GMT-West 2007 DIF Event Debriefing Report  

Here is the DIF recap and results:

A total of 25 participants (8 were brand new players to the campaigns) at various times took part playing in 32 aerial matches from Thursday-to-Sunday. The DIF table was moderately busy for all four days but there were a few moments where no missions were played at all. All in all, there were 6 missions on Thursday, 13 on Friday, 9 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. During the 4-days, a total of 151 fighters, 5 light bombers, 21 medium bombers, and 10 heavy bombers were shot down from all nations.

Missions by Campaigns Theaters:

• Western Desert '41 - 7 missions with the RAF over the Axis, 5-1-1
• Pacific '42 - 6 missions with Japan over the USA, 5-1
• East Front '43 - 11 missions with the Luftwaffe over the Soviet VVS, 8-3
• West Front '43 - 8 missions with the US 8th AF over the Luftwaffe, 8-2

Highlights:

• 14 new aces were created but 4 of the new aces were soon lost.
• Mark Dwerlkotte became the first person to win the new version of the Ace T-Shirts with his East Front Luftwaffe pilot, Hans Fritz.  His pilot was the highest scoring pilot with 8 kills during the weekend.
• Other players earning T-shirts for having one pilot with 5 kills: Nick Markevich, Dave Wesner, Kevin Melahn, Phil Bradley, Mark Yoshikawa, Gene Billingsley, Samantha Billingsley, and Mike Lam
• On the first day, Mark Dwerlkotte drew the "Exploding Fuel Tank" and "Ace Pilot" combo by one of his wingmen, blowing up the P-38J wingman belonging to newcomer Kim Beattie.
• On Saturday,  Dave Wesner, another first timer, scored a rare 4-kills on 1 mission by one of his RAF Western Desert Hurricane pilot.  During that mission, his pilot, Wallace 'Wally' Wells shot down 2 Bf-109Es, 1 MC.200 and 1 He-111H.  Dave also had his 1943 East Front German pilot, Karl Berger, scored 3 Soviet fighters, 2 LA-5FNs and 1 P-39N, for one mission.
• Nick Markevich's 1943 West Front Luftwaffe Fw-190A pilot, shot down 3 B-24J Liberators on one mission. That was the mission where the Luftwaffe scored a rare lopsided victory by shooting down ALL 5 US B-24s, along with 3 escorts, for a 117 to 22 win.
• Nick Markevich's 1942 Japanese 30-kill Zeke ace, Takeo Sushimi, added another 6 US fighters, 3 Curtiss P-40E Warhawks and 3 Grumman Wildcats to his career total.  Sushimi shot down 3 P-40 Warhawks on one mission on Friday, and duplicated that feat with 3 Wildcats on Saturday.
• Phil Bradley's 1942 Japanese pilot, Takashi Sada, also shot down 3 Wildcats on one mission
• Kevin Melahn's P-47 pilot, Milo Minderbender, shot down 3 Fw-190s on a single escort mission.  Two of his victims were Charles Ryder's pair of ace pilots, Karl Kitt and Wilhelm Katt, both from "Exploding Fuel Tank" attacks.  Minderbender became a victim of the "Exploding Fuel Tank" on his next mission, right after making ace.
• Gene Billingsley's 1943 West Front Luftwaffe pilot, Max v. Melnick, shot down 3 US escorts, 2 Lightnings and 1 Thunderbolt, on one mission.
• Gene managed to earn his ace shirt on the second-to-last mission on Sunday with his East Front Luftwaffe pilot, Maximilian Lucke.  And two turns later on the same mission, his new ace was killed from, what else?, another "Exploding Fuel Tank" attack.  His assailant? His 10-year old son, Luke.
• First time player, Paul Tevis, played in two mission.  Both times, both of his pair of pilots came home without being shot down.  Unfortunately, everyone who flew with Paul on those two missions, had all of their planes shot down.

The top ace of the weekend went to Mark Dwerlkotte with 8-kills by his East Front German Bf-109 pilot, Hans Fritz. Mark won the book "Luftwaffe Aces" by Franz Kurowski.

The top American P-47 8th AF ace belonged to Jesse Evans. His pilot, John Dough, claimed 5 Luftwaffe fighters. Jesse won the book "8th AF Aces". It should be noted Jesse achieved acehood without being shot down as we were using the new Campaign's rule that any US pilot shot down over Europe would be considered lost. Jesse also had the top 1941 RAF pilot, Clive Owen, with 3 kills, winning the book "Spitfire - Flying Legend" by John Dibbs & Tony Holmes.

The top 1941 Luftwaffe pilot belonged to Kevin's dad, Chris, with 4 kills by his pilot Santa Klaus (who knew that Father Christmas flew for the Germans?). Chris also had the top Russian pilot, Nikolai Pinchuk, a La-5FN pilot with 5 kills. Chris was also the top USAAF pilot in the 1944 Pacific campaign with his P-38 pilot, C.S. Bumslinger, scoring 4 kills.

Doug Sun's Imperial Japanese Army Ki-84-1a (Frank) pilot, Akima Toriyama, with 4-kills took home top honors in the 1944 Pacific campaign. Doug won the book "Aces of the Rising Sun: 1937-1945" by Henry Sakaida.

Honors for the top US P-40 pilot in the 1942 Pacific campaign was a 3-way tie between Martin Scott, Chris Lefevre, and Mike Lam with 2 A6M2 Zekes apiece.

SPECIAL BOMBER MISSIONS:

No special bomber mission was run this weekend.

TEAM DOUBLES TOURNAMENT:

There was no team tournament this event; the tournament will resume in October.

COMING THIS OCTOBER:

The 1941 Western Front and the 1944 Pacific campaigns will return.  Taking a rest will be the 1942 Pacific and the 1941 North Africa campaigns.  Also, if and when the North Africa campaign returns, the MC.200s will be phased out as they stood very little chance against the Hurricane-2B.  They will be replaced with the MC.202.  Also, Luftwaffe pilots who are aces that transfer to the 1941 NA campaign, will be allow to fly Bf-109Fs.

I hope all who participated had fun and a good time and I plan to continue the aerial mayhem at next year's GMT-West Weekend.
 

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