Last night my forward airfield was porked to 25%, so I upped a single B-17 (after getting 3 kills in an A-20 on my prior flight) and headed for the enemy base to knock them right back.
We'd managed to push the enemy back to their own airfield but we hadn't managed to keep a consistent cap over it. Enemy resistance was still strong and the perimeter was hot.
Throwing caution to the wind, I changed my mind about the airfield attack. Since I can't level bomb worth a darn, I headed to the city, figuring it was a larger target and by salvoing my bombs in a spread at least I'd hit something.
The B-17 lumbered down the runway, clawing its way into the air as the four Pratt&Whitneys roared at full throttle. Stiffening its wings, the big bird lifted gracefully from the asphalt and slipped the surly bonds of Earth. I retracted the gear and levelled the nose into a slow climb, trading climb rate for speed and distance travelled.
The run-in was fairly uneventful so I levelled off at 5,000 feet. The flight corridor had been swept clean of most of the enemy aircraft. A few Spitfires were lurking about, but most of them were too busy fighting for their lives to worry about a lone B-17 rumbling along the edge of the fight.
Arriving over the airbase, I saw great quantities of smoke and detritus. Another bomber formation had arrived just before me and had cut a swath of destruction right throught the heart of the complex. Nonplussed, I set up into a nose-high pitch, chopped throttle, and pushed over into a sharp dive.
I pickled the bombs manually about one second apart - One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! - then pulled back on the stick to level out and winged over into a graceful right turn back to base. A C.205 clamped onto my tail hoping for a quick and easy kill. Small calibre fire preceeded a series of loud bangs and I could tell that the giant bird was wounded. I fired the tail gun desparately, the barrells chattering, and was rewarded with a series of hits across the nose of the Macchi fighter. Then the wing of the speedy fighter fell away and it rolled over onto its side, like a greyhound laying down for a nap. Only this was a nap from which he'd never recover. Too bad for him!
I did a quick damage report and the only critical damage was the loss of the right gear. It looked like I was going to have to belly this one in, so I'd only have one chance to get it right. I pushed the nose over into a shallow dive and cut back on the manifold pressure. With four good engines it would be easier for me to climb up for altitude than to dive down to land and risk overflying the runway.
I lined up for a straight-in approach for the runway and chopped throttles to the idle settings. I kicked the rudder to the right and left to reduce speed further, then dropped a notch of flaps, then another, and let the giant bird settle into a slow descent. The props struck the runway just past the end and I let the plane continue down until its belly rubbed the ground. Like a mother hen incubating her eggs, the bomber settled onto the runway and slid to a stop.
I had landed successfully!
