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Another great Luftwaffe fighter pilot campaign from FlatSpinMan! Having thoroughly enjoyed his Defence of the Reich campaign, I was keen to try out another of FlatSpinMan's German campaigns and picked this one, for a change of scenery - and climate! No more footering about over the cold waters of the North Sea for me, it's 'Off to Darkest Africa', as the song goes. This campaign is a sort of a prequel, featuring the same Luftwaffe fighter pilot, Willi Jedermann, as the Reichs Defence campaign. This is available from Mission4Today, which site is unfortunately down at the time of writing, so I can't post a link. Edit, 5 Feb '15 - Mission4today, the ultimate Il-2 resource, is back up and you can get FlatspinMan's campaigns here. The campaign's first mission is a transit flight, simulating the arrival in force of the Luftwaffe, as part of the Deutsches Afrika Korps' 1941 deployment to prop up the Italian forces, after the latter's disastrous defeat at the hands of the British forces based in Egypt. Although there's no action, this mission is a nice scene-setter, featuting an air start with the player's Bf 109E-7, still in European theatre camouflage and carrying long-range tank, slipping in from the Mediterranean amidst a veritable horde of incoming German aircraft. The scene at the airbase I was bound for was equally impressive, with the field positively awash with German aircraft of all types! Apparently, our Willi has been posted to JG 27, which if course is the Luftwaffe fighter wing most closely associated with the war in the desert. However, before he can join his unit, Willi is scrambled at the head of a flight of three other pilots in transit, to intercept an incoming force of RAF bombers which is evidently hoping to smash up the tempting target presented by so much Luftwaffe aircraft and matériel sitting at this staging airfield. The plane I ferried in wasn't available so I was allocated been given another machine, 'Yellow 5'. Like my last mount, this still in Eurpoean camouflage but with a white theatre fuselage band and yellow quick recognition markings in the form of yellow cowling and rudder. My flight-mates were in similar interim markings, as you can see from 'Yellow 6' and 'Yellow 8'. As with FlatSpinMan's Defence of the Reich campaign, the inclusion of very high-quality 'skins', like these, is a nice feature. Our brief was to patrol at 2500 meters over the sea, just north of our base, watching out for the raid we're expecting. Once airborne, headed east, I cleaned up my aircraft and climbed out to about 1000 metres, then throttled back, to let my three flight-mates catch up. Climbing again, this time northwards out to sea, I could sea below and ahead a flight of tan-coloured biplanes, on the same course. Evidently, these were the Italian allies I'd been briefed would also be on this operation. Fiat CR 42s most likely, I thought. As I watched, the Italians, who had been climbing fairly gently, suddenly pulled up into a much tighter climb. Had they seen something I hadn't? The answer was 'Yes!' At least two flights of larger aircraft were coming more or less directly at us, slightly high. This looked like it! I pulled up my nose in an effort at making a head-on pass to begin with, though from the high closing speed I quickly realised I would be just too late. As the enemy ran in towards us, I saw that they were slim twin-engined bombers, and that a couple of tan-coloured monoplanes - more Italians, most likely - had beaten us to the punch. I quickly gave the flight the order to attack and pulled up and around as the enemy - Blenhiems, they were - swept past. No sign of a fighter escort, that I could see. Time to get stuck in, before they hit our base, which they would reach in a matter of a very few minutes...unless we could stop them! ...to be continued!