16oct07

16 October 2007

A26 Memorial Run

Lt. Sherwood (June 1944)

Lt. Sherwood was the pilot of several B26's. He flew 54 missions in WW2. Beginning with raids launched from England he eventually was taking off against the Axis from France after the liberation by Allied forces. His favorite aircraft was named "The Swoose". It had earned the nickname because "the swoose flew backwards because it didn't care where it was going only where it had been."

Swoose is also the handle of a member of the *Specialists* and the original "Swoose" was flown by his father in World War II, Lt. Sherwood of the 91st Bomber Group.

Tonight's mission is in honor of him and his squadron.

<S> from The *Specialists*

Hello *Specialists*,

We started off close to 9pm and decided to attack a enemy vehicle base a
short distance behind the front on our territory. Takeoff field was over 4k
altitude and the target was deep in a valley so it was decided to go NOE the
first time and possibly surprise them. Heavy FOCs rolled and the fuzegoon
was dusted off for a possible capture heading ENE to target. The VHs were
hit but not simultaneously so a few vehicles rolled out to defend. There was
also a enemy fighter or two in the area harassing the attackers. By the
time the last VH was destroyed maybe half a dozen vehicles made it out. The
second wave finished them off and the field guns were dispatched sometime
during the attack, as were the enemy fighters. All clear was called so the
C-47 was brought in and dropped it's troops. They drifted down and ran to
the map room and the base was captured.

The highlight of the night was the Memorial B-26 flight for swoose's Dad,
who flew them during WW2.
B-26s were equipped with eight 500lb bombs and loaded with 50% fuel for an
attack on A25. Using the same base for our initial flight gave us a nice 4k
altitude head start and we climbed NE to line up our target. Enroute a
single La-7 pestered us and I believe it did manage to attack one formation
and shoot down a bomber. He paid for his attack however as he limped home
with a smoking, damaged crate. The plan was to climb to about 10k altitude
and make one pass with the group and hit the fighter and vehicle hangers,
turn around and destroy any remaining hangers that were missed on the first
pass. Numerous hangers were hit first pass but a few remained so the group
did make it's turn to do a second bomb run. A few enemy figthers were
climbing and did manage to attack us during this turn. We bombed the hangers
on the second pass and headed for home. No puffy aaa was encountered during
the run but a few enemy fighters did follow us home and sporadically
attacked us when RTBing. I don't believe any of them survived as we neared
our landing field. The vast majority of bombers did make it home and a
serious hurt was put on A-25, not to mention we gave a few enemy pilots the
fast-track back to their tower.
All in all a good squad night with a base capture and a great B-26 flight.
fuzeman