>The name on her birth certificate is "Bf 109." She isn't as bitter as
>Fw 190, but it's still annoying.

Accounts differ as to whether it was changed when her mother married Willy Messerschmitt in 1938. (Given that he was her father anyway, it's a bit academic, but you know how the Germans are about paperwork.) It's not entirely certain whether 109 herself really knows any more.

>Ilyusha has always been a bit out of place. The only other one who is
>at all like her is Stuka, and she fuckin' hates Stuka. There
>are two whole volumes devoted to that rivalry, in fact.

In fairness, it's not hard to hate Stuka. Apart from her erratic handling characteristics and homicidal mania, she's one of those women who laugh like that. Ugh.

>She can barely operate as a fighter, but she looks like one, so
>she can't hang out with the bombers either.

Yeah, but nobody wants to hang out with the bombers anyway. They're so boring, especially the four-engined ones. Escort missions, am I right? Hours and hours of tedium and then twenty seconds of panic over some ball-bearing factory in Ost-Arschlecken, Saxony. And then hours and hours of suspense if you survive the panic phase. Will we make it back to England? Or at least to the Channel? Or, hell, I'll even take one of the softer parts of Belgium at this point. Crashing there might be better than listening to Liberator drone on and on and on about her boyfriend the glider tug all the way back to Mendlesham.

No, if Il-2 ever wants to get anywhere socially, she's going to have to start a new club for ground attack aircraft. And then figure out some excuse for not letting Stuka join.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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