26july2011

After Action Report
7/26/2011
B29 Raid

Squad Op’s started at 9:05 EST, when Luft, Swoose and myself upped in B-29’s. Launch field was A27 and the target airfield was Bishop A38. Joker led the escorts made up of P-51’s and 262’s. We reached the target safe, made two passes, and scored hits. Several uppers came up to meet us, and the escorts took care of them, I saw several fighters, but none of them got close. Safely out over the water and on the way home, we thought we were home free….. until Bishop Bong showed up with an Me163. He caught the three B-29’s that were all on final, at about 1K alt in landing configurations. He found Luft first, and was able to take the B29 down in one pass. I brought up the gear, throttled back up and banked left and headed for the town. Bong spotted Swoose, who had come in from the opposite direction and caught him on fire, his 29 exploded just off the runway. I circled and headed back over the base, smacked the auto-pilot and manned the guns. As the 163 approached, he was about 1.5 from me, and was dispatched by our escort group. I am not sure who got him, but whomever it was- you have my sincere thanks. I am not sure how Bong managed to fly three sectors on five minutes of solid rocket fuel, but it was clear he came for the 29’s. We were well away from any red ringed bases, so a 163 approaching NOE was the last thing we were looking for. I have several words for Bong, most of which rhyme with SASS and HOLE. Oh wait, maybe that doesn’t rhyme too good, but anyways….you get my point; I am very glad he was dispatched before he was able to complete his mission, and I’d happily split my bomber perks with Luft and Swoose for their efforts. Sorry about that guys- no one saw that coming, he caught us all by surprise. See the non-rhyme words above. I believe everyone else was able to land safely.

Second mission became carrier and PT ops from C30. We assisted taking the port, P29 (I think it was P29) and the destruction of a nearby Bishop CV group, and I think everyone had a ball doing that. The VH popped at the port so I upped a PT boat, and got 4 kills on the approaching LVT’s, they were all looking the other way at planes that were trying to protect our newly captured port. I turned and got destroyed, but that was a riot. Once the enemy CV was sunk and the LVT and PT’s dispatched, we regrouped for our next mission.

Third hop was to be base defense, A30 to A29. We pounced a flight of B-17’s over 30, quickly sending them back to the tower. Once that was done, we found ourselves miserably short of targets (none) and some elements of our flight were low on gas; so we landed our kills, and went back South to see what the huge hoard was on the dar-bar….

Fourth hop: A long story short, we ran into a cloud of 8 262’s and several escorting Tempests. Everyone engaged and we were soon scattered because we were greatly outnumbered. That was over pretty quick, although I had a nice duel with a 190 and a Temp, got hits on both but augured in due to blackout. L

That was it for Swoose and I, past our bedtimes. Joker, Feldjaeg, Sku, and Luft I believe were still up flying when I logged; Spec’s in attendance were Seal, RTS, Sku, Joker, Luft, Feldjaeg, Swoose, and myself. (I hope I didn’t miss anyone, forgot to write it down last night)

In summary, it was a pretty entertaining first full night as CO, all except the part where we lost 2 29’s to that little peckerwood, Bong. I can only hope that he ate something spicy last night, and had a bad case of heartburn later. (I’ll walk away now, cursing under my breath.)

See ya next week,

Milt