Battle of Britain: Saturday 13th July 17:30

 "Convoy codenamed Bread was attacked by Stukas and 109s. Green and Blue Sections arrived at the convoy just as the bombers were making their approach."

This game was based on an encounter which took place that day. At 17.30 twelve Stukas from II/StG 1 accompanied  nineteen ME 109s from II/JG 51 attacked a convoy at Dover.

The setup was simple with Green and Blue sections from 327 facing directly across from the Lutwaffe elements. Unlike the previous convoy battle the opposing forces were arranged on the long table edge only four feet from each other instead of six. So battle would be joined a lot more quickly. The convoy was arranged slightly closer to the British side.

The German Ace

327 had six aircraft:

• Green Section: Bourne (A), Jameson (F), Ball (H)
• Blue Section: Davis (D), Robson (X), Fraser (Y)

The Luftwaffe twelve, six Stukas (2 Aces, 4 Regular) and six Me 109s (1 Ace, 4 Regulars and 1 Rookie). 

Green on the left

The Luftwaffe line up

Turn 1 followed the usual Blood Red Skies routine with everybody trying to climb for advantage. The ME 109s tried to get ahead of the Stukas to engage the Hurricanes before they could close on the Stukas

Blue Section over convoy "Bread"

On turn 2 Fraser tried and failed to outmanoeuvre the German Ace. Nobody else was close enough to try anything. By the end of the round all fighters are in an advantaged state which means the Luftwaffe Ace will get to move first next round. 

Nothing much happening here

And straight away the Ace outmanoeuvred Fraser causing him to drop an advantage level and allowing the Ace's wingman to get in an attack. This was a head on attack which in BRS means the target gets a chance to fire back but on this occasion everybody missed.

The German fighters attacking Green Section manage to drag down Ball's advantage level. Meanwhile Blue Section burst through the Luftwaffe fighter shield delivering a boom chit on the way. This meant that Blue Section could go after the Stukas next round.

Blue Section on the cusp of a breakthrough

Turn 4 starts with everybody ganging up on Davis of Blue section with two 109's performing 180s to get on his tail and start shooting. Fortunately for Davis nobody hits partly as Davis plays the Hurricane's robust card lowering the number of attack dice.

The Germans clearly need some shooting practice, after failing to hit Davis they have two attacks on Green Section which again fail. Another 109 has a deflection shot which are hard to succeed in due to the large number of defence dice but finally the Luftwaffe inflict a boom chit on the RAF.

Fraser gets a couple of shots off on the 87s inflicting one boom chit. Bourne fires and then gets in on a Stuka's tail and fires again, neither are hits. Then the game turns against the bombers. Blue Section's Jameson fires on an already disadvantaged Ju87 which fails its save and Jameson has a kill. He then burns advantage to get on the tail of a second Stuka, let's off another burst and the second Stuka of the round goes down. 

Not the position a Stuka pilot wants to find themselves in 

This means the Stukas have more chits than engines and so will break off their attack at the end of the turn but before they go, one of the rear gunners puts a hit on the Hurris.

End of turn 4. The Stukas have been hit hard, the 109s are regrouping

The Stukas are gone, it's a straight dog fight. The two advantaged 109s move so they are now heading for the Hurricanes again. Everybody else is climbing or turning for position this turn with little firing until right at the end when Jameson outmanoeuvres the Rookie 109 and Bourne nips in and shoots him down! 

This time a 109 feels 327's guns

Turn 6 starts with the German ace immediately getting on Davis' tail but once more missing (an Ace? really?). 

A large dogfight ensues

There's a head-on exchange between a 109 and Bourne with the Luftwaffe pilot coming off worst. Jameson and Davis both manage to avoid the attention of a 109 as the Luftwaffe continue to demonstrate abysmal gunnery.

Turn 7 started with a head-on pass between Bourne and a 109, boom chit apiece.

Head-on attacks are effective but perilous for the attacker

One more and the 109s will exit. But just then the Luftwaffe start finding their marks. The Ace hits Davis and soon after two 109s manage to get hits on Jameson. Finally, another 109 gets a bead on Davis and suddenly a Hurricane is plummeting towards the channel.

Davis is shot down!

At the end of the round the 109s have 6 boom chits the RAF 7 meaning both sides will break off but its a very narrow Luftwaffe win.

"16 seconds of ammo doesn't last long and, guns empty, I opened the throttle and headed for the coast. I did notice Davis had managed to ditch, have to hope the convoy picked him up."