Mission AAR 6-28-2011

 

 

The Specs began gathering at the standard mission time although we were a bit short of pilots at first. There was the usual battle raging between Knight A19 and Bish A1 on the good old "Lake Uterus" map.

We flew with the Knight attackers in FOC for about 20 minutes when more Spec reinforcements logged on. A1 was getting hit fairly hard, but the Knights were unable to gain a decisive advantage and take the field.

 

A bomber mission was called and we decided that Milt and Luft would risk their bomber perks to fly B-29's so that we could deliver plenty of ords and still have enough escorts.

The escort group rolled P-51D's with DT's for escort duty, and Luft took Engr in his crew to man the tail gun.

 

 

Since ords were down in all the adjacent Knight fields, and due to the fact that we wanted plenty of alt, we took off from A32 about 3 sectors NW of the target. This ended up being a wise decision when we learned

that the loaded B-29's climb like cement trucks with slipping clutches.

Milt and Luft loaded up forty 500lb bombs each and 50% fuel, and the group took off SW. A mountain was in an unhandy location in front of us, which provided a few tense moments for the bomber crews, but everyone

made it and we headed south. I recall Engr saying that it reminded him of cropdusting.. :)

 

As we flew south we were joined by Feldjaeg, our new Spec! Shortly after that Skinner logged on and brought a 262 to the party, greatly enhancing the escort strength.

On the way to the target we were spotted by a Bish 262, but RTS hit him and he was unable to damage the bombers. I believe he did make a run on Milt but he missed.

We hit our ip in sector 5,9 and turned SE toward the target. The group was climbing steadily the entire time, with the bombers leveling off at well over 20k.

As we neared A1 we found that the FH's and VH were down, so we opted to drop on the town. Milt had some problems with his connection that affected his drop, but Luft did a great deal of damage to the town. 24 buildings were destroyed in one fell swoop. Forty 500 lb bombs can wreck a lot of town buildings.

 

Fortunately most of the enemy fighters were below us, but there were several co-alt which the escorts were able to deal with.

There were a number Bish 262's over the target area, including 2 with alt on us, but they were kept away from the bombers.

 

The group egressed north and began dropping gradually. We had one pesky F4u that was trailing Milt, but I don't think he ever got a clear shot. The escorts arrived in time to take care of him....Skinner in his 262 was able to

push him towards the slower main group, and after a brief dogfight Feldjaeg got the kill on him <S>.

 

We had a clear run in to our rtb field at A20, but unfortunately our troubles were not yet over. As the 29's descended and their speed picked up they began shedding essential parts, like control surfaces.

Milt lost ailerons, then tail surfaces, and was unable to control the aircraft until it finally lost a wing. We had to send out a PBY to pick him up.

Luft had similar problems but he retained enough control to be able to land the bomber at A20 successfully.

The rest of us made it down safely to conclude what I thought was a fun mission.

 

I think the main lesson here was the fragility of the B-29 compared to our usual B-17 ride. And as Milt has mentioned I think we should work on becoming more proficient in the 262 since we are encountering more

of these now.

 

Thanks and a big <S> to the pilots who flew the mission, and welcome to Feldjaeg, our newest squad member.

 

With this I am passing command to Milt and Swoose, and I know we all are looking forward to great missions under their leadership. :))

 

Joker CO (ret)  <S>

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