We had a decent turnout of 8 Damned for our long range bomber mission to Henderson Field (A1/A41 on the Slot map) on Guadalcanal.
We took off from Buka (A-20) in formations of Ju-88's(subbing for Betties) loaded out with 4x250 and 20x50 kg bombs and began a slow climbout to the south. My original plan called for us to go waay south before turning east but the Ju-88 is sooo much slower than the B-17's we took a couple of weeks ago I ended up cutting that corner by quite a bit. We made for xxK and made eastward turns in x-x-x, x-x-x and x-x-x coming out on xxx inbound to the target. I chose a west/east bomb run as the fields are right next to each other oriented that way. Maximum damage would result if we could just get there.
Along the way we lost two guys to the internet(Goose and ATC I think). I inexplicably lost a drone while on autopilot. Was a long boring ride until we got to about 10-8-5 where we contacted some scattered F4F's. Fortunately they were at a slightly lower height. Their performance up high is crap at best and not only were they unable to climb to us, their choice of a head on interception only made matters worse. Those that attempted attacks came creeping up from below and were quickly dispatched by our gunners. We got at least two here that I remember. We quickly outpaced the rest and sighted land at Guadalcanal.
As we neared the target we saw only a couple of dots at our height. Most were in an apparant squabble down on the deck SW of Henderson. Cool! Bomb run went well. I calibrated with no problem and dropped half my load on A1 the other half on A41. I recieved more building destroyed messages than the buffer could manage more than twice over. 76 objects destroyed by my unofficial count! Seventy f**kin six! Not too shabby a drop I'd say. Don't think I ever got more than 15 or 20. Shame I lost that one drone's worth of bombs, huh? I think our gunners also snuffed a couple of more fighters near the target.
Looked like Zevil and Blaze dive bombed. Zevil said he also got mucho hits. The others got a few. Prolly as there wasn't much left I'd guess. Zevil was shot down. Not sure how. Dano was picked off by the only P-40 I remeber seeing. Said he and his gunner hosepiped him with 7.9's but he just wouldn't go down. So we lost two to enemy action at the target. Tragic.
The rest of us, TC, Rodan, Blaze and myself egressed to the NE and headed to A35 which for whatever reason was both local AND friendly. So I figured we'd best land there. But as we got about halfway there Jordi advised we *had* to land at field A10--an over 4 sector flight to the WNW! I was afraid we wouldn't have time but it turned out OK. We split up into two flights, TC stuck with me. We turned left and headed in the general direction of A10 being shadowed by 2 or 3 pursuers. Rodan/Blaze's guys seemed to be closing slowly. As we neared landfall at New Georgia Inominate(CM) called a cease of hostilities and our pursuers broke off for base. We're home free! I began a decent.
We landed at A10 with only 15 minutes til endframe. Only incident was Rodan couldn't seem to slow his ship down. Took him 3 approaches until he finally bellied it in. Blaze lost his drones turning onto final.
Thanks to all who turned out including the guys who showed late and gunned for us. I had a great time. I'm not usually a bomber guy but these last couple of bomber missions we've drawn were a blast! Great job Damned! <> I can't wait to see the logs on this one!
Drano
