Checking out some DCS WWII action these days and I wanted to share a sortie from a few days ago that I flew with Requiem from the Air Combat Tutorial Library. We took the DCS: P-47D Thunderbolt out onto the Storm of War server flying a rather long transit over the channel and into a target area. Here’s the story!

Departing

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We started our journey at Funtington airfield. Located near Portsmouth on the southern coast of England, this was the only location available in that scenario where the P-47’s were available with bombs and rockets. And that’s what we wanted as our target was the rail yard at Carentan, Normandy.

We taxied to our designated runway and then gingerly took off with our fully loaded and almost fully fueled P-47’s. Under our wings were a pair of 500lb bombs, M8 Bazooka rocket tubes and a fuel tank under the fuselage for good measure.

Before long we were climbing through 10,000 feet.

At this point I was fumbling with the oxygen system (in-case we needed to climb higher) and the fuel system making sure I was ready for the inevitable switchover to the main tank from my belly tank. Later, I would mess this up anyways.

Enroute

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Our transit across the channel took longer than I expected. I’ve not flown over the channel very much in any sim recently and I had forgotten just how big a body of water it is.

Thick multi-layer clouds provided some obstacles but also cover for our ingress to target. The radio channel via SRS crackled to life as a group of Allied fighters engaged an approximately even number of bandits over Normandy near Caen. None appeared to be near our target area so we continued on.

Using the canal that leads right into Carentan, we turned onto our final course for target. Bombs were armed, fuel tanks dropped and we got ourselves ready for combat. Of course I made two mistakes and forgot to hit one of the bomb arming controls and I forgot to switch tanks before dropping the fuel tank so I had a brief moment of panic as I switched to main.

On target

Arriving over Carentan we both swooped in. I pressed the bomb release button but looking behind me I spotted no indication of any bombs going off. I made that right on the second pass with a pair of bombs dropped inside the target area. I’m not sure if I actually hit something critical but it felt good.

Next up were the rockets with I loosed in a single diving volley destroying an APC or armored car.

Requiem and I then continued to press the attack with .50cals strafing and setting fire to several light vehicles.

Before long, the whole target area was ablaze and we were out of bullets.

We had a brief scare when control reported via radio that a bandit was heading into our area but we weren’t able to spot it before a pair of Mustang’s engaged and successfully destroyed the intruding fighter. Nice job folks! They also took a pass at us but thankfully retreated when they learned that we were Thunderbolts and not Focke Wulf’s.

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Home again

Finally, Requiem and I headed home. Light damage to our wings from light flak but otherwise undamaged. Our final tally was 12 ground kills for Requiem and 7 for me. A while later we were low on fuel, devoid of any remaining weaponry and ready to land and we were fortunately where we wanted to be – back at the base.

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All in all, a good sortie. It was a bit long but it was fun and let us experience the P-47 to the full extent of its operation. From managing the fuel tanks to working with the three types of armament that the aircraft can carry, we really put the Thunderbolt through it’s paces.

I’m sure we’ll be doing something similar with the Mosquito before too long!

You can check out the whole sortie on Requiem’s Twitch stream right here.