I want to go back to a couple of IL-2 flights I did several weeks ago online. Some friends and I were on Combat Box flying the mighty Pe-2 planning our missions and striking targets. It’s an aircraft that most of us have flown in group battles on Combat Box and Tactical Air War over the years and it was fun to come back to. These kinds of missions can, however, be a challenge to fly and survive as these two stories will tell!

First strike

Setting up a strike mission with a team of pilots usually involves doing a little planning ahead of time. Once online on the Combat Box server and getting to grips with the scenario (and Eastern Front oriented mission on the Kuban map) we decided that we wanted to take out the Pe-2 on some dive bombing sorties. The first one ended up being the most exciting one so this is how it went!

With just two of us for the initial sortie, we got our aircraft airborne and climbed to altitude. The high cloud deck gave us a bit of cover from above but not a lot of cover from the few thousand meters below. Still, we climbed under the cloud ceiling and hoped for the best.

Our target was an industrial facility, marked on the map as lightly damaged, near the airfield at Anapa. As we approached, no enemy fighters were sighted and we made our attack run.

Approaching the target still at altitude, we waited until we were both nearly overhead and dove in. Each of us picking targets of opportunity within the industrial complex to attack. I took the sector nearest the coast and my wingmate took the land side of the facility.

Power back, dive brakes deployed and in we went!

Flak came up at us but it was ineffectual and we both released our bombs on target.

Success so far but our fortunes were about to turn!

The trouble with flying this attack profile is that once you’ve dropped your bombs and made quite a show of things with flak, tracer fire, and big fireballs… you suddenly become the target of opportunistic fighter defenses.

Reforming up together, we decided we’d hug the coast and avoid as much flak and attention as possible. I hoped that the bluffs along the coast here would shield us from view and make it harder for interception. That did mostly work as the enemy fighter cover struggled to spot us…. but one did.

Our first warning was when our AI gunners reported an enemy aircraft in range and began firing. We broke hard as a Fw190 opened up on us. My wingman was hit and I tried to engage the bandit with my guns failing initially to get around in time to get a shot off.

Turning out towards the sea, the Fw190 came around for another pass and we both pointed our forward guns at him in the hope of getting a lucky shot. The Pe-2’s forward firepower is limited but sometimes it can work and it almost did.

Firing at the attacking bandit, my wingmate was first up firing a few shots with little effect. Then it was my turn and I fired a couple of bursts in a head-on attack – a desperate move.

I fired and managed to land a couple of machine gun shots on his port-wing… but it wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile, his far superior firepower tore into my Pe-2 causing multiple fuel leaks, damaging my controls and making the Pe-2 difficult to handle.

My wingman fought valliently at this point too but was hit by 20mm fire and crashed into the sea.

Next up, it was my turn. My hopelessly damaged Pe-2 was hit in another attack and lit on fire. With seconds to spare, I climbed for altitude and bailed out.

Stirring up the hornet’s nest

Here’s where some bad planning on my part came in. I suggested we attack the same target! We’d already softened it up and we had more joining us with a hypothetical four ship Pe-2 flight instead of the two from before. We’d definitely get it done this time, right?

We set out from our base towards Anapa once again. Climbing up to the cloud deck. One of our four dropped back with a control assignment issue so we were down to just three for the strike.

We did have some friendly fighters along for the ride with a couple of La-5s that scouted ahead of the formation. Again, I was feeling confident with fighters and more firepower that we’d get the job done.

Unfortunately, we’d stirred up a hornet’s nest on the last strike and the Fw190s and Bf109s were hungry for more. Our fighters ran into trouble almost immediately and got bogged down fighting their fighters while another Fw190 broke through the screen and began attacking us.

With our gunners sounding the alarm, the group began evasive moves. One of our Pe-2s went down almost immediately in a hail of 20mm fire. My Pe-2 was hit and another wingman took damage too.

With a mess of fighters around us I dove for the deck together with my one remaining wingmate. We’d both sustained damage but were still flying.

The pursuing Fw190 broke off, busy with our fighters, while a Bf109 picked up my Pe-2 and made a couple of attacks. In one pass they pulled up directly infront and I sprayed with machine gun fire from the nose guns, causing damage, but not enough.

The Bf109 was joined by another and their combined firepower caused a serious fire. Doomed, I pressed on as I was just a few kilometers from the target while my wingmate dodged his own attackers just above and our fighters tried ineffectually to manage the swarm.

With my Pe-2 in flames, I managed to make the target releasing my bombs… before going down in a final burst of fire from a pursuing Bf109. It was over!

Lessons learned

It’s tough flying online sometimes. Even with loose coordination from escorting fighters and a small formation of attackers, we struggled to get through what was an overwhelming fighter defense. Sometimes you can make it successfully and sometimes you just get overwhelmed.

In the first instance we were a little unlucky that single Fw190 managed to spot us. We gave a good fight of it but without the ability to run and with no available fighters nearby, we ultimately lost out. In the second instance, we probably ran into a trap of our own making having made the first strike and causing the target hungry Bf109s and Fw190s to come looking for us. Our better organized and superior numbers were pale in comparison to what we faced.

In retrospect, we should have switched targets and hit something else to keep them guessing but this was the closest target and we had a far larger force on the second go around.

Still, flying together with friends in multiplayer is fun no matter what happens. Even when your planning goes wrong! And it feels a little bit nostalgic to earlier group flights that I couldn’t resist writing about it.