Well, well… congratulations to Evan for getting me excited enough to play some solo Bag the Hun. For the record, it’s not for lack of want, just lack of time. That said when I wrote this I had just come back from a 3 day gaming marathon at Evan’s house. Amongst our marathon was our usual Bag the Hun foray. This year we decided to start this campaign to keep my tiny plane fever (TPF) running hot. The day after I got home I rolled out the aerial gaming mat and played my first solo game of Bag the Hun. My 4 year old daughter tagged along, doing the majority of the dice rolling for me. When the dice stayed on the table she was rolling hot…

Evan and I shot a few texts back and forth and we landed on a “Bounce” mission. As a note, this is my first narrative Bag the Hun battle report. As there are only a few characters I went a little more in depth with the combat narration.

The pilots and air wings are from the campaign we assembled and rolled up using Squadron Forward. Evan’s Luftwaffe JG 69 is a tough group of motivated pilots. Fittingly, my VVS 420th Air Regiment (yes we chose the unit numbers for the laughs) is a pretty scraggly bunch flying in outdated planes. Funny enough Evan rolled almost all positive pilot traits and I rolled almost all negative. June 1941 may be a tough month for the 420th… At this point a retroactive Chapter One mission report may happen, but who knows.

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Skies over Southern Moldavia

June 26th, 1941 0715 hours Local

Luftwaffe Leutnant Johann Schulte wanted fame and glory. Luckily for him he had a fearless but maybe naive wingman, Leutnant Albert Handke, along for this sweep. Even though they were at war with the Soviet Union for less than a week Schulte found patrols boring. He overheard other pilots speaking of virtually undefended Soviet airfields in their squadron’s area of operations. The rumor going around was that Soviet aircraft were vulnerable during take off and were easy pickings for a high performance machine such as his BF109.

He radioed his commanding officer Olt. Jakob Mandl and reported a possible bogey in the distance. Johann requested to “check something out.” Mendl gave his blessing for the pursuit and Johann and Albert broke off their dawn patrol route. Johann figured this “blessing” was his free license for free hunting. Handke knew Schulte was pining for more kills but soon it became apparent they were looking for a Soviet airfield to terrorize.

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As luck would have it Soviet VVS Starshij Lejtenants Nikolai Petrov and Dmitri Borisovich were taking one of the 420th Air Regiment’s newest pilots, Mladshij Lejtnant Andrei Volkov on his 3rd combat air patrol. Volkov is in a bad mood due to his flight leader’s droning on about his cadet days and proper uniform blousing during their preflight briefing.

As he is lost in his turbulent thoughts he sees a pair of Fascist fighters at his 1 o’ clock low. He waggles his wings to get his flight leader’s attention. Volkov muses that being able to transmit a message over the radio would be rather more efficient. But alas his fighter is not equipped with a transmitter. He begins to wonder how he ended up in the cockpit of the stout little fighter when he was working in an automotive plant three months prior. Working on car engines was much less hazardous than facing down the Bosch…

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We started the Soviets in a historically accurate and tactically sound “bounce” maneuver. Schulte and Handke start at Altitude 3 while the Soviets started high and behind at Altitude 4. Schulte and Handle are Regular rated pilots while Petrov is a Veteran, Borisovich is a Regular, and Volkov is a Sprog.

As a fun way to put a little pressure on the scenarios the Germans are getting low on fuel and must leave the Western board edge by the end of turn 10.

Turn One

German BF109s Yellow 5 and Yellow 8 fly through the crisp June morning air. Unknown to them, the prey they are hunting is actually hunting them.

Petrov leads the echelon of green hued aircraft towards the lone pair of gray and green camouflaged Fascist fighters. As the pair continue to search for the airfield Schulte had promised Handke the Soviet flight jumps from cloud cover to cloud cover shadowing and closing in on the BF109s. Both Johann and Albert are too busy looking at the ground to see the three I-16s bearing down on them from their 9 o’ clock high.

Not much happened this turn but the Soviets took advantage of their altitude bonus to close the distance to the BF109s. Both 109 pilots failed to spot the encroaching planes.

Turn Two

Petrov’s flight closes in on the pair of BF109s. “It seems fortune has smiled on us. The fascists don’t see us…” he contemplates. As they close he can make out one that one of the pilots has suddenly become aware of the I-16s. As it turns out that pilot is a wide eyed Handke. He frantically radios “bogeys 7 o clock high” to Schulte. The Schulte pulls back on his stick and performs a tight left Chandelle to gain altitude and face their attackers. Leutnant Handke shadows his wingmate into the maneuver.

