JUICY LUCY II

I keep forgetting to change the date and mission number.

JUICY LUCY - DAMAGE AND KIA

JUICY LUCY - NOT THE BEST START

DOUBLE DOWN - NOT THE BEST BOMBING RECORD IN 8TH USAAF!

DOUBLE DOWN STARTS HER TOUR

 OUCH! FLAK hits pilot compartment but no casualties or damage.

 TG claims the ME110 seconds later.

 TT gunner destroys an ME109 with his first burst of fire.

OOPS - missed again.

FLIRTY GERTY BECOMES MY MEMPHIS BELLE

 A very uneventful final mission with some FLAK over BOCHUM but no enemy aircraft, no damage and no casualties. 5 of the crew complete their tour with this mission, and 2 more are on 24 having been in the hospital. I'm surprised the BOMBARDIER has 21 and is still 7ML - but the NAVIGATOR took over doing the shooting.  Even the TG has 18.

An impressive array of kill markers  - though I think we can assume a 5 or 10:1 ratio of claims to actual kills. Even so they did well.

Though FLIRTY GERTY and her crew enjoyed fantastic luck at times, they were often very close to being shot down. What is significant is the long run of easy missions to France during the middle of her tour - had these been missions deep inside Germany things would have been a good deal tougher.

I think I have the balance about right now. What helped this crew was getting HEROIC gunners in the SWG and TT positions early on  - then adding RO and NAV all at 10ML. This made her deadly to BANDITS. She finishes with a total of 6 HEROES.

LOUNGE LIZARD LOST OVER NORMANDY

 After several more or less easy missions the end came all of a sudden with a rudder destroyed by flak over Rennes. The pilot elected to turn back, but lost control and the crew bailed out.

 LOUNGE LIZARD prepped for take-off for her last mission.

FLYING FISH LOST OVER SCHWEINFURT

Rudder destroyed by an ME109 - crew continued on to bomb the target scoring 25% on target, but when the A/C turned for home the pilots lost control and FLYING FISH crashed. 9 men made it out including the WIA NAVIGATOR who was helped by the BOMBARDIER - hero that he is.

Since SCHWEINFURT is deep inside Nazi Germany all the crew become POWS

FLYING FISH HEADED FOR OSCHERSLEBEN

 Our ship is the top right - near the tail of the middle squadron. Quite a safe place to be but the Luftwaffe must be expected to put up a major effort.

The log so far. 2 ships lost and 16 men KIA - 2 WIA and INV - 6 POWS. The ENGINEER and RADIO OPERATOR are the only survivors from COTTON CLUB flying this mission. They wouldn't know it but the CO-PILOT is about to return from France having evaded capture.

 Lots of fuel but only 4000lbs of bombs.

Patchy escorts expected as far as the ZONE 4 - then maybe an odd P-47 until the Heligoland Bight - after that it's 90 minutes with only the big friends for company. It's an 8 hour mission.

RESULT - Having ramped up the tension in anticipation of a big fight - FLYING FISH made it all the way there and back with hardly a scratch - a couple of FLAK hits over the target caused no injuries or damage and  the middle position saved them from BANDITS more than once.

NEW TOUR - MAY START

I started again with COTTON CLUB which did well but crashed over Normandy returning with a destroyed rudder from Bordeaux. They'd had quite a fight of it fending off BANDITS every step back from the target - but the pilot failed his ATC DR and 7 crew bailed. 3 are about to turn up in the UK having been smuggled back!

BANDIT BAIT a new B-17 and crew took over after 10 days. A mission to Abbeville went off OK - but in the 2nd to Emden aerial rockets caused them to break formation and they fell prey to an FW190 coming in from 7 o'clock high - see previous post.

4 of the men survived their bath in the North Sea but one became a POW.

These 3 survivors form the nucleus for the crew of FLYING FISH - all 7ML new guys.

ROCKET ATTACK!

Aerial rockets actually hit BANDIT BAIT - but caused no damage. The Pilot panicked however and broke formation.

The FW190 came in from 7 o'clock high and destroyed the pilot compartment - destroying the flight controls and causing an uncontrolled bail out.

4 men got out and 3 were rescued by air sea rescue - one became a POW.

ZONES MAP - CORRECTED

Realized I had Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels in the wrong place! I think it's right now....

THE END COMES OVER EMDEN

Flak hit to the wing root - crashed - uncontrolled bail out but 8 chutes counted. All POWs since this is over Germany.

 Close up.

GREEN GAL's last two victories - the other smoke trail is a P-47 shot down by the Me 410.

I forgot to take a screen shot of it - but despite the bad weather the Bombardier was able to score 30% hits.

Now I'm going to go back to May 1943 and start a new crew and A/C in order to test the numerous minor rules changes.

I should probably add the Norwegian targets too.

LUDWIGSHAFEN DEBRIEF

New mission map - brighter and clearer and I corrected some glaring errors in geography. A also added Norway (though not as far north as Trondheim). I've changed the background to a less dazzling shade of blue.

3 e/a shot down in one move has got to be worth a close up :-)

A good hit on the target.

P-38's got the legs but not the muscle. This one fell to an FW190 after achieving nothing.

Green Gal's veteran crew (+ newbie TG) - ready for Emden - again.

EMDEN MISSION DEBRIEF

BREMEN MISSION DEBRIEF

7 - SEVEN- BANDITS!

But a lone Thunderbolt shoots down 3 before succumbing itself...

The B-17's guns shoot down 2 more and drive off the others with no damage or casualties.

Flak kills the TG.

More bandits.

And yet more - one of these killed the Radio Operator.

But at least they put some bombs on the target - 15%.