"Red section were flying over a convoy near Lyme Bay. Nothing much seemed to be happening until Collins spotted a flight of ME 110s vectoring in. Unfortunately they'd spotted the Hurris too and turned to meet them..."
On Saturday 13th July at about 15.00 Hurricanes of 238 and three Sptifires of 609 Squadrons encountered a large enemy raid over the Channel. The enemy formation included the first use of ME 110s in numbers during the battle which seemed as good a reason as any to introduce them to 327's Red Section.
The set up was simple, three versus three, no advantage both flights start facing each other.
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| Very straightforward set up |
Turns 1 and 2 went quickly with both flights hurtling towards each other and climbing to get advantage.
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| Nothing much has happened... except they are getting closer |
Turn 3 finally saw some action. The German flight leader outmaneuvered Fletcher-Hove who despite being the Squadron Leader for the Brits was the worst pilot on the board. Reynolds tried to return the compliment on the German but failed. Luckily for F-H neither of the other German pilots could manage to get in range for a shot!
There was a little shooting in Turn 4 and a few outmaneuver attempts but everything seemed to fail with my infamous dice 'magic' ensuring that the two flights made their first pass of each other without anybody accumulating a boom chit.
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| Turn 4 - a lot of graft for no returns |
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| Start Turn 5 |
Reynolds started Turn 5 by burning advantage to turn 180 degrees and then reducing the advantage level of one of the 110s. This left that 110 vulnerable to a very lucky deflection shot from Collins who not only gave the Luftwaffe their first boom chit but also (after the German pilot failed to roll a single 6 on 7 dice) shot it down.
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| Collins takes advantage |
Next turn started with the German leader having a good shot at Reynolds which missed. The remaining 110 wingman made no such mistake, playing a heavy hitter card his cannon shells battered into the Hurricane causing it to flip over and crash into the Channel!
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| Reynolds' sortie comes to an untimely end |
In Turn 7 F-H tries to avenge Reynolds and manages to cause a boom chit but this is saved. All others are trying to find a position from which to make an attack.
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| The C.O. manages to hit something! |
In what was the final turn F-H proved that the previous turn was no fluke inflicting two more boom chits on the 110s. Both are saved but the Luftwaffe had enough chits now to mean their morale was depleted and with no more shooting the Germans sped off towards France and safety.
"Hard to guage F-H's mood on landing. He grunted at the ground crew, grunted at the chaps in dispersal, found a phone and started grunting into that. I guess he was trying to find out if Reynolds had been picked up or not but he doesn't seem to be a sharer our C.O."
