Squiffy goes to Blighty
From Iceland, Squiffs received orders to return to Britain. Climbing into his Hurricat, he checked his pint was securely fastened in his drinks holder. Flipping the magnetos and starting the fuel pumps he checked the frozzen runway ahead of him and fired up the Merlin.
“Watch out for Jerry on the way old sausage,” yelled his groundcrew chief Sgt Sparkey Sparksworth.
“No bother at all my good man!” shouted Squiffy, “The Hun wont know whats hit ‘em”.
The Hurricane roared into the sky waggling its wings, then returned for a low level barrel roll over the Group Captains office.
Back at Duxford, he was surprised to find 666 Squadron had left and relocated to Tangmere.
“I say, mind if I borrow that Defiant over there to get to Tangmere? I wont prang it up”.
“Carry on old chap!” smiled the Sq Ldr. “Take Dusty with you in the turret, he’s got to go Tangmere for a party this evening”
Approaching Tangmere, Squiffy prepared for his approach. “Ahh, I see they’ve got the welcoming committie up!” he said as a Twin Engined Anson appeared out of a cloud.
The Anson however as it came into focus sported a glazed nose and Balkenkrutz on its wings!
. “Dammd if that doesnt look like the Bally Hun!” he said and opened the Defiants throttle to Maximum
On the trip up for the game, I had loaded about eighty kites into the car, but unfortunatly , the Do17 that we wanted to use wasn’t one of them. We proxied a JU88 as a Do17M
The Jerry flew straight and level after a gentle G turn to starboard and at Angels 7 dropped its eggs aiming squarely for the parked Hurricane on the airfield. Squiffy dipped the Defiants nose and screamed down from Angels 12 to Angels 9. The bombs were in the air now, but at least he could avenge his mates. The Nose gunner in the Dornier drilled steady bursts at Squiffy, who held his fire leveling out from a E class left turn. and now traveling at 400 mph or Airspeed 6
At point blank range Squiffy thumbed the gun button, only to find the Defiant had no forward guns!
Squiffs incredible forward airspeed took him underneath the Do17 and Dusty let rip with the turretts 4x.303 brownings. The burst smashed the Dorniers bomb sight and punched holes in the fuel tanks.
The Ventral gun on the Dornier burst into life and a line of holes appeared in Squiffys wing.
“Ach! Himmel” said Shtiffler, the Do’s pilot. “We must be saying goodbye now Englander!” and banked his little bomber in a E class right turn back towards France.
“Not so Fast my old Fruit!” roared Squiffy and brought the Defiant into a Immelman turn. Now hanging on his prop slightly above the German, Dusty peppered the bomber and shot through its hydraulics.
Running out of table space we decided that we would shift all kites back when we were running out of room rather than a hard edge for the game.
Squiffy dropped the Defiant into a dive to pick up speed and planned on coming along the Boches broadside. Dusty managed another burst which riddled the “Flying Pencil” and killed the rear gunner.
“NEIN!” cried Shtiffler and pushing the bomber into a dive attempted to gain enough speed to outrun the Briton.
With both aircraft gaining speed by diving (after being shifted back on the table) Squiffy swung round Shtifflers tail.
We discussed if we should allow the bomb aimer to man the rear guns and decided that would be a very cramped and difficult thing to do mid battle.
Dusty sprayed his 4 brownings bringing the Dornier down to 3 structure. But his belt was running low on ammo. Just two good bursts left!
Broadside on, Squiffy matched Shtifflers speed. Dusty thumbed the trigger and two more hits left the Do on 1 structure! But that last burst shattered the main spar of the German plane and Shtifflers Port wing sheared off!
Shtiffler and the Bomb aimer made it out on their chutes. Squiffy roared past them and saluted.
“Right Ho, Dusty old chap! Its back for Tea and Medals!” cried Squiffy and turned the Defiant in to land.
