21th August 1940 - 5th Campaign Game

Following the previous days intense fighting, four replacement Hurricanes are rushed to the Squadron. Working late into the night, the artificers are able to return two planes from the workshop.
Pilot Officer Devlin and Sgt. Kirchner are returned to the squadron.

The squadron has now accounted for 4 Ju88, 12 Me110 and 1 Bf109.

The current organisation is:


“A” Flight
Red Section
Red 1: F/Lt Clarke -Veteran - 4 kills
Red 2: P/O Jacobs - Regular - 1 kill
Red 3: P/O Orwell (Die Hard) - Regular - 0 kills
Yellow Section
Yellow 1: P/O Gatewood  (Jonah) - Jnr Ace - 8 kills
Yellow 2: P/O Patterson (Villainous Swine) - Sprog - 0 kills
Yellow 3: Sgt. Kirchner - Regular - 0 kills
“B” Flight
Blue Section
Blue 1: F/O Boggs - Top Ace - 10 kills
Blue 2: Sgt Carradine (Glory Hunter) - Top Ace - 11 kills
Blue 3: P/O Grant - Sprog - 0 kills
Green Section
Green 1: P/O Devlin - Top Ace - 11 kills
Green 2: Sgt Graham - Regular - 2 kills
Green 3: P/O Murphy - Regular - 0 kills

Non flying:

P/O Widmark (Wounded) - Sprog - 0 kills
P/O Hood - Sprog - 0 kills
S/Ldr Cartier (Wounded) - Veteran - 4 kills



B' flight is scrambled to intercept a stream of enemy bombers inbound to attack airfields inland. However while attempting to gain height are bounced by three schwarm of Bf109 at 9000ft.

68 Sqdn has previously suffered at the hands of the more maneuverable Bf110, but with three Aces up their sleeve, what was to happen this time.

Greg and Ben played 68 Sqdn while I was the Hun.

In secret I rolled up the twelve Hun pilots. 1 Schwarm was led by a veteran, but his section pilots were two sprogs and a regular. 2 Schwarm was one veteran, two regulars and a sprog while 3 Schwarm was even worse, a veteran led three sprogs. If this was a Flying Circus we knew where all the clowns were.

Maybe 68 Sqdn would have a good change against these fellows who were obviously out on a training exercise.

Despite being outnumbered 2:1 the RAF seemed to be everywhere.

Blue section led by Flying Officer Boggs who bagged two of the Bf109 in short order.  Sgt Carradine caused terrible damage to another Bf109 whose pilot coaxes it back to France where most others would have crashed in the channel, however, Carradine jams his guns in the process and has little other effect. Pilot Officer Grant died after a pair of Bf109 chased him down to ground level and his plane exploded on impact without him bailing out.

Green section accounted for another two Bf109 shot down by Pilot Officer Devlin and another claimed as damaged. Sgt Graham and Pilot Officer Murphy put up a good show but fail to Bag any Hun for themselves.

The five surviving aircraft return to Middle Wallop and no more sorties will take place today.

The three aces made a huge difference against the lack-luster German pilots. Pilot Officer Devlin is now on 13 kills.

68 Squadron has now  accounted for 4 Ju88, 12 Me110 and 5 Bf109 shot down for a loss of 9 Hurricanes, this could be the tide of the Battle of Britain turning.

The games was played out at Maelstrom Games on 10th January 2012 and was my first wargame of the year.