The BF109s come out of the climb and Schulte finds the middle I-16 in his gunsights. He lets loose a short burst at the plane. Fire rakes across Volkov’s plane’s rudder but causes no appreciable damage. Handke follows Schulte’s lead and lets loose with his plane’s machine guns. Still shaken he squeezes the trigger for too long and is unable to get a bead on Petrov’s I-16.

The flight of I-16s rip past the attacking Germans. Petrov leads the formation past and they come around behind the still flustered Germans. He finds himself in a perfect tailing position on the German formation’s wingman.

The Soviets moved first and closed onto the 109s. They are spotted by Handke at the last second. They are able to turn around on the I-16s and attempts some glancing shots. No shots connects.

The I-16s fly by the attacking 109s and the formation maneuvers behind the them. Petrov ends behind Handke and locked into his tail.

Turn Three

Seeing his wingman in trouble Schulte tries to repeat the tight left Chandelle to shake the trailing I-16s. He fails his attempt as he mistakes the distance between the pursuers. Instead he pushes the stick down and makes a split S diving down. Handke follows but Pertov sticks to him and the sprog Volkov stays on his leader’s wing.

When Borisovich looks up from his instrument panel he sees he missed the dive. He swings his plane around to catch up high above the pursuit.

Satisfied with his position Petrov radios to Volkov he is about to show him how dog fighting is done. He lets loose a burst of machine gun fire at Handke. He is so close to the BF109 he peppers the plane from the tail to the cockpit. The 109 explodes into an all consuming fireball. Petrov rockets through the flames and glances at Volkov who is showing a rare smile as he too dodges the explosion. “That’s how a pilot of the Red Air Force flies” he radios Volkov.

Schulte’s plane is pushed to starboard by the force of the blast but he regains control quickly.

Miraculously a semi-conscious but still alive Handke is catapulted free the exploding Messerschmitt.

The German maneuver’s only success was to make Borisovich fall out of formation. Petrov followed through the Chandelle and scored 5 hits and Handke only saved one hit. This caused an extra critical hit and my daughter rolled a 9, aircraft explosion. Handke got lucky and on a roll of a 6, needing a 6, is ejected from the plane.

Turn Four

After seeing his wingman’s plane, Yellow 8, cease to exist Schulte decides it’s time to give up on the unsanctioned hunt and beat feet. He pushes his BF109 to close to 500 kph using every horse available to him. The two Ishak formation gives chase, albeit at a slower rate than the German fighter. In a foot race Johann knows his plane will beat the Russians, that is if he can get away from a three on one fight.

Flying and tumbling through the air Handke regains enough consciousness to pull his parachute cord and manages to get it open. Borisovich sees the German pilot floating to earth and decides to give him a scare, passing meters from Handke as he turns to chase down Schulte’s Yellow 5. Borisovich knows he shouldn’t kill the Fascist pilot, but the thought does cross his mind. Besides that, maybe the hapless German will get captured by a patrol of Red Army soldiers. He could provide some useful intelligence…

Handke instinctively curls his body making it as small as possible as the drab I-16 hurtles past headed West after Schulte’s Yellow 8. Albert watches the ground grows closer and closer…

Bleeding off speed the flight of two I-16s ends up overlooking the Schulte from the German’s 10 o’clock position. Handke pops his chute and drifts to the ground while Borisovich turns to rejoin his section.

Turn Five

The Soviet planes stalk the lone Messerschmitt. Borisovich pulls back on the stick and climbs high above Yellow 5 in an attempt to hem the German fighter in.

In turn five Borisovich gains altitude and passes high over Schulte’s head. The other I-16s maneuver to catch Yellow 5 before he can escape.

Turn Six

Handke lands in the midst of a Soviet state run farm. He quickly scuttles off into a near by barn to catch his breath and orient himself towards friendly lines.

While focused on making it back to friendly air space as quickly as possible Schulte becomes aware of the I-16s sitting high and behind his port wing. He pushes his machine harder into a dive, swooping to just above treetop level to gain extra distance from the perusing Ishaks.

“Scheiße. Scheiße!” he screams as the I-16 pair follow his descent ending behind and just above him.

“Der’mo” Petrov whispers as he can’t draw a bead on the slippery fleeing German fighter. Two kills in one day would be good for his reputation…

No one sees Borisovich maneuvering down and lining up a rear starboard deflection shot on Schulte until it’s almost too late.

The game of cat and mouse is afoot. The Messerschmitt is faster than the I-16s but they are sticking to him hard and trying to set up an overhead attack. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Schulte), they are too close to the ground to perform such a maneuver. Borisovich finds a beautifully lined up shot on Schulte but he needs to draw the fire card before the German can speed away.

