Chapter 11

OK, it's now worked out. The ground crew came up with a set of mounts that would let the pilot change ammunition drums in the AA-12s without having to move around too much in his seat. The bigger problem was working out how to store the drums so that the pilot could reach them without being a contortionist. However, they came up with that solution, too, so it looked to me like we were in business. We were anxious to have our fighters fly their first cover mission.

Training the fighter pilots was something of a problem in that they had no one else to practice against. Ansa and I hoped that this would not be a fatal problem.

The bombers were still termed the Eagles, but we decided to call the fighters the Hawks. The Hawks were now different enough from Eagles that they deserved a separate designation. Both sets of pilots liked the change, so everybody was happy.

The next five attacks against Bustol camps was done without fighter cover, but Ansa was afraid to push her luck any further than that. Raid number six in this series was covered with a squadron of Hawks. This pushed extra work onto the FACs, since they were responsible for directing the Eagles and the Hawks. Ansa would need to gather some experience with this arrangement before she could freeze the organization details. We would just have to wait and see.

Ansa had proved to be downright psychic with her prediction of needing Hawks on this mission. She sent 10 Hawks to cover 30 Eagles. The Bustols had finally found a way to warn of the approach by our planes, because four ultra light bogeys were just taking off as our first echelon made its initial attack.

The bogeys were spotted by our FAC and the Hawks were called in to attack. Two flights of Hawks, a leader and a wingman, were called in to dive on the bogeys and to try to knock them out. The remaining six Hawks were left at altitude because it took so long for a Hawk to climb back to three klicks altitude. Ansa didn't dare have all of her fighter cover down low in case other bogeys showed up. She had to remember that this fight was also a training exercise for everybody from Ansa on down.

The bogeys climbed to one klick before the Hawks could catch them, and there was no chance of complete surprise. Because of the long dive, the Hawks had a significant speed advantage over the still climbing bogeys. The Hawks roared in at close to 90 KPH, flying up behind the bogeys going approximately 50 KPH. The bogeys were flying in the same style of two flights of two planes, each, as were the Hawks. The first echelon of Hawks caught up to the bogeys and started firing their XP rounds on full automatic. Some unsung genius had manage to modify the ammunition so that each fourth round was functioning as a tracer round.

The tracer function made aiming a hell of a lot easier under the frantic demands of air combat. An XP round hit the lead bogey at the wing root right over the pilot and exploded just as it was supposed to. The ultra light seemed to fold up and to fall like a rock. No parachute was seen, so the pilot must have been a victim of the explosion.

The leader's wingman fired at his target without as much luck. He achieved no hits and zoomed passed the bogey as he started to wrestle for altitude. Unfortunately, this caused him to slow down so that the bogey, which was now behind his attacker started firing at the Hawk. The bogey was also using tracers, and he managed to score some hits on the Hawk's right wing. These were the same light machine gun bullets that the Bustol infantry used. It appeared that the bogeys carried only two of the machine guns, so they were going to have to be very accurate to do much good.

The Hawk pilot had been doing a lot of practice in aerobatics, so he sideslipped as soon as he realized that he was catching bullets. He fell off on his left wing and rotated 180 degrees so that he was pointing at the bogey who had just shot at him. This time, the Hawk pilot was a lot luckier and managed to put three explosive rounds into the bogey before they had passed each other. That was enough to reduce the bogey to splinters, so he, too, had his first kill.

Unfortunately, the next bogey in line was lucky, too. The leader let fly with what might have been his entire load of ammunition, since he just kept firing until his guns seized up. The bogey pilot kicked his rudder back and forth, trying to get a good hit on the Hawk. Finally, he connected, and put bullets through the Hawk pilot's lungs. The Hawk pilot reported what had happened before he was able to get lined up properly to ram head on into his opponent. The Hawk pilot now had two bogeys to his credit, but he would never score another one!

There was now only one bogey left and three Hawks to go after it. Ansa was flying in the observer position in her spotter plane, so she had a good view of the first air-to-air combat on Inglet. She broke in on the FAC frequency and ordered the first Hawk to get the hell out of the way, since the two diving Hawks were in a much better position to take care of the last remaining bogey. Reluctantly, the Hawk did move out of the way, and the two Hawks roared in to attack the bogey. All the bogey could do was run, since he could not land with the full attack going on by the bombers.

The two Hawks had such a speed advantage resulting from the long dive that they had no trouble catching the fleeing bogey. The leader put a short burst of explosive rounds into the bogey, and that was the end of the first fighter mission, with a kill ratio of 4 to 1.

The Eagles had come in using their now familiar tactics: three flights of 10 planes, each. With nothing but feeble AAA fire, there was no real resistance to the Eagles, and they wiped out the camp pretty much as they had done the others. Of course, there was never 100% kills of the people on the ground, so word would get back to Bustol of the fate of their first attempt at an aerial defense. Surely, next time, they would have both better equipment and better tactics.

There was a celebration back at Karak for the successful mission, but there was also mourning for the lost pilot. Hasup put in a requisition for a replacement Eagle, and Ansa started her search for another fighter pilot. Despite the death of the pilot, there was no dearth of volunteers for the open position.

Meanwhile, Ansa studied the debriefing reports from the other pilots and came to the conclusion that they were not ready to engage in low altitude dogfights with the bogeys. ISDF pilots might well be superior to the Bustols, but she doubted it. They had to confine their dogfights to higher altitudes where they had no choice, but at low level, they had to depend on the speed advantage they held when they dove from altitude. The fighter pilots were ordered to make a single diving pass at the enemy and then burn fuel getting away in horizontal flight until they could safely start their climb for a comfortable altitude.

Ansa made up a set of contingency plans for every combination of relative positions of Hawks and bogeys. She had the FACs study the plans and wanted them to order the most appropriate tactic. The FACs were also to note which tactics seemed to work and which didn't. That was the only way they were going to make progress in developing their tactics. Of course, the fighter pilots had to study the tactics and practice them until they became second nature.

The next four raids did not produce any bogeys, but Ansa sent Hawks anyway. The fifth raid came with a change in tactics by the Bustols. There was a flock of bogeys orbiting the camp at about 2,500 meters. Was this their service ceiling? Ansa hoped so.

The ISDF Air Force approached at three clicks, their usual practice, so they were above the defending bogeys. The FAC wisely had them also orbit the Bustol camp while the Hawks dealt with the bogeys. Ansa thought that they were going to be able to build up speed by diving, but they would probably wind up engaging in some dogfighting.

The plan of attack was for the one squadron to dive through the bogeys and keep going down for about one click before leveling off and running in horizontal flight until they could safely regain altitude. Another squadron was to dive to the same altitude as the bogeys and attack them head on. Hopefully, this would keep the bogeys bunched so that they would be easier to find. The third squadron was going to orbit the battle, ready to dive in to relieve anyone in trouble.