Beating the odds, exciting survival stories
 

The forum has been a little slow in between updates...anybody have a good story of returning to base, and beating the odds.:)

It's not terrifically harrowing in terms of contact with the enemy, but I think I beat the odds on this one simply because I was so far away from friendly territory AND managed to land it safely while looking around the cockpit and not having the gear pump mapped to a keyboard key (now I do :P ).

From the No.401 Squadron flight log book:

DATE OF FLIGHT: Midday, Feb 12, 2012
AIRCRAFT FLOWN: YO-X BW801
APPROXIMATE DURATION OF FLIGHT: 30 minutes
LEADER OF FLIGHT: Pilot Officer Wolverine
DESCRIPTION OF FLIGHT EVENTS: Took off from Manston airfield with Leading Aircraftman Elvis and proceeded on a South West patrol of the English coastline towards Folkstone. Upon arrival at Folkstone, re-vectored towards the French point.

Reached the French point at 12,000 ft and took flak damage to the engine such that I was bleeding oil slowly. Immediately turned flight command over to LAC Elvis and turned towards England. Set trim for gliding and shut the engine down to prevent further damage.

Returned to the English coast under no engine power. At 1,000 ft I turned westward to line up an emergency landing on the beach below the cliffs west of Dover. Landing gear was non-operative due to lack of oil pressure requiring manual deployment using the hand pump. Unable to use the hand pump and look out of the canopy at the same time, so alternated between pumping the gear down and looking for safe landing location.

On the verge of a stall for the final 500ft, I managed to get one of the wheels down and locked while lining up my final landing. Holding the plane as steady as I could, I returned to cranking the gear down and the final strut locked into place 10ft above the ground before I leveled out and put the Hurricane in the sand.

Let the plane roll out safely and came to a stop on three wheels, no further damage.

Engine inoperative.

Exactly the type of story I was looking for, well done!...my fondest memories from the Il-2 years are all similar, having damage and making it home.:)

Against the odds
 

So you wanted a story, I'll give you a story of survival that actually occured to me (I'll tell another one if you don't like this one).

One day, I decided to try take my BF 109 on a secret mission to take the British radar off the air and gain a major victory for the Luftwaffe all by my self. I ordered my ground crew to load the best ammo that I could get as well as a standard 250-kilo bomb in utter secrecy. After all preparations were properly made, I decided to implant a minor distraction so that I could leave without being disturbed on my solo flight. I lighted a small brush fire in the field nearby to my airfield. I then reported that to my commander who quickly order the fire fighting crews to go deal with that. I then hastily made my way to my BF 109 and started the engine as fast as humanly possible. Then came the crucial 2 minute warm up period were I would most likely get caught but somehow wasn't. I was then able to take off in the stealthliest manner that I could.

After making my way to the English Channel, I then plotted my route on a tiny pocket map that I had of the region. After arriving over the English Channel, I descended to wavetop height. I was so close to the deck that I saw some water spray on top of my wing and I was worried that some random wave would pull me down into the depths of the eternal blue. Somehow I was able to do so and saw the menacing Cliffs of Dover stare down at me. I proceeded to ascend about ten meters at this point to be able to be a bit more secure. When I was about one kilometer from the coastline, I rose up to approximately one-hundred and fifty meters to have a better diving attack. Flak slowly started to pile up around me as I grew closer to the station. It didn't matter to me if I died right then at the moment but I somehow survived. I then armed my bomb and then I released. After releasing the bomb, I broke away from the radar station and started to head back home.

As the impending bomb explosion was to occur, I looked back in hopes of watching it go down in flames. As I was watching the explosion start, an explosion occured directly to the right of me, throwing my head around in the cockpit and nearly knocking me out. Once I settled down after that, I noticed that my aircraft was trying to spiral out and then I saw it. I had loss about a meter off of my right wing but somehow I was still flying. I then made it on the perilous journey home, hoping that no British fighters would spot me. I would occasionally see a glint of metal in the distance but nothing came close to me, thankfully. I after a hair-raising 10 minutes, made landfall over the sanctuary of France.

I then had one of three choices to make. A: Bail out and hope for the best and not have a faulty parachute. B: Find a random airbase and try land on it. C: Find my home base and hope for the best. I then and there decided to try for option C at first but realized that I was leaking fuel and settled on option B. I found a suitable airbase and then lined up for a landing. As I was landing, a gust of wind caught me and forced me to crash land. I was knocked out from the force of the spinning in the cockpit only to wake up the next day in a field hospital with a major headache.


