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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 30, 2004 13:54:15 GMT -5
Today we hit the Oranienburg Heinkel Aircraft Plant near Berlin. While the pilot prepared for take off I made some adjustments to the course that was laid out. It took us over several flak zones in and out of the target area and I quite frankly saw a better way in and out avoiding most of those areas.
The trip to the North Sea coast of Germany went without problems. The squadron was crusing along nicely, crossing over the isthmus just below Denmark we entered airspace over the Baltic Sea and began the long run towards land ahead.
Passing over the mainland coast the group came under terrific German fighter attack. The first pass damaged one bomber in the group which fell out of formation and headed downwards. My own plane was shotup and engine #1 caught fire and was feathered for the rest of the flight. Another bomber in the group had their #4 out and feathered. The pilots in the German fighters were no novices and they made fast slicing attacks that made them hard to hit while they managed to score heavily against the squadron. We scored three kills against the Luftwaffe and were soon left alone for the rest of the trip.
Cloud cover over the primary target made bombing nearly impossible so the secondary was selected at the decision point. Finally after the long long fligh the IP and bomb run. The bombardier had the target centered and cloud cover was at a minimum. Flak was heavy, very heavy. You haven't seen flak in this game unless you have flown near or over Berlin! Making several minor course adjustments with the bombsight it was finally "Bombs Away!" and the hand off back to the pilot.
Watching the bomb stream trace across the target with virutally no strays indicated massive damage to the target. The majority of the buildings were left burning as the squadron headed to the rally point.
Rather than flying the extended path to the original rally point I began moving it little by little to keep the turns to gradual degrees to not over stress damaged planes and crews. To avoide the rest of the flak the order was given to climb an additional 5,000 feet to 20,000 to avoid further flak damage. The new couse laid out shorted the trip by quite a bit and avoided any further problems with fighters or flak and the group arrived home only to lose the one aircraft that had it's #4 engine feathered just shy of the airfield for some reason.
The rest of us landed without incident and the target was marked Totally Destroyed, with three air victories credited, and several purple hearts awarded. Both downed bombers were total losses both plane and crews.
Several crewmen had to be patched up on the trip back, some more than once, but they all survived.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 31, 2004 17:16:21 GMT -5
Mission for today oil production facilities near Essen.
Approaching along the north coast of the Netherlands and turning southeast into German territory the flight went without any problems or harrassment.
Suddenly as we penetrated past the coast line the cry of "Bandits! 2 O'clock high!" came of the intercom. Jumping to the rear gunner position I waited for the the enemy fighters to make their exit runs through the formation.
"Holy crap!", I was startled to see two entire squadrons of Fw-190s shoot past my rearview on course for a 7 O'clock exit point. The blew the formation in nearly one solid group leaving me with little time to pick a target and mission those that I did manage to line up. That was the most effective enemy attack I saw so far. Two bombers were trailing black smoke from their engines and a third fell quickly out of formation and behind as the crew immediately begain to bail out.
The fight was on and during the process their repeat passes were repulsed by our escort and the combined guns of the squadron, but it took quite a while.
Finally clear of the fighters, the rest of the flight proceeded unmolested to the Decision Point. The navigator kept us on course, with a few manual minor adjustments and we finally reached the DP. Could cover was reportly 9/10th at the primary and 5/10th at the secondary so the tertiary target, the Sterkade Holten Oil Production Facility was selected instead due to its 3/10ths cloud cover. Flak in the inbound run was brief and relatively light. I had adjusted the IP altitude to an extra 1000 feet just prior to the squadron reaching it so the squadron manage to avoid some flak damage by having climbed a few hundred feet above 15000 where the flak gunners were set.
The target presented itself in a nice clear hole in the sky for the final approach and with several minor adjustments the bomb run was nearing completion. The target was lined up just perfectly too, the length of the target was in nearly perfect alignment with our approach and if I could get the bombs on target it was going to be heavily damaged. The moment came and bombs away as the plane altered course to the alternate one I had chosen for the exit to the rally point during the aircraft preparations for take off back at the base. Using the target camera view I watched as the entire string of bombs fell right on target and marched across the entire facility in a concentrated fury of explosions. I was very happy about that drop.
