Beating a Record

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Hi ppls I'm in the process of attempting to break the record of Germany's greatest ace of WW2, Erich Hartmann. By the end of the air war in Europe I have to shot down more than 352 enemy planes without getting shot down or being wounded. So far in seven missions I have shot down 26 russian planes. So does anyone else think I can do it by the end of the war, and does anyone else want to try?

[Dowly]

I smell an challenge.

Might aswell start a new Eastern Front campaign, havent played a Ger Vs. Rus campaign offline for a while.

Shall we use this thread for reporting our progress?

[Stealth Hunter]

I'll join.

Lang lebe Deutschland und der Reich!

[Dowly]

This gonna be a loooong way. First sortie behind me, 3 kills. Stopid engineers didnt approve my request to scrap the left wing and build a huge ammo storage to replace it.

[Stealth Hunter]

I'm getting ready to go on patrol now. IL2 is minimized ATM.

This is going to be a double post. The one below this one will detail my pilot's information and will simulate an arrival on the base.

[Fincuan]

I'm in too, and here's a reminder of just how enormous his achievement really was...

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II. During the course of his career Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.

... even though his first mission wasn't entirely succesful:

His early missions were severely lacking compared to what Hartmann was to become.
Hartmann's first battle was, to say the least, disastrous. Flying as wingman to feldvebel
Rossmann he first spoiled his leaders attack by going for the kill himself, and then mistook his
leader's Bf 109 for a Russian fighter and fled in panic. At the end of the flight he ran out of fuel
and crash landed, totaling his 109.

Here's an article on Hartmann: http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/pdf/ErichHartmann.pdf
Same in Finnish: http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/WW2...mannSuomi.html

[Stealth Hunter]

Jadgeschwader 1
Gruppe 1

1941

Commander: Oberstleutnant Ottfried Eichner

Pilot: Heinrich von Ostheim (photo attached below)
Date of Birth: 21 April 1915
Place of Birth: Alsfeld
Parents: Leopold (father) Kati (mother)
Siblings: n/a
Spouse: Cacille Octavia [Arbenhold] (1 February 1935; born 24 February 1917)

Date of Registration: 16 May 1933
Rank: Major (8 November 1940)
Citations: Iron Cross 2nd Class (29 March 1937)
Combat Experience: Yes (Spanish Civil War; 1936-1937)
Previous Units (as of 1 September 1939): n/a

[Dowly]

Sortie 2 (from now on, report after every third sortie, next from 6th)



Sorties: 2
Kills: 7

Oh yeh and difficulty/realism settings:

Everything on, expect no take offs and my plane's marker on map. AI on veteran, DCG generated Smolensk 1941 50+ plane campaign.

[Stealth Hunter]

Went on patrol. Bagged 4 MiG fighters and a Pe-8.

Sorties: 4
Kills: 20

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

up to 34 now!!

[Fincuan]

Finally got started on this. I'm running the DCG "Fighter pilot/Army group south" campaign, Kuban 1943, historical amounts of aircraft and +50 a/c. Other settings at default. All switches on except for icons and speedbar. My intent is to update this post as the career progresses

Sorties: 1
Kills: 3

1st sortie
Mission: Escort JU-88s on an airfield attack

We arrived over the target area a good 10 minutes before the bombers, and found it completely empty of enemy a/c. A flight of Lagg-3s was spotted flying past the area well below us, and the whole squadron promptly left the area to attack the Laggs. The inevitable happened: Three Laggs were quickly shot down(one by me), and when I was zooming back to altitude after my attack I witnessed how 11 BF109-G2s converged on the tail of the lonely remaining enemy, shoulder shooting and colliding on the way. Three of our aircraft went down(#1, 3 and 4 from my flight!), including a fellow called Erich Hartmann. We later learned he had baled out and was captured by the enemy

By now the bombers started arriving, and I could see dust kicking up at the target airbase when enemy fighters took off. I could also see several specks in the horizon towards the enemy's side, no doubt their reinforcements heading our way. I made one high speed pass on a Lagg scoring several hits but being unable to observe the results, then spotted a Mig-3 in level flight way above me, trailing black smoke. Whether he was blind, injured or already baled out I don't know, but I was able to approach to within 150 meters(my convergence) before sending him down with a quick burst. Immediately below me three Laggs were chasing a 109, so down I went in a vertical dive. Overshooting badly I was only able to break off the enemy closest to the 109, but the two others finished the job while I was coming around for a second pass. While calling for help I struck the leading Lagg again, this time sawing off a wing. Now it was two against one, and with my E advantage I was able to keep the enemy off my tail while making slashing attacks at both of them. I scored several hits while the enemy scored none, but after a few minutes of this I was out of cannon shells, low on fuel, and almost directly above one of their airbases. Nose down towards friendly territory, throttle to max and the Laggs were quickly left behind. I made it back to homebase with a couple of liters of fuel remaining.

Debriefing showed that our squadron lost five 109s and their pilots while shooting down nine enemies. Four Ju-88s also succumbed to enemy fire, but only after having dropped their bombs. The target airbase suffered serious damage, but wasn't put entirely out of action. All in all a pretty costly mission.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

I'll join.

Lang lebe Deutschland und der Reich!

DAS Reich.

I know, I know.... I am a smartass.:rotfl:

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

So how is everyone doing so far with this? At the moment I've got 65 Russian planes to my credit,one parked plane, four tanks, three trains, one trainstation, and I don't know how many trucks.

[TheBrauerHour]

Wow man, leave some for the other guys to kill!

You may kill an even 1,000 at this rate.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Calm down mate!! I'm only shooting down 3 to 5 Russian planes in a mission. The max amount of planes I shot down in one mission was in mission 16 on 9/7/41. I shot down 7 russian planes. So I'm only shooting down the average amount of planes at a real pilot of the day would.