homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

As I began mining those golden nuggets from page 2 of the original HWH thread, something became crystal clear to me that had been a total mystery before...no it was not why Dux listens to country music... it was something else. I had noticed that on page one there were posts in which other stories were eluded to that were not showing up in my search. Titles of my own stories were mentioned, stories by the great Greif1 were mentioned. Where were they? Turns out that before SNAFU started this thread many of us were already posting stories on the main forum page. I had forgotten doing that.

Fortunately, many of those stories were eventually moved to HWH so we'll have those. Some must have been lost however. At any rate, I've finished editing and saving the stories from page 2. There were some delightful stories by Bader, SNAFU and in addition, some others who seem to have never posted again. Page 2 boasts the first time that our German pal Greif1 posted his very first HWH story. His grandfather had been a celebrated Luftwaffe pilot with 20 victories as I recall. Many of Greif1's stories reflect his grandfather's real war-time experiences.

Grief1 had spent a few years in the US growing up in the south so his English was perfect. He drifted away from us for a long time and then, not long ago, he popped back in for a short spell. He wrote a very interesting biography of his Grandfather's war-time adventures in several chapters before once again skiing over some beautiful Bavarian slope and out of sight. We miss his well written posts from the German perspective.

Alas until today all his original stories were lost. I am delighted therefore to say that we have them now and they will not be lost again. Here then is the very first posted story of Greif1.

Happy Easter readers.

Detached Escort
By: Greif1
Original HWH
Page 2
5/12/01

Combat Diary 29 July 40

After a few quiet days we are once again preparing to cross the coast while escorting yet another Gruppe of Stukas. I now have six victories and have also felt both the terror of being shot down and the cold waters of the English Channel. Today the sky is about 5/10ths covered with cumulus clouds. There is a layer of haze between 1000 and 500 meters that makes things difficult to see when looking through it. It is 1445 hours and the burns brightly where it is not obscured by clouds.

My Gruppe flies as Detached Escort above and behind the bombers, and I watch what appears to be a swarm of bees in front of and below me - the rest of the escort and the Stukas. The coast slides by beneath us as we maintain formation at 4000 meters. 30 seconds have passed since we left the coast behind when the first contact reports are heard over the radio. It appears that at least 40 British fighters have been spotted. It will be very busy in a few minutes.

I order my Gruppe to increase throttle to 90% boost and turn slightly south to position the sun behind us. After a minute or two I spot a large engagement to my right front, about 5 kilometers away. The bombers have bombed and turned away, racing for home. I want to dive into the melee, but I must ensure the bomber's safety. The Stukas have suffered heavy losses whenever Hurricanes or Spitfires have found them alone. I continue to fly towards England watching both the bombers and huge dogfight.

Finally I am forced to curve around back East in order to maintain a watch over the Stukas. As I do, I spot several enemy machines closing on the bombers. I call a spotting report to my comrades and order everyone to go to maximum boost. It will be close, but I think we can hit the British formation before they get to the bombers. My airspeed increases rapidly as I dive downwards. I have selected the rightmost enemy, a Spitfire, as my target.

There is no time to curve behind my target - my preferred position, and I will have to take a 45% deflection shot. The Spitfire grows larger in my windscreen, and I kick some right rudder to swing my nose in front of the enemy bird. I open fire at 100 meters and four lines of tracer reach towards the Spitfire. Two of the lines pass harmlessly in front of the machine, but the other two strike just behind the engine, knocking pieces from the plane. I ease off on my rudder and all four lines converge into the Spitfire.

More pieces tear away and he begins to stream a thin trail of either white smoke or vaporized fuel. Suddenly, the canopy slides back and the pilots leaps over the side. I zoom climb and do not witness his parachute descent. Below I spot another Spitfire and dive curving to the right to line up on him. Once again the range closes as the Spitfire begins to loom in my windscreen. As I am about to squeeze the trigger, the enemy machine banks away sharply to the left. I have been seen! I continue to dive for a short distance and pull up sharply while rolling to the left in a High yo-yo in an attempt to cut off the Spitfire's curve.

As I begin to drop down, the Spitfire banks right giving me a 90% deflection shot at high speed. I fire a quick burst which misses badly behind. I roll back right and climb again while watching my enemy. He rolls into a sharp turn back towards me and climbs. I kick right rudder allowing my nose to fall to the right towards my opponent. We both fire a short burst then flash past each other less then 15 meters apart! I continue to dive for about 500 meters then enter a climbing right-hand turn.

I reacquire my enemy as he is completing his own right-hand turn putting him at roughly my 7 o'clock, 800 meters away. I continue to climb and notice I am pulling away slightly. At 3000 meters with the distance now about 1000 meters I stomp my left rudder while pushing my stick left and down turning sharply left and down. Once again, the Spitfire and I fly towards one and another. We both open fire a couple of a hundred meters away from each other and again neither one of us hits. It is obvious this fellow is no novice.

If we continue as we have been this fight will eventually degrade into a turning battle. I know from previous experience turning with a Spitfire is not a wise thing to do while flying a 109. I decide to break off the engagement and continue to dive toward the sea. I pass through the haze layer and pull out of my dive heading towards the French coast. I check frequently behind me, but the sky is empty.

Shortly after re-crossing the coast I let down and land on my own airfield. I file my claim and find out two other pilots claimed Spitfires also. We also had two pilots shot down. One was pulled from the channel and will return to duty shortly. The other man died in his Emil. I replay my last dogfight with my English opponent in my mind. He was indeed a very excellent flyer. Tonight, I shall drink a toast to him with my dinner wine.