Exiting the target zone we passed through more flak as we climbed above the fire and headed for the rally point. Navigation home was uneventful and we left enemy airspace and crossed the Channel back to England where I had the group descend to to 4000 feet on the flight back to the airfield.
The group came in at nearly the perfect runway line up so I quickly ordered a "leave formation", dropped flaps, and gear and descended quickly to a 100 feet just shy of the runway as the throttle was cut back to near idle and the plane settled nicely on the runway and was brought to stop prior to taxiing to the hardstand.
The mission ended with the target totally destroyed, 2 B-17s lost and 2 enemy fighters shot down.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 1, 2004 12:46:44 GMT -5
Priamary target, Hamburg Oil Refinery and Storage Tanks.
The flight over the Channel and the North Sea coast of Germany was uneventful. Even crossing the coast into Germany was unopposed. Some light but accurate flak causes some wounds in area prior to the IP. Target cloud cover forced the selection of the tertiary target of the Eurotank Oil Refinery and Storage Tanks.
Flak and fighter greeted the group as they penetrated the target area. Several bombers fell out of formation one due to a ramming.
Cloud cover over the tertiary target was more than reported and the target was completely socked in. Orders were given for the group to go around for another try and after reassembling and lining up for the IP again another attempt was made.
Target cover was still too thick and manual control was used to steer the bomber to a clearing in the cloud cover to find a target of opportunity instead of another go around. Cloud coverage still made target ID difficult and what looked like it might be harbor facility was quickly lined up and bombs dropped.
Unfortunately, the target camera view revealed it not to be a harbor facility on the river and most of the bombs struck near the shore and in the river. Leaving the actual tertiary target unscathed a couple miles to the west.
The group exited the target are under heavy flak and managed to escape the area without any further losses. The trip home went unopposed and the group landed safely back at home.
Unfortunately, the complete miss of the target made the loss of 3 bombers seem even worse. The only bright spot is that gunners shot down 4 enemy fighters.
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tanker
Unterscharfuehrer
Former Gunner and TC M48A1&A2-4th AD/67th TK
Posts: 53
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Post by tanker on Apr 1, 2004 17:08:15 GMT -5
Great to see you having so much fun with B17II. It certainly gives you a taste of just how tough those bomber missions were. You mentioned losing a bomber mysterously, if you time skip and both the pilot and co-pilot have a medical problem the plane will go out of control and crash without notification(be careful about time-skipping if both have had any medical attention). I get really upset with the radio operator disappearing to man the cheek gun when I want to broadcast an altitude change, by the time I get him back to radio room we are usually in deep S... with the flak! Have you clicked on the fighter symbols and watched them take off and dogfight? The graphic modeling and detail is outstanding. Have you noticed that the # of missions and kills are painted under the pilot's and co-pilot's windows? Also the control surfaces, turrets, cowl flaps, and wheels move quite realistically. ;D ;D
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tanker
Unterscharfuehrer
Former Gunner and TC M48A1&A2-4th AD/67th TK
Posts: 53
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Post by tanker on Apr 1, 2004 17:14:39 GMT -5
Great to see you having so much fun with B17II. It certainly gives you a taste of just how tough those bomber missions were. You mentioned losing a bomber mysterously, if you time skip and both the pilot and co-pilot have a medical problem the plane will go out of control and crash without notification(be careful about time-skipping if both have had any medical attention). I get really upset with the radio operator disappearing to man the cheek gun when I want to broadcast an altitude change, by the time I get him back to radio room we are usually in deep S... with the flak! Have you clicked on the fighter symbols and watched them take off and dogfight? The graphic modeling and detail is outstanding. Have you noticed that the # of missions and kills are painted under the pilot's and co-pilot's windows? Also the control surfaces, turrets, cowl flaps, and wheels move quite realistically. Another thing that is quite well done is effect of the missions on the skills,performance, and mental well-being of the individual crew members. No one would put this much effort on this kind of game in this day and age at any price! ;D
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 1, 2004 20:32:48 GMT -5
Yes, I've noticed that the gear and other items do work very realistically. I haven't zoomed in close enough to notice the kill marks. I'll have to make a point of it next time. Too bad that you cannot add names to planes along with their noseart. I've already got the utility installed and did a workup of the NINE-0-NINE emblem but had problems with the alpha mask and gave up on it for now.
