Battle for Malta - Scenario 11 - Dogfight over the Med

This is the eleventh scenario in our Battle for Malta campaign. The campaign follows the exploits of the Country of Dampshire 369 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force fighting against the Regia Aeronautica squadriglia d'aquila - two fictitious squadrons. We use the Wings of Glory WW2 rules, slightly modified to give faster play. We use the Wings of Glory planes where the right model is available, other manufactures are used to fill in the gaps.

We use our own set of campaign rules "Wings Over Malta". These contain 6 basic missions which will be played with alternate sides as the attacker. They will be played first with "early war" planes and then repeated with "late war planes". This differs from our previous Battle of Britain campaign which was a ladder campaign that followed more exactly the historical battle.

The Background

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 that fought in the Battle of Britain was modified as the E-4/Trop varient to serve in tropical regions and was sent to Africa to support the Afrika Korps.

The 109s were more modern and better armed opponents than the Italian aircraft of the Regia Aeronautica.

From a German propaganda film of 1941, this photograph depicts
a pair of Bf 109 E-4/Trop fighters of I/JG 27 flying over Afrika.

The Action

Two Hurricanes piloted by Flying Officer Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh and Pilot Officer Emmett Hollingberry were on partrol when the spotted a Luftwaffe Bf 109 flown by veteran pilot Oberleutnant Sepp Schlangenaugen and two Macchi C.200 Saetta Lightnings of the Regia Aeronautica.

Note: this scenario may seem unbalanced, but the Hurricanes and Bf 109 were flown by aces while the Lightnings were both poorer quality planes and had inexperienced pilots.

Featherstonehaugh and Schlangenaugen circled cautiously round each other while Hollingberry and the Macchis went head to head.

Featherstonehaugh and Schlangenaugen continued to circle while Hollingberry and the Macchis were now at point blank range.

Featherstonehaugh and Schlangenaugen continued to circle while Hollingberry and the Macchis swung round for another go at each other.

Schlangenaugen gave up circling and headed over to help his Italian friends.

Another head to head firefight as Hollingberry flew over the Macchis who were climbing up to reach him.

Schlangenaugen gave Hollingberry an unexpected burst of cannon fire from behind.

Schlangenaugen was now on Hollingberry's tail.

The Macchis were somewhat out of the fight. Featherstonehaugh was nowhere to be seen.

Schlangenaugen was still on Hollingberry's tail.

The lead Macchi was so badly damaged that it continued out of the fight. The second Macchi turned to enter the fight but was slower than the Hurricane and Bf 109. Featherstonehaugh was nowhere to be seen.

Hollingberyy managed to shake Schlangenaugen from his tail. The Macchi was far too slow to catch up. Featherstonehaugh was nowhere to be seen.

Hollingberry had gained a breathing space, and used it to flee the field. He was wouned and his Hurricane full of holes, he was lucky to still be flying.

Even Featherstonehaugh had fled the field of battle, he had taken much more serious damage at the start of the battle than anyone else had realised. Had he known, Schlangenaugen would have tried to finish Featherstonehaugh off instead of going for Hollingberry.

Having been wounded, Hollingberry was sent to hospital in Valletta to recover. The following night Valletta was attacked by the Regia Aeronautica and Hollingberry's ward was bombed. This delayed his recovery and he will now need to miss two scenarios.

Result

Axis Victory

Notes

The Macchi C.200 Saetta fighters are from Armaments in Miniature (AIM), an American company that has a range of unpainted resin models in different scales. Their 9mm (1:200) scale models fit well together with the WW2 models for Wings Of Glory. All the models are very reasonably priced, the fighters cost $5 each.