Time to take to the air again in IL-2 Series Korea with a very fun bomber intercept mission. I’m writing this as we approach the end of early access and the start of the full release cycle for the newest combat flight sim on the block. For today’s journal, I’m flying a North Korean MiG-15bis on a bomber intercept mission. Let’s have a look!

Time to intercept

With my F-80C career in shambles, I decided to start a new career running a North Korean MiG-15bis squadron. The first couple of missions were flown by other members of my squadron but for this bomber intercept I wanted to fly it for myself so out I went as lead of 10 MiG-15 interceptors.

Takeoff was at 10:05 and shortly thereafter I began climbing out of our base in North Korea with my wingmen in tow. Takeoff runs on the MiG-15 are long but once the speed starts to build, you really start to climb quickly.

This was a longer mission so the new time skip functionality kicked in automatically asking me if I wanted to skip to the intercept point. And “yes” that is very much what I wanted to do.

Now up at altitude and bearing in on the last projected location of the bombers, a gaggle of dots on the horizon let me know that we were right on track for intercept.

Using intercept speed and converting it to even more altitude, my MiG-15 soared higher into the sky above the B-29s and into position to begin attack runs.

While my wingmates made the first passes, I pounced at the next opportunity screaming in at high speed. The MiG-15 can gain a lot of speed in a dive so I throttled back and even dropped the air brakes out just to keep things under control. With just enough control authority to pull lead and also evade the target after my gun run, I made my first pass.

Smoke and flame poured out of the first B-29 taking repeated 37mm and 23mm hits.

I flew up and over with .50cal fire filling the sky directed at both me and my wingmen. Then I came back in again firing at a second B-29, it too poured smoke from the port side inner engine. Both B-29s fell away from the formation sporting serious damage.

I repeated this process twice more trying to preserve my ammo supply while landing hits on the enemy bombers. With all four having taking hits from either myself, my wingmen, or a combination of both, the mission was accomplished.

But the job wasn’t over yet. A swarm of angry F-86s were about trying to spoil the intercept and I decided to try and get one before returning to base.

For 8 minutes I chased after one F-86 or another trying to get close enough to make my very limited remaining 23mm cannon shells count (the 37mm was dry). Each time I’d get just close enough to make it count and the F-86 would pull into a tight turn… spoiling my opportunity for a shot.

I pulled in behind another F-86, felt I had a shot, and fired. My remaining 23mms appeared to fly past the jet without doing any damage.

But later I learned, and the track file revealed, that I had indeed hit one F-86 in the engine. He later crashed in the sea.

After action

Some minutes and some time skipping later, I was back home setting my MiG-15bis down for a relatively smooth landing, taxi and shut down.

The final tally? I got 3 B-29s and 1 F-86 while my wingmates shot down three other aircraft. A successful mission and a great example of some fun scenarios that Career mode can throw at you. Could I do with a few more B-29s in the formation? Yeah, I think I’d like to see that. But otherwise it was a good time and a good example of the kind of sortie that IL-2 Series is capable of.