I've gotten much better at plotting out courses. I let the AI do the prep and takeoff while I'm in the navigator's position altering the course in and out of the target area to avoid many of the flak and fighter concentrations.
On thing I do now is just before the plane reaches the target flak zone coverage arc I'll raise the waypoint 1000 to 5000 feet so the plane is in a climb as the flak starts. If the waypoint is near the arc and the target is not far away I'll raise the rally, bomb, and IP waypoints just before the plane reaches the IP so that the plane is in a climb through the flak. How much I raise it depends on how far I have to go to the target. So far it's worked pretty well.
I have watched the German fighters scramble, dogfight and make their passes on the squadron. That's a nice feature.
I'm on my 7th or 8th mission and my crew is getting better, but I've got serval crewmen still on sick call from wounds and I usually have two or three new faces on each trip.
I've gotten manual landings down pretty well now. That used to be a real problem for me in the old B-17 sim.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 2, 2004 20:35:27 GMT -5
Tonight Magdeburg Oil Production Facility.
Conditions for flying were excellent, only light cloud cover. Taking the usual route over the North Sea we turned southeast towards the target in northeast Germany.
We were met by heavy fighter attacks not long after crossing the coastline. One bomber was immediately stricken and fell out and behind formation then started down. Another B-17 was destroyed when it was rammed by one of the German fighters in a near headon collision.
The next wave of 109s blew through the squadron in near perfect formations scoring hits on my #3 engine setting it on fire, and scoring hits on another B-17s #4 and a third B-17s #1 causing them to trail smoke. The fire was extinguished and #3 feathered.
Cloud cover over the primary was only 4/10ths and flak was moderate. Unfortunately due to a bad decision to make a course adjustment the bomb drop occurred late and the string fell beyond the target resulting in a complete miss.
More flak on the way out, then more flak near the rally point, then heavy flak near Solingen, Dusseldorf, and Cologne. Many wounded crewmen that needed constant attention on the way home. Losing the last bomber shortly after the flak zone.
After a long trip home my plane made a belly landing when the gear failed to extend. Luckily the crew survived.
Score this time was a Complete Miss, 3 losses and 10 enemy fighters shotdown.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 3, 2004 14:16:56 GMT -5
Back to Hamburg again in another attempt on the Heide Oil Production Facility.
Moderate cloud cover on the way out over the North Sea and across the isthmus and the city of Kiel, Germany, then from a waypoint just beyond Kiel over the Baltic Sea the turn south to the German coast.
Having adjusted the original course to take us past the cith of Neumunster flak zone the squadron lined up for the decision point north of Hamburg.
A quick check on the weather revealed that the Heide target was obscured by 8/10ths cloud cover and the secondary Eurotank site was also covered by 5/10ths cloud cover so we lined up for the tertiary Merkwiller Oil Production facility.
Upon reacing the IP we were greeted by a small group of German fighters. We managed to shoot down one and the escorts handled the rest.
Flak was accurate causing wounds to the bombardier, navigator, both waist gunners, the radioman, and the tail gunner as we headed into the target.
A problem with wind drift at the last second caused a last second manual aiming adjustment and the bomb drop was a fraction late. I watched as the frist few struck the targe and the rest of the string trailed off over the countryside beyond the target. The bombs that did hit seemed to have struck a sweet spot because the target began to explode sideways in an expanding fashion.
The trip out went without problems, and the Luftwaffe left us alone.
Approaching base, I took manual control for the landing and spotted that the right landing gear was not extended. I quickly leveled off and ordered the engineer to crank it down by hand as I flew off to a distance where I could realign the B-17 to the runway. Making a 180 and dropping altitude the plane came in for smooth landing and taxied to the hardstand to wait for the rest of the group.
