The strike force nicely formed up on CO bombom as we approach the
target.
At bomb drop, usual confusion occured. Note that -frek-'s falling bombs can be seen
in the lower part of the image.
A small strike force consisting of bombom, -save- and
vermox in Ju88's,
escorted by -grif- in the newly developed FW190A4, took off from
F2 to raid gold field 8. The precision in bombing could have been better,
and we were still over the target area when numerous gold Me109's came in. -grif-
tried his best to keep them down, but eventually numbers prevailed and the
RSAF force was decimated. Only -save- made it back to base. The
picture shows the strike force en route to target.
The strike force consisted of 3 B17's: Buff leader bombom, -grif-
and vermox, here seen in formation after takeoff from F1. The
strike force was escorted by -save-, zinner and
jerker. Original target was F2, but the determined purps closed and
captured it before the strike force arrived. We rerouted for F22, which
was closed after two passes and captured by the purps.
These are a few pictures of bombom and -grif- in close
formation.
After capturing F22, the strike force again rerouted, this time to F21. A gold P51 showed up, and vermox got an aileron blown off before the gunners dispatched the stupid P51 flying slow on our six. We did a three passes on F21 but there was uncertainty about the targets and we didn't manage to close it. By this time two red FW190's attacked the strike force, that had been dispersed during the bomb run. vermox B17 started smoking and veered off, bombom and -grif- closed formation while the tail gunners used their last bullets to convince the FW190's to break off the attack.
Returning to base at F1, bombom and -grif- attempted a formation landing. Everything went well until -grif-, who was capturing screenshots, failed to flare and hit the runway hard. The crew survived the hard landing, but what an annoying end to a long and rather successful mission.
A new tour of duty, RSAF is now flying green. We meet for our
regular squad nite and decide to raid f30 in our new P40's. As the morning
sun rises above the horison, the strike force is climbing northwest from
F1. The picture shows a beatiful view from my P40
cockpit.Unfortunately we were unable to close f30, partly due to somewhat uncooperative greens.
A new strategy was worked out. We would raid the purple port by F19 to
facilitate recapture of the strategically important F21. RSAF managed to
muster a healthy strike force consisting of fully 9 Ju88 bombers. The
picture shows the strike force lined up on the runway: bombom,
-grif-, kurgan, -eden-, -frek-, zinner,
jerker and -scout. -zono-, who was sitting in his Ju88
parked on the grass, decided to join the action as well. -save-
provided escort in his Spitfire.
The strike force followed a southerly course outside the purps radar range, and came in directly north towards the port. By this time, -scout and zinner had discoed, jerker was lost from the formation, but after two passes, the port was essentially flattened. The purps quickly climbed up to meet the raiders, however, and only -grif- and kurgan managed to rtb.