My first trip up in one of those new fangled Spit Vbs, I was escorting Lusthawk on a wave skimming run to torp some destroyers. Or a submarine. Or a freighter. Probably the first big floaty thing we ran across, truth be told. Fyl_maboots, Reco, Pedro and Fatal were also with us providing additional escort. Lusthawk hadn't used torps before, but his long experience at infiltrating enemy turf paid off when he wisely decided to approach the target area from anywhere other than directly into mouth of Le Touquet harbor. We looped around inland and approached from behind, avoiding the worst of the AA. This was all for naught, since the alleged floaty things had moved on.

Lusthawk flipped a mental coin and decided we should turn south down the coast toward Abbeville Harbor. Targets acquired. Another good call by Lusthawk! A couple of freighters and at least one destroyer held position in the bay. Under heavy fire, Lusthawk missed his run and got shot down by the destroyer. Pedro got hit and bailed out. Reco took a hit and was leaking fuel but was still airworthy. We survivors turned tail and ran.

Fyl_maboots was a few klicks behind us, barely out of the harbor, when Fatal_Error's eagle eyes spotted two 109s right on top of Fyl. Fyl dodged effectively as we turned to engage. Fatal got one. I got the other. Side note: Fatal came out of nowhere and almost flew into my bullet stream. This irritated him for some reason. Don't know what he was barking about. Damn guy almost ruined my shot!

Headed back toward home we were all near empty. Fatal's eagle eyes once again spotted a pair of nearby 109s which we dispatched. We once again turned toward the cliffs of Beachyhead.

I ran out of fuel at angels 8 as I crossed from sea to land. From Beachyhead I deadsticked my way to Wilmington Field where I came in too hot and flipped my Spit Vb onto its back. A bad landing at the end of an unsuccessful escort mission.

The other three survivors made it home safely. I assume they landed better than I did.

Final Result:

One Wellington and one Vb lost to destroyer fire along with their pilots.
Four 109's shot down.
No target floaty thingies sunk.
Pissed off ground crew at my ungraceful landing.
Mission unsuccessful.
A few beers doesn't muddle Fatal's vision whatsoever.
Cannons ROCK!!! Watch out, Jerry we's comin' for ya!