Chapter 10

Since the FAC had a lot to do under Ansa's strategy, she decided that an Eagle would be sacrificed as the FAC vehicle. Actually, her thinking now was for three squadrons of nine attack planes plus an FAC which could be used as an emergency backup in case of need. For the attack sweeps, Ansa wanted to use three flights of three planes attacking in echelon with the lead plane on the extreme left and each plane of the flight in line 20 meters behind and 20 meters to the right of the plane in front. That should give the observer the maximum field of fire without danger of shooting his mates. Adjustments would be made if they ever encountered airborne enemies.

Ansa would keep the spotter plane to be her master FAC and to do long range scouting. She was still the only fully qualified pilot for that plane, though she did have an apprentice pilot who could fly well enough for Ansa to devote her full attention to FAC duties when she had to. It wouldn't be long before Ansa felt that she could turn the plane over to her apprentice for full time flying.

There were seven Bustol camps within flying range of the new Eagles, so Ansa was busting a gut to go after them. She would take them on one at a time right now, since she did not have fully trained FACs that she trusted to handle the attacks by themselves. However, what better way to train an FAC that to have her actually go on a mission and act the part while under close supervision?

Ansa set up her first mission for two days hence. Her plan was to take one squadron of Eagles and an Eagle FAC which Ansa would fly and have her apprentice FAC in the observer's seat directing the maneuvers. They needed a little time to get used to each other, so she took her most experienced crews in squadron #1, Alpha Squadron, aloft to run some practice sweeps over the shooting range.

The ten Eagles took off and headed for the range. It was really a very short flight, so most of the flying time was spent in gaining altitude. Once they got to three klicks up, Ansa turned the operation over to the apprentice FAC. Ansa had already carefully explained what she wanted the FAC to do, so this was the woman's operation to manage. Ansa would interrupt only in case of a terrible screw up that was going to become a disaster. Otherwise, the apprentice FAC was on her own.

The practice attack started out with the first flight diving at maximum power at the target. The FAC directed the second flight in a bit later than Ansa thought was best, but she didn't say anything. The third flight was right on time, so there were no complaints there. Of course, the experienced crews made their sweeps with near perfection, so, overall, Ansa was happy with this drill. However, Ansa wanted to run through the practice several more times to make sure that everybody was meshing properly.

There was a problem with the next to the last run. The second flight got screwed up a little bit and the rightmost plane wandered too close to the plane on the left, but the FAC reacted quickly and brought the pilot back into position with no mishaps. Ansa praised her apprentice for her quick action, so the whole thing turned into a positive experience for all concerned. They made one more run to be sure that everybody was back on track, and they were, so Ansa ordered them back to base.

The next day, Ansa and the apprentice spotter pilot took that plane to do a quick scout of the route and the condition of the target camp to be sure that there would be no surprises. The spotter plane flew at five to six klicks altitude to make sure that they weren't spotted by the enemy on the ground.

There were some sophisticated instruments on the spotter plane, so they had no trouble spotting the enemy plane. Shit, this was an unpleasant surprise! The Bustol was flying at just over four klicks altitude and headed away from the camp. Ansa stayed at altitude and let the enemy continue until she was sure that it could not be seen from the camp. Once Ansa was confident that they could not be seen from the camp, she had her pilot make an attack run at the enemy.

Even though the spotter plane was not normally used in combat, it was equipped with four AA-12s with 32-round magazines fixed to fire forward. Plus, Ansa had her own AA-12 that she could use from the observer's seat. They got on the enemy's tail and dove at full speed at the other plane. The pilot began shooting explosive rounds from the two inner AA-12 mounts when they got to within 100 meters. They had a speed advantage over the enemy plane, so the pilot raked the enemy from tail to prop with fully automatic fire. The apprentice pilot was somewhat lucky, and fully half of the rounds she fired hit somewhere on the enemy plane.

Those explosive rounds tore gaping holes in the enemy undoubtedly before they even knew that they were under attack. About eight rounds were fired from each AA-12, they would know for sure when they landed from the evidence of the gun camera. Anyway, the plane was reduced to splinters by the time it hit the ground, and there was a very good chance that nobody back at the Bustol camp would ever know what had happened. No parachutes were seen, so anybody aboard the plan must have been killed.

Ansa had her pilot recover their lost altitude and continue the scouting mission. Ansa could not see any reason why they should not continue with the planned attack, so they took their photographs and returned to base.

The Eagles took off before dawn because they wanted to be sure of daylight when they returned to base, just in case of trouble. They didn't push it, but climbed to three klicks at a leisurely pace so that they would not consume more fuel than necessary. When they reached three klicks, FAC had them level off and fly in formation toward their target. It took three hours to get there at 55 KPH, so they were in orbiting flight over the camp and ready to attack with plenty of daylight before them.

The FAC ordered the attack just as she and the Eagles had practiced it, and the Eagles dove in at their customary 80 KPH. This camp was wider than could be covered by just three planes, so the second wave was directed to fly a bit to its right, instead of directly behind the previous wave. The third wave flew in the same manner, but to its left. Ansa and the apprentice saw immediately that this was not going to work as well as they had hoped. Ansa ordered them home immediately to re-plan the attack strategy.

Ansa took her Eagle back to three klicks altitude to make her photographs of the damage to the camp, but she could tell with her naked eye that this mission had not accomplished what they wanted. A target this size required more Eagles—there was just no denying that.

There was another camp of approximately the same size within range, so Ansa decided to attack this time with two squadrons, but with only one FAC. They spent a day practicing with the two squadrons coming in on their runs with six planes in echelon. This should give them enough width in their destruction pattern that only the three sweeps should be necessary. Well, they would find out in two days.

Ansa and her pilot took the spotter to look over the new target. Uh-oh! She could see that the Bustols were finally waking up and putting in more AAA. There were a few of the Bofors, but they would not be much of a bother unless they were electronically directed. What was more worrisome was the increased number of machine guns that Ansa could see. Oh, well, if the gunners were as inept as usual, they would probably not be a significant worry.

OK, time for a change in plans. Ansa decided to take all three squadrons and give Alpha Squadron the job of going in first and hitting those AAA installations. Then they would bring in the other two squadrons to make the normal type of attack. This was going to require two FACs, one for Alpha Squadron, and one for the combined Beta/Gamma Squadrons. It might take more than one day of practice to get all of this coordinated, so they had better get busy.