Air Combat Simulation ___________

TAS Diary by Leonard (Viking1) Hjalmarson This diary will reflect the experiences of Oberleutnant Leonard Hoffmann of II Staffel, JG51 August 3rd, 1941 I arrived near the front today after a dull journey by train from Berlin. My American cigarettes exhausted, I was shown to my quarters by a displaced Austrian boy who has attached himself to the squadron... I unpacked my few things immediately, and noticed that the picture of Hilda I thought I had brought away with me had somehow gone missing. Damn! The day was as grey as the boy, and I did not anticipate my first flight. The flight leader was apparently off the base for the day, so I set off to the squad HQ to introduce myself to the CO. I hoped he would not offer to take me up.. I noticed that I had been assigned as a wing leader: I wondered whether it was for my solid performance in training or because my uncle was a Baron and war hero...No matter, I knew from my Uncle that the survival rate was not very high. He had flown in an earlier war, the Great War he called it, in the glory days of the likes of Von Richthofen. Though my Uncle shot down 44 planes in that war, hardly any of his squadron mates had survived. I strolled across the grass toward the hangars, and noticed that a crew were busily painting call letters onto a fairly new looking BF109. The letters were these: They were my own initials, with the V in the center! I was surprised that this step had been taken even prior to my arrival. I wondered if I would be allowed to choose my own art for the nose. She was a nice looking craft, with the lean crispness characteristic of her kind...