GMT-West October 2009 DIF Event

GMT-West October 2009 DIF Event Debriefing Report

Here is the DIF recap and results:

A total of 24 participants (with 3 rookie players) at various times took part in 45 aerial matches from Thursday-to-Sunday. Although there were times when the DIF table was not busy, 7 missions were played on Thursday, 13 on Friday, 21 on Saturday, and 4 on Sunday. During the 4-days, the Allied Air Forces defeated the Axis Air Forces, 23-to-13 with 9 ties, with a combined score of 931-to-843. The Allied Air Forces shot down 91 fighters and 9 medium bombers (100 aircraft). The Axis Air Forces shot down 79 fighters, 4 light bombers, 6 medium bombers and 6 heavy bombers (95 aircraft). Total loses for all belligerents were 170 fighters, 4 light bombers, 21 medium bombers, and 6 heavy bombers shot down. The lost rate per mission for fighters was 35% and the lost rate for bombers was 24%.

Missions by Campaigns Theaters:

North Africa Front Summer '41 - 2 missions with the RAF defeating the Regia Aeronautica (Italy), 2-0 and outscoring the Italians 20-to-5
North Africa Front Winter '41 - 8 missions with the RAF and the Germans & their Italian allies fighting to a stalemate, 3-3-2 with the RAF outscoring the Axis, 178-to-173
West Front '43 - 10 missions with the US 8th AF and the RAF defeating the Luftwaffe, 7-2-1, with the US 8th AF and the RAF outscoring the Luftwaffe 410-to-318
West Front '44 - 1 mission with the Luftwaffe over the RAF, 1-0, with the Luftwaffe outscoring the RAF 12-to-7
East Front '43 - 10 missions with the Luftwaffe over the VVS, 4-5-1, with the Luftwaffe out scoring the Soviets 240-to-196
Pacific '42 - 8 missions with the 5th AF defeating the Japanese Navy, 5-1-2, with the Americans outscoring the IJN 72-to-44
Pacific '43 - 2 missions with the 5th AF defeating the Japanese Navy, 2-0, with the Americans outscoring the IJN 22-to-15

HIGHS, LOWS & MEDIUM ITEMS:

Rachel Billingsley became the first RAF Spitfire Mark 9 ace when her RAF pilot, Reggie Butler shot down 3 Luftwaffe aircraft for a total of 5 kills
Luke Billingsley became the second RAF Spitfire Mark 9 ace when his RAF pilot, Roger Armstrong, shot down a total of 6 Luftwaffe aircraft (8 career). Luke's Roger Armstrong also had the highest total of kills by 1 pilot for the weekend with 6.
Jim Jones had a good week: in 13 missions he shot down 13 aircraft and was shot down only twice
There were 8 new aces created with 1 of the new aces being lost soon.
Chris LeFevre lost 2 of his previous aces, including the second P-51 Mustang ace and the sixth Italian ace created in the Aces Campaigns
In the 1943 Western Front Campaigns, the Luftwaffe's Bf-109G6/R6 (Kanonenboot) flew in 3 missions and lost all 8 fighters without shooting down any Allied planes. Since the plane was introduced in the Fighter pack, in the 38 missions of the DIF campaigns covering 88 sorties, the Kanonenboot has a loss rate of 56.8% (55 of 88) for only 27 kills (16 heavy bombers and 9 fighters).
In the 1943 Western Front Campaigns, the RAF's Spitfire Mk. IX flew in 5 missions and surprising shot down 13 Luftwaffe fighters while only losing 2 Spitfires
Newcomer Joel Toppen in his only mission, his Yak-9 element was quickly eliminated by turn 3. His 3 other Soviet partners assigned him the worst element for that mission. It is hoped that this does not discourage Joel from participating in future DIF missions and that he'll be assigned better planes.
One the most humorous happenings occurred during the first round of the team tournament in the match between the father/daughter team of Gene and Rachel Billingsley and the Phil Bradley/Jim Jones team. On the first turn, Gene did a classic "Boom and Zoom" tactic, by diving down to medium on his diving phase and then playing a 'Vertical Roll' to dive to low altitude. Only he thought everyone else was at low, not at medium, and forgot to shoot at the enemy.
Dave Lanphear stated in his earlier AAR that Nick Markevich gets ready to earn another ACE tee-shirt, maybe even I helped him? Well, Dave, you were shot down only 3 times by Nick (out of 14 times you were shot down) so you only helped Markevich with 3 of his 25 kills (12%). It wasn't as bad as it first seemed. :-)

SPECIAL BOMBER MISSIONS:

No special bomber mission was run this weekend.

