golds. I attacked F27 with someone who flew B25, and we managed to close that piece of runway. I even captured it after few flights, which was fun part for me:

I approached F27 at 2km (=~6000ft) with hvy A4. I noticed one spit protecting that closed field, and I decided to kill him and land. Well, I greeted him with bucketfull of 20mm candies, and he thanked me by weaving a loose wing. I was happy and thought that "heh, this is nice, piquenique at nme field". I pulled few barrels to kill the speed, and just as I got the gear and flaps out, I noticed spit and A4 approaching me a little higher than me.

Yup, my thoughts were something like "shitfuck, ants in my sandwich", as I knew that I was too low to ditch the ord without killing myself, and too slow to begin running. I knew I would be dead in seconds if I would pull up, so I decided to land. Spit and 190 worked themselves into position for strafing, and I began making turns immediately as I had touched the ground.

First to the left, spit turns and tracers follow me just like a star of action movie (the good guy, naturally). I turn right, and spit pulls hard right as he is really close now. I kick the plane back to direction where I was coming from, and spit and 190 make a "hard landing" in 30 degrees angle. Two manouver kills, wheels down. Plus field capture.

-Tuoppi-

Did I have a blast mission to nite. Great Fun! I took of with Bex, but we did not head for usual Red targets. We went to N from 22. Our target were Gold and Green planes that were fighting somewhere between 23 and 6. The purpose of this trip was to find targets and not to have 10 own guys chancing one enemy. Oh we came above Gold F4U formation and they did not see us. We just passed above and immediately dived below them..still no reaction. I closed to d3 of the last F4u and let it rip. As I saw the wing detach I switched a target and kill 2..Then it was time to dive to the deck..Great fun indeed.

-Zomb-

One of my most memorable personal events was definitely the time I was up in Dora, during 1.11 days, and reds had been pounding one of our fields.

I had some alt, not much tho, and I saw five reds coming in slightly lower altitude, in kinda spread out formation. I flew towarsd them, slightly to their side, and then sweeped in left turn behind the nearest reddie. Deflection burst, hits, kill. I sweeped from their left/backside from target to target, and only the last enemy even started any evasives, but it was too late. He was the only nme I thought that he wasn't damaged enough tuff in my pass, but then even he parachuted. Five kills in under 10 seconds.

One of the great highlights of my flying career, for sure.

Grendel

Picture captured on a different mission at WB version 2.0, still a Dora though...

ICEBREAKERS attended the Operation Steamroller which was organised by the OSF. To get the operation in the air we had to capture the starting field F16 back to purps! The operation took 10 heawy B17's from F16 to the frog main field F11 and back. This operation proved that 10 or so buffers really do not need any escort to survive. Read all about it from the Operation Steamroller page.

We first did the usual job from f28 --> f29, then tried to hit f29 --> f18 with intention of killing radar & acks and have a vulchparty but seems we're way too good since we accidentally captured it ;-)

Then a Me-262 attack from F16 to red port, cruising lazily at 750km/h through the map ;-) Killed the red port, and while I was planning sneak attack into gold's rear Necksetä kindly pointed out that reds are kinda good target now as their port was down. DOH! ;-)

So went f30 --> f3. Frogs were just attacking it too and we captured the field from under their noses. Boy they wre surely pissed! Frogs kept coming from f2 in force, and reds kept on intercepting them as well as punding f3. It was one hell of a circus! Meanwhile we kept doing our stuff on F1, bombing & strafing & vulching, and it was quite soon down except one or two structures that emulated invisibility very well and took a long time to find. Captured F1 finally then ;-) Tried then another Me262 attack from f1 to f2, but DOH no-one noticed f2 was med field just did air combat instead.

Had to leave then. At that moment purp empire had shrunk dramatically, reds had captured f19 and were killing the port, while green were advancing from east and golds from north. We did good, though.

The F1 capture was especially sweet ;-)

Grendel