Mission debrief revealed that the bomb drop was more succesful than it appeared with a "High" bomb damage score on the target. We lost one plane during a course turn when he collided with a nearby plane on the trip out, darn those rookie pilots.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 4, 2004 16:48:30 GMT -5
Aargh! Where's my sledge hammer! I've been trying to fly the next mission to the Basdorf Aero Engine Plant near Berlin. First attempt my plane falls out of formation, both pilot and copilot are conscious but not flying the plane, times a-wastin' and the ground coming up so I switch to manual and hit the bailout button I have setup on my joystick. The crew starts to leave but I pull back on the joystick and the plane comes out of the dive, at least until the pilot and copilot bailout! Mission over. Second attempt, I get to the same area and I'm under heavy fighter attack as before, this time I get rammed by one of the German fighters and my plane goes down in flames falling to pieces as the crew attempts to bailout. Mission over. Thrid attempt, I finally get through to the target. Lots of wounds from the vicious fighter attacks and flak, a beautiful bomb drop lays the string right on target and we leave the area and head back home. Just shy of the English coast I hear a chirp and then a sqreech as my computer just got hit with a power glitch and the game locks up! I have to reboot. Mission over. Fourth attempt, once again I reach the target after fighting off flocks of fighters and flak, another beautiful bomb run and the target is clobbered. We're somewhere over the south central German countryside cruising along when all of a sudden I find myself just sitting at the Windows desktop and the game is gone! !@#!@#$@#%@#$%!!@@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just updated my year old video drivers last night and I hope this doesn't become a trend due to some bug. Luckilly I can still revert back to my old drivers which were working fine, but I thought it was just time to update them.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 5, 2004 0:42:33 GMT -5
I finally got through the mission to Basdorl without getting shotdown or computer problems.
Lost one B-17 on the way in due to fighters. But managed to stave off the Luftwaffe despite taking some damage to my #1 engine which trailed black smoke for the rest of the mission.
We hit the target with what I thought was an excellent bomb drop and headed out of the Berlin area to a chorus of heavy flak .
Carefully threading the flak zones into south central and eastern Germany we made our way out passing through one more unavoidable flak area around Dusseldorf. Lost one more B-17 at this point which fell out of formation and disappeared for unknown reasons.
The long trip home was spent patching up various injured crewmen some of whom collapsed more than once.
The remainder of the group landed safely back at home base without any further trouble.
Surpisingly the bomb strike was only scored low damage despite the fact that at 50%-60% of the factory was in flames when we left it. 2 losses and 3 German fighters shot down.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 5, 2004 16:48:14 GMT -5
I think my updating of my video drivers may have been a mistake. Once again today I found myself sitting at the desktop after a successful mission and just as I was about to land back at home...poof! Argh! I had no problems with my old drivers in this regard. Seems funny that after updating with two days I've had two occurrences already.
Today was a return trip to the Heide Oil Production Facility in Lubeck. Fighters stuck the squadron just as they entered the flak zone near the target. The bomb drop went with out a hitch, but cloud cover make aiming slightly more difficult. I aimed at what I thought was the major section of the target, and hit it, but the bomb score at the end of the mission said damage was low, mostly due to the fact that was the part hit in my first attack on the plant on a prior raid.
Lost two bombers due to collision with German fighters, one of which was just nailed by my tailgunner and banked right into the #2 bomber of my starboard wing.
Overall, the mission wasn't too bad and I ended up with 4 kills against German fighters.
The trip home went without trouble save for a few crewmen patchups and the group landed at home safe and sound.
In the attempt that got spoiled I had reached the target unopposed by fighters made a good bomb drop and strike on the target and made it home with the entire squadron in tow only to lose it all at the last minute. Very frustrating.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 6, 2004 15:21:54 GMT -5
More technical trouble today. Flew the mission the first time hit the target and just as my plane was landing the computer locked up! Flew it again. Got rammed just after crossing the German coast. Third attempt, got the same area of coast and somehow when switching between external and internal views my joystick stopped functioning in the game. All my control with the stick was gone.