Turn Seven

Luck is on Schulte’s side as he quickly rapid rolls right and moves into a rightward barrel roll. A frustrated Borisovich misses the unaware BF109 by inches as they pass.

Petrov sees the Messerschmitt jerk to the right and follows suit with a rapid roll and a left barrel roll dropping in behind Schulte. But he can’t quite get onto the German pilots tail. Schulte shakes him loose and Petrov has to bank hard left to avoid the ground.

The axis move card was pulled before the allied fire card. Schulte yanked hard and made a good evasive maneuver. Petrov hangs tight but fails an “on the tail” test.

Turn Eight

Volkov is impressed with Petrovs tight Chandelle and decides to try it himself. His inexperience shows and he loses control of his plane and rockets away from the entangled foes at treetop level.

Schulte sees his opening and banks left towards friendly airspace. He glances nervously at his instrument panel. He is running dangerously low on fuel due to the unexpected scrum.

Not wanting to appear to be a coward, like that snake in his unit Malikov, Volkov rolls his plane and turns his fighter back towards the fight.

Petrov and Volkov attempt to catch Schulte. The Veteran Schulte is able to keep pace while the Sprog Volkov does Sprog things. Meanwhile Borisovich manages to perform a spirial climb and begins to turn towards the fleeing German.

Turn Nine

The Soviet aircraft swirl around Yellow 5. Only the Sprog Volkov is able to line up a shot but he is ordered to stand down by Petrov. Fuel and ammunition are precious commodities. Schulte presses on and escapes his escapade with an intact BF109 and bruised ego. Handke isn’t so lucky. Schulte hopes his fearless wingman is able to find a friendly face on the ground. Johann doubts there will be a friendly face to greet him when he lands back at the forward airstrip. At least he has a few minutes to figure out how to blame Handke for everything…

The Soviet planes jockey for a shot at the fleeing German plane but in the end Schulte outruns them and escapes to friendly skies to the West.

After Action

As a refresher we are using a mix of the Blood Red Skies Wing Commander and Bag the Hun Squadron Forward. Evan and I both participated in the after action activities.

I./JG69

The most notable event for the men from the German 69th is that Handke was shot down and his Messerschmitt is a total loss as it exploded midair. Handke made a rough landing and sprained an ankle. Luckily the German ground forces are taking ground quickly in the area and he’s located by a friendly reconnaissance patrol. Schulte returns to base and promptly lays blame for the foray on the missing Handke.

Schulte and Handke’s flight leader Olt. Mandl is requested at the unit commander’s office. Mandl fears the worst, but his old friend Gruppenkommanndeur Major Augustin Griebel greets him with a glass of scotch and a big smile. They end up laughing over their aggressive young airmen’s unsanctioned adventure. “Boys will be boys Mendl.“

Aircraft and Personnel Report

Handke was wounded upon his landing and will be out of commission for a while. The group did not receive any replacement pilots however two replacement 109Fs showed up at the airfield. After his little escapade Schulte was moved to flight two to work under Veteran Olt. Jannick Klauber to learn some discipline.

Lt. Ludwig Frenzel joins the 3rd schwarm instead, ready to take on the eventual replacement pilot as a protege.

420th Air Regiment

The pilots of the 420th Air Regiment managed to pull off a major victory, at least in their eyes. I suppose a day where the enemy bleeds but you don’t is a good one. All the pilots got some experience from surviving the encounter and Petrov got credit for downing a Messerschmitt. The squadron received a Valor Point which may help their requests for replacement of the two I-16s lost a few days earlier.

Upon returning to base Petrov’s I-16 loses oil pressure but he is able to skillfully land it and there isn’t any lasting damage.

Back at the aerodrome the unit Commissar Vladimir Petrovich takes interest in the day’s events. He expresses interest in coming along for a mission to see the Fascists up close. Even though he is the brother to the 420th Air Regiment’s commander and the unit’s political official he is told this simply isn’t possible as no aircraft has a spot for him. Petrovich is satisfied with this and feels the pilots did a good job and cost the Germans an expensive fighter.

Aircraft and Personnel Report

I somehow rolled three 5s for my aircraft replacement rolls. Alexei Veronin’s plane has been quickly repaired and two new I-16s are sent to the 420th to replace its losses. Unfortunately, I rolled a 2 for the pilot replacement roll and one spot on my roster will go unfilled.

The Next Chapter

Well, I hope to continue this campaign with Evan. This battle report has been sitting in the done pile for about 4 months while we worked out how we would handle Chapter One of the saga. We may do an abbreviated Chapter One in retrospect and also introduce the aggressive JG 69 and the somewhat hapless 420th Air Regiment. Until the next one!