TEAM DOUBLES TOURNAMENT:

For the second year in a row, the finals took 5 games to decide the winners between the #5 seeded team of Mike Lam/Martin Scott and the #6 seeded team of Phil Bradley/Jim Jones. The first round matched 1 element each of US 5th AF P-40E and P-40Fs vs. Imperial Japanese Navy element of A6M3 and A6M5s. Both teams split the first match up, with the Lam/Scott Americans winning 12-to-10 while Bradley/Jones also won as the Americans 10-to-5. Round two had RAF Gladiators going against Italian CR.42 Falcos. Bradley/Jones with the RAF easily won game 3 10-to-0. In game 4 Bradley/Jones lead 5-to-0 after 3 turns but using teamwork, on turn 4 Scott shot down Bradley's wingman to tie it at 5-to-5 but at tie would give the title to Bradly/Jones. On turn 5 Lam shot down Bradley's leader to tie the series at 2 apiece. The deciding 5th game was a match up between a pair of Spitfire Mk. XIVs vs. a pair of Fw-190Ds. Having scored the higher points during the 4 games, 35-to-25, the Bradley/Jones team chose the better Spitfires with the turbo ability and started at Very High altitude. The Lam/Scott team chose to wait for the Spitfires at medium altitude. Then battle frenzy got the better of Phil Bradley, and he dove down twice to medium to engage the Luftwaffe. On Lam's first turn he blew up Bradley's wingman, and then eliminated Bradley's leader on turn 3. It took Jim Jones two turns to reach medium altitude and by that time he was on his own. Jones retreated to high and very high and manage to blow up Martin Scott's leader on turn 5, and damage another German but it wasn't enough as Mike and Martin won the fifth and deciding game, 12-to-7.

As part of the winning team, Martin Scott won a copy of the book, "Flying Aces" by James H. Kitchens & Bernard C. Nalty.

Congratulations to Martin Scott and Mike Lam in their first championship since first teaming up since 2002. Martin and Mike will return and pair up again in the team doubles tournament as the #1 seed at the October 2010 GMT-Weekend.

The first round was a 1942 Pacific match up between the US 5th AF vs. the Imperial Japanese Navy. Each dogfight consisted of 2 elements P-40E Warhawks vs. 1 elements each of A6M2 (Zeke) and A6M2-N (Rufe). Only the top seeded team of Markevich/Ryder advanced to the semi-finals. and they had to beat the 8th seeded team of Luke Billingsley/Dave Wesner in three games. The other top 3 seeded teams all lost in 2 games in their first round matches.

The semi-finals was a 1944 Eastern Front match up between 1 element of P-63A (King Cobra) and La-7 vs. 2 elements Fw-190Fs. Team #6 of Phil Bradley/Jim Jones defeated team #7 of David Lanphear/Rob Schroeder, 1 game to none with 1 tie. In the other semi-final match, team #5 of Mike Lam/Martin Scott also defeated the defending champions Markevich/Ryder, 1 game to none with 1 tie. In the deciding game with Markevich/Ryder team leading 7-to-2, Mike Lam on the last play of the match shot down Charles Ryder's Fw-190F, to tie the game at 7. Mike on the last turn only had a "2-burst, 2-Damage" card but needed 3 hits to shoot down the damaged Focke-Wulf. Because of the Heavy Cannon ability that allowed the P-63A to change any burst into a "2-burst, 3-damage" card, it was just enough to send Ryder's leader Down In Flames and sending the Lam/Scott team into the finals for the first time since 2005.

COMING THIS APRIL:
The campaigns will be the same as this weekend: The 1941 North Africa Front, the 1943 East Front, the 1943 West Front campaigns. There will be no 2-player team tournament -- the tournament will return in October. The special bomber mission is TBD at this time.

I hope all who participated had fun and a good time and I plan to continue the aerial mayhem at next April's GMT-West Weekend, scheduled for late April, 2010 in Hanford.

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