Independent Swedish Airforce

in cooperation with

Icebreakers

proudly presents:

(Go to Debriefing page)

Mission: Heavy Bomb raid
Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2200 Swedish time (November 23, 1942, WB timeline)
Place: Main field F16, channel 46 (Purple? Red?)
Aircraft: B17G, ord 0, 35% fuel
Targets: Main field F11 (Gold, Green, who knows???)

OSF & ICE intend to perform a massive bomb raid against Gold with the new 4-engine heavy bomber, B17, expected to be delivered to the front line towards the end of 1942. B17 is heavily armed, and escort is not deemed necessary; if the bombers stay in tight formation they will be able to defend themselves. Hence, the entire flight, from take off to landing will be done IN FORMATION. We will fly in elements of 3 ships, as many as attendance allow.

Bomb drop will be done IN FORMATION, but every pilot is expected to run his own bomb solution in the Norde sight and ensure that bomb drop occurs at the right time. We will not have individual targets, the bomb sight is only used to make sure that the bombs drop over the target area (as close to interesting structures that happen to pass under the bomber... :) (To drop on CO command doesn't work too well due to net lag.

If attendance is high, the strike force may be split into two groups, one heading for F11 and the other for the gold port.

In order for this to work I expect that any one who intends to attend practices handling the B17, including taxiing, take-off and landing. Practice in formation flying (which must be done H2H or in the p&d arena due to the RPS) is an extra plus. I will follow the 305th's Formation Procedures, so everyone should have read, understood and practiced the maneuvers described.

Apart from having fun and causing maximal damage to the enemy, this mission is intended to answer a few questions about large bomber formations:

• Is the assumption that a large bomber formation can defend itself true?
• Can a large bomber formation survive the heavy 88mm flak over the target?
• Is it possible to keep a coherent formation for a long mission and under enemy attack?
• Is the effectiveness of large bomber formations limited due to friendly fire from Otto when killshooter is on?

Out. Questions? :)

Signed up:

Flight order:

Mission Outline

(May be changed as tactical situation demands.)

Tips and thoughts

I've been thinking about the organization to some extent, and these are some tidbits I'd like to share with the crew:

• Due to net lag, if you are d0 from your lead ship, all others will see you as being about 0.5s or something behind that spot, which for our cruising speed of 150mph IAS = 220mph TAS @ 25000ft means a distance of about 50 yards. This means that everyone else will see you about d0.5 behind where you think you are, which can lead to a very strung out formation if we let the effects add up. This is the reason that E2#1 and E3#1 shall keep their position in reference to E1#1, not the plane immediately in front of them. You might think you are unnaturally close to the plane just in front of you, but that's just what you see. To everyone else you will look slightly further back.
• Highlight the element you are guiding on to lessen the risk of confusion.
• Turning sharply on the ground is done by switching one of the outboard engines (1 & 4) off.
• We will run with Otto off until cons come within range, to avoid having the tail end guys run out of ammo. When we open up, at least four ships should be within firing range, which is the most important reason the formation has to be kept tight. Unless otherwise stated, the CO will order guns hot or cold.
• Flak over the target will be dangerous to the dense formation, I believe we can expect to lose some planes here. We are within flak range for less than 2 minutes.
• The CO is the only one that does not have to bother with staying in formation, so he has more time to look out for cons. This doesn't mean that everyone else can relax, but the number one priority is keeping the formation.
• I am hesitant to let people carry gunners, as this disables the external view and makes it a lot harder to get a clear picture of what your position looks like, not to mention the effect of looking out for cons.
• During the bomb run, everyone should get into the Norden to make sure the sight is roughly aligned, but make sure to follow the leader as he makes course corrections on the bomb run. Since the bomb delay doesn't work, at least in the Mac version, turn pickle off and manually trigger your twelve bombs so you cover the entire length of the field.
• At our cruising speed of 220mph TAS, we enter enemy radar range about 8 minutes before bomb drop. The chances of the enemy getting fighters up to 25000 ft in 8 minutes are slim, in my opinion. (I just conducted a test and the 109F and SpitIX climbs to 25000 ft in 6 mins on WEP and with the bare minumum of fuel. They are going to have a hard time preventing drop. We'll just have to hope that no straggler finds us during climb. The "home run" will be a different matter, of course.
• I would recommend printing the formation and flight path figures so everyone have throttle settings etc readily available.
• People violently opposed to flying buffs that still want to take part will form a fighter escort squadron with orders to rendezvous with the strike force at the drop point. There's no point in having them wallowing around during our climb, and most of the available fighters will have problems with range as well. The escort fighter might be SpitIX, a pretty new plane at that time, 109F, or P40. Both SpitIX and 109F are supposed to have good high alt performance, I don't know about the P40 though.

• Takeoff: T+10min
• Level off at 25000 ft: T+55min
• Bomb drop: T+70min
• Touchdown: T+100min