Fourth attempt, Brunswick bomb plant NE of Berlin. The first schwarm of 109s made the mistke of coming in from the six o'clock position and all four fighters were shot down before they ever managed to do any damage. The next group of 190s came and after a long fight all four where shot down. They did manage to wouldn my bombardier. Just after the decision point my bombardier collapsed and my radio man was taking care of him so I had to wait for the radio man to finish so I could get the target weather reports.
We were already halfway to the IP when the weather made it necessary to switch to the tertiary target. Lost one B-17 on the turn and made it to the target.
The angle of approach had to be adjusted to avoid problems with the IP and the bomb drop occurred perpendicular to the target so a number of bombs hit short of the target. The rest walked righ through one end of the target destroying many buildings.
Flak causes a few more wounds and the long flight home started. The only course acceptable was going to take us through a heavy flak area. Crossing at the narrowest point I could find we climbed to get out of the heavy barrage that was being hurled up at us.
Luckily we all manage to arrive back at bas and landed safely, but my plane was heavily damaged from flak and fighters that I made a hard landing on the runway and broke off the main wings on each side just beyond the starboard and port outboard engines and all props were bent. The plane rolled to a stop in the grass off the runway and the mission ended with the crew safe.
Mission score, near miss on the bomb strike, 1 bomber lost and 8 kills against German fighters.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 6, 2004 19:06:53 GMT -5
One more mission today. Back to Magdeburg Oil Production Facility. Fought off 3 schwarms of fighters downing 7, 3 personally. Lost 1 bomber to a ramming. Only 3/10ths cloud cover partially obscurred the target and the strike went off with a hitch scoring moderate damage on the target. Then the long flight home threading my way through flak zones and luckilly this time when I reached the area of heavy flak around Dusseldorf and Solingen the flak gunners let us pass without a shot being fired. The rest of the trip was routine and the group landed safely back at base.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 7, 2004 18:53:33 GMT -5
3 missions complete today.
Bostrop Oil Prodcution Facility totally destroyed.
Harnes Oil Produciton Facitlity Near Miss due to the fact that the bomb run is perpendicular to the target instead of along its length so many bombs fall short or long as the string traces across the target itself.
A deep penetration attack on targets near Essen. A long flight along the north German coast than turn inland towards the waypoints leading to the decision point north of Essen.
The group was attacked heavily by three schwarms of 109s and 190s taking out two bombers in the first pass leaving two others with smoking engines. There were bandits all around the clock making coordignated attacks from mulitple positions at the same time dividing the group's firepower. The escorts of P-38s and P-47s were doing their best but the Germans just kept coming shooting up the formation.
We finally passed through the area and most bandits were destroyed or damaged and landing. We had a short time where we could fly unmolested and get the navigational bearings correct. Then we were jumped by another group of 109s which managed to shoot down 4 more bombers, two by ramming. The group formation was full of holes with only 8 bombers left flying out of the original 17.
The secondary target of Landsberg Air Field was selected because the primary was socked in by clouds. We attacked the air field but not knowing where the target's primary point is I tried to maneuver the plane over the runway in an attempt to drop the string along it's length. Once again the perpendicular bomb run approach made this nearly impossible and the string was dropped taking out a couple of revetments for fighters in the forest and a building and some of the runway was cratered.
Then it was home through flak and clouds as we climbed back up to high altitude arrving back at base.
The bomb score was a complete miss. There's so little at airfields that looks like a target other than the runway itself it's hard to determine what it is you need to destroy. The program only scored 4 bombers lost, but I know I saw more than that go do down. We managed 8 German fighter kills.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Apr 8, 2004 16:21:44 GMT -5
2 Missions today.
Hamburg Oil Refinery. Heavy fighter opposition but only lost one bomber. Heavy flak barrages around the target area causing many wounds to the crew. Target totally destroyed. 4 fightes shotdown.
Wesseling Oil Refinery. Moderate fighter opposition and flak. Lost one bomber in a ramming, but hit the target and did moderate damage. 4 fighters shot down.
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