Hope you enjoyed the story. I know it left you hanging but I can do another one that continues on this one for next week so I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, right?

A difficult RTB.

My tipical Blenhein flights in ATAG's server follows the green lines in this map:

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/5801/map1a.jpg

One day I decide try a long range flight, hunting for german trains.

Entering through the France "back door". No FLAK in this spot.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/1998/48215316.jpg

Low flight over (empty) railroads.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/3618/24109048.jpg

After about ~20 minutes of flight, the "CGI" report a train next to Le Guines. At momment I am too far, near to Rely Norrent Fontes, so change path for North.

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8176/map2or.jpg

This region - next to Calais - is populated with active Luftwaffe bases with heavy FLAK. With a eye on a 109 climbing up ahead, I notice a white smoke between trees.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9281/55407141.jpg

The German traim!

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8494/90500332.jpg

Turn, lined up, and delivered the "milk cans".

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/4489/13262332.jpg

So, the rear gunner report some aircraft parts flying away...

To mantain "level" flight, 45 degrees of left yoke became necessary.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2540/54026819.jpg

I fly straight to England, but on route, a Minensuchoot...

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9021/43516548.jpg

With a difficult right turn I passed him.

Over England, north of Dover, a turn to left toward Lympse - my departure base, but this course put me near Hawkinge - "The vultures land".

Soon I see FLAK over this base and two strafing vultures.

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5747/76358464.jpg
The dot below AAA burst is diving a 109.

I go for the deck, near tree tops, and try pass unnoticed, but soon Batfink ;) report a DB engine sound...

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/8642/bato.jpg

I did a hard left break turn at low speed.. get some hits, started leaking fluids, and fortunately the 109 lost contact.

Then carefully approached Lympse, align, lower flaps, wheels.

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/1770/28828277.jpg

But touch too fast and Blenheim exceeded the runway... in front elevated rails... I jump over there and a small stream... and go for a tree lines - yes, a virtual ones, but fancied they were "real" and hit the gear lever... the Blenheim cartwheeling and stop in a cloud of dust.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4650/a91sj.jpg

Good emoctions for a ~1 hour of flight. :)

Sokol1

We have him now boys!

LOL

He's in a blenhiem a slightly strong breeze would have him... That said I know a certain someone who would dogfighting in one and shot down two 109's LMAO

This 109 ran to France - with some holes in backside:

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/1351/33885667.jpg

And this one, end in a fireball, in middle a potato planting - a maneuver kill:

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1...noeverkill.jpg

:)

Sokol1

Threads dead...lets hear that other story:-P



Funny!

My Story Resumed
 

I was in the hospital for about two weeks before I was better again. When I finally got out, I was told by my squadron leader that I had been transferred to the Stuka squadron on a nearby airfield. When I arrived there, the squadron was having dinner. One brave pilot, upon my arrival, stood up and said "Welcome commander, I hope you enjoy your time here." I at once thought about why was I their commander. It turned out my little "stunt" had caused me to get leadership of the squadron.

The next morning I woke up early to plan a strike on some British Tankers. I called in to the commander of my former squadron residence and ask him to see if he could offer escort. He at once agreed to such and I then got my squadron up for the briefing. I had planned out the mission such that we would circle up to about 3500 meters and our fighters would escort at 4000 meters.

Pretty quickly we all were in the air and then we started our slow pace to the the needed height. When then soon headed off towards our target. After making it about halfway across the channel, we then were promptly attacked by some hurricanes. Our kind escort took care of them but we lost two Stukas in the process.

Nothing more eventful occured until the first flak burst appeared, scaring the daylights out of my gunner. As we approached on our targets we split off, each of us targeting an individual ship. Our success that day was about 50% accuracy and I scored a direct hit on one of the tankers that made it nearly go flying. Our gaggle of aircraft then began our trip home. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flight of Spitfires approaching on us, growing increasingly larger by the second.
To be continued...

Please note that all of my stories are from missions that I have flown online but some things are changed (Like the size of the flights) but it is only done so to improve the story's quality and some stories were from multiple flights (You'll better understand it in part